Designing Sprints

In 2013, I got an opportunity to define the missing parts of SAFe agile for a large design organisation and at that time I didn't realise what a privilege and honour that was. That experience changed my life forever 🔥

Ways of working has a huge impact on the outcome. In my role, out of the 4Ps (principles, people process and product) I spend significant energy on the principles and the related processes so that right people can create right products at ease.

Sprint is a simple but brilliant process for working with things that never end. Design never ends. Product never ends. Life never ends (till you are drop dead). Things keep moving on. Keeping an open ended work item is overwhelming. No closure is hard on our minds. That is when sprints transformed my life as a product designer.

Sprints helped me time-box and resource-box activities. I could pick an objective and work towards a desired outcome. It kept me and my teams super focused and sane. We achieved more than usual. It made our lives predictable.

Today I use sprints for all things work and life. I don’t over complicate with story points, burn down charts and velocity measurements. I keep it very simple. I extended my way of living to Maker’s Guild as well.

Makers guild also runs on sprints. It has been this way from its inception. It is action oriented. Either you do it or you don’t. There is no middle path. If you do it, you will reap benefits. It is 💯 action and 0️⃣ talks. It keeps the community no nonsense. No sermons. No lectures. No links. Just action.

In 2024, we made our sprints a lot more inclusive than just reading books. We pivoted on big ideas. It could be from reading or writing or speaking or learning or building. I am super thrilled that we have made huge progress in just two sprints. Our next sprint is starting today and it is focused on product roadmaps and strategy. Our learning sprint wants to continue with Gen AI. Our sprint review # 2 notes and recording is available in the comments section.

Imagine doing 20 sprints in a year in a focused manner. If done well, betterment and growth is guaranteed. It is not a silver bullet. One must do the work. The community sets the environment to ease the individual work. Clear step by step instructions are given. Accountability flows everyday AM and PM. Agency of driven folks, drives others. I couldn't find a better way to grow. If this excites you, you are welcome to join the Maker's Guild (for free). Growth is also a choice and it has crazy (good) consequences.