Design Sprint Sketch (Tuesday)
Quick facts
Classification: tool | Version: 0.1.0 | Category: discovery | License: Apache-2.0
Try it: /tool-design-sprint-sketch "Your context here"
Structure Tuesday’s solo-but-together work. Each team member, working independently and silently, produces lightning demos in the morning and a four-step solution sketch in the afternoon. The skill structures the activity; the humans produce the sketches. Wednesday’s heat-map orientation depends on having a cohort of independent sketches that did NOT contaminate each other through group brainstorming.
Family contract: docs/reference/skill-families/design-sprint-skills-contract.md. This skill is a member of design-sprint-skills.
When to Use
- It is Day 2 of the Design Sprint and Monday’s Map and Target artifact is signed off.
- Each team member brings at least 3 lightning demo sources (existing products, references, analogies that bear on the challenge).
- The team has accepted the silent-independent-sketching constraint and will NOT lapse into group brainstorming.
- Sketches are due Tuesday end-of-day for Wednesday morning heat-map.
When NOT to Use
- Monday is not closed. Return to
tool-design-sprint-map-and-target. - The team’s instinct is to brainstorm as a group. Sprint method explicitly avoids this; if the team will not commit to independent work, the sprint will not produce diverse sketches and the heat-map becomes a popularity contest.
- The sketch step is being treated as the prototype. Sketches are concept exploration on paper or Figma frames, not Thursday’s working prototype.
- Sketches are due Tuesday morning. Tuesday is the full day; rushing to lunch produces sketches the team cannot read Wednesday.
How to Use
Use the /tool-design-sprint-sketch slash command:
/tool-design-sprint-sketch "Your context here"Or reference the skill file directly: skills/tool-design-sprint-sketch/SKILL.md
Output Template
Design Sprint Tuesday Artifact: [Initiative or Challenge name]
Lightning Demo Board
Each team member presented 3 demos (3 min each); the Facilitator extracted the reusable pattern from each into a one-line note. Total demos: [N]. Total patterns: [N].
| Presenter | Demo source | Reusable pattern (one line) |
|---|---|---|
| [Name] | [Product or reference] | [Pattern extracted] |
| [Name] | [Product or reference] | [Pattern extracted] |
| [Name] | [Product or reference] | [Pattern extracted] |
| [Name] | [Product or reference] | [Pattern extracted] |
| … | … | … |
Patterns most likely to influence sketches (Facilitator’s read; not voted): [list 3-5]
Sketch Assignment Plan
Approach: [Swarm (default; all team members sketch the same target) / Divide (team members assigned to different parts of the target)]
Target for sketching: [Verbatim from Monday’s target moment; e.g., “Step 3 capture moment plus immediate post-capture confirmation surface”]
Time allocations: Notes 20 min; Ideas 20 min; Crazy 8s 8 min; Solution Sketch 30-90 min (the team committed to [X] min).
Constraint: Silent independent work. No looking at others’ work. No talking. Facilitator times each step.
Four-Step Sketches
[Each team member produces one Solution Sketch. The Notes, Ideas, and Crazy 8s pages stay with each sketcher; only the Solution Sketch goes on Wednesday’s heat-map board. Sketches are described textually here; the actual sketches are photographed or exported and uploaded to the shared workspace.]
Sketcher 1: [Name] (attribution removed before Wednesday)
Solution Sketch description: [3-5 sentence textual description of what the sketch shows: 3-panel storyboard structure, what the user sees at each panel, what action they take, how the system responds. Should be understandable Wednesday WITHOUT the artist explaining.]
Distinctive elements: [What makes this sketch different from a baseline approach? What pattern from the lightning demo board (if any) does it draw on?]
Sketcher 2: [Name]
Solution Sketch description: […]
Distinctive elements: […]
Sketcher 3: [Name]
Solution Sketch description: […]
Distinctive elements: […]
Sketcher 4: [Name]
Solution Sketch description: […]
Distinctive elements: […]
[Additional sketchers if team size 5-7.]
Recruiting Tracker Update (Tuesday Check-in)
| Slot | Customer name (or ID) | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 09:00 | [Name or ID] | [Confirmed / Pending / Cancelled / Buffer-activated] | [Notes] |
| Fri 10:30 | [Name or ID] | [Status] | [Notes] |
| Fri 12:00 | [Name or ID] | [Status] | [Notes] |
| Fri 14:00 | [Name or ID] | [Status] | [Notes] |
| Fri 15:30 | [Name or ID] | [Status] | [Notes] |
| Fri 17:00 (buffer) | [Name or ID] | [Status] | [Notes] |
Cancellations to date: [N]. Buffer slot activation needed: [Yes / No]. Risk level for Friday: [Low / Medium / High; explain.]
