Strategy sprints: How to plan a great design project

We know where you’re coming from… you’ve written the brief, had the budget approved and you’re finally getting that creative piece of work commissioned. It promises to be the big confetti pop of visual excitement to top off a successful project. But what’s that? We all need to do a strategy sprint first? Did all the air just whoosh out of your excitement balloon?

That’s understandable. BUT, give me three minutes to explain why the strategic work is the most highly underrated step on your road to creative glory

1. You can get an expert diagnosis of the challenge at hand

A great client recently reached out to us with an exciting, splashy brief with plenty of potential… but we said ‘no’. That was because it was clear to us that before we did anything, we needed to get together for a strategy sprint to fully understand their goals. They agreed.

What followed was a really interesting, insightful workshop that ended up changing the course of the project for the better. Doing this upfront work gave us the keys to fully explore what the clients needed, so we could give them multiple options to progress. Ultimately, the client decided to rewrite their brief – refining it to really zone in on the impact they wanted to deliver.

2. You get our best ideas

Whether you know exactly what you want, you think you know what you want, or you just know that you have a goal to achieve and don’t know how to join the dots yet, an open mind is top of the list of things to bring to a workshop. We’ll ask lots and lots of questions – some obvious and some completely out of leftfield – but the more we understand, the better our creative response will be.  

Getting this insight also helps us to look ahead, past the current brief and into your future (no crystal balls required), so that we can suggest extra insights and creative ideas that can slot into your long-term strategy. We absolutely love a challenge and, this way, you don’t waste your time trying to outmanoeuvre a problem that doesn’t have to be there.

3. You can plan the best use of your budget

Yep, we said it. Budget! Don’t flinch – budget is always a big factor of any project and we have to be real with what’s achievable and making the best-possible use of your resources! With everything we learn from a strategy sprint, we’re able to make sure that we’re offering a tailor-made solution. 

Our core belief is about value – we only ever want to do our best for our clients. That’s why we use a blank canvas approach to problem-solving, rather than squeezing each and every challenge into a cookie-cutter template. 

4. You avoid the need to compromise

We all know that a level of flexibility and adaptability is always needed for creative work. Sometimes the work just flows, and other times there’s a bit of a jump-start needed. However, in our experience, without aligned expectations and clear strategic plan from the outset, this jump-start seems needed more often when things crop up part way through a project that can lead to the altering of the scope. Scope-creep almost always means compromise, either on your budget or on your expectations (which are both rubbish options, really). 

A strategy sprint and watertight brief gives a solid foundation of the problem we’re solving, what’s needed and what to expect. It means that we’re all boy-scout style prepared, ready to get stuck in having considered all eventualities. 

5. You remove all the risk of choosing a supplier

Investing in a strategy sprint is a risk-free way to ensure that your project has the best building blocks, and you have a great opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ when it comes to furnishing yourself with the right creative team.

While we hope that we’ll continue to do the rest of the project together, if you chose not to go forward with Luna 9 you’ll still have a clear and concise plan and a watertight brief that you can take away with you, to ensure that, wherever you go next, your project has the best-possible foundation.