Is the DESIGN SPRINT still RELEVANT in 2025? ft. Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky authors of Sprint

in 2016 the book springe came out and it immediately transformed our company we started using this process with all of our clients they started asking us to train them on it so since then we've run hundreds of Sprints we've trained thousands of people on how to do their own design Sprint but the question is is the design Sprint still relevant today so to answer that question we figured it would be best to go to the source and ask the creators of the Sprint Jake knap and John zeratsky whether they think the design Sprint is still relevant today so let's hear what they have to say Jake it's been 15 years since you created the design Sprint at Google we worked together at Google Ventures we ran design Sprints with about 150 companies there we introduced this method to the world with the Sprint book in 2016 is the design Sprint still relevant in 2025 well it seems like a a long time ago doesn't it you put it that way and the world has changed a lot I know that my day-to-day work has changed quite a bit since Sprint came out in 2016 like there's a lot more video calls like this one there's a lot of conversation with people where it's on screen and that has changed the Dynamics of many team mechanics when we're working with each other however some fundamental things have absolutely not changed and I think the difficulty that exists when you're working on something and you want to get your team on the same page when you want to all get aligned on uh the direction that you're headed that's still just as challenging that's just basic human dynamics it remains as difficult as ever if you want to quickly go from we know this problem we're trying to solve we need a solution we need a prototype that still takes a long time if you don't put the structure around it that the design Sprint offers and it's very hard to create a deadline that you really stick to unless you schedule something with an outsider and the design Sprint allows you to schedule something with outside customers at the end of one week and right away get those learning so it's this all these wonderful things wrapped together it's the it's the deadline it's the mechanics that allow a team to work together do independent work but also become aligned as the week goes by as they see which solution really works well with customers and get that instant feedback that instant data through that simulation of building a realistic prototype and putting in front of customers and it turns out that stuff is all fundamental enough that it still matters in you know the middle of the 2020s and I think it'll matter in the 2030s and 2040s as well because uh just being a group of humans working on something has challenges and the design Sprints designed to help with those one of the ways that we know that the design Sprint is still relevant is that we use it all the the time we're working with startups through our Venture fund character Capital we're investing in companies who are just starting they're in their first couple of months of building something new and we're running design Sprints to help them figure out what they're doing and figure out if it's going to work can you share some of the other ways that people have been using design Sprints uh in the you know in the present day in the here and now yeah I mean we hear stories all the time from not just the interesting you know sort of outside of the software world people are using it in governments people are using it in insurance companies and Banks car automotive manufacturers are using design Sprints toy manufacturers using design Sprints all those yeah yeah and it's so cool to see not what I think we envisioned it all in the beginning but it's just been a powerful useful tool but we're also hearing stories from the the companies of the moment you know open AI or figma that these kinds of places are also running design Sprints and using them to to solve problems to test their new ideas out quickly and so it's it seems like it's just been a durable useful tool for people which is which is so exciting I mean it's so so fun it remains really really cool we've also done some work you and I to develop a new format of Sprint and this is a tool that people can use before running a design Sprint that I think I don't know you tell me what you think I think it makes design Sprints even better yeah the foundation Sprint helps a team really clearly Define a simple hypothesis for their new project they can say this is the customer we're focused on this is the problem we're solving for them this is why our solution is is different and better and that makes the design Sprint that much more effective because it allows you to be really clear with yourselves with your team and with your customers about what you're trying to learn what are you trying to test what are those those atomic elements of that hypothesis of hey we believe if we put this out in the world it's going to have that effect it allows you to really put those things front and center with your customers and get direct reactions get direct feedback from them uh to find out whether they're true so yeah it's sort of like supercharging the beginning of the design Sprint to just set you up for an even more effective and impactful use of time the teams that we've worked with over the years who had the best success in their product lifespan you know the design Sprint led to the the biggest and best outcomes these you know multi-billion dollar exits or whatever they're teams who had a really clear hypothesis they knew exactly what was going to set them apart they knew exactly who their customer was what problem they were solving and what made their team special what gave them the special advantage that could create something that would blow the competition out of the water