When to call us

We offer design sprints as part of Slalom, a large technology consulting firm that offers solutions for a range of business problems. Design sprints can stand alone, but are often part of a broader product development lifecycle. Please contact us for pricing information, and to discuss options that best work for you.

Design sprint as MVP accelerator

A design sprint is perfect when you need to determine the scope and validated feature set for a new minimum viable product (MVP). Design sprints help define the goals, target market, and most important features of an MVP, helping future releases get out the door faster. Slalom's Product Engineering Methodology (PEM) is a lean development model that incorporates design sprints as the first step in product discovery. A design sprint is the most valuable activity to run during this phase since typical UX processes are condensed into a much shorter time frame. Rather than telling you what we think your product should include, we guide your team members through ideation activities, leading to organic alignment on a final solution. Proof-of-concept prototyping and testing is typically managed by us, resulting in a go-forward recommendation for the MVP build. In these situations, we can run a design sprint for you 'a la carte', passing off deliverables to your team, or we can continue working with you through engineering and release.

Design sprint to improve an existing product

When you need to strategize the redesign or expansion of an existing product, a design sprint can help by bringing relevant people together to rapidly:

• review existing solution or prototypes

• review analytics and qualitative or quantitative user feedback

• hear from existing users

• determine goals and KPIs

• align on a strategic direction

• prioritize requirements, roadmap or backlog

With a scope defined, the group benefits from ideating together – literally sketching out solution ideas for new or amended features, based on feedback from the target market. This works equally well with both internal company products as well as products for an external audience. Often, these types of projects are handed off to your internal team or preferred vendor for more detailed design and development. Slalom can also lead either of these subsequent phases as needed.

Design sprint as part of a larger project

A design sprint can be especially effective to help define the scope of a project or rapidly ideate, visualize and test solutions when you are already working with Slalom in another capacity. These types of engagements can include:

• Data visualization

• CRM

• Information management and analytics

• Organizational effectiveness/change management

• Strategy and operations

• User experience research or design

In these cases, the design sprint might happen earlier on in the project, or after an initial discovery phase. When Slalom is already committed to designing or building your solution, we can offer a condensed design sprint focusing on the first three days of activities. Check out our case studies to learn how design sprints have been successful in these types of larger projects.

A typical design sprint includes 10 business days of Slalom work, with 3-5 days of hands-on participation from your company – though this can be condensed or expanded depending on your situation. Our facilitators conduct:

• 3 DAYS OF PREP (ANALYSIS OF EXISTING RESEARCH, PRODUCTS, STRATEGY, USER FEEDBACK) 

• 5 DAYS OF DESIGN SPRINT, ideally WITH 4-7 PARTICIPANTS from your company for at least the first 3 days

• 2 DAYS OF POST-SPRINT ANALYSIS AND GO-FORWARD RECOMMENDATIONS