A report by Sidse Ansbjerg Bordal, published by the DDC- Danish Design Center
The report presents findings from research conducted on the design driven business development project Sprint Digital (DDC) about the value and challenges associated with design sprints in the context of digital development in SME’s.
The report accounts for the insights gained from the Danish design-driven business development program Sprint Digital. The main activity of the project was running design sprints with SMEs with the purpose to increase their digital development. The three-year project (2019-2021) was led by the Danish Design Center and involved 132 SMEs from different industries, and a number of professional design agencies who facilitated the design sprints. In addition, Design school Kolding was associated with the project, conducting qualitative accompanying research (carried out by the author). The purpose with the research was to understand what kind of value and challenges was associated with the design sprints as a means to tackle the digital challenges set forth by the companies, and – on the basis of this – what kind of recommendations could be set forth for future practice.
The report presents the overall results from the accompanying research and paints a picture of the overall themes that characterize the companies’ experiences and yield from participating in the Sprint Digital project.
The purpose of the report is to disseminate knowledge about how Sprint Digital, with a specific focus on the design sprint and the design-driven approach to development, supports digital business development in SMEs, what challenges may be associated with this, and what potentials seen to further strengthen this type of effort.
Working with Sprint Digital in a company
The report is divided into six sections: Section 1 introduces the report and elaborates on the structure of the Sprint Digital project, the focus of the accompanying research, as well as the report’s questions and main conclusions. Next, in section 2, follows a description of method and account of empirical basis, including anonymized case descriptions. Section 3 presents ‘The task ladder’, a model that has been developed as part of the research and to which the findings of the report in several cases refer. Section 4 deals with yields (value and challenges) in and immediately after the sprint and section 5 addresses the same in the long term perspective. In the conclusion in section 6 summons the insights from the report, as well as the recommendations and points of attention for future similar projects / initiatives.
Read the full report here: https://ddc.dk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Sprint-Digital_2021_Ny.pdf
Project Partners: DDC- Danish Design Center and Design school Kolding
Get in contact: Sidse Ansbjerg Bordal, sidsebordal [at] gmail.com
Eva Brandt, Design School Kolding, Eb [at] dskd.dk
