Design sprint

Debating an idea for weeks in meetings rarely improves it, it just wears it down. A design sprint breaks that loop: it packs into a few days the work of understanding the problem, coming up with solutions, building a prototype and testing it with real people, so you walk out with a real answer instead of more opinions.

This board guides the sprint through its four stages so the team always knows which phase it is in and does not skip the listening one out of eagerness to draw. Seeing it in columns avoids the classic mistake of falling in love with the first idea before ever putting it in front of a user.

Four days, four stages

The board moves through understand, ideate, prototype and test. Each column is a stage of the sprint, and you do not move to the next without closing the previous one.

Understand

Start from the problem, not the solution, so you do not build on assumptions.

• Define the challenge the sprint wants to solve
• Map the problem and how the user lives it
• Listen to experts who know the topic

Ideate

Generate many options before choosing, so you do not settle for the first one out.

• Generate many ideas without filtering them yet
• Sketch solutions to see them on paper
• Pick the best path to prototype

Prototype

Build just enough to be able to test it, not a finished product.

• Build a realistic prototype, believable even if it is a facade
• Prepare the test script with the tasks to observe

Test

Put the prototype in front of real users and listen to what they actually do.

• Test with real users, not with the team itself
• Collect the learnings to decide the next step

How it works in Foco

When you import it, Foco creates the "Sprint" workspace with these columns in the Kanban view. You drag each card from one stage to the next as the sprint advances, with drag and drop on desktop and by swiping between columns as tabs on mobile.

In Panorama you see the tasks from all your workspaces at once, each in its own color, so the sprint lives alongside your other projects without getting lost. Since the sprint runs against the clock, you put a date on each task and assign who owns the prototype and who runs the tests.