In this Topical Zoom episode, I speak with C. Todd Lombardo, Chief Design Strategist at Fresh Tilled Soil about lessons and pitfalls in putting design sprints to action.

Design Sprint is a book that C. Todd Lombardo, our guest today, wrote 2 years back (in 2015). The topic of today’s episode is however not the book. Instead, I continue the conversation with Todd from Episode 118 to talk about the nuances of executing design sprints. Also, Todd talks about the biggest mistakes companies make, picking design teams, and more. In this episode I try to understand the following from Todd:

1. Length of design sprints
2. Managing handoffs between design and development teams
3. Picking a design team
4. Biggest mistakes companies make
5. Todd’s secret to staying productive

So, If you’ve had a unique experience in any of the above areas, do leave a comment and join the conversation. If you haven’t, I urge you to listen in.

(Related Episode: Design Ethnography Mindset)

(Related Article: Getting To Why)

Who is C. Todd Lombardo?

C. Todd Lombardo is the Chief Design Strategist at Fresh Tilled Soil and an Adjunct Professor at IE Business School. He co-authored the book Design Sprint (O’Reilly 2015) and Product Roadmaps Relaunched (O’Reilly 2017). Follow him on Twitter @iamctodd.

What you will learn – Process in a Design Sprint, Success, Book and more!

Continued from Episode 118.

1. I speak to companies that want to innovate, discover newer products. The conversation however gets interesting the minute we start to talk about timelines. In your experience, what is the ideal length of a design sprint. Minimum, Maximum, Recommended?
2. How have you seen the best teams strike a balance between design and development cycles? Does one follow the other or do they happen in parallel? How do they manage handoffs?
3. IDEO talks about the ideal composition of a design team with anthropologists, project manager, etc. How do you pick a design team?
4. Let’s talk about your experience working at and with many companies now. What are the top 3 biggest mistakes companies do when it comes to approaching design of a product or service?
5. I must ask you this – how do you manage to stay productive? You teach at Madrid, you have a business to take care of, you are writing a book, you are on a podcast now. Do you have any tips to share?

Useful Links

• C. Todd Lombardo on the interwebs
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter @iamctodd
• Todd’s book
  • Design Sprint: A Practical Guidebook for Building Great Digital Products (Buy now on Amazon)
  • Product Roadmapping: Align Your Teams, and Deliver the Most to Your Customers and Stakeholders (Buy now on Amazon)

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