Mastering Design Sprints – Kai Haley on The Product Experience

Kai Haley is Google's Lead of Design Relations, but in her spare time she also looks after the company's internal Design Sprint Academy. Jake Knapp (late of Google Ventures/GV) may have written the book, but Kai has run the sprints, trained the trainers, and has spent the last few years in the trenches. We had a great talk about all the things you won't find in the books – the tips and tricks you need to know before you jump in with your team.

Quote of the Episode

You have that moment when… sometimes it happens with the "how might we"s, or it's right at the Crazy 8s stage, when [participants] are starting to put things down on paper and they're starting to realise they have the ideas in their head.

Listen if you'd like to learn more about

• The different types of Design Sprints
• When should you not use a Design Sprint?
• Who do you need in the room?
• Deconstructed Design Sprints – how to make use of the methods when you don't have 5 days

Links mentioned in this episode

• Google has an open-source site with a lot of resources for people running Design Sprints
• If you need to run a Design Sprint with a remote team, Kai recommends Mural.co; she also mentioned Luma Workplace and AJ&Smart
• Kai also did a great talk at ProductTank SF on the Typology of Design Sprints with Burgan Shealy

Hosts

The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver.

Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers' meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. This year Lily will be launching ProductCamp in Bristol and she joins the MTP team as co-host of The Product Experience podcast.

A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media & entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. He's also spoken at Mind the Product Engage (Hamburg), at a number of ProductTanks (London, Zurich, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford,  & Brighton… so far!) and at conferences across the US and Europe.

Music

Our theme music is from Hamburg-based Pau, featuring ProductTank Hamburg’s own Arne Kittler on bass. Listen to more on their Facebook page

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