The finish line is only the beginning — Part 5: Acceleration Sprint and post-sprint follow-up

We devised the Vision Sprint using our strategic product design approach to help organisations create ambitious future visions that seize new opportunities and inspiration. This is the final article for our Vision Sprint series, which will detail how we follow-up on validating and executing an organisation’s new future vision.

By the end of the five-day Vision Sprint, an initial new vision has been created. This new vision was subject to limited validation and presented to decision makers on Day 5 of the Vision Sprint, but has yet to be solidified and executed as part of the organisation. Hence why we organise an Acceleration Sprint and other post-sprint follow-up.

Acceleration Sprint and Validation Week

The Acceleration Sprint takes the output of the Vision Sprint and accelerates the path of creation to grow and develop the new vision. It’s not about changing or altering the vision, but about solidifying and improving it as much as possible. The sprint runs over a week, with an additional week of validation followed after.

The Acceleration Sprint agenda is as follows:

Day 1 and 2

The sprint starts with ideation. After reviewing feedback from the Vision Sprint in the morning, the afternoon is spent ideating on how the vision can be improved, deepened and enhanced. The goal here is to come up with as many ideas as possible.

The next day is spent selecting ideas from the initial ideation through dot voting. The selected ideas are improved in two to three rounds of further ideation and selection until only the best ideas are left.

Day 3, 4 and 5

The sprint team is split into a visual prototyping team and business prototyping team.

The visual prototyping team starts with revising or creating new visualisations for validation where necessary. The upcoming rounds of validation require additional visual material to explain the new vision since the interviews will be conducted with a larger group of end-users, end-customers, stakeholders (e.g. in B2B products or services), and internal or external experts. *

The business prototyping team divides work on the following elements: value proposition, business model, business case, capability assessment, and roadmap. This work typically requires some desk work, so the group disperses to work on their individual tasks after they have been divided amongst the team.

At the end of Day 5, the whole group reconvenes and processes the final materials together so they’re ready for the next week of validation.

* An additional visual prototype we strongly recommend is to have a 3D designer translate the vision into an AR and VR environment. A vision is something new that doesn’t exist yet. In general, people have difficulty translating what doesn’t exist into reality and imagining how it can help them. Abstract images tend to be insufficient and ineffective in this regard. But an immersive, concrete and visual story helps people realise how something applies to them and how they can make use of it. The VR version can be used in validation sessions and during the final pitch, while the AR version makes it portable. To do this, provide a VR installation on-site after the sprint so employees can immerse themselves in the vision. We’ve also noticed that the AR and VR translated vision plays a huge role in facilitating the spread and adoption of the vision.

Validation Week

This week is all about validation. Validation sessions are set up daily with a variety of people: end-users, end-customers, stakeholders, internal and external experts. A vast array of data points will have accumulated by the end of the week, providing the team with feedback and validation. Once the collected data has been processed, the team reconvenes to discuss the details and finalise the vision before the final pitch.

The final pitch presents the new validated vision to the organisation’s decision makers and C-level management. We recommend starting the presentation with storytelling and an immersive experience (VR version of the vision). Followed by a visual story about the business side, with a focus on how the vision will be realised successfully.

What if something is invalidated?

The Vision Sprint format is designed to limit the risk of invalidation. It looks at a broad context, combines our design expertise with an organisation’s, adds input from experts, and validation occurs in-between different stages. Whilst this doesn’t necessarily guarantee success, it does limit the risk of making critical errors.

In some cases, a vision isn’t entirely invalidated but there are some aspects where validation was insufficient. At this point, two choices can be made with group consensus: iterate or abandon. If they choose to iterate, create additional focus in the next rounds of validation. If they choose to abandon, don’t throw the vision away. There have been cases where subsequent validation actually validated an idea that was abandoned after initial validation. Remain flexible about the vision and how it is fulfilled. Another recommendation is to use prototyping tips to decrease false negatives — where you can’t validate because the idea or concept isn’t tangible enough for people to realise how it can help them.

Our top tip for validation: delay forming any conclusions until the end of the validation process. Even then, don’t set anything in stone since the validation population is a limited and specific subset that will not represent the entire population.

Post-sprint follow-up

After weeks of designing, building and validating a new vision, the final step is to execute the vision. Use the week following the final pitch to wrap everything up. Try to focus on the following aspects:

• Writing the sprint report, which reflects on the work that was done and includes sprint highlights.
• Finalising the roadmap, which provides a high-level and actionable outline of how the vision can be realised.
• Organise a retrospective with the client to learn how we can improve. We’re always seeking to improve and learn more about different client and sprint experiences. Furthermore, we’ve learned that Vision Sprints are often the beginning of longer relationships. We tend to continue our involvement with clients in the role of venture builders.
• Following the last point, we provide an assessment on the required capability and how we view our future involvement.

Conclusion

We’ve now come to the end of the weeks-long Vision Sprint marathon. Formulated to help organisations create ambitious and validated new future visions, the Vision Sprint is about leading the way to something new. It challenges organisations to push their ambitions and shakes up industries by seeking new ways of approaching or looking at things. Although the official sprint only takes a week, the importance of pre- and post-sprint work turns it into a 4–8 weeks journey. Preparation and inspiration are key pre-sprint phases of the Vision Sprint, crucial in ensuring that the official sprint runs in the right direction. And after all, what’s a vision without inspiration? The official sprint is an intense week that successfully translates insights and inspiration into a new concept of vision. This vision goes through initial rounds of validation and prototyping, but it should be followed up with an Acceleration Sprint (our recommendation) and other post-sprint activities to solidify and execute the vision. Always remember: the Vision Sprint finish line is only the beginning of a new future vision.