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C. Todd Lombardo has been tinkering and doodling since he was four years old. Originally trained as a scientist, he’s had job titles ranging from scientist, to engineer, to product manager, to designer, and even professor.  He is currently the Head of Product &amp; Experience at Workbar, a leading co-working space in Boston. He also serves on the adjunct faculty at IE Business School in Madrid, as well as Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He is a published O'Reilly Media author with two titles: Design Sprint (2015) and Product Roadmaps Relaunched (2017).

C. Todd Lombardo

<p>I&#8217;ve been teaching teams how to run design sprints for years, and one of the most common questions I get asked is: “When should we use a design sprint?”</p>
<p>I’ll tackle this in the upcoming sections by answering the opposite: <strong>when isn&#8217;t a design sprint going to help you?</strong> Despite the positive reviews and buzz, it’s not a magic bullet and cannot be used for everything.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Sprinting-man.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-19886" src="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Sprinting-man.jpg" alt="Sprinting man shutterstock" width="760" height="451" /></a></p>
<h2>Your product is already very well-defined</h2>
<p>Some efforts don’t require that much design thinking. There might already be a validated product design concept that’s agreed to and all the team needs to do is execute it. A design sprint to implement functionality without exploring improvements, reductions, or changes isn’t a design sprint.</p>
<h2>Significant research is needed</h2>
<p>My experience has taught me that a design sprint needs to have inputs, and most often that input is a form of design research data. Yes, I’m talking about interviews with customers &#8211; you know, those people who use your product? You may want to consider a day or two of user research, ethnography, or interviews before starting a design sprint.</p>
<h2>The scope is too broad</h2>
<p>You don’t need to know everything before beginning a design sprint, but you’ll want to know the general problem area before you get started. “Don’t boil the ocean” is a phrase you may have heard in the halls of management consultancies and the same applies here. While we’ve seen design sprints work as a mechanism to help narrow your scope and focus, it may be a challenge if your task is to do something like &#8216;reinvent space travel&#8217;, for example. You’re unlikely to accomplish a task that big in one week!</p>
<h2>&#8220;Add this button&#8221;</h2>
<p>Conversely, if the scope is far too narrow, you may want to just go ahead and implement the idea. Some things you shouldn&#8217;t overthink, just get it into your product and test it live.</p>
<h2>You mistake a design sprint for product development</h2>
<p>A design sprint is not a method for getting a more sophisticated product development effort done for less money and time. However, we have seen that this belief can occur no matter how much expectation-setting you do at the beginning of the project.</p>
<p>A design sprint cannot accomplish everything, so scope appropriately. It is not a substitute for complex product development, nor is it appropriate if there’s an unwillingness in your organization for a change in direction.</p>
<h2>Further Reading</h2>
<p>Want to learn more? Here are two great books for you to explore:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/1pgHF2h" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Design Sprint: A Practical Guidebook for Building Great Digital Products </a>by Richard Banfield, Trace Wax, and myself!</li>
<li><a href="http://amzn.to/1TFjebQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days</a> by Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz</li>
</ol>
<h2>More From C.Todd</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/roadmaps-are-dead-long-live-roadmaps-by-c-todd-lombardo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Roadmaps are Dead! Long Live Roadmaps!</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/product-research-rules-by-c-todd-lombardo/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Product Research Rules by C Todd Lombardo</a></li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

core/freeform

What good product design looks like – Miguel Fernandez (VP of Product Design, Slack)

When NOT to Design Sprint

C. Todd Lombardo

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