Sprint shares rich, real-life examples with startups and company’s looking to test ideas and shares their success. Sprint is Google Venture’s unique five-day process for answering crucial questions through prototyping and testing ideas with customers. It’s a “greatest hits” of business strategy, innovation, behavioral science, design, and more—packaged into a step-by-step process that any team can use.
I’ll share 3 ideas from the book your team can put into action to save time and generate better outcomes.
Here’s the first tip. Brainstorms don’t work. I’ll share more on research to back it up, but first the example.
Before getting to the example, here’s why Sprint is credible. Designer Jake Knapp created the five-day process at Google, where sprints were used on everything from Google Search to Google X. He joined Braden Kowitz and John Zeratsky at Google Ventures, and together completed more than a hundred sprints with companies in mobile, e-commerce, healthcare, finance, and more.
Savioke’s Relay Robot
Savioke decided to start with hotels. A relatively simple and unchanging environment with a persistent problem: “rush hour” peaks in the morning and evening when check-ins, check-outs, and room delivery requests flooded the front desk. It was the perfect opportunity for a robot to help.
Having negotiated the pilot with Starwood, they still had big questions to answer. Mission-critical, make-or-break type questions, and only a few weeks to figure out the answers before the hotel pilot began. It was the perfect time for a sprint.
Built from off the shelf parts in Savioke’s office building, the team engineered a robot for hotel delivery service. It could navigate autonomously, ride the elevator by itself, and carry items such as toothbrushes, towels, and snacks to guest rooms.
“Relay,” as the robot is called, is a three-and-a-half-foot-tall cylinder, roughly the size and shape of a kitchen trash can. There is a small computer display affixed to the top, almost like a face. It glides across the floor under its own power.
Big Question: “How should their robot behave around humans?”
Steve Cousins, Savioke’s founder and CEO, feels there is one problem. Guests might not like a delivery robot. Would it unnerve or even frighten them? How would “Relay” behave around people?
The Risk: Cousins feared it could feel creepy to have a machine delivering towels. How should the robot communicate with guests? How much personality was too much?
“And then there’s the elevator,” Steve said. “Personally, I find elevators awkward with other humans. What happens when you throw a robot in the mix?”
First, the team cleared a full week on their calendars. From Monday to Friday, they canceled all meetings, set the “out of office” responders on their email, and completely focused on that one question. Why? Because of the importance of guest satisfaction, which hotels measure and track religiously.
Watch this 97 second video by Sprint Author Jake Knapp to understand the process:
If the Relay robot boosted satisfaction numbers during the pilot program, hotels would order more robots. But if that number stayed flat, or fell, and the orders didn’t come in, their fledgling business would be in a precarious position.
The result?
Don’t be surprised if you see this scene yourself in the near future.
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When Alan Mulally became Ford Motor Company's CEO in 2006, many of Ford's Board of Directors were disappointed he didn’t eliminate many of Ford’s executives. Instead Mulally told the board they’d self-select. Mulally used a ScaleUp tool, we call Meeting Rhythms, a Cadence of Accountability to make poor Ford executive performers “free up their Future” on their own. That story from American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor next blog.