design-sprint

What Is Design Sprint And Why It Matters In Business

Business / By / October 16, 2023

A design sprint is a proven five-day process where critical business questions are answered through speedy design and prototyping, focusing on the end-user. A design sprint starts with a weekly challenge that should finish with a prototype, test at the end, and therefore, a lesson learned to be iterated.

AspectExplanation
Concept OverviewA Design Sprint is a time-bound and structured problem-solving workshop or process used primarily in product design and innovation. It was developed by Google Ventures and is now widely adopted in various industries. The goal of a Design Sprint is to rapidly explore and validate ideas, create prototypes, and gather user feedback to make informed design decisions. It typically spans five consecutive days and involves cross-functional teams.
Key PrinciplesDesign Sprints are guided by several key principles:
1. Time Efficiency: They compress the design and validation process into a short timeframe.
2. Cross-Functional Collaboration: They bring together people from different roles and expertise.
3. User-Centered: They focus on solving real user problems and addressing their needs.
4. Prototyping: They emphasize the creation of tangible prototypes for testing.
5. Iteration: They allow for rapid iteration and improvement based on user feedback.
Five-Day SprintA typical five-day Design Sprint is structured as follows:
1. Understand: On the first day, the team understands the problem, defines goals, and identifies user personas.
2. Diverge: On the second day, team members generate a wide range of ideas through brainstorming and sketching.
3. Decide: On the third day, the team evaluates and selects the most promising ideas, creating a storyboard or plan.
4. Prototype: On the fourth day, a high-fidelity prototype is developed, usually through sketching or digital tools.
5. Validate: On the fifth day, the prototype is tested with real users, and feedback is collected to inform further iterations.
BenefitsImplementing Design Sprints offers several benefits:
1. Rapid Problem Solving: It accelerates the process of idea validation and problem-solving.
2. Collaboration: It fosters cross-functional collaboration and alignment.
3. User Validation: It provides early user feedback, reducing the risk of building the wrong solution.
4. Efficiency: It minimizes wasted time and resources on unvalidated ideas.
5. Creativity: It encourages creative thinking and exploration of different solutions.
Challenges and RisksChallenges in conducting Design Sprints include the need for a dedicated and diverse team, potential difficulties in selecting and prioritizing ideas, and the risk of overloading the process with too many features or ideas. Successful facilitation and clear objectives are critical to mitigate these challenges.
ApplicationsDesign Sprints are applied in various fields, including product design, software development, service design, marketing, and innovation. They are particularly valuable for developing new products, improving existing ones, and exploring innovative solutions to complex problems.
Tools and TechniquesVarious tools and techniques support Design Sprints, including whiteboards, post-it notes, digital prototyping tools like Figma or Sketch, and user testing platforms. The choice of tools depends on the specific objectives and needs of the sprint.

Understanding a design sprint

Design sprints were initially developed by Google Ventures to help start-up businesses address and overcome challenges. 

Over time, the process has evolved into what Google suggests is a “greatest hits of business strategy, innovation, behavior science, design thinking, and more – packaged into a battle-tested process that any team can use.” 

As the name suggests, design sprints aim to find solutions to problems quickly. This is achieved by following a proven schedule over five days. In the next section, we’ll take a look at each section day in more detail.

The five days of a design sprint

Design sprints are highly collaborative and experimental with a focus on the end-user. The approach is based on design thinking, which advocates a human-centered approach to innovation and rapid prototyping.

A typical design sprint follows this basic structure:

Monday

On the first day, the challenge is clearly identified and a strategy is devised for the rest of the week to overcome it.

Who is the end-user and what are their needs?

Tuesday

The sprint team brainstorms potential solutions and sketches various solutions that may have merit.

Wednesday

From the list of solutions created on Tuesday, the team selects those that have a realistic chance of solving the problem by the end of the week.

Then, each sketched solution is turned into a storyboard.

Thursday

Storyboards are turned into working prototypes that are ready for testing.

Friday

On the last day, prototypes are shown to key stakeholders and tested for viability.

Strengths of the design sprint process

Aside from the obvious speed in which a viable solution can be found, design sprints also break from outdated, committee-based decision making prevalent in many organizations.

By de-centralizing the design process, design prints encourage stakeholders with a variety of perspectives to come together and work toward a shared vision.

Strength also lies in the focus on sketching and prototyping. Both allow sprint teams to explore creative ideas that might otherwise be rejected.

If the final solution is not viable, sketching and prototyping is an effective means of reducing the cost of failure. 

