Jake Knapp

Author of the New York Times bestseller "Sprint"

Jake spent 10 years at Google and Google Ventures, where he created the Design Sprint process. He’s written two books, Sprint and Make Time, and has coached teams at places like Slack, LEGO, IDEO, and NASA on design strategy and time management.

Randy: We would like to welcome Jake Knapp to The Innovation Series. Depending on the day, you could be described as an inventor, a writer, a coach and even one of the world's tallest designers...so much contribution to the collective good. We want more. What are you putting your time into now, and where can we find it?

Jake: Haha, thank you, you're very kind to describe me that way! I _want_ to say that I've been working on a new book, because I mean to be, but actually this year I've been putting most of my time and energy into my own family. We've had some chronic illnesses and that's been where I put my attention, because of course you have to. I'm very fortunate that my work right now is mostly teaching workshops and speaking about design sprints, which allows me to have a very flexible schedule on the other days.

It's been an interesting year, and for me—somebody who talks so much about being efficient with time—it's been a good reality check. It reminds me of the importance of focusing when I get the chance, and it also reminds me how I should never think I've got everything figured out.

Randy: At GV you worked with startups like Nest and Blue Bottle Coffee, but before that, you provided design leadership for products inside larger companies like Google and Microsoft. Are there any learnings working with startups you could share with teams in larger companies to help them deliver?

Jake: The wonderful thing about startups is the clarity. Because the teams are smaller and the products are at an earlier stage, usually everyone knows what's most important and it's a lot easier to focus on that. You spend less time guessing what other people in the organization are thinking and triangulating politics. Startups aren't perfect, but they generally have less of that garbage.

 If I could go back in time and work on products at Microsoft or Google again, I think the thing I'd do is be more bold, and really try to clarify down what the most powerful thing we could do with a product would be, and then prototype it, even if nobody was asking for it. I thought I was doing that at the time, but in hindsight even what I thought was bold was tempered and diluted because a) I was guessing what the big bosses were thinking, and b) I spent so much time guessing about big bosses and worrying about team politics that it restricted my vision.

So here's my advice: If you work at a big company, remember you won't work there forever. Remember that the advantage of big companies is that they can more easily reach a big audience, provided they make the right moves. Throw caution to the wind, screw what the big bosses will say, and do the boldest things you can imagine.

I mean, that and run design sprints, obviously. Lots of design sprints and lots of copies of my book, that's the key to innovation. :)

Randy:  In your last Sprint newsletter you featured an article titled, How to Make Design Sprints Work at Big Companies. I've worked with quite a few large companies in a product design capacity and used exercises from the sprint book very effectively. However, I sometimes struggle to implement the unadulterated 5-day process inside the context of larger companies. Do you have any stories you can share that demonstrate how teams have leveraged (or adapted) the sprint process effectively inside large companies?

Jake: AJ&Smart have a great approach to this because so many of their clients are big companies. Definitely worth checking out their YouTube channel, starting maybe with this clip: