Execution & Development Sprint

Use it when you need to validate product ideas in one week and align your team on solutions fast.

What is it?

The Execution & Development Sprint, popularized by Google Ventures, is a five-day design sprint framework that compresses months of product development into a single week of rapid prototyping and user testing.

It solves the classic “build it and hope they come” problem by structuring your team's time around a proven process: map the challenge, sketch divergent solutions, converge on the best ideas, prototype a realistic MVP, and gather real user feedback. This method brings clarity to your product roadmap, reduces risk, and ensures every feature is customer-validated before engineering sprints kick off.

The core components, Understand, Diverge, Decide, Prototype, and Test, drive focus, buy-in, and data-driven decisions in any product development or growth workflow.

Why it matters?

Running an Execution & Development Sprint turbocharges growth by slashing months off your validation cycle and ensuring you build only what users actually want. You minimize wasted development cost, accelerate time-to-market, and uncover usability blockers early, boosting conversion, retention, and ROI with data, not assumptions.

How it works

Growth co-pilot turns your toughest product questions into clear, data-backed recommendations you can act on immediately.

Day 1 – Understand

Kick off with stakeholders to map your product challenge, set clear long-term goals, and pick a sprint question. Clarify the problem you're solving so the team moves in unison.

Day 2 – Diverge

Run lightning demos and sketch a broad set of solutions individually. Encourage wild ideas and build a repository of concepts without groupthink.

Day 3 – Decide

Vote on the strongest sketches, storyboard the winning approach, and align on your prototype plan. Use dot-voting to ensure every voice is heard.

Day 4 – Prototype

Assign roles, craft a high-fidelity facade of your solution, and simulate key interactions. Focus on speed, fake it 'til you make it for user testing.

Day 5 – Test

Conduct five one-on-one user interviews, capture video feedback, and identify must-fix issues. Analyze insights immediately to inform your next steps.

Frequently asked questions

Growth co-pilot turns your toughest product questions into clear, data-backed recommendations you can act on immediately.

Do I need a full week to run a sprint?

A true sprint takes five days to nail the process, but you can compress it into three if you're tight on time. Just focus on mapping, prototyping, and testing, skip optional exercises.

Do I need a full week to run a sprint?

A true sprint takes five days to nail the process, but you can compress it into three if you're tight on time. Just focus on mapping, prototyping, and testing, skip optional exercises.

How many people should be on my sprint team?

Aim for 5–7 cross-functional participants: a decider, facilitator, designer, and stakeholder reps. Smaller teams move faster; larger crowds risk diluting focus.

How many people should be on my sprint team?

Aim for 5–7 cross-functional participants: a decider, facilitator, designer, and stakeholder reps. Smaller teams move faster; larger crowds risk diluting focus.

Can I run a remote Execution & Development Sprint?

Absolutely. Use digital whiteboards, video chat, and collaborative prototyping tools. Stick to the same daily agenda and keep communication tight.

Can I run a remote Execution & Development Sprint?

Absolutely. Use digital whiteboards, video chat, and collaborative prototyping tools. Stick to the same daily agenda and keep communication tight.

What deliverables should I expect at the end?

By Friday, you'll have a clickable prototype, recorded user interviews, and a clear list of insights. Those artifacts guide your next development sprint or pivot decision.

What deliverables should I expect at the end?

By Friday, you'll have a clickable prototype, recorded user interviews, and a clear list of insights. Those artifacts guide your next development sprint or pivot decision.

How does this differ from Agile sprints?

Agile sprints build and ship features in two-week cycles, while a design sprint is about validation, rapid prototyping and user testing before you write code.

How does this differ from Agile sprints?

Agile sprints build and ship features in two-week cycles, while a design sprint is about validation, rapid prototyping and user testing before you write code.

You've wrapped your sprint with hard user insights, now plug your results into the CrackGrowth diagnostic to pinpoint hidden friction and plan experiments that maximize your launch impact.

Get started for free