Sprint Book Summary (Product Management Book)

Summary

The script from 'Sprint' by Google Ventures partners outlines a five-day process for rapid problem-solving and prototyping. It emphasizes focusing on significant issues, forming a diverse team, and creating prototypes that can be tested quickly. The method includes defining challenges, brainstorming solutions, planning, building, and gathering customer feedback. It encourages starting with the end in mind, using 'how might we' notes to identify opportunities, and learning from similar problems in different industries.

Takeaways

• 🎯 Focus on the most important problems to have the biggest impact.
• 🔍 Prioritize areas where the product meets customers for maximum visibility and revenue opportunities.
• 🚀 Aim for big bold bets rather than small incremental optimizations.
• 🕒 Allocate long, uninterrupted blocks of time, especially for developers.
• 👥 Formulate a Sprint team with a decider and experts from various fields like finance, marketing, and design.
• 📅 A 5-day Sprint is ideal as it creates urgency and allows enough time for prototype creation.
• 📈 Start the Sprint by defining the challenge and choosing a target on Monday.
• 🛠 Develop a step-by-step plan and storyboard for the prototype by Wednesday.
• 🏗️ Create the prototype in less than 7 hours on Thursday, focusing on the user experience.
• 🗣️ Interview customers and observe them using the prototype on Friday to gather insights.
• 📝 Use two big whiteboards to solve problems and start with the end in mind to focus on long-term goals.
• 🧠 Great innovation often builds on existing ideas rather than seeking entirely new concepts.
• 💡 Sketch solutions without aiming for perfection and recruit users to test your prototype.
• 📑 Prototypes can often be created with presentation tools, simulating real software or experiences.
• 🔧 Understand that 85% of problems can be identified from just five customer interviews.
• 🗨️ When interviewing, start with small talk, ask open-ended questions, and avoid yes/no questions to get deeper insights.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the Sprint methodology?

The main focus of the Sprint methodology is to tackle the most important problems that can have the biggest impact on a project or business, rather than going after low-hanging fruit or easy wins.

Why is it important to prioritize the area where the product meets customers?

Prioritizing the area where the product meets customers is important because it often has high visibility, revenue opportunity, and is a place where significant impact can be made.

What is the recommended size for a Sprint team?

A Sprint team should consist of seven or fewer people, including a decider, finance expert, marketing expert, customer expert, tech/logistics expert, and a design expert.

Why is a 5-day Sprint considered ideal?

A 5-day Sprint is considered ideal because it creates urgency, cuts out unnecessary debate, and provides enough time to create a prototype, while longer Sprints don't necessarily accomplish more due to diminishing returns.

What is the schedule for a 5-day Sprint?

The schedule for a 5-day Sprint includes defining the challenge and choosing a target on Monday, coming up with solutions on Tuesday, deciding on a solution and developing a plan on Wednesday, creating the prototype on Thursday, and interviewing customers on Friday.

Why is it recommended to use two large whiteboards during a Sprint?

Using two large whiteboards helps in sorting problems before working on solutions, which encourages thinking about the most efficient way to solve a problem rather than focusing on technology or tactics.

What is the significance of starting a Sprint at the end?

Starting a Sprint at the end helps in envisioning what needs to be accomplished to reach long-term goals and identifying what must be true to achieve them.

How can the process map help in a Sprint?

A process map helps in visualizing the steps involved in a product's journey, from the actors on the left to the desired outcome on the right, and identifying areas for improvement.

What is the psychological benefit of using 'how might we' notes?

Using 'how might we' notes helps in identifying opportunities rather than just listing problems, which encourages a more positive and solution-oriented mindset.

Why is it important to base innovation on existing ideas?

Basing innovation on existing ideas is important because often the most successful products are improvements or iterations on what already exists, rather than entirely new concepts.

How can a prototype be created quickly and effectively?

A prototype can be created quickly and effectively by using presentation tools to create a facade of the real experience, which can be done in less than 7 hours and does not require extensive programming or 3D printing.

What is the significance of interviewing customers during a Sprint?

Interviewing customers during a Sprint is significant because it provides insights into how they interact with the prototype and helps identify areas for improvement.

Why is it suggested to ask 'broken' questions during customer interviews?

