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 template provides a five-day workspace for moving from an important product or service question to a tested prototype and a documented recommendation. Its channels follow the actual sprint workflow: kickoff for framing, daily-work for execution, decisions for accountable choices, research-evidence for observations and test results, and retrospective for learning. This avoids the single general channel pattern that makes sprint material difficult to find.
The task lists are organized by stage and day: Map Monday frames the challenge and selects a target moment; Sketch Tuesday captures individual solution concepts; Decide Wednesday selects a testable concept and defines hypotheses; Prototype Thursday builds the facade; and Test Friday records what users do, say, and reveal. Milestones make progress visible, while the Design Sprint confidence hill chart shows where the team is uncertain.
Use this template when a cross-functional team needs fast alignment and evidence before committing to a roadmap item, service change, or larger build. It is not a replacement for a long discovery program, production delivery plan, usability research repository, or formal regulatory review. If the problem is already well understood and the implementation is routine, a normal task list may be more appropriate than a five-day sprint.
What's inside this template
Members
Role-based members establish the RACI structure for the sprint without tying ownership to specific people.
- Sprint Lead
- Decider
- Facilitator
- Product Manager
- UX or Product Designer
- Engineering Lead
- User Researcher
- Business or Subject-Matter Expert
- Prototype Builder
- Observer
Channels
Workflow channels separate kickoff, execution, decisions, evidence, and retrospective learning so each artifact has a clear home.
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kickoff
Sprint framing, challenge definition, long-term goal, and participant preparation.
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daily-work
Day-to-day coordination, working files, questions, and task updates during the five-day sprint.
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decisions
Documented decisions, rationale, assumptions, trade-offs, and unresolved risks.
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research-evidence
User interview notes, observations, quotes, test recordings, and synthesized findings.
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retrospective
Friday debrief, learning review, follow-up experiments, and ownership of next steps.
Check ins
Defined daily and Friday check-ins keep the five-day cadence visible and create regular points to surface uncertainty.
- Daily sprint opening check-in
- Daily sprint closeout
- Friday learning review
Milestones
Milestones mark the decisions and deliverables that move the team from a sprint question to an approved next experiment.
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Kickoff and sprint question confirmed
Roles, RACI expectations, target users, constraints, schedule, and the single sprint question are confirmed.
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Map complete and target moment selected
The team has a shared customer journey map and the Decider has selected the critical moment to address.
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Individual solution sketches complete
Each relevant contributor has produced a concrete concept for anonymous review and critique.
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Concept selected and hypotheses defined
The Decider has selected the concept, and the team has documented the prototype story and test hypotheses.
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Prototype ready for testing
The critical path works end to end, the moderator guide is ready, and the dry run has been completed.
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User testing complete
Planned participant sessions are complete and evidence is organized against the sprint hypotheses.
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Recommendation and next experiment approved
The Decider confirms whether to proceed, revise, or stop and assigns follow-up work to named role-based DRIs.
Task lists
Stage-based task lists turn each sprint day into an actionable sequence with a clear DRI and expected output.
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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.
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Sketch Tuesday — Generate solution concepts
Produce individual solution sketches before group discussion, then prepare concepts for Wednesday’s decision.
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Decide Wednesday — Select the testable concept
Critique concepts, identify patterns, vote on promising directions, and have the Decider make one explicit decision.
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Prototype Thursday — Build the facade
Build only what is needed to test the selected concept credibly with target users on Friday.
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Test Friday — Learn from users
Conduct moderated user sessions, synthesize evidence, and convert findings into an explicit next-step recommendation.
Hill charts
The confidence hill chart makes unresolved assumptions and movement toward certainty visible throughout the sprint.
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Design Sprint confidence
Track confidence across the five sprint workstreams from initial uncertainty to a validated next-step recommendation.
Default apps
Default apps give the team a predictable place to coordinate work, capture decisions, and review evidence.
Integrations
Integration touchpoints connect the workspace to the whiteboard, prototype, meetings, calendar, and document sources used during the sprint.
- Collaborative whiteboard
- Prototyping tool
- Video conferencing
- Calendar and scheduling
- Cloud document storage
Pinned resources
Pinned resources keep the sprint brief, journey map, concept comparison, prototype materials, research protocol, evidence log, and readout easy to reach.
- Sprint brief and decision record
- Customer journey map
- Concept gallery and RICE comparison
- Prototype storyboard
- Moderator guide and consent checklist
- User test evidence log
- Friday sprint readout
How to use this template
- Clone the workspace, assign role-based members such as Facilitator, Product Lead, Design Lead, Engineering Lead, Research Lead, and Decision Maker, and confirm default visibility before adding sensitive research material.
