Special project - SPRINT -Mind-Hack Accelerator: The Behavioral Strategy Shift 

What is it?

SPRINT -Mind-Hack Accelerator: The Behavioral Strategy Shift -Mind-Hack - is a 5-day boot camp to either launch a product, fix a problem or put a team in the same place.

 

Ideal for?

It is great for multigeneration teams, new and old teams, M&A companies or departments.

 

How does it work?

From M to F, the whole team meet under the same roof

 

Outcome

From idea to delivery in 5 days. By the last day an idea is set for application, a team leave with a set goal, a new team understand deliverable and goal

 

What type of companies can benefit from SPRINT

 

A 5‑day design sprint benefits companies that need to make fast, evidence‑based decisions about new products, services, or major strategic directions. It gives teams validated prototypes and customer feedback within a week, helping avoid months of development risk. This method is best suited to industries facing innovation challenges, product uncertainty, or customer experience redesigns.

 

Ideal Company Types

  1. Tech Companies and Startups
    Fast‑moving developers such as Google, Slack, or Quizlet use sprints to test new software concepts, interfaces, or features before coding them, achieving clarity on what users want and saving development time.​
  2. Consumer Brands
    Companies like LEGO have used large‑scale design sprints to re‑energize creative culture, speed up product development, and encourage cross‑team experimentation.​
  3. B2B and SaaS Firms
    B2B service providers benefit from sprints to validate new product directions, de‑risk investments, and test customer value propositions—helping teams make faster go/no‑go decisions.​
  4. Enterprise Innovation Teams
    Corporations such as Volkswagen, WeWork, and multinational teams use sprints to accelerate growth, reduce project risk, and ensure innovation aligns with market demand.​
  5. Public and Nonprofit Institutions
    Organizations like The British Museum have used sprints to solve user‑experience or process problems—such as visitor engagement or internal workflow improvement—proving that sprints work beyond the private sector.​

Challenges That Fit a Sprint

Companies should run a sprint when they:

  • Need to validate a high‑stakes idea quickly.
  • Face uncertainty about user needs or product direction.
  • Are over‑debating decisions within teams.
  • Must align stakeholders across departments fast.
  • Want to de‑risk innovation or optimize an existing experience.​

In summary, the 5‑day design sprint is valuable for any organization that needs rapid clarity and user‑tested evidence before committing significant resources, making it a universal framework across industries ranging from education tech to manufacturing and museums.

A wide range of industries can benefit from running a 5-day design sprint. This methodology is well-suited to solving big, complex problems, accelerating innovation, and validating new ideas quickly without major resource commitment.​

 

Indutries that can benefit and use SPRINT

 

Design Sprints can benefit and be used by a wide range of industries due to their adaptability for solving complex problems, innovating quickly, and improving product development processes. Here are industries commonly leveraging design sprints:​

  • Technology and software (e.g., Google, Slack, Quizlet)​
  • Consumer electronics and hardware​
  • Education and digital learning platforms​
  • Museums and cultural institutions (for visitor experience and web usability)​
  • Industrial manufacturing and engineering​
  • Healthcare and medical technology​
  • Financial services and fintech​
  • Retail and e-commerce​
  • Travel and transportation​
  • Media, publishing, and entertainment​
  • Gaming and gamification​
  • Energy sector​
  • Luxury goods and fashion​
  • Marketing, design, and creative agencies​
  • Government and public sector​
  • B2B services and consulting firms​

Design sprints enable rapid prototyping, customer-centric innovation, and collaborative problem-solving in these diverse sectors.

 

Industries Actively Using 5-Day Sprints

  • Technology: Companies like Google, Slack, and Facebook have used design sprints to prototype and test new products, features, and services.​
  • Consumer Products: LEGO adopted sprints to reform product development, scale innovation, and maintain their market-leading position.​
  • Education & Edtech: Platforms such as Quizlet have leveraged sprints to understand user needs and shape new feature development.​
  • Healthcare: Organizations like Flatiron Health utilize sprints to rapidly solve challenges related to patient experience and service design.​
  • Museums & Nonprofits: The British Museum improved both web and in-person visitor experiences by running design sprints focused on user wayfinding and engagement.​
  • Food & Beverage: Companies like Blue Bottle Coffee use sprints to innovate service delivery and customer experience quickly.​
  • Aviation & Transportation: Airlines and logistics firms, such as KLM, have applied design sprints to streamline customer-facing processes and develop new digital tools.​
  • Financial Services: Banks and fintech companies employ sprints for rapid prototyping of new platforms, features, and compliance tools.​
  • Public Sector & Government: Government agencies and NGOs use modified design sprints (e.g., Innosprint) to improve public services and policy implementation.​

