Design Sprint
A five-day Design Sprint workspace for framing a challenge, selecting a concept, building a prototype, and testing it with users before committing to a larger build.
Every employee gets a seat — priced per employee in AI Productivity, quoted with this template ready.
Rolled out to every employee at AutoZone (125,000), PetSmart (50,000+), A.S. Watson and Raley's (20,000) — and at larger retailers we are not permitted to name.
Built for: SaaS and software product teams · Healthcare service design · Financial services innovation · Education technology · Retail and ecommerce
Overview
The Design Sprint workspace lays out a five-day sequence for taking a focused challenge from framing to user feedback. Its task lists mirror the sprint stages: Map Monday — Frame the challenge, Sketch Tuesday — Generate solution concepts, Decide Wednesday — Select the testable concept, Prototype Thursday — Build the facade, and Test Friday — Learn from users. Milestones mark the key outputs, from agreeing on a sprint question and target moment to approving a recommendation and next experiment.
Role slots identify the Sprint Lead, Decider, Facilitator, Product Manager, UX or Product Designer, Engineering Lead, User Researcher, and a Business or Subject-Matter Expert. The daily opening and closeout check-ins support a defined rhythm, while the Friday learning review creates space to record what testing revealed. A Design Sprint confidence hill chart gives the team a place to track how confidence changes as uncertainty is resolved.
Use this template when a cross-functional team needs to make progress on one well-framed product or service question in a time-boxed cycle. Before kickoff, assign role placeholders to actual participants, define the sprint question, and agree on how the team will recruit or involve test users. It is not a substitute for a full project plan, ongoing product delivery workflow, or formal research and compliance protocol. Avoid using it for a broad initiative with several unrelated decisions; narrow the challenge or run separate sprints so each week has a clear outcome and accountable Decider.
What's inside this template
Members
Role-based member slots clarify who leads, facilitates, decides, and contributes expertise throughout the sprint.
- Sprint Lead
- Decider
- Facilitator
- Product Manager
- UX or Product Designer
- Engineering Lead
- User Researcher
- Business or Subject-Matter Expert
- Prototype Builder
- Observer
Check ins
Daily opening and closeout check-ins keep the five-day work aligned, while the Friday review turns test results into a recorded decision.
- Daily sprint opening check-in
- Daily sprint closeout
- Friday learning review
Milestones
Milestones mark the sprint’s decision gates, from confirming the challenge to approving the recommendation and next experiment.
-
Kickoff and sprint question confirmed
Roles, RACI expectations, target users, constraints, schedule, and the single sprint question are confirmed.
-
Map complete and target moment selected
The team has a shared customer journey map and the Decider has selected the critical moment to address.
-
Individual solution sketches complete
Each relevant contributor has produced a concrete concept for anonymous review and critique.
-
Concept selected and hypotheses defined
The Decider has selected the concept, and the team has documented the prototype story and test hypotheses.
-
Prototype ready for testing
The critical path works end to end, the moderator guide is ready, and the dry run has been completed.
-
User testing complete
Planned participant sessions are complete and evidence is organized against the sprint hypotheses.
-
Recommendation and next experiment approved
The Decider confirms whether to proceed, revise, or stop and assigns follow-up work to named role-based DRIs.
To-do lists
Stage-based task lists organize the actual Map, Sketch, Decide, Prototype, and Test workflow, with ownership assigned after cloning.
-
Map Monday — Frame the challenge
Create a shared view of the customer journey, target outcome, critical moments, and sprint focus. Sprint Lead is the primary DRI.
-
Sketch Tuesday — Generate solution concepts
Produce individual solution sketches before group discussion, then prepare concepts for Wednesday’s decision.
-
Decide Wednesday — Select the testable concept
Critique concepts, identify patterns, vote on promising directions, and have the Decider make one explicit decision.
-
Prototype Thursday — Build the facade
Build only what is needed to test the selected concept credibly with target users on Friday.
-
Test Friday — Learn from users
Conduct moderated user sessions, synthesize evidence, and convert findings into an explicit next-step recommendation.
Hill charts
The Design Sprint confidence hill chart helps the team make changing certainty visible as it gathers evidence.
-
Design Sprint confidence
Track confidence across the five sprint workstreams from initial uncertainty to a validated next-step recommendation.
How to use this template
- Clone the workspace, assign people to the role slots, and confirm who is Sprint Lead, Facilitator, and accountable Decider.
- Edit the kickoff milestone and Monday task list to state the sprint question, constraints, intended decision, and target user moment.
- Assign a DRI to each stage-based task list and confirm the daily opening, closeout, and Friday learning review cadence with participants.
- Run each day’s activities in sequence, updating the relevant milestones and the Design Sprint confidence hill chart as decisions or evidence change.
- Record the selected concept, prototype scope, test hypotheses, and user-testing outcome in the corresponding task lists and milestones.
- Use the Friday learning review to summarize evidence, approve a recommendation or next experiment, and capture any follow-up owner and milestone.