Design sprint 2.0

Design sprint 2.0 is the most updated and semi-official version of the process.

Several changes have been made to the updated version, including:

A four-day process

To increase efficiency, procedures have been shortened or streamlined.

Perhaps counterintuitively, steps have also been added to increase efficiency.

Less commitment

In the updated version, the full sprint team only needs to attend two days instead of five.

This makes it easier for stakeholders to clear the required time in their schedules.

Optimization for app development

Design sprint 2.0 is a faster and more aggressive approach to prototype testing.

As a result, it is well suited to modern rapid app cycles where speed is a priority.

If required, tech businesses can also run both versions of the sprint simultaneously or perform consecutive 2.0 sprints.

Airbnb Case Study

Airbnb has a long-standing tradition of using design sprints and storyboarding to make key decisions.

Indeed, Airbnb emphasizes design and UX as core components of its value proposition.

This became even clearer when back in 2020, Airbnb called it “The New Normal,” the ability to incorporate storyboarding and design sprints within its UX development process.

As Airbnb highlighted at the time:

“In the spring of 2020, a global pandemic quickly changed the rules for how we live, work, relax, and travel. Airbnb, like many businesses, had to pivot its priorities to meet the needs of travelers and hosts who had a new set of behaviors and constraints.”

In order to enable guests and hosts to feel comfortable throughout the pandemic, Airbnb launched a “cleaning protocol.”

Airbnb called this form of design sprint as “service design:”

Source: Airbnb Design

Airbnb highlighted five principles to this:

1. Tame the complexity by making it tangible

This can be done by creating the first artifact in the form of a blueprint, which helps simply the understanding of the problem at hand.

2. Identify the biggest friction points to focus your design

As the Airbnb’s team highlights some key questions to ask in this stage are:

  • What’s the biggest pain point for our core audience?
  • What point in the journey causes the most drop-off?
  • What’s the biggest pain point for the on-the-ground staff that enables this service?
  • What is the most “expensive” part of the process?

3. Get curious about how your audience is already adapting to this challenge

You can start this process by identifying the key pain points to design for.

Often, as the Airbnb team highlights, your customers might already be solving these in their own way.

Thus, this will give you a headstart in understanding whether you can incorporate these learnings into the product.

4. Identify short-term milestones that support the long-term vision

 Here it’s critical to balance short-term wins with immediate impact with the long-term vision.

This tension between short-term wins and long-term vision helps establish a successful collaboration between operators and strategizers.

5. Consider content opportunities at every level of your service

Another key element is of crafting content that can enhance the UX.

Case Studies

  • Google Ventures (GV) – The Birth of Design Sprints:
    • Case Study: Google Ventures popularized the concept of design sprints. They used design sprints to help startups and their own projects, such as YouTube and Nest, tackle complex design and product challenges.
    • Description: GV’s five-day design sprint framework involves defining the problem, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing with real users. This methodology streamlined the development process and led to innovative solutions.
    • Implications: Design sprints enable teams to rapidly validate ideas, reduce project risks, and align stakeholders.
    • Actions: Companies across various industries have adopted GV’s design sprint methodology to accelerate product development and foster innovation.
  • Blue Bottle Coffee – Improving In-Store Customer Experience:
    • Case Study: Blue Bottle Coffee, a specialty coffee company, used a design sprint to enhance the in-store customer experience and reduce wait times.
    • Description: The design sprint involved cross-functional teams working intensively for a week. They mapped out customer journeys, identified bottlenecks, and prototyped solutions like a mobile ordering system.
    • Implications: The design sprint led to streamlined in-store operations, shorter wait times, and improved customer satisfaction.
    • Actions: Other retail businesses have adopted similar design sprint approaches to enhance their customer experiences and operations.
  • LEGO – Innovating the LEGO Boost Kit:
    • Case Study: LEGO utilized design sprints to develop the LEGO Boost kit, which combines physical LEGO building with coding and robotics.
    • Description: LEGO employed design sprints to align its design and engineering teams, refine product concepts, and create user-friendly coding interfaces.
    • Implications: The design sprint-driven development process allowed LEGO to create an engaging and educational product.
    • Actions: Companies in the toy and educational technology sectors can adopt design sprints to develop innovative and educational products.
  • Slack – Redesigning the Slack Calls Interface:
    • Case Study: Slack, the workplace communication platform, used design sprints to revamp its calls interface to improve user experience.
    • Description: Slack conducted design sprints to gather user feedback, ideate improvements, and prototype new interface designs. This iterative approach helped them refine the calls feature.
    • Implications: The redesigned calls interface enhanced user engagement and communication within the Slack platform.
    • Actions: Technology companies can apply design sprints to iterate and improve user interfaces, features, and overall user experiences.
  • Financial Services – Enhancing Customer Onboarding:
    • Case Study: A financial services company implemented a design sprint to streamline and digitize its customer onboarding process.
    • Description: The design sprint involved cross-functional teams working collaboratively to identify pain points in the onboarding process, develop digital solutions, and test prototypes with real customers.
    • Implications: The design sprint reduced customer onboarding time, improved efficiency, and increased customer satisfaction.
    • Actions: Financial institutions and service providers can use design sprints to modernize processes and enhance customer experiences in a rapidly evolving industry.