- Use the kickoff channel and Map Monday task list to write the sprint question, identify the target user and target moment, gather the customer journey map, and assign a DRI to each framing task.
- Run Sketch Tuesday and Decide Wednesday by linking solution sketches in the concept gallery, recording trade-offs in the decisions channel, and using the RICE comparison to make the accountable selection explicit.
- Use Prototype Thursday to turn the selected concept into a testable facade, attach the storyboard and moderator guide, and confirm participant logistics, consent, and the integration touchpoint for the prototype.
- Run Test Friday by capturing observations in the user test evidence log, tying findings to hypotheses, and updating the confidence hill chart during the daily closeout.
- Hold the Friday learning review to approve a recommendation and next experiment, assign its DRI, preserve the decision record, and document unresolved questions in the retrospective channel.
Best practices
- Write one specific sprint question that can be answered through a prototype and a small set of user tests rather than a broad product strategy statement.
- Use role-based member placeholders and a RACI matrix so the Decision Maker is Accountable while each task list has a clear DRI.
- Keep Map, Sketch, Decide, Prototype, and Test work in their corresponding stage task lists instead of mixing research notes, decisions, and production tasks.
- Photograph or link every meaningful prototype observation at the time of testing and store the interpretation separately from the raw evidence.
- Record why the selected concept won in the decisions channel, including rejected alternatives and the assumptions still requiring validation.
- Use the confidence hill chart at opening and closeout to surface uncertainty early rather than treating confidence as a final opinion.
- Set default visibility deliberately and restrict consent forms, participant information, and sensitive evidence to the approved audience.
- End the sprint with one named next experiment and a due date instead of leaving the recommendation as an unowned readout.
What this template typically catches
Issues teams running this template most often surface in practice:
Common use cases
Frequently asked questions
What does the Design Sprint template include?
It includes workflow channels for kickoff, daily work, decisions, research evidence, and retrospective. Stage-based task lists cover Map Monday through Test Friday, with milestones, daily check-ins, a confidence hill chart, and pinned sprint resources. The structure supports a documented path from sprint question to tested recommendation.
Who should run and participate in a Design Sprint?
A facilitator or Project Manager typically runs the workspace and protects the five-day cadence. Members should be represented by roles such as Product Lead, Design Lead, Engineering Lead, Research Lead, Customer or Domain Expert, and Decision Maker rather than named individuals. Use a RACI matrix to clarify who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for each major decision.
How often should the check-ins happen?
Use the Daily sprint opening check-in at the start of each working day and the Daily sprint closeout at the end of each day. The Friday learning review closes the sprint by reviewing evidence, decisions, and the next experiment. If the team works across time zones, keep the same labeled cadence and use written updates for members who cannot attend live.
Can this template be used for regulated product research?
It can support discovery and prototype testing in regulated industries, but it does not replace required legal, privacy, accessibility, security, or research-ethics reviews. Add an approval milestone and record the accountable compliance or legal reviewer in the decision channel. Store consent records and sensitive research data only in approved systems with appropriate default visibility.
How is this better than managing a sprint in ad hoc documents and chat?
The template connects stage ownership, decisions, evidence, check-ins, and milestones in one workspace. A dedicated decisions channel prevents the rationale for concept selection from getting lost, while the research-evidence channel links observations to hypotheses and recommendations. Ad hoc tools can work for a small group, but they often leave unclear ownership and no reliable audit trail.
How should I customize the Design Sprint workspace?
Replace role placeholders with the actual sprint roles in your tenant, then refine the sprint question and target user in the kickoff task list. Keep channels aligned to the workflow rather than adding department-based channels. Adjust milestones, task DRIs, prototype tools, research protocols, and check-in times without removing the Map, Sketch, Decide, Prototype, and Test progression.
Which integrations work with this template?
The workspace is designed around a collaborative whiteboard, prototyping tool, video conferencing, calendar and scheduling, and cloud document storage. Link the whiteboard and prototype from the relevant task list and pin the canonical documents so participants know which version to use. Treat each integration as a defined touchpoint with an owner and backup access path.
What is the best rollout approach for a first Design Sprint?
Clone the workspace before kickoff, assign the facilitator and decision maker, confirm participant roles, and add the sprint question to the kickoff resources. Run a short orientation so everyone knows where work, decisions, and evidence belong. At Friday's learning review, archive or retain the sprint according to your workspace policy and create the next-experiment task with a named DRI.
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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.
