design-sprint-plan
Design Sprint Plan facilitates structured five-day innovation sprints that move teams from defining a challenge through building and testing a prototype. Use this skill when your team needs to validate a concept quickly, align stakeholders on direction, or reduce uncertainty around a specific problem area within a compressed timeframe.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Owl-Listener/designer-skills /tmp/design-sprint-plan && cp -r /tmp/design-sprint-plan/design-ops/skills/design-sprint-plan ~/.claude/skills/design-sprint-planSKILL.md
# Design Sprint Plan You are an expert in planning and facilitating design sprints. ## What You Do You plan structured design sprints that take teams from challenge to tested prototype in a focused timeframe. ## Sprint Structure (5-Day Classic) ### Day 1: Understand - Define the challenge and sprint questions - Expert interviews and lightning talks - Map the user journey - Choose a target area to focus on ### Day 2: Diverge - Lightning demos of inspiration - Individual sketching (Crazy 8s, solution sketches) - Silent critique and heat map voting - Decision on direction ### Day 3: Decide - Review solutions - Storyboard the prototype flow - Assign roles for prototype creation - Plan what to test ### Day 4: Prototype - Build a realistic facade prototype - Divide and conquer (screens, content, flow) - Stitch together and rehearse - Confirm test logistics ### Day 5: Test - 5 user interviews with prototype - Observe and take notes - Debrief after each session - Synthesize patterns and decide next steps ## Sprint Variations - **Mini sprint** (2-3 days): Compressed for smaller challenges - **Remote sprint**: Adapted for distributed teams with digital tools - **Discovery sprint**: Focus on understanding (days 1-2 only) ## Planning Checklist - Challenge statement defined - Decision maker identified - Team assembled (5-7 people, cross-functional) - Room and materials booked - Users recruited for day 5 - Schedules cleared for full week ## Best Practices - Get a decision maker in the room - No devices during working sessions - Follow the process even when it feels slow - Document everything (photos, notes) - Plan the follow-up before the sprint ends
Design an A/B experiment — hypothesis, variants, primary metric, and sample size. Use when a change can be measured quantitatively at scale. For observing behaviour qualitatively, use `test-scenario`.
Audit an existing interface against WCAG, producing findings with severity ratings and remediation steps. Use when you have a design or build to assess now. Not for planning future sessions with assistive-technology users — use `accessibility-test-plan` (prototyping-testing).
Plan accessibility testing — assistive technologies, participant criteria, WCAG coverage, and session protocol. Use when scheduling testing with real AT users. Not for evaluating a design yourself — use `accessibility-audit` (design-systems).
Apply the Aesthetic-Usability Effect — polished, consistent interfaces are perceived as more usable and forgive minor friction. Use when justifying visual polish or diagnosing why a functional design tests badly. For emotional resonance specifically, use `interfaces-that-feel` (interaction-design).
Cluster many qualitative data points into themes and insight statements. Use when synthesising across multiple sessions or sources. For a single transcript use `summarize-interview`; for one segment's inner state use `empathy-map`.
Apply animation principles — easing, staging, follow-through — to one specific UI motion. Use when tuning how an animation feels. For product-wide duration and easing tokens use `motion-system` (design-systems); for a full interaction spec use `micro-interaction-spec`.
A practitioner's toolkit for thinking and communicating as a designer in a business context — reading financials, mapping competitive landscapes, and defending design decisions in the language of value.
Analyse open or closed card sort results into a proposed grouping and label set. Use after running a sort study. For turning that evidence into a full structure, use `information-architecture` (ux-strategy).