Key takeaways

  • A design sprint is a four or five-day process for testing a new idea through the creation of a prototype for actual users.
  • Design sprints were originally developed by the venture capital arm of Google as a way to foster creative collaboration toward a shared vision.
  • In design sprint 2.0, the five-day process has been shortened to 4 days with more logical and efficient steps. Key stakeholders are also required to be present for less time, thereby increasing the chances that a sprint will accommodate scheduling demands.

Design Sprint Highlights:

  • Definition: A design sprint is a structured, time-bound process (usually four or five days) that focuses on finding solutions to critical business challenges through rapid design and prototyping. The process emphasizes end-user perspectives and testing.
  • Origin and Purpose: Design sprints were initially developed by Google Ventures as a way to help start-up businesses address challenges. Over time, the process has evolved into a comprehensive approach that combines elements of business strategy, innovation, behavior science, and design thinking.
  • Process Overview: A design sprint typically spans five days and involves the following stages:
    • Monday: Identifying the challenge and forming a strategy.
    • Tuesday: Brainstorming potential solutions and sketching ideas.
    • Wednesday: Selecting realistic solutions and creating storyboards.
    • Thursday: Turning storyboards into working prototypes.
    • Friday: Presenting prototypes to stakeholders and testing for viability.
  • Design Thinking and Collaboration: Design sprints are highly collaborative and experimental, based on design thinking principles. They encourage cross-functional teams with different perspectives to work together toward a common goal.
  • Strengths and Benefits: Design sprints offer several advantages, including rapid problem-solving, breaking away from committee-based decision-making, and enabling creative exploration through sketching and prototyping. They provide a structured framework for innovation and iteration.
  • Design Sprint 2.0: An updated version of the design sprint process, with notable changes such as a streamlined four-day process, reduced time commitment for stakeholders, and optimization for app development cycles.
  • Application in Real Life: Airbnb is known for using design sprints and storyboarding to make key decisions. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbnb used design sprints to create its “cleaning protocol” to address changing user behaviors and needs.
  • Key Takeaway: A design sprint is a powerful methodology for quickly addressing business challenges, fostering collaboration, and generating innovative solutions. The process follows a structured schedule, involves various stages of idea generation and prototyping, and is guided by principles of design thinking and user-centered innovation.

Connected Agile & Lean Frameworks

AIOps

aiops
AIOps is the application of artificial intelligence to IT operations. It has become particularly useful for modern IT management in hybridized, distributed, and dynamic environments. AIOps has become a key operational component of modern digital-based organizations, built around software and algorithms.

AgileSHIFT

AgileSHIFT
AgileSHIFT is a framework that prepares individuals for transformational change by creating a culture of agility.

Agile Methodology

agile-methodology
Agile started as a lightweight development method compared to heavyweight software development, which is the core paradigm of the previous decades of software development. By 2001 the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was born as a set of principles that defined the new paradigm for software development as a continuous iteration. This would also influence the way of doing business.

Agile Program Management

agile-program-management
Agile Program Management is a means of managing, planning, and coordinating interrelated work in such a way that value delivery is emphasized for all key stakeholders. Agile Program Management (AgilePgM) is a disciplined yet flexible agile approach to managing transformational change within an organization.

Agile Project Management

agile-project-management
Agile project management (APM) is a strategy that breaks large projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. In the APM methodology, each project is completed in small sections – often referred to as iterations. Each iteration is completed according to its project life cycle, beginning with the initial design and progressing to testing and then quality assurance.

Agile Modeling

agile-modeling
Agile Modeling (AM) is a methodology for modeling and documenting software-based systems. Agile Modeling is critical to the rapid and continuous delivery of software. It is a collection of values, principles, and practices that guide effective, lightweight software modeling.

