Who says business people aren’t fast?! You’d be surprised how quickly complex problems can be transformed into new solutions and business models!

One such business sprinter is Goran Pavlov, founder and director of the entrepreneurial support organization IRI Centar, who, in addition to all his business superpowers, now has another one – Design Sprint Facilitator.

We asked Goran about the ins and outs of this role and why the entire Split Tech City community should know more about it.

What is the Design Sprint method and why have we lived without it until now?

“Since becoming one of the nine certified Design Sprint Facilitators in Split, I have divided my business life into before and after Design Sprint.

Honestly, it’s a great tool for quickly generating good ideas and abandoning bad ones even faster. It all starts with a problem you want to solve and how a group comes to a solution through a guided program.

I knew there had to be a more efficient way to communicate ideas within a team, and this is the fastest one I’ve found so far.

A Design Sprint is a fast and focused process that uses Design Thinking to direct the development path, whether for product development, service improvement, or enhancement – all before even starting with the implementation.

This methodology allows teams to check how well they address the problem, weigh which solution to select, and prepare themselves and their team for future challenges. Measure thrice, cut once applies here too.

Plan the development and test before investing, thus avoiding potential pitfalls in implementation.”

What is the difference between Design Sprint and Design Thinking?

“Design Sprint and Design Thinking are two different concepts, although they share similarities in their Design Thinking approach.

Design Sprint was developed for quick solutions to specific problems and Design Thinking uses a more general approach that emphasizes empathy towards users and a deeper understanding of the problem.

In other words, while Design Thinking accumulates ideas, Design Sprint deconstructs them.

At the end of a Design Sprint, we have one strategy. At the end of a Design Thinking process, we have an analysis of all possible approaches.”

What does a Design Sprint workshop look like?

“Pretty lively. I’m surprised at how engaging this method is and how elegantly it leads to a solution!

At the very beginning, you use the “How Might We” method, which is used to turn existing problems into opportunities. Participants generally get very involved in this initial step.

For example, if the problem is “I don’t know what to buy as a birthday gift for my acquaintance“, then “How Might We” could be “How can we help a web store visitor use their experiences with an acquaintance to choose a personalized gift.” However, applications are varied.

Ideally, the whole process lasts five days and consists of intensive sessions.

The first day is dedicated to defining the problem, the second to generating different ideas, the third includes selecting and quickly prototyping the best ideas, the fourth day is for testing the prototype with targeted users, and the fifth day ends with presenting the results and planning the next steps.

However, there are cases where the Design Sprint is completed in just two to three days!

This is a Design Sprint on steroids, where problem definition is done earlier through Problem Framing – the testing period is shortened and conducted with a limited number of respondents.”

You mentioned Problem Framing. Can you tell us more about it?

“Problem Framing is a workshop used when there is a significant gap in approaching a problem and the problem-solving process.

This workshop ensures that all team members who are decision-makers regarding the issue or are responsible for strategic decision-making, agree on what is being solved and provide focus to the participants of the Design Sprint workshop.

The result of Problem Framing is the HMW sentence (“How Might We“), and the process itself is meant to prevent future conflicts arising from different comprehension and different sources of power positions.”

What level of interest exists for this method in Croatia?

“How much do Croatians search the Internet for the term Design Sprint? I don’t think it’s as much as they look for news about football, but the interest definitely exists!

This method has proven successful globally, as well as personally in my workshop leadership.

At the latest workshop I held, on maritime spatial planning, I received this feedback: “If we had such a guided process earlier, we would have known how to plan project activities much better!”

So, if there is interest among members of the Split Tech City community, within the Capacity2Transform project, they can present their ideas and participate in Design Sprint workshops to generate solutions for the digital and green transformation of industry and society.

The goal is to stimulate the development of creativity within the innovation chains of the Green Transition.”

Is there anything else you would like to add?

“Creativity is often underestimated, and Green Transition is much more than just solar panels! Just because creative individuals are not shaped for fixed working hours does not mean they should be bypassed, quite the opposite.

Green Transition is a process, a behavior change, and therefore user-centric design is exactly what is needed!

Through the Capacity2Transform project, we want to test this, and, in the upcoming period, IRI Centar is planning additional events, workshops, and training that will prepare us for the development of digital-green and creative solutions, which we present on the Media Factory channel (digital-green-creative.eu) to strengthen the competences of our entrepreneurial ecosystem through transnational networking of various stakeholders in the Digital and Green Transition.

Given that the Split Tech City community is forward-looking, its members might be interested in joining the international network of solution providers (capacitytotransform.eu) or some of the project activities (interreg-central.eu/projects/capacity2transform) to gain additional insights into solutions and market opportunities within the digital and green transition.

In any case, whether you are a casual passerby, a creative person, a provider of digital solutions, or need more information about Design Sprints and Digital and Green Transition, send an email or come to visit us at the coworking Krug in Solin.”

Photos: IRI Centar