 

Typical Scenarios for Sprints Across Industries

  • Launching new products or features when quick market feedback is essential.
  • Tackling process improvement or digital transformation projects.
  • Rebooting or refocusing innovation initiatives.
  • Validating problem-solution fit before significant development costs are incurred.​

Design sprints have proven valuable in both startups and large enterprises, and the approach can be adapted for nearly any sector facing rapid change, customer experience challenges, or innovation pressure.

 

Well-Known Companies Using Sprints

  • Google: Developed Google Meet using an early sprint methodology, rapidly prototyping video meeting solutions.
  • LEGO: Ran over 150 design sprints in a year to overhaul product development and foster a culture of rapid, iterative innovation.
  • Slack: Participated in design sprints for new product and feature exploration.
  • Facebook: Applied design sprints to test ideas and features.
  • Airbnb, Uber, and KLM: Leveraged design sprints to address business challenges and validate new concepts.
  • PayPal: Switched to Agile sprints company-wide, organizing cross-functional teams into two-week cycles to boost product delivery speed.
  • Spotify: Adopted its celebrated squad/tribe model, with squads running iterative sprints for product and feature development, influencing industry-wide agile practice.

 

Notable Case Studies

  • Quizlet: Used design sprints to research, prototype, and validate the most desirable features for students, focusing development on what had strongest user resonance.
  • Google Files Go: Team ran design sprints to ideate and prototype solutions for storage-limited Android devices, allowing for rapid end-user testing before development.
  • Startups and mid-sized companies: Many run smaller-scale or six-week sprints to keep product development moving and eliminate backlogs in unpredictable markets.

 

Sprint Adoption Across Industries

Agile and sprint approaches are now seen in finance (ING Bank), manufacturing (Toyota, Bosch, Valve), healthcare (MeVis Medical Solutions), education, and more—with reported boosts in empowerment, continuous improvement, and customer satisfaction as a result.

 

Start-ups using Sprint:

 

Startups have used design sprints to rapidly solve business challenges, validate ideas, and save significant time and resources. Here are real-world examples with outcomes:

1. Terawatt Infrastructure

  • Process: Faced with the challenge of designing a customer-centric dashboard for EV fleet charging management, Terawatt ran a design sprint with a cross-functional team, focusing on user and market needs.
  • Outcome: Within five days, the team built a high-fidelity prototype, tested with real users, and achieved cross-team strategic alignment. Just three months later, they launched a market-ready MVP—cutting months or even years from typical timelines.​

2. Quizlet

  • Process: Quizlet ran design sprints to better understand student needs for its study platform, developing prototypes of new features for real user testing.
  • Outcome: The process streamlined Quizlet’s offerings by highlighting which features students truly valued, allowing the company to prioritize development and deliver a more focused, impactful product.​

3. WeWork

  • Process: To explore on-demand workspace bookings, WeWork ran a short design sprint, developing and testing a new booking flow and prototyping a new service model.
  • Outcome: User feedback showed insufficient demand, so WeWork shelved the idea—saving significant time/resources and preventing an expensive failed launch.​

4. Gimlet Media

  • Process: Gimlet used a sprint to test if building a podcast app would add value, prototyping concepts and gathering user feedback.
  • Outcome: Results showed the app wouldn't provide enough extra value, leading to a decision not to proceed—ultimately saving months of wasted development and narrowing company focus.​

5. Phaidra (AI startup)

  • Process: Used sprints to identify how to make industrial AI systems more trustworthy to human operators, mapping problem spaces, and rapidly testing UI/UX ideas.
  • Outcome: The approach helped build trust and product-market fit in highly technical markets, guiding engineering and design priorities.