Agile Business Analysis

agile-business-analysis
Agile Business Analysis (AgileBA) is certification in the form of guidance and training for business analysts seeking to work in agile environments. To support this shift, AgileBA also helps the business analyst relate Agile projects to a wider organizational mission or strategy. To ensure that analysts have the necessary skills and expertise, AgileBA certification was developed.

Agile Leadership

agile-leadership
Agile leadership is the embodiment of agile manifesto principles by a manager or management team. Agile leadership impacts two important levels of a business. The structural level defines the roles, responsibilities, and key performance indicators. The behavioral level describes the actions leaders exhibit to others based on agile principles. 

Andon System

andon-system
The andon system alerts managerial, maintenance, or other staff of a production process problem. The alert itself can be activated manually with a button or pull cord, but it can also be activated automatically by production equipment. Most Andon boards utilize three colored lights similar to a traffic signal: green (no errors), yellow or amber (problem identified, or quality check needed), and red (production stopped due to unidentified issue).

Bimodal Portfolio Management

bimodal-portfolio-management
Bimodal Portfolio Management (BimodalPfM) helps an organization manage both agile and traditional portfolios concurrently. Bimodal Portfolio Management – sometimes referred to as bimodal development – was coined by research and advisory company Gartner. The firm argued that many agile organizations still needed to run some aspects of their operations using traditional delivery models.

Business Innovation Matrix

business-innovation
Business innovation is about creating new opportunities for an organization to reinvent its core offerings, revenue streams, and enhance the value proposition for existing or new customers, thus renewing its whole business model. Business innovation springs by understanding the structure of the market, thus adapting or anticipating those changes.

Business Model Innovation

business-model-innovation
Business model innovation is about increasing the success of an organization with existing products and technologies by crafting a compelling value proposition able to propel a new business model to scale up customers and create a lasting competitive advantage. And it all starts by mastering the key customers.

Constructive Disruption

constructive-disruption
A consumer brand company like Procter & Gamble (P&G) defines “Constructive Disruption” as: a willingness to change, adapt, and create new trends and technologies that will shape our industry for the future. According to P&G, it moves around four pillars: lean innovation, brand building, supply chain, and digitalization & data analytics.

Continuous Innovation

continuous-innovation
That is a process that requires a continuous feedback loop to develop a valuable product and build a viable business model. Continuous innovation is a mindset where products and services are designed and delivered to tune them around the customers’ problem and not the technical solution of its founders.

Design Sprint

design-sprint
A design sprint is a proven five-day process where critical business questions are answered through speedy design and prototyping, focusing on the end-user. A design sprint starts with a weekly challenge that should finish with a prototype, test at the end, and therefore a lesson learned to be iterated.

Design Thinking

design-thinking
Tim Brown, Executive Chair of IDEO, defined design thinking as “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” Therefore, desirability, feasibility, and viability are balanced to solve critical problems.

DevOps

devops-engineering
DevOps refers to a series of practices performed to perform automated software development processes. It is a conjugation of the term “development” and “operations” to emphasize how functions integrate across IT teams. DevOps strategies promote seamless building, testing, and deployment of products. It aims to bridge a gap between development and operations teams to streamline the development altogether.

Dual Track Agile

dual-track-agile
Product discovery is a critical part of agile methodologies, as its aim is to ensure that products customers love are built. Product discovery involves learning through a raft of methods, including design thinking, lean start-up, and A/B testing to name a few. Dual Track Agile is an agile methodology containing two separate tracks: the “discovery” track and the “delivery” track.

eXtreme Programming

extreme-programming
eXtreme Programming was developed in the late 1990s by Ken Beck, Ron Jeffries, and Ward Cunningham. During this time, the trio was working on the Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation System (C3) to help manage the company payroll system. eXtreme Programming (XP) is a software development methodology. It is designed to improve software quality and the ability of software to adapt to changing customer needs.

Feature-Driven Development

feature-driven-development
Feature-Driven Development is a pragmatic software process that is client and architecture-centric. Feature-Driven Development (FDD) is an agile software development model that organizes workflow according to which features need to be developed next.

Gemba Walk

gemba-walk
A Gemba Walk is a fundamental component of lean management. It describes the personal observation of work to learn more about it. Gemba is a Japanese word that loosely translates as “the real place”, or in business, “the place where value is created”. The Gemba Walk as a concept was created by Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System of lean manufacturing. Ohno wanted to encourage management executives to leave their offices and see where the real work happened. This, he hoped, would build relationships between employees with vastly different skillsets and build trust.

