Articles.
Everything we have written.
Essays and practical guides on sprints, facilitation and how AI is changing the way teams decide.
45 articles
AI investment is rising. Adoption is not keeping up
The spend is real, the tools are everywhere, and most organisations still cannot point to a workflow that runs differently. What the numbers actually say.
AI sped up the making. The deciding is still slow
Drafts take an hour and prototypes take a morning. Then the work waits weeks for the right people to agree. Where the time goes now, and what to do about it.
Design teams didn’t shrink. They dissolved
Design writes its own copy. Marketing builds its own concepts. Engineering ships without waiting for either. Nobody did anything wrong, and that is the problem.
Is design thinking dead in 2026? What 100 practitioners actually told us
We asked 100 practitioners whether design thinking still works. The answer was messier, and more useful, than the obituaries suggest.
Most workshops don’t fail in the room. They fail the week after
The session goes well, everyone leaves buzzing, and nothing ships. The fix is not a better agenda. It is what happens before you book the room, and after everyone leaves.
How to run a workshop that actually leads to outcomes
Most workshops end in a photo of some sticky notes. Here is the structure that ends in a decision somebody owns instead.
Why good ideas don’t ship, and the fix
Only 12% of teams almost always ship what their sessions produce. The problem is not the ideas — it is everything that happens after them.
The SCAMPER method: a practical ideation technique for design sprints
Seven prompts that reliably pull a room out of the first obvious idea. What SCAMPER is, and when it earns its place in a sprint.
Design sprint tools: the essential toolkit for faster workshops
The kit we actually use to run sprints, remote and in the room — and the tools we stopped bothering with.
Crazy 8s in design sprints: the complete facilitation guide
Eight ideas in eight minutes sounds like a gimmick until you watch it break a room out of consensus. How to facilitate it properly.
Use AI in the workshop, but keep it out of the decision
AI can take the admin off a facilitator’s plate. Used at the wrong moment, it quietly bends the result. A practical line between the two.
How to facilitate workshops with AI: a practical guide for 2026
Where AI genuinely helps a facilitator, where it quietly makes the session worse, and how to tell the difference in the moment.
What to do after a Design Sprint: turning insights into real ROI
The week after the sprint decides whether any of it was worth it. What to do with the prototype, the evidence and the momentum.
The real reason design gets brought in too late
Design is not brought in late because people do not value it. It is brought in late because of how decisions get sequenced.
The AI layoff trap: why cutting teams makes your biggest problems worse
Cutting headcount before you have redesigned the work removes the people who understood it. The problem does not go away, it just loses its owners.
Design thinking workshop vs design sprint: same principles, better results
Same principles, different commitment. What a design sprint gives you that a workshop cannot, and when a workshop is the right call.
You can’t cancel every meeting, but you can stop them wasting time
In large organisations and remote teams, getting rid of meetings is not realistic. Designing them properly is. A simple framework and three habits.
The 4 Cs of good meetings
Four questions that tell you within a minute whether a meeting is worth holding — and what to do when the answer is no.
How to facilitate your first design sprint with confidence
Facilitating your first sprint is mostly nerve, not technique. The preparation that makes the nerve unnecessary.
What is a Design Sprint?
Five days, the right people, one question and a tested answer at the end. The method explained without the mystique.
Signal over noise: how smart teams cut through chaos and move faster
High-performing teams are not better informed. They are better at ignoring things. How to build that discipline deliberately.
How high-performing teams use constraint as a creative tool
Unlimited time and budget produce worse work. Why the best teams impose limits on themselves before anyone else does.
Show it before it’s ready: why limits and rough work win
Total freedom and endless polish feel like the route to good ideas. In practice, clear limits and early, rough versions get teams further, faster.
Before you chase ideas, check what you’re assuming
Most projects that fail do not start with a weak idea. They start with the wrong problem. Three simple tools to get the problem right first.
Why the first day of a sprint is your secret weapon
Day one looks like talking and mapping. It is where the team agrees what problem is worth solving, and everything after depends on it.
From curiosity to clarity: how design sprints unlock AI’s real value
Every board wants an AI strategy. Most have a pile of pilots. How to turn curiosity into a tested decision about where AI is worth it.
Set a decision deadline, then protect it
Slow decisions rarely show up in a budget, but they show up everywhere else. The cheapest fix we know is a date.
The high cost of slow decisions
Indecision never shows up on a balance sheet, but it is one of the most expensive habits a business has. What it costs, and how to stop paying.
The learning curve of Design Sprints: how teams get results faster
The first sprint feels like a shock to the system. Why it gets easier quickly, and what to do to speed that up.
Nobody knows everything: the power of cognitive diversity
Teams that think differently solve hard problems faster, but only if the way they work lets those differences show up.
When and how to prompt AI during your Design Sprints
A phase-by-phase guide to where AI helps a sprint, and the one phase where it should stay out of the way.
What is problem framing? The secret to better decision-making
Most failed products solved a problem nobody had. How to frame the problem properly before anyone starts on the answer.
Our pre-sprint methods meet Foundation Sprints
How we frame the challenge before a sprint begins, and where the newer Foundation Sprint method fits in.
How to get leadership to say yes to a better way of working
You can see that a sprint would solve a real problem. Convincing the people who sign it off is the harder part. How to make the case in their language.
What if you could map the next 10 years of your strategy on a single diagram?
The radar-arc roadmap: a simple way to turn a long-term vision into now, next and later, and get leadership behind it.
A design sprint team is greater than the sum of its parts
Why five people working in the right structure beat one genius, and what that means for impostor syndrome.
Design sprint facilitator tips: Monday
Ice breakers, ground rules, mapping and expert interviews. The tricks we use to get day one of a sprint right.
Design sprint facilitator tips: Tuesday
Recruiting users, lightning demos, sketching and the right music. How to run sketch day.
Design sprint facilitator tips: Wednesday
The art gallery, voting and the decider. How to get through decision day without reopening every idea.
Design sprint facilitator tips: Thursday
Dividing the team, protecting the makers and building just enough. How to get a prototype done in a day.
Design sprint facilitator tips: Friday
Lab rules, recording and interview technique. How to turn test day into evidence you can act on.
Design sprint traps (and how to avoid them)
Trust the process, stick to time and let the decider decide. The traps we see most often, and how to step around them.
Fake agile: how to fix it with design sprints
Calling last-minute requests “agile” does not make them so. The symptoms of fake agile, and how sprints help fix it.
Music and productivity in design sprint workshops
The science behind the playlist we use in the room, and why the right music helps a team focus.
Time pressure in Crazy 8s: a guide for mixed-skill teams
How to stop the clock becoming the enemy when not everyone in the room is a designer.