Best practices
- Keep the sprint question narrow enough that the Decider can make one meaningful decision by Friday.
- Use role names as member placeholders and assign actual participants only after cloning the workspace.
- Give each stage’s task list a clear DRI and divide work into deliverables that support that day’s sprint outcome.
- Confirm the target user moment during mapping before the team invests time in individual solution sketches.
- Write the hypotheses before prototyping so the Thursday build supports a specific Friday test.
- Update the confidence hill chart when evidence changes the team’s understanding, not merely when tasks are completed.
- Use the daily closeout to record decisions, blockers, and the next day’s starting point while details are fresh.
- End the Friday learning review with an evidence-based recommendation, a named owner, and a dated next milestone.
What this template typically catches
Issues teams running this template most often surface in practice:
Common use cases
Frequently asked questions
What does this Design Sprint template include?
It includes role slots for the Sprint Lead, Decider, Facilitator, Product Manager, design, engineering, research, and subject-matter roles. Five task lists follow the sprint stages from Monday’s challenge framing to Friday’s user testing. Milestones, daily opening and closeout check-ins, a Friday learning review, and a Design Sprint confidence hill chart help the team track progress.
Is this workspace only for the Google Ventures five-day sprint format?
Its default workflow follows the five-day Map, Sketch, Decide, Prototype, and Test sequence. You can adapt the stages, milestones, and check-in cadence for a shorter sprint or a team that needs additional review time. Keep the stage sequence visible so participants understand how work moves from challenge to evidence.
Who should run the sprint and make decisions?
The Sprint Lead owns the plan and keeps the work moving, while the Facilitator guides activities and makes sure participants can contribute. The Decider is accountable for selecting a concept and approving the recommendation or next experiment. Treat the listed members as role placeholders, then assign people in the cloned workspace; a simple RACI can clarify who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.
How often should the team use the check-ins?
The template sets a daily opening check-in and daily closeout, plus a Friday learning review. Use the opening to confirm the day’s goal, owners, and blockers; use the closeout to record decisions and unfinished work. If your sprint runs on a different schedule, rename each check-in with a clear cadence rather than leaving it vague.
Does this template meet a regulatory or research requirement?
The workspace is a coordination template, not a compliance checklist or research protocol. It can help record the sprint question, hypotheses, test completion, and recommendation, but it does not define consent language, data handling, or industry-specific approvals. Have the appropriate research, privacy, or compliance lead set those requirements for your participants and context.
What common mistakes should we watch for during a sprint?
A broad sprint question can make mapping and concept selection unfocused, while an unclear Decider role can stall Wednesday’s decision. Teams also risk treating a polished prototype as proof rather than testing explicit hypotheses with users. Assign a DRI to each stage’s work and capture Friday’s evidence, recommendation, and next experiment before closing the sprint.
Can I customize the stages, roles, and milestones?
Yes. Rename role slots to match your team, adjust milestones to reflect the decisions you need to make, and edit task lists to match your activities. Preserve the stage-based workflow and give each task list a clear DRI so ownership stays visible after cloning.
Does the template connect to other tools or create integrations?
No integrations are included in this workspace template. It provides the workspace structure that cloning creates: role slots, task lists, milestones, check-ins, a hill chart, and a welcome post on the message board. If your team uses other tools, decide separately how sprint outputs will be recorded or shared.
How should we roll this out compared with planning a sprint ad hoc?
Clone the workspace before kickoff, assign people to role slots, and confirm the sprint question and target decision with the Decider. Review the task lists and milestones as a group so everyone understands what each day produces. Compared with ad hoc planning, this gives the team a shared sequence and visible owners, but it still requires the Sprint Lead to prepare activities and the Facilitator to run them.
Related templates
Go deeper on the topic
-
Internal communications is how a company talks to itself: news, announcements, leadership messages, safety alerts, and the daily hum of "what's happening...
-
An internal newsletter is a regularly cadenced digest of organizational updates — business news, people news, policy changes, culture moments — sent to the...
-
Frontline communication is how a company reaches the 80% of its people who don't live in email. It's targeted, mobile-first, often bilingual or multilingual,...
-
Enterprise search with RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) answers questions by fetching the company's own content first, then asking a model to summarize...
-
Learn how connecting knowledge workers, crowdsourcing ideas, and unifying project collaboration on one platform drives measurable business value for your...
-
The 10 requirements a frontline employee app must meet before you see a demo: offline access, translation at publish, site targeting, acknowledgment, and more.
-
MangoApps search is 5x faster with AI image search and smarter news feed updates for a more relevant modern intranet.
-
Build the business case for frontline communication with a model you can run on your own numbers: turnover, supervisor time, and duplicate software costs.
Ready to use this template?
Every employee gets a seat. Request pricing for AI Productivity and we quote into a workspace with Design Sprint ready.
Rolled out to every employee at AutoZone (125,000), PetSmart (50,000+), A.S. Watson and Raley's (20,000) — and at larger retailers we are not permitted to name.