Asking 'broken' questions, such as trailing off mid-sentence, can help extract insights from customers without influencing their thoughts with preconceived ideas.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Sprint Methodology Insights

The paragraph discusses the Sprint methodology, a time-bound, five-day process for solving problems and testing ideas quickly. It emphasizes focusing on the most impactful problems rather than easy wins and highlights the importance of the product-customer interface. The ideal Sprint team consists of a decider and experts in finance, marketing, customer relations, tech, logistics, and design. The five-day structure is Monday for defining the challenge, Tuesday for brainstorming solutions, Wednesday for selecting a solution and planning, Thursday for creating a prototype, and Friday for customer interviews. The process encourages starting with problems rather than solutions and visualizing the end goal to work backward. It also suggests mapping processes and using 'how might we' notes to identify opportunities.

05:01

🔍 Building on Existing Ideas

This paragraph stresses that great innovation often builds upon existing ideas rather than creating something entirely new. It suggests looking at similar problems in different industries for inspiration and emphasizes the importance of sketching solutions and recruiting users to test prototypes. The text also discusses the misconception that prototypes require extensive programming or 3D printing, arguing that most can be created with presentation tools in under seven hours. An example is given where Slack's CEO used a team to act as bots to simulate the product. The paragraph concludes with advice on conducting customer interviews, suggesting that insights can be gained from as few as five interviews and providing guidelines for the interview process.

10:04

🗣️ Customer Interview Techniques

The final paragraph focuses on techniques for conducting customer interviews to gain insights. It advises starting with small talk to make participants comfortable and then gradually moving to more detailed questions. The paragraph discourages yes/no questions in favor of open-ended ones that explore why, what, where, when, and how. A unique tip is given to ask 'broken' questions that trail off to prompt customers to fill in the gaps and provide unguided feedback.

Keywords

💡Sprint

A Sprint, as mentioned in the context of the book 'Sprint' by Google Ventures partners, is a time-bound, five-day process designed to solve big problems and test ideas rapidly. It involves a structured approach to rapidly prototype and test solutions. In the video, Sprints are emphasized as a way to tackle the most important problems with urgency and focus, aiming for significant impact rather than incremental improvements.

💡Prototype

A prototype in this context is a preliminary model of a product used to test ideas and functionalities before full-scale production. The video stresses that 90% of prototypes can be created with simple presentation tools, and they serve to simulate experiences to gather user insights. An example given is Slack's CEO using team members to act as bots during a prototype test to simulate the concept of a bot team.

💡Decider

The Decider is a key role in a Sprint team, often filled by someone like a CEO or product manager. This person has the authority to make final decisions and is responsible for the direction of the project. The video mentions the importance of having a Decider who can delegate if they are absent, ensuring the Sprint's progress is not hindered.

💡Customer Expert

A Customer Expert is a member of the Sprint team who brings deep understanding and insights about customers' needs and behaviors. Their role is crucial in ensuring that the solutions developed are aligned with customer expectations. The video underscores the importance of focusing on the interface where the product meets customers, which is often where the biggest impact can be made.

💡Design Expert

A Design Expert plays a pivotal role in the Sprint team by focusing on the user interface and experience. Their expertise helps in creating prototypes that are not only functional but also engaging and intuitive. The video highlights the importance of the interface between the product and customers, where design expertise can significantly enhance visibility and revenue opportunities.

💡Incremental Optimizations

Incremental Optimizations refer to small, gradual improvements made to a product or process. The video encourages focusing on big bold bets rather than minor optimizations, suggesting that significant breakthroughs often come from tackling larger challenges rather than making small, incremental changes.

💡Urgency

Urgency in the context of a Sprint is the sense of immediate importance and the need for swift action. The five-day Sprint duration is ideal because it creates a sense of urgency, which helps to eliminate unnecessary debates and focuses the team on achieving rapid results, as mentioned in the video.

💡Whiteboarding

Whiteboarding is a visual problem-solving technique where ideas are mapped out on a whiteboard to find solutions. The video describes using two large whiteboards to tackle problems, emphasizing the importance of sorting problems before solutions to avoid being biased towards technology or tactics rather than efficient problem-solving.

💡Storyboard

A storyboard is a visual representation of a sequence of events, used in the Sprint process to plan the prototype's step-by-step plan. The video mentions that the plan for a prototype should look like a storyboard, which helps in visualizing the user journey and experience, such as a user clicking a link, watching a video, and interacting with a chatbot.

💡How Might We

How Might We is a problem-framing technique used in the Sprint process to identify opportunities by phrasing them as questions starting with 'How might we...'. The video explains that this method helps in seeing opportunities rather than just listing problems and encourages innovative thinking, as opposed to focusing solely on existing issues.

