In short:

• Calendar scheduling during the sprint

• Add calendar invites to make sure it’s in their calendar

• Have a shared note taking board for the testing

• Let people do it by two

• Do a demo during the sprint 

• Send a tester guide 

I often break the Design Sprint process in two sprints so that it works within larger organizations. Between the two sprints we do the testing of the prototypes. Here are a few tips to make this work:

Calendar scheduling during the sprint

During the sprint I block times in the calendars of each participant for the testing. 

Add calendar invites to make sure it’s in their calendar

These times are duplicated in my calendar so that I maintain a good overview. I also make sure to send a calendar invite to be sure that people have blocked that time. 

Then once test participants are scheduled I send an invite to the test participant and design sprint participant so that they can meet remotely for the test. 

Have a shared note taking board for the testing

I prepare in advance a digital whiteboard for note taking with a structure that makes it easy to collect their notes. Some sprint participants prefer to take notes on paper first and then after the test jot down the most important information in the shared whiteboard. That works too. 

A screenshot of the Miro board zoomed out: Each test participant has its own tiny board space and the participants are grouped by target groups.

A screenshot of the Miro board zoomed in: For each participant we have notes for each prototype and both context notes and summary notes.

Let people do it by two

Some people don’t feel comfortable doing the test alone. I’d that’s the case I group the sprint participants and one will be the note taker and the other one will facilitate the test. 

Do a demo during the sprint 

If the time allows for it I do during the sprint a demo of how the notes are taken and how the test is run. 

Send a tester guide 

After the sprint I send to each person a tester guide that includes:

An intro video that summarizes it all in a human way

A step by step process to follow for the testing 

The link to the note taking whiteboard 

The links to the prototypes to be shared