I read Jake Knapp’s book “Sprint” and it reminded me a lot about our birthgivings in Tiimiakatemia – you have a problem to solve, and you must do that in a limited amount of time.

My team’s first birthgiving was just a couple of weeks ago. Our goal was to create a new structure and concept to Battle team, our monthly event for reflecting what we’ve learned lately and sharing those within our community. Lately the events have mostly been entertaining, teams have had to come up with different kind of performances including what they’ve learned in the past month or sprint, the focus is on entertaining everyone else, not learning. Our goal for the birthgiving was to make those events worth our time and maximize the learning in them.

Our birthgiving was just over 3 hours long, we started by talking about the earlier events and what we wanted to improve in them. We chose 3 things we wanted to focus on, split into small groups to solve the problems within those subjects, and pitched them to everyone else in our team afterwards. We created a lot of good ideas but nothing concrete to help us moving forward with the problem. After that we chose a group of three – me and two others – to continue with working on the process. This book gave me new ideas on how we could have been more productive or can be from now on when working on projects like this.

Sprint

The sprint is a five-day process, which is supposed to help teams to solve a specific problem by prototyping new ideas. The process can’t be used for creating new, but rather for solving old problems. That said, birthgiving is a good example of how this process could be used. One thing to remember is that usually in our team we’re not going to have one full week where each one of our team members can prioritize one project for a whole week, but we can use parts of this in our problem-solving process.

Monday: Make a map & choose a target

In the beginning of the week, group’s goal is going to be creating a path for the sprint. Map is going to include list of the actors regarding the problem chosen on the left and the final target for the week on the right. In the middle you can write different steps needed to reach the team’s goal.

I think making a map is a really good tool to get an overall picture of the problem. Making a visual path of the process helps everyone in the project group get on the same page. It also helps to divide the problem into smaller parts to make dividing workload easier. Also, map is a good introduction into the problem if I want to ask someone’s opinion on the matter.

Tuesday: Sketch competing solutions

Tuesday’s goal is to come up with a solution. Team members are going to be working alone to do research on already existing business ideas and find inspiration. Later on Tuesday the team is going to gather together their thoughts.

Usually on our training sessions we have small group conversations but not individual working. Even on smaller groups, some people are not that comfortable with bringing up their own ideas or they might adapt to other’s ideas easily. Working alone gives you some pressure and more responsibility which might lead to a better performance. Knapp presents a 4-step process that helps people do problem solving individually.

1. Notes: gather key info – 20min
2. Ideas: doodle rough solutions – 20min
3. Crazy 8s: Try rapid variations – 8min
4. Solution sketch: Figure out the details – 30+min

Wednesday: Decide on the best

On Wednesday, the team’s goal is to turn all the solutions into one solid plan. The progress starts by critiquing all the solutions to choose the best one. The team should end up with a storyboard that’s going to help with creating the prototype. Making a storyboard has same benefits as making the map: it’s going to help the team share their ideas and be on the same page.

Thursday: Build a realistic prototype

On Thursday the team is going to make a prototype and bring their idea into practice. Prototype as a word makes me think about building something, but it doesn’t have to be anything concrete.

The prototype mindset:

1. You can prototype anything
2. Prototypes are disposable
3. Build just enough to learn, but not more
4. The prototype must appear real

Prototype:

1. Pick the right tools
2. Divide and conquer
3. Stitch it together
4. Do a trial run

Friday: Test with target customers

On Friday the prototypes are getting tested, the book is talking about testing with target customers, but we could test by presenting the idea to our team members, or other team entrepreneurs, who weren’t part of the process. We can ask them to tell overall thoughts of the process and what they would change in the prototype.

Summary

I don’t think we’re ever going to have a full week to put this process into practice, but the book gave me good tools to use later. It gave good foundation to use when solving problems and by using these steps, ideation process can be a lot more effective. Making maps on progress on a project is something that I’m going to start using. Before the sprint begins, it’s important to have a team that fully commits to the challenge and keep the project group small.