GIST Planning

gist-planning
GIST Planning is a relatively easy and lightweight agile approach to product planning that favors autonomous working. GIST Planning is a lean and agile methodology that was created by former Google product manager Itamar Gilad. GIST Planning seeks to address this situation by creating lightweight plans that are responsive and adaptable to change. GIST Planning also improves team velocity, autonomy, and alignment by reducing the pervasive influence of management. It consists of four blocks: goals, ideas, step-projects, and tasks.

ICE Scoring

ice-scoring-model
The ICE Scoring Model is an agile methodology that prioritizes features using data according to three components: impact, confidence, and ease of implementation. The ICE Scoring Model was initially created by author and growth expert Sean Ellis to help companies expand. Today, the model is broadly used to prioritize projects, features, initiatives, and rollouts. It is ideally suited for early-stage product development where there is a continuous flow of ideas and momentum must be maintained.

Innovation Funnel

innovation-funnel
An innovation funnel is a tool or process ensuring only the best ideas are executed. In a metaphorical sense, the funnel screens innovative ideas for viability so that only the best products, processes, or business models are launched to the market. An innovation funnel provides a framework for the screening and testing of innovative ideas for viability.

Innovation Matrix

types-of-innovation
According to how well defined is the problem and how well defined the domain, we have four main types of innovations: basic research (problem and domain or not well defined); breakthrough innovation (domain is not well defined, the problem is well defined); sustaining innovation (both problem and domain are well defined); and disruptive innovation (domain is well defined, the problem is not well defined).

Innovation Theory

innovation-theory
The innovation loop is a methodology/framework derived from the Bell Labs, which produced innovation at scale throughout the 20th century. They learned how to leverage a hybrid innovation management model based on science, invention, engineering, and manufacturing at scale. By leveraging individual genius, creativity, and small/large groups.

Lean vs. Agile

lean-methodology-vs-agile
The Agile methodology has been primarily thought of for software development (and other business disciplines have also adopted it). Lean thinking is a process improvement technique where teams prioritize the value streams to improve it continuously. Both methodologies look at the customer as the key driver to improvement and waste reduction. Both methodologies look at improvement as something continuous.

Lean Startup

startup-company
A startup company is a high-tech business that tries to build a scalable business model in tech-driven industries. A startup company usually follows a lean methodology, where continuous innovation, driven by built-in viral loops is the rule. Thus, driving growth and building network effects as a consequence of this strategy.

Minimum Viable Product

minimum-viable-product
As pointed out by Eric Ries, a minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort through a cycle of build, measure, learn; that is the foundation of the lean startup methodology.

Leaner MVP

leaner-mvp
A leaner MVP is the evolution of the MPV approach. Where the market risk is validated before anything else

Kanban

kanban
Kanban is a lean manufacturing framework first developed by Toyota in the late 1940s. The Kanban framework is a means of visualizing work as it moves through identifying potential bottlenecks. It does that through a process called just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing to optimize engineering processes, speed up manufacturing products, and improve the go-to-market strategy.

Jidoka

jidoka
Jidoka was first used in 1896 by Sakichi Toyoda, who invented a textile loom that would stop automatically when it encountered a defective thread. Jidoka is a Japanese term used in lean manufacturing. The term describes a scenario where machines cease operating without human intervention when a problem or defect is discovered.

PDCA Cycle

pdca-cycle
The PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle was first proposed by American physicist and engineer Walter A. Shewhart in the 1920s. The PDCA cycle is a continuous process and product improvement method and an essential component of the lean manufacturing philosophy.

Rational Unified Process

rational-unified-process
Rational unified process (RUP) is an agile software development methodology that breaks the project life cycle down into four distinct phases.

Rapid Application Development

rapid-application-development
RAD was first introduced by author and consultant James Martin in 1991. Martin recognized and then took advantage of the endless malleability of software in designing development models. Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a methodology focusing on delivering rapidly through continuous feedback and frequent iterations.

Retrospective Analysis

retrospective-analysis
Retrospective analyses are held after a project to determine what worked well and what did not. They are also conducted at the end of an iteration in Agile project management. Agile practitioners call these meetings retrospectives or retros. They are an effective way to check the pulse of a project team, reflect on the work performed to date, and reach a consensus on how to tackle the next sprint cycle. These are the five stages of a retrospective analysis for effective Agile project management: set the stage, gather the data, generate insights, decide on the next steps, and close the retrospective.

