The worldwide spread of Covid-19 has changed the way we live our lives. Many lost their jobs and many others were forced to work remotely from home.

After many months of remote working, it seems that the future holds a more remote lifestyle as many tech giants have also adopted a “permanently remote” work routine.

Living and working remotely come of course with its own challenges. This forces us to adapt to the new daily and work routines. For example, one of the tasks that a digital designer or a facilitator might execute is taking part in or running a Design Sprint. During our latest engagement to run a Design Sprint in conjunction with Covid-19, we ran a 4 weeks Remote Design Sprint.

Since caring is sharing so we decided we are going to answer three of the common questions we received regarding the execution of a Remote Design Sprint.

1. What tools should we use to be able to run a smooth Remote Design Sprint?

You need three essential tools for  

• Video conferencing
• Virtual whiteboard
• Team discussion platform

Video Conferencing

We suggest Zoom for video conferencing. Zoom has become very popular during 2020 and offers some good functionalities such as screen sharing, display options, etc.

Virtual whiteboard 

Our two suggestions for a virtual whiteboard are Mural and Miro. In our project we used Miro and it worked great. There are functionalities such as secret voting, dot voting, getting a backup from the whiteboard, follow me, there is Adobe XD integration, video and picture sharing, etc.

The advantages of using a virtual whiteboard in the cloud are that you have access to the infinitive space and you can keep your records forever.

Team discussion platform 

To keep the team connected, you can use Basecamp. Basecamp is built with project coordination in mind. It allows you to invite external participants, which might be needed to run a project.

2. What are the best ways to prepare the Sprint team?

Build a team that includes a Decider and seven or fewer people with a variety of experts who can contribute to the project. Try to book a 30 minutes meeting with the sprint participants to explain how Remote Design Sprint works and present them with the tools that are going to be used during the sprint. Another advantage of having a 30 minutes meeting is that you get a chance to get a dry run without worrying about the time.

Moreover, you need to let the team know about the supplies they need to have close to hands such as a Sharpie and some plain paper. 

3. How to adjust Design Sprint sketching to fit better in Remote Design Sprint?

Simplify lightning demos by allowing the participants a few minutes to prepare their demos somewhere other than the shared Miro/Mural board. This will save time since the participants will not need to share their screen one-by-one. Moreover, it makes the facilitator’s job much easier since he can copy each demo from each individual board into the shared board.

In general, Remote Design Sprint is similar to Design Sprint with some adjustments. We got a lot of positive feedbacks after running the Remote Design Sprint. 

If you are interested in learning more about Design Sprint you can have a look at the Sprint book.

/Nashmil Mobasseri