Decider Checkpoint
Decider sign-off required before Wednesday begins.
- Decider confirms all team members produced a Solution Sketch (no skipping; no group sketches).
- Decider confirms sketch attribution has been stripped before sketches are added to Wednesday’s heat-map board.
- Decider acknowledges that Wednesday’s heat-map is blind (votes on sketches, not on sketchers).
- Decider commits to attending Wednesday morning 09:00-12:30 for heat-map plus critique plus supervote (the load-bearing Wednesday window).
- Decider confirms recruiting tracker status; no Friday-blocking cancellations.
Signed: [Decider name, role], [ISO date and local time]
Example Output
Design Sprint Tuesday Artifact: Brainshelf Camera-Capture Validation
Design Sprint Tuesday Artifact: Brainshelf Camera-Capture Validation
Tuesday 2026-06-02. Monday closed with Jamie selecting the capture-plus-confirmation moment (map Steps 2 + 3 transition; includes a 2-step recall flow from the confirmation surface) as the target. Today the team produced 4 independent solution sketches against that target.
Lightning Demo Board
Each team member presented 3 demos (3 min each) during the 09:15-10:45 lightning session. Facilitator (Riley) extracted reusable patterns. Total demos: 12. Total patterns: 12.
| Presenter | Demo source | Reusable pattern (one line) |
|---|---|---|
| Jamie | Apple Wallet (add pass flow) | Single-tap commit with system-handled confirmation animation |
| Jamie | Instagram (capture and post) | Camera-first surface with one-frame preview before commit |
| Jamie | Bear (note app) | Tag-on-save with auto-suggested tags from recent context |
| Alex | Day One (journal) | Library view with chronological + manual collection switching |
| Alex | Pinterest (pin save) | Save-from-anywhere with visual confirmation card overlay |
| Alex | Google Photos (face grouping) | Trust through “we found this; correct us” framing |
| Sam | Linear (issue creation) | Quick-add field with smart parsing of free-text input |
| Sam | Robinhood (buy confirmation) | High-stakes confirmation with explicit cancel window before commit |
| Sam | Notion (database row) | Editable-in-place after capture; correction is friction-free |
| Riley | Goodreads (book add) | The status quo we are competing against; over-friction at capture |
| Riley | Letterboxd (film log) | Capture-as-rating; rating becomes the capture confirmation |
| Riley | Things 3 (task quick-entry) | Capture flow that escapes to background instantly; no modal trap |
Patterns most likely to influence sketches (Riley’s read; not voted): single-tap commit with animation (Jamie/Apple Wallet); trust through “we found this; correct us” framing (Alex/Google Photos); editable-in-place after capture (Sam/Notion); capture escapes to background instantly (Riley/Things 3).
Sketch Assignment Plan
Approach: Swarm. All four team members sketch the same target moment. Rationale: first Design Sprint for this team; default for v0.1 sprints; divide would broaden coverage but reduce comparability.
Target for sketching: “Capture moment plus immediate post-capture confirmation surface” (map Steps 2 + 3 transition; includes a 2-step recall flow from the confirmation surface).
Time allocations: Notes 20 min (11:00-11:20); Ideas 20 min (11:30-11:50); Crazy 8s 8 min (13:30-13:38); Solution Sketch 90 min (13:40-15:10). Team committed to the full 90-min Solution Sketch window for thoroughness.
Constraint: Silent independent work. No looking at others’ Figma frames. No talking. Riley times each step and gives 5-min and 1-min warnings.
Four-Step Sketches
All four sketches produced in Figma frames sized 1170 x 2532 (iPhone Pro vertical). Each sketcher used a single artboard with a 3-panel storyboard structure. Sketches collected at 15:10 PT, attribution stripped, named “Sketch A / B / C / D” in random order for Wednesday’s heat-map.
Sketch B (Jamie’s; attribution visible Tuesday to team for completion verification, stripped Wednesday morning for blind heat-map)
Solution Sketch description: Panel 1 shows the camera surface with a book held in frame; the cover is recognized with a subtle pulsing outline; bottom shows “Twig and Cover Books” detected with a thumbnail-sized cover preview. Panel 2 shows the post-capture confirmation: a card slides up from the bottom with the book cover, title, author, and 4 chips for “Read / Want to read / Reading / Reference”; a 5-second visible undo countdown sits in the top-right. Panel 3 shows the immediate recall surface: the same book now appears at the top of a “Recently captured” row in the user’s library, with a “where you saw it” tag (geolocation; bookstore name detected) and a “books like this you have” mini-row.
Distinctive elements: Drew on Sam’s Robinhood pattern (explicit cancel window before commit; 5-second undo countdown). The “where you saw it” geolocation pattern is novel; no demo had it.