Scaled Agile

scaled-agile-lean-development
Scaled Agile Lean Development (ScALeD) helps businesses discover a balanced approach to agile transition and scaling questions. The ScALed approach helps businesses successfully respond to change. Inspired by a combination of lean and agile values, ScALed is practitioner-based and can be completed through various agile frameworks and practices.

SMED

smed
The SMED (single minute exchange of die) method is a lean production framework to reduce waste and increase production efficiency. The SMED method is a framework for reducing the time associated with completing an equipment changeover.

Spotify Model

spotify-model
The Spotify Model is an autonomous approach to scaling agile, focusing on culture communication, accountability, and quality. The Spotify model was first recognized in 2012 after Henrik Kniberg, and Anders Ivarsson released a white paper detailing how streaming company Spotify approached agility. Therefore, the Spotify model represents an evolution of agile.

Test-Driven Development

test-driven-development
As the name suggests, TDD is a test-driven technique for delivering high-quality software rapidly and sustainably. It is an iterative approach based on the idea that a failing test should be written before any code for a feature or function is written. Test-Driven Development (TDD) is an approach to software development that relies on very short development cycles.

Timeboxing

timeboxing
Timeboxing is a simple yet powerful time-management technique for improving productivity. Timeboxing describes the process of proactively scheduling a block of time to spend on a task in the future. It was first described by author James Martin in a book about agile software development.

Scrum

what-is-scrum
Scrum is a methodology co-created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland for effective team collaboration on complex products. Scrum was primarily thought for software development projects to deliver new software capability every 2-4 weeks. It is a sub-group of agile also used in project management to improve startups’ productivity.

Scrumban

scrumban
Scrumban is a project management framework that is a hybrid of two popular agile methodologies: Scrum and Kanban. Scrumban is a popular approach to helping businesses focus on the right strategic tasks while simultaneously strengthening their processes.

Scrum Anti-Patterns

scrum-anti-patterns
Scrum anti-patterns describe any attractive, easy-to-implement solution that ultimately makes a problem worse. Therefore, these are the practice not to follow to prevent issues from emerging. Some classic examples of scrum anti-patterns comprise absent product owners, pre-assigned tickets (making individuals work in isolation), and discounting retrospectives (where review meetings are not useful to really make improvements).

Scrum At Scale

scrum-at-scale
Scrum at Scale (Scrum@Scale) is a framework that Scrum teams use to address complex problems and deliver high-value products. Scrum at Scale was created through a joint venture between the Scrum Alliance and Scrum Inc. The joint venture was overseen by Jeff Sutherland, a co-creator of Scrum and one of the principal authors of the Agile Manifesto.

Six Sigma

six-sigma
Six Sigma is a data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating errors or defects in a product, service, or process. Six Sigma was developed by Motorola as a management approach based on quality fundamentals in the early 1980s. A decade later, it was popularized by General Electric who estimated that the methodology saved them $12 billion in the first five years of operation.

Stretch Objectives

stretch-objectives
Stretch objectives describe any task an agile team plans to complete without expressly committing to do so. Teams incorporate stretch objectives during a Sprint or Program Increment (PI) as part of Scaled Agile. They are used when the agile team is unsure of its capacity to attain an objective. Therefore, stretch objectives are instead outcomes that, while extremely desirable, are not the difference between the success or failure of each sprint.

Toyota Production System

toyota-production-system
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an early form of lean manufacturing created by auto-manufacturer Toyota. Created by the Toyota Motor Corporation in the 1940s and 50s, the Toyota Production System seeks to manufacture vehicles ordered by customers most quickly and efficiently possible.

Total Quality Management

total-quality-management
The Total Quality Management (TQM) framework is a technique based on the premise that employees continuously work on their ability to provide value to customers. Importantly, the word “total” means that all employees are involved in the process – regardless of whether they work in development, production, or fulfillment.

Waterfall

waterfall-model
The waterfall model was first described by Herbert D. Benington in 1956 during a presentation about the software used in radar imaging during the Cold War. Since there were no knowledge-based, creative software development strategies at the time, the waterfall method became standard practice. The waterfall model is a linear and sequential project management framework. 

Read Also: Continuous Innovation, Agile Methodology, Lean Startup, Business Model Innovation, Project Management.

Read Next: Agile Methodology, Lean Methodology, Agile Project Management, Scrum, Kanban, Six Sigma.

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About The Author

Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
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