My First Sprint Experience
Hello! I thought I could start writing my first article in Medium with my first amazing experience from the KickStarter Week. I am one of the proud Zalandos who had attended KickStarter Week with an idea (you might know those weeks as Hackweek, Hackathon) and can definitely say that was quite challenging.
First of all, I have joined Luis Borges’ Design Sprint workshop one week before the Kick-off which was available to all Zalandos. First thing during the workshop was about the book “Sprint” which was quoted and recommended. “Ok, this book can help me to understand the process better”, “yes, I should order it directly!!”. I know it sounds crazy but I have finished the book (almost finished, I might finish the chapter “Friday” on Monday) during the weekend before the KickStarter Week starts!
The book was absolutely brilliant. I was amazed at the comprehensibility of the book, thank you Jake Knap, John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz! (I hope you see my thanks someday) Even if I do not have any experience, I could run the sprint without any hesitation. So I recommend everyone to read Sprint if you want to “solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days”.
At the end, my learnings during the sprint were unquestionably to have Decider in the team, gather team several times before the week starts and learn prototyping tools. Our team had no Decider that made our decision process harder and resulted in losing time. As an idea-owner, I could have been a Decider but did not choose to be one. Instead, I decided to be a Facilitator because I was the one who knows the sprint method and the idea to be a cheerleader/project manager was tempting. Assuming that gathering a team several times before the sprint is one of the solutions to be able to find a Decider easier in the atmosphere of “nobody knows each other”.
At all, I would like to finish my writing with a big thanks to Bala, Maria, Marina, Isabella, and Ambre, the best KickStarter Week Team!