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Research sprints

Plan your research sprints to answer your most immediate questions.

Planning a research sprint

Planning a research sprint is a lot like creating a research plan for your service. The difference is that it’s targeted to a specific timeframe and is designed to answer your most immediate questions — the questions that must be answered in order for the team to decide what to do next.

You can use the template below to plan a research sprint with your team.

Template: Plan a research sprint

What is our current problem statement and corresponding solution hypothesis?

  • Why do we want to do this research?

What are our immediate questions for this research sprint?

  • What do we need to know now that will us decide what to do in the next sprint?

What information do we want to get from this testing?

What knowledge will make us feel like the research process has been successful?

What kinds of users do we need to talk to in order to answer our questions?

  • What specific questions do we need to ask on our screener in order to get the right kinds of users to test with?

What kind of user research do we want to do?

  • What user research method(s) are best suited to get us the answers we need?
  • If there are multiple user research methods that might work, which one do we want to use?

What testing and recording tools do we need in order to run the research sessions using these methods with these types of users?

What artifacts do we need in order to get users to answer the questions we have?

  • Do we need a clickable prototype?
    • If so, do we have one ready?
    • If not, what would it take to make one?
  • If we need a prototype but don’t have one ready, what lower-fidelity ways could we get users to answer our questions?
    • Showing a competitor service?
    • Showing sketches?
    • Showing paper prototypes?

What kind of research sessions do we want?

  • In-person vs remote?
  • Moderated vs unmoderated?

Who will fill the team roles?

  • Recruiter?
  • Conversation guide writer?
  • Prototype maker?
  • Moderator? If not moderated, who will set up the unmoderated research session?
  • Note-taker?
  • Observers?
  • Research readout writer?

When do we want to do this testing?

When do we need to start recruiting in order to do that?