2021-04-26 • Site Launch

Inspiration for the Future of Sprints and Accelerated Collaboration

Explore Thought Starters from the 2021 Relay co-creation event.

Core Method
Collected by Google

We’ve learned a lot over the 10 years we’ve been doing Design Sprints. But when the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, we knew we’d have to rethink everything about sprinting. Overnight, we had to translate a methodology that’s built around people being in a room together into something that could be done remotely. And over the course of a very long year, we saw the shape of Design Sprints change pretty dramatically. Not only did we have to take a fresh look at every tiny part of a sprint, we also zoomed out to ask the big question: What is a Design Sprint, exactly? And all the while, we were building this new plane while we were flying it, with our sprint leaders pivoting to adapt to the virtual context with their usual grace and ingenuity.

While the sprint methodology has evolved over the years, the challenges of 2020 really accelerated the evolution. This made it more critical than ever for us to create a space for our community to explore how the next 10 years of sprinting will adapt to the changing world of work.

So for Google’s 2021 Relay event, we invited 100+ experts from the sprint community to come together (virtually, of course) to create the tools, mindsets and scenarios that will help Design Sprints mature, while staying flexible, inclusive, and very much human-centered. And through it all we’re adamant about holding true to the original intention of sprinting and the methodologies that have made it successful.

Our contributors tried to answer questions big and small: How do we best collaborate in a variety of environments, both synchronous and asynchronous? What are specific parts of the process that we really need everyone to come together for? How do we build a shared understanding and vocabulary effectively?

As our workplaces evolve, how do we keep collaboration vital and productive when there’s so much noise—in the virtual space and in general in our work lives? The 2021 Relay event was designed to spark ideas and tactics that could act as “thought starters” for the future of collaboration and sprinting.

Visit the Relay 2021 site to find deep dives on our 11 topics, as well as real tools you can start using today to make collaboration better, no matter where it happens.