and with the foundation Sprint we're putting into your hands the tools to create that kind of hypothesis that kind of clarity that guides the most successful team so if you've got the Sprint book teaching you how to run design Sprints our new book click is kind of the thing that goes right before that helps you get started and get on the golden path to the best possible project the best possible product that uh your customers will hopefully just love Jake one more question for you and it's probably the most common question that people ask us about the design Sprint at least in the last year year and a half which is what about AI can you use AI in a design Sprint do companies building AI products do they still need design Sprints um what do you think about that yeah I was in a a Harvard Business School class yesterday and someone asked this question it is on the top of everyone's mind there are certain to be amazing tools using AI that will help with a design Sprint very soon I have not found them yet so I think I'm wary of using AI to do some of the analysis that we humans do in a design Sprint where we're looking at different proposals and trying to weigh which of these sounds right which customer do we think we should Target which you know sort of differentiation is the best for us the truest for us those are such important decisions to make that I don't want to offload too much of that organization to uh to a computer just yet I think there are very promising avenues for AI to help with making suggestions from a particular angle of expertise that we consider but again they're just not quite quite there yet for us we have found stay tuned stay tuned yeah we have found that a I enables a different level and speed of prototyping in many many cases so whereas I think when the book came out and in fact even five years ago probably 95% of the prototypes we tested were mockups essentially with you know hotspots transitions they looked like real software they looked like real products but they were mock-ups now those prototypes probably 5050 are code and they're they're delivering Real Results they're using data they're much more interactive and that's because of how fast people can build using AI they can just develop software much much faster I expect that that 50/50 is only going to continue to you know going continue to grow you have more and more real uh real feeling real code behind the the prototypes so that's a that's a big difference that I think we're seeing already yes and then the other side of the question is what about teams who are building AI products is the design Sprint more relevant for them less relevant than it was for you know teams 5 10 years ago and sort of the pre-i era I I think that it's even more important to do this work of figuring out what your customer's problem is what matters to them and how you can solve it because the barrier for entry into uh any particular domain is is getting lower it's easier to build software now with AI it's easier to build more powerful tools so that means you've got to dial in even closer to what really matters for people you've really got to do yeah everything possible to make your solution matter to make it make sense to people to make it trustworthy to people to set yourselves apart from the other competition that may be going after the same thing and I think ironically it's a better understanding of humans that's more necessary now in a world where the computers are more powerful yeah because every time there's a new technology there's a new capability a new way of doing things it's natural for customers for people to feel uneasy about that to wonder if they should trust it is it good enough is it safe enough is it going to work and those are exactly the kinds of questions that we can answer really effectively in a design Sprint most of the companies that we invest in and we work with at character capital our AI startups and again and again when we run sprints with them they say wow this really helped us bridge that gap between this amazing technology and our customers who you know rightfully so have questions concerns um they're wondering if they should trust it they're wondering how to understand it so we've seen it work really well and we think it's a really helpful tool for people who are building uh brand new products with AI at the end of the day you have to solve a problem for people in a way that is vastly different and better from the Alternatives and that requires that you understand the the shape of the space between your customer and your technology and you you know how to build the right thing not just a thing but the right thing in a world where AI is everywhere anyone can offer it what's special is if you can offer the right solution and you've you've got to have the right techniques to to get there we think the foundation Sprint and the design Sprint are incredibly powerful for for making that that click between the product and the customer so there you go that's the answer to the question is the design Sprint still relevant today you got to hear from Jake knap and John zeratsky directly and we couldn't agree more we think design Sprint is still incredibly powerful today we run design Sprints all the time and so if you want to learn more about design Sprint we highly recommend that you pick up the book and you can also pick up Jake and John's new book called click and you can find the links to both of these books in the description below so if you want to learn even more about the design Sprint and other amazing processes you should definitely check out facilitator Club it's our free community it's filled with people who have run tons of design Sprints and you can learn from the experiences of other people you can ask your own questions so make sure to check that out the link is in the description below thank you for watching and we'll see you next time