Action Planning
Action planning is a simple method for teams participating in a sprint to identify concrete, time-bound actions they intend to take as a result of the sprint’s learnings. This method can greatly magnify a sprint’s real-world impact by encouraging sprint participants to socialize learnings with specific stakeholders at specific times, and by creating shared accountability for follow-up actions.
This exercise can be a useful add-on to sprints that are geared towards creating a specific deliverable (such as a product prototype), but might have implications for other teams and initiatives. For example, a team might utilize a customer insight from a user interview to guide the creation of a product prototype at the end of a sprint. But that insight could have implications far beyond the creation of that specific prototype, both for the team conducting the sprint and for their colleagues in other parts of the organization. Action planning helps sprint participants identify other steps they can take to socialize new learnings and magnify a sprint’s reach and impact. These actions are often as simple and straightforward as scheduling a brief meeting to walk another team or individual through an insight that emerged from the sprint.
Note that all planned actions should be as specific as possible. For example, general action items such as, “Socialize the learnings from the sprint” or, “Plan a follow-up sprint” should be avoided, as they are too broad and vague. Instead, try to be specific about who will be involved and in what time-frame such as, “Schedule 30-minute meeting with Adriana from product team by Friday January 10th to socialize insight about music listening patterns” or, “Have follow-up sprint plan for this sprint team finalized by end of day on Wednesday, January 8th”.
Action planning is utilized as a method in the final step (Act) of Sudden Compass’s Unlock Sprints™ practice (Ask, Acquire, Analyze, Act). By concluding with an action planning, the sprint is designed to achieve an impact beyond its immediate duration and participants.
Directions
- Retrieve the business question you documented at the beginning of your Unlock Sprint™. Take a moment to realign the team to this business question.
- Working alone, write down one to three specific actions you could take to implement and socialize your learnings from the sprint towards answering your initial business question. Remember that each of these actions should include specific timeframes and specific stakeholders, ie, “Share insight about how customers use search bar with Abdul from the marketing team by EOD next Friday January 12th” not, “Socialize insights with product team”.
- Pair up with somebody else who is participating in your sprint. This person is your “accountability partner.”
- Review each other’s action items, and create shared calendar events for the date specified on each action item. Creating shared calendar items is a simple step that reinforces future-facing accountability amongst sprint teams.
- When the shared calendar event is triggered, email your accountability partner with an update on your action item, or to inquire about their action item.