💡Customer Interviews

Customer Interviews are a critical part of the Sprint process where direct feedback from users is gathered to refine prototypes. The video outlines a process for conducting these interviews, emphasizing the importance of observing user reactions and insights, which can be gleaned from as few as five interviews, to understand user needs and improve the product.

Highlights

Focus on the most important problems for the greatest impact.

Prioritize areas where your product meets customers for visibility and revenue opportunities.

Pursue big bold bets instead of small incremental optimizations.

Allocate long, uninterrupted blocks of time, especially for developers.

Formulate a Sprint team with a decider and experts from various fields.

A 5-day Sprint is ideal for creating urgency and allowing time for prototype creation.

Monday of the Sprint is for defining the challenge and choosing a target.

Tuesday is for brainstorming solutions.

Wednesday involves deciding on a solution and developing a step-by-step plan.

Thursday is dedicated to creating the prototype in less than 7 hours.

Friday involves interviewing customers and observing their interaction with the prototype.

Use two big whiteboards to solve problems before working on solutions.

Start at the end of the Sprint to envision what needs to be achieved.

Create a map of processes with actors and outcomes to visualize the product's journey.

Gather input from experts on strategy, customer voice, and previous efforts.

Use 'how might we' notes to identify opportunities instead of just listing problems.

Understand that great innovation often builds on existing ideas rather than starting from scratch.

Look to similar problems in different environments for inspiration.

Sketch solutions without aiming for perfection and recruit users for prototype testing.

90% of prototypes can be created with a presentation to simulate real experiences.

Prototypes should be testable in 15 minutes to gather quick insights.

Observing just five people during customer interviews can reveal 85% of the problems.

Start interviews with small talk to warm people up before asking detailed questions.

Ask open-ended questions to gain deeper insights instead of yes or no questions.

Use 'broken questions' to extract insights without influencing the customer's thoughts.