Sketch D (Alex’s; attribution stripped Wednesday morning)
Solution Sketch description: Panel 1 shows a full-bleed camera viewfinder with a thin AR-style frame around the book; recognition is indicated only by haptic-equivalent visual (a soft glow at the edges); no on-screen text during capture. Panel 2 shows the confirmation as a Polaroid-style card that animates into a stack of recent captures; the card itself shows cover + title + a “Tap to correct” small text at bottom; correction tap opens an inline editable field with auto-suggestions. Panel 3 shows the library view as a visual-first wall of book covers with a search bar at top; search opens to a “found in your library: 3 books that mention X” panel.
Distinctive elements: Drew on Alex’s own Google Photos “we found this; correct us” pattern (correction is friction-free in-place). The Polaroid-stack metaphor is novel. Panel 1 trusts haptic feedback over visual text; tests whether minimalism feels confident or anxious.
Sketch C (Sam’s; attribution stripped Wednesday morning)
Solution Sketch description: Panel 1 shows the camera surface with explicit two-step capture: tap to capture, tap again to commit (vs. auto-commit on recognition). Panel 2 shows the confirmation as a full-screen modal with the book cover plus 6 explicit metadata fields the user can edit (title, author, edition, format, status, optional note); a prominent “Save” button bottom-right; no auto-tagging. Panel 3 shows the library as a tabular list with sortable columns (title, author, captured-on, status).
Distinctive elements: Engineer’s preference for explicit user control over magic. Drew on Linear’s quick-add pattern but inverted (Linear is fast; Sam’s sketch is intentional and thorough). Tests whether the target customer wants confidence-via-control or confidence-via-system-intelligence.
Sketch A (Riley’s; attribution stripped Wednesday morning)
Solution Sketch description: Panel 1 shows the camera with the book in frame; recognition surfaces a single best-match cover at the top of the screen with “Is this right? Yes / No”; tapping Yes commits. Panel 2 shows the confirmation as a journal-entry-style card: book cover left, freeform text input right (“Why did you grab this?”); the text field is optional but prominent. Panel 3 shows the library view organized by “captured contexts” (chips at top: “Last weekend at Powell’s” / “From Devon’s recommendation” / “Following the Octavia Butler trail”); tapping a chip filters the library.
Distinctive elements: Customer-expert’s reading on what readers actually care about: the story of why they grabbed the book, not just the metadata. Drew on Things 3’s escape-to-background pattern (the freeform text is optional; capture completes without it). The “captured contexts” library organization is novel; no demo had context-as-primary-organization.
Recruiting Tracker Update (Tuesday Check-in, 12:35 PT)
| Slot | Customer name (or ID) | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 09:00 | UI-Panel-A (US, age 38, M) | Confirmed | Reschedule risk Low; reminder sent |
| Fri 10:30 | Discord-1 (UK, age 31, F) | Confirmed | High enthusiasm; pre-screen score 9/10 |
| Fri 12:00 | Discord-2 (US, age 45, F) | Cancelled (work conflict; 12:20 PT email) | Buffer activation needed |
| Fri 14:00 | Discord-3 (Canada, age 29, M) | Confirmed | |
| Fri 15:30 | UI-Panel-B (Australia, age 52, F) | Confirmed | Time-zone challenge: 09:30 their local; confirmed comfortable |
| Fri 17:00 (buffer) | Discord-4 (US, age 36, M) | Activated 14:50 PT in response to 12:00 cancellation | Moved to 12:00 slot; buffer slot now empty |
Cancellations to date: 1. Buffer slot activation needed: Triggered; Discord-4 moved to 12:00; buffer slot now empty (next cancellation triggers escalation). Risk level for Friday: Low. Buffer used; team aware that one more cancellation triggers cohort-shrinks-to-4 protocol.
Decider Checkpoint
Decider sign-off required before Wednesday begins.
- Jamie confirms all 4 team members produced a Solution Sketch (no skipping; no group sketches; Riley enforced silence during the 90-min Solution Sketch window).
- Jamie confirms sketch attribution has been stripped before sketches are added to Wednesday’s heat-map board (sketches renamed A / B / C / D in random order; sketcher names removed from Figma frame metadata).
- Jamie acknowledges that Wednesday’s heat-map is blind (votes on sketches, not on sketchers); team has agreed not to discuss attribution until after the supervote.
- Jamie commits to attending Wednesday morning 09:00-12:30 PT for heat-map plus critique plus supervote.
- Jamie confirms recruiting tracker status: 1 cancellation absorbed by buffer activation; risk Low for Friday; one more cancellation triggers cohort-shrinks-to-4 protocol.
Signed: Jamie (founder, PM), 2026-06-02 16:50 PT.
Tuesday closed. Sketches uploaded as Sketch A/B/C/D to shared Figma board for Wednesday’s heat-map.