Should my team hold remote design sprints?
If you've read about remote design sprints and you're wondering 'would a remote design sprint work for my team?' then you're in the right place!
One of the most important things you can do is to determine if a remote design sprints will be right for your team.
Before continuing...
If you haven't read What Is a Remote Design Sprint?, then that's the first place to start. You can't make a decision on if something is right for your team without having first understood what it is!
3 questions to help you decide if you should hold remote design sprints
I've written a few considerations that are important in helping you decide if your team should have remote design sprints:
- Are we already a remote team?
- Is our current process working?
- How developed is our product?
1. Are we already a remote team?
This one may seem obvious but it's worth bringing up: if your team isn't a remote team, don't attempt to do the remote design sprint in person and instead follow design sprint laid out in the book 📕 Sprint.
Don't attempt to take your team remote using this. Having a remote team comes with a lot of benefits but you need to focus on the overcoming initial challenges of a remote team becoming effective first.
2. What is our current process?
If you have a remote team but you don't have a process, you can consider remote design sprint but you need to be gentle with yourself.
Adding any structured process to a team without process or with loose process is going to come with an initial whiplash that you'll need to overcome as a group.
You could consider incorporating parts of the remote design sprint one at a time or expanding it into a 2 week period but make sure you hold yourself to some version of the time constraints.
3. How developed is what you're making in the product development lifecycle?
If you're in a startup that's pre-product market fit or a team that's building out a new product within your existing line of SaaS products, you're in the Goldilocks zone for a remote design sprint!
If you're a remote team with a fairly developed product that does a lot of bug fixes, minor tweaks and some feature development, I'd also recommend trying a remote design sprint.
For teams with fully developed products, a remote design sprint can be a great way to break free of any boredom or ruts your team may be experiencing and find new and creative ways to serve your users!
Suggestions
- Plan to have a "cool down week" after your first remote design sprint.
Wrapping Up
Remote design sprints are a great way to focus your team on the features and decisions that really matter for your user, but they're not for every team.
Hopefully you were able to determine if your team should hold a remote design sprint after taking this quick inventory!
Still not sure?
If you need any help figuring out if a remote design sprint is right for you, feel free to setup a 20 minute meeting to see if it's a good fit!