Looking for a fast and efficient way to iterate on product solutions? You might consider trying a design sprint. The idea of design sprints was originated by Google Ventures (GV). They wanted to create a tool in an effort to answer critical business questions through design prototyping and testing with users. The benefit of design sprinting is the time saved in the process. You don’t have to go down the lengthy path of 6 weeks of development time, only to find out that it wasn’t the right solution. Instead, the timeline is crunched down to just 5 days, involving cross-team synergy for best results.

Day 1: Sharing information between departments and creating a single user journey

Day 2: Sketch day; generate creative solutions to the problem

Day 3: Team looks at solutions and decides on the best approach

Day 4: Build the prototype

Day 5: Test your idea on real people

Learn more in this 1-minute video.

In this 90-second video, GV explains design sprints in a little more depth.

Watch the GV design sprint in action for Memrise, a company which develops language-learning applications.

Check out Google Venture’s book for more information.