Using tested tools and frameworks takes the guesswork out of the “how” and provides a recipe to follow. But they aren’t enough. You can have the best hammer and nails but if you are too afraid to swing the hammer and make the birdhouse because it might be ugly, you’ll just have a pile of tools and no place for birds to live. When we create, we bring something new into the world. Fear arises when we think about doing anything new. New is unknown. New is novel. New is scary. Our brains want us to stay in the safe zone.

There’s been a lot written about the Design Sprint; why it works, the methods, facilitation techniques and how to use Sprints inside an org but I was interested in learning more about the process of designing the process (so meta, right?) from this conversation with John Zeratsky (JZ), co-author of SPRINT.

Design Sprints are a great way to test ideas before you invest a ton of time and money in building them out. You could certainly make something up without understanding your customer but you’ll get more out of your Sprint if you know a little something about the people you aim to help before you start.

Busy is a great avoidance technique. Just like any other; alcohol, drugs, video games, tv, interpersonal dramas. Busy distracts us and helps us to avoid the hard work of being present. The first step to recovery is to put down our screens and stop stacking our calendars. The second step is to get comfortable with the uncomfortable feeling of being present and doing the work; on our lives, in our relationships, at work.

The Job Story method takes the team deeper into the needs of the people we are solving a problem for. This means they are more likely to create a solution that meets those needs and as a result, make something people value.

Five weeks after the birth of my daughter, I woke up with a funny sensation in my right ear — like I was underwater. Things were muffled and strange. I needed an MRI. I didn’t know exactly what to expect other than that I would be inside of a small space for an hour. Here’s the playlist I listened to during the process.

The following products have helped me care for my baby AND myself, and have delighted me along the way: The SNOO, Hatch Baby, Amazon Alexa, Magnetic Me’s & Vava Light. This is great product design.

When Justin Kaster and I first started talking, he was in the midst of working on the next iteration of his business ideas and wanted help defining what his team could do next. I ran a 3-day Design Sprint with Justin’s team to design, test, and get feedback on new concepts that could help him evaluate the best next direction for his business.

How to push yourself to be your best using the Self journal as your personal trainer.

The magic of the Design Sprint is its ability to neutralize politics. When I work with teams, I have frank conversations about politics and team dynamics going into the Sprint. The agenda I design takes into consideration the realities of those dynamics. I use methods to draw out ideas from everyone in the room and facilitate sharing and dialog so that politics aren’t what matters and great ideas can shine through.

You only have so much capacity. You can only do so much. If you do not consider your physical + mental capacity and get real about the maximum that you can accommodate, you run the risk of planning for more than you can handle. The results are worth avoiding.

When it comes to action, the biggest barrier to product teams is often the team charged with making change in the first place. This doesn’t have to be the case. Your team can overcome and bring greatness (or at least bring something!) into the world.

Upon rejection, a quick inventory will do. No need to spend more time than the time needed to assess and learn. Then, move on. Just show up and be better, stronger and more focused the next time.

These methods used are both a means to solve the challenges at hand and as practice so that educators walk away with tools they can use to continuously improve and refine on their own. First: we identify our “to solve” and refine by putting the human beings we aim to help at the center of our problem solving. Then: we come up with new ideas rapidly. Last: we define solutions that will be tested and tried after our work together.

If you are excited about something, jealous of someone or have a desire to say no so that you can say yes to something else, ask yourself: “How you are standing in your own way?” I’m out on my own running collaborative design sprints for clients to solve problems and come up with new ideas for products, services or experiences in the world.

If you don’t decide to try new things, you stay where you are today. This may be safe for a period of time but not forever. Change is necessary. To change, you must decide, commit and act on that.

To stay relevant in today’s rapidly changing marketplace you must change. ‘Adapt or die’ in evolutionary terms. If you stay the same or move too slow, you put your business at risk of not being here in the future.

Language is a tool people use every day but words can fail us. Drawing feels uncomfortable and intimidating to many of us. But even the worst (and I’d argue that there is no bad drawing — the only bad drawings are the ones that aren’t drawn.) Drawing communicates volumes compared to a sentence.

When I facilitate Design Sprints, physical movement is a part of the equation. We get up and move around the room. We stand and gather round for sharing ideas. We go out into the world to observe the environments that people live and work in. Motion creates a noticeable shift and more ideas come forth than they do when a group is sitting still around a table.

Every time we have an interaction with another person we are creating a unique exchange that lives outside of the space that those individuals inhabit. When we have a choice about who we create with (meaning, they aren’t our blood relatives) we choose the people who provide us something good; something that makes our life more pleasurable or easier than it would be without the exchange.