---
title: A conversation can be an output
teaser: 'Rapidly and inexpensively de-risking ideas by talking to people is the true
  power of a Design Sprint.

  '
tags: product design sprint,design sprint,design research
author: Eric Bailey
published_on: 2021-03-23
---

[Design Sprints][design-sprints] are great at many things: they can quickly
create consensus, de-risk ideas, and create clear path of what to do next.

Many Design Sprints are also good at generating prototypes—low-fidelity design
experiments put in front of potential customers to see what they think about the
experience before committing time, money, and resources to building it for real.

One of my favorite aspects of a Design Sprint is the democratization of the
design process. One of the best moments from a Design Sprint I’ve witnessed is
an engaged, constructive conversation between a CTO and an entry-level support
agent.

These kinds of important conversations are waiting to happen. The Design Sprint
is one of many techniques that provides a framework to facilitate this kind of
interaction.

And facilitating conversations is worth noting. That dialog between the CTO and the support agent
will lead to some really impactful updates to their processes. About half an
hour’s worth of talking translates to potentially [hundreds of thousands of
dollars being saved][dollars], and more importantly, a ton of unnecessary
headaches and hassles being removed from people’s jobs.

It’s also important to note that the prototype is just that, a prototype. Take
what works and throw the rest out. It's way better to spend a day or two making one to
see if the idea is valid, rather than taking months to release a fully fleshed
out product or feature to a market that doesn’t see the point.

I’ve also been involved with Design Sprints where interaction with the prototype
was of secondary importance. The ideas were either completely off the mark, or
just not fleshed out enough to be understandable. I don’t consider it a failure,
however.

The act of providing a structure to source, and speak with potential customers
was itself extremely valuable. Here, the prototype served as a jumping off point
for some rich, insightful conversations. Yes, we had to go back to the drawing
board, but this time we had a ton more context about what people were actually
looking for.

Rapidly and inexpensively de-risking ideas by talking to people is the true
power of a Design Sprint. If that is something that you’re interesting in
exploring, [let’s get a conversation of our own going][hire-us]!

[design-sprints]: https://thoughtbot.com/services/product-design-sprint
[dollars]: https://thoughtbot.com/blog/how-3-hours-of-conversation-saved-a-company-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars
[hire-us]: https://thoughtbot.com/hire-us