Training of Project Team
Two days, one case study, one complete sprint in fast-forward. The team learns the method by doing it — before the kick-off workshop, not during it.
Danny Locher
Business Design Coach
1. Purpose
Nobody joins a Business Design sprint without training. The Team Manager and the Team Members complete a two-day Business Design training before they walk into the Kick-off Workshop (see Step 1: Setup). If the sponsor or the team does not see why, we don't start. The training is not a lecture on the method. It takes the team through a complete sprint in fast-forward: on a case study, the team runs through Step 2: Discover, Step 3: Design and Step 4: Validate in two days — what the real sprint does in ten weeks. Instead of going into the field, the team works with prepared "fake results", so it can practise every step without having to wait for research. Mistakes cost nothing here. In week three of a real sprint, they cost the team a week.
After the training, every participant is able to:
explain the Guiding Principles, the End-to-End Innovation Process and the Roles — and their own role in the sprint
frame discover questions and choose a research format for each of them
design a Business Model and check it for consistency
derive analogs and antilogs from a business model, prioritise them and turn them into questions, hypotheses and experiments (see Hypotheses & Experiments)
use AI where it speeds up the work, and recognise where it doesn't (see AI Library)
tell the story of an idea in a short video on the Video Stage
Keep in mind
Train the team together, not one by one. When the whole project team works on the same case, it arrives at the kick-off workshop with a shared vocabulary and a first experience of working together. Five people trained in three different trainings arrive with three slightly different versions of the method — and spend the first weeks sorting out which one applies.
The Team Coach usually runs the training, ideally the coach who will accompany the sprint. That way the team meets the coach first as a trainer. The coach also sees who is at ease with customer contact and who struggles with numbers in a hypothesis, and takes these observations into the Preparation of Project Team and the kick-off workshop.
2. Duration
2 days
3. Participants
Academy
We train team managers and team members in our Business Design Academy. Join us for the next Business Design Certificate Program.
4. Example Agenda
Day 1
Time | Activities | Format* |
09:00 - 09:30 | Welcome and introduction (learning goals and structure) | P |
09:30 - 11:00 | Overview Business Design:
| P |
11:00 - 11:30 | Case Study + team setup | P + D |
11:30 - 12:00 | Introduction to Step 2: Discover Framing research questions | P + T |
12:00 - 12:30 | Ideation based on "fake results" from Step 2: Discover | P + T |
12:30 - 13:30 | Lunch break | B |
13:30 - 15:00 | Introduction to Step 3: Design Design of Business Models incl. consistency check | P + T |
15:00 - 16:30 | Video Stage with video production | P + T |
16:30 - 17:00 | Wrap-up
| D |
Day 2
Time | Activities | Format* |
09:00 - 09:30 | Reflection of day 1 incl. "movie time" | D |
09:30 - 11:30 | Introduction to Step 4: Validate Discovery of analogs and antilogs incl. prioritisation Definition of questions, hypotheses and experiments | P + T |
11:30 - 12:30 | Usage of AI during Phase IV | P |
12:30 - 13:30 | Lunch break | B |
13:30 - 14:30 | Human side of innovation work | P + D |
14:30 - 15:30 | Other tools and methods | P |
15:30 - 16:00 | Wrap-up and farewell
| D |
* P = Presentation | D = Discussion | B = Break | T = Teamwork