Transcripts

lessons from the book Sprint which was

written by Partners at Google Ventures I

myself worked for a Google Ventures back

startup in Silicon Valley called Rocket

Lawyer this is based on proven methods

from over 100

Sprints as you pursue the Sprints make

sure you go after your most important

problems there's an attraction to go

after the loow hanging fruit or the easy

winds but really you want to focus on

where you can have the biggest impact

and that's with the biggest

problems you also want to prioritize the

area where your product meets customers

so that interface is very important

because there's a lot of visibility

there there's a lot of Revenue

opportunity there it's often where you

can have the biggest impact you also

want to focus on big bold bets instead

of small incremental

optimizations and allow long

uninterrupted blocks of time which are

particularly important for

developers you want to formulate a

Sprint team and this is seven or fewer

people you can have a decider this could

be the CEO product manager head of

design for example and make sure that

whoever is the decider is able to

delegate to someone else if that person

is absent you have a finance expert a

marketing expert customer Expert Tech

Logistics expert and a design

expert one of the central arguments in

this book is that your Sprint should be

5 days shorter is exhausting and doesn't

allow enough time to create a prototype

longer Sprints don't accomplish more so

they're diminishing returns there but a

5-day Sprint is ideal because it creates

urgency cuts out unnecessary debate and

allows enough time for the creation of a

prototype here's what your schedule

could look like with a 5-day Sprint

Monday Define The Challenge and choose a

Target Tuesday come up with Solutions

Wednesday decide on a solution and

develop a step-by-step plan and for your

prototype that plan is going to look

like a storyboard so for example the

user clicks a link they watch an

animated explainer video and then they

have a conversation with chat Bots

Thursday is when you actually create the

Prototype and you're able to do this in

less than 7 hours later I'll explain

that one of the reasons for this is that

prototypes are 90% of the time just

presentations and Friday interview

customers and watch them use the

Prototype the magic and spring happen

when you use two big white whiteboards

to solve

problems you want to sort your problems

before you work on Solutions if you

start with Solutions first you often

think about the technology and the

tactics rather than necessarily thinking

about the most efficient way to solve

the

problem another key perceptual change is

to start at the end of the Sprint so

imagine the end what would be answered

at that point what questions do you want

to answer what would have to be true to

reach your long-term goal so for example

I want to make $5 million what do I need

to do to get there what do I need to do

to increase the user experience and

reduce the amount of time to have a

problem solved imagine you failed what

might have caused that so an example

here let's say you set the goal as more

patients enrolled in Trials then you're

going to have a series of Sprint

questions such as these two can we find

matches fast enough we CL change their

workflows and I'll show how to do this

visually next so what we want to do is

draw a map a map of the processes that

are happening with our product so list

the actors on the left in this case

patient doctor coordinator write the

ending on the right beginning therapy so

that's the outcome that we want and then

we add words and arrows in between so

the patient makes an appointment

appointment to discuss trial enroll and

then begin the therapy the doctor and

the coordinator search for matching

trials and then those people are

enrolled that is your

map we want to get input from experts on

key topics and those key topics are

strategy voice of customer how things

work in previous efforts so previous

efforts is other attempts earlier in the

company when they tried to solve this

problem or related problems and what

worked what didn't there's some

historical knowledge there that should

be

extracted so next we take this map and

we write what we call how might we notes

and there's a psychological benefit here

of sort of seeing where the

opportunities lie instead of just

listing problems we phrase things in

this way how might we use imagery to

tell our story how might we recreate

search on the web how might we help

people realize they can buy coffee

online and then what we do is we take

these notes and we stick them on the map

so I put an example here how might we

review EHR faster and we stick it here

in the process and then last what you do

is you vote on the notes to figure out

okay what are the key how might we

opportunities as we explore these

Sprints we need to understand that great

Innovation is built on existing ideas I

think there's a tendency in product

management and in Business and

Entrepreneurship to come up with oh

something that's brand new that's

totally unique that is groundbreaking

and disruptive but often the most

successful things are just improvements

or iterations on what are already out

there and if we look at the leading

products in the world often that's what

they were they weren't the first they

were just the best or uh the one that

went the broadest and became the most

famous because it fixed perhaps some

critical problems or for perhaps the

timing was just

right look to similar problems in

different environments so that can be a

great place of inspiration to get out of

group things just look at other

Industries for

example do a sketch of your solution

without trying to be

perfect and recruit people to use your

prototype and you can do that with

Craigslist or you can go to specific

associations if you have Niche target

market you can offer $100 to test your

prototype if you're going after

Executives you probably want to go

higher so for example with this $200

Visa gift card I personally often just

use PayPal payments Direct Cash instead

of messing around with Amazon gift cards

Starbucks gift cards but but those work

as

well okay now with prototypes this this

is really interesting because I I think

people think oh they need to spend a lot

of time programming a prototype or or

building something with 3D printing and

those can work but really what you're

trying to do is just create a facade not

the real thing and that can be done in

less than 7 hours and a presentation

Deck with keynote or canva or PowerPoint

can create the Illusion for example Le

of real software or a real experience in

a magazine or whatever industry you're

in you can replicate an experience uh

with something built with a presentation

perhaps it's designed to look like a

video or an interactive slide deck so

for example let's say you're an

automated personal trainer well you

could create that simulated experience

using a presentation and the authors

argue that 90% of prototypes can be

created with a presentation so let's

think of an example of a prototype slack

the concept of using slack in the office

is difficult for office people to

imagine so what the CEO decided was he

wanted to create the idea of a bot team

simulation but programming a series of

bots would take a lot of time and within

only 7 hours you can't really do that so

what they did with the Prototype is they

just got the members of the Sprint to

act as though they were the robots so

they would respond in a robot otic

manner to uh people's questions in the

prototyping stage so you can see you

that you can just hack something

together cu the idea is to get the

insights not to get

Perfection make sure that your prototype

itself can be tested in 15

minutes 3D printing can help if you're

dealing with

hardware and when you're doing customer

interviews there's a certain process you

want to use but before you do that you

need to understand that 85% % of the

problems can be observed from

interviewing just five people so you

don't need to interview 30 people

hundreds of people for example so here's

a general process you would follow you

start with a friendly welcome you ask

General open-ended context questions so

you want to get people in the mindset of

being able to answer your questions

because if you just go straight into the

details they haven't contextualized and

it's going to be very hard for them to

answer and then what you do is you intro

the Prototype then you start asking

detailed uh tasks to get a reaction from

customers using the Prototype and then

you do a quick debrief to get overall

thoughts and Impressions so some general

guidelines here start with small talk to

warm people up so they're less nervous

then get gradually more detailed into

topic specific

questions so for example what kind of

work do you do what do you do to take

care of yourself so this is a segue from

small talk into the area of Fitness for

example if you're trying to prototype

something to do with uh automated

Fitness

training don't ask multiple choice or

yes or no questions because typically

when we're doing interviews or we're

doing prototyping what we're looking for

are insights not kind of binary

quantitative questions uh we want to go

deeper ask why what where when why and

how instead of yes or no and lastly a

trick you can use to get insights is to

ask broken questions so for example just

say so

what is and then kind of Trail off cuz

that silence or that trailing is going

to extract insights from the customer

Without You planting ideas preconceived

ideas into their heads