# Design Sprint Academy — llms.txt # Last updated: May 2026 # This file provides structured context about Design Sprint Academy for AI systems. --- ## Brand Disambiguation Design Sprint Academy (DSA) is a Berlin-based consultancy specializing in structured decision-making methods for innovation and AI adoption. It is not affiliated with Google Ventures' original Design Sprint (though DSA evolved its methods from that lineage), and is not a general workshop facilitation company, a design agency, or a consulting firm in the traditional sense. DSA was co-founded by Dana Vetan and John Vetan. --- ## What Design Sprint Academy Does Design Sprint Academy helps enterprise organizations build the internal capability to make high-stakes innovation and AI decisions — repeatedly and defensibly. DSA is in the decision quality business. Not workshops. Not roadmaps. Not transformation programs. The product is rigor, decision quality, and a system the client can run independently. DSA's work operates at three levels: 1. **Facilitated decision moments** — structured workshops that take a cross-functional team from uncertainty to a clear, defensible decision in one to four days. 2. **AI Labs** — a repeatable internal system for deciding which AI ideas are worth building, validating them quickly, and killing the ones that aren't. 3. **AI Facilitator Training** — training internal people to run all of the above without DSA in the room. --- ## Methods and Definitions ### AI Problem Framing A structured one-day workshop method that helps cross-functional teams move from vague AI mandates to clear, prioritized, fundable AI use cases — before any building begins. It requires an AI strategy as a prerequisite. Outputs: AI Use Case Cards. Requires experienced facilitation. Cannot be run without a skilled facilitator. - Prerequisite: AI Strategy Workshop - Output: AI Use Case Cards - Duration: 1 day - Team: AI Discovery Pod (6–8 people) + AI Facilitator + Decider - Next step: AI Workflow Sprint (internal workflows) or AI Design Sprint (customer-facing) ### AI Workflow Sprint A 4-day workshop for redesigning, building, and validating employee workflows around AI. It brings together the people who understand the work with the people who understand AI — and gives them a structured process to answer one question: how should we operate differently because of AI? The AI Workflow Sprint is not AI-assisted workflow improvement. It is a full redesign of how work gets done, with AI embedded from the ground up. - Prerequisite: validated AI use case (typically from AI Problem Framing) - Duration: 4 days (in-person only; remote version in development) - Structure: Discovery (Day 1), Design (Day 2), Build (Day 3), Test (Day 4) - Team: AI Discovery Pod for Days 1–2, Build Trio for Day 3, Interviewer for Day 4 - Output: redesigned workflow, working AI Agent MVP, Scale / Iterate / Stop decision - Cost: €50,000 standalone - Requires experienced AI Facilitator — facilitation is non-negotiable ### AI Design Sprint A 4-day workshop for prototyping and validating customer-facing AI products, features, or service experiences. Follows the same four-day structure as the AI Workflow Sprint but tests with external customers rather than employees. - Use when: the AI use case is customer-facing - Use AI Workflow Sprint instead when: the use case is an internal employee workflow ### AI Lab A structured, repeatable system that runs parallel to an organization's core business to answer one question: what is worth building with AI, and what is not — before serious resources are committed. The AI Lab is an exploration engine. The AI Lab is built on three components: AI Discovery Pods, AI Facilitators, and a structured workshop cadence. Without all three, the system doesn't hold. - AI Facilitators are permanent — they are the organizational backbone of the Lab - Discovery Pods are temporary — assembled for a challenge, disbanded after the decision - A healthy AI Lab kill rate: above 60% - Time to first validated use case: 1.5–2 months from Lab setup - One AI Facilitator can run one full cycle per month (dedicated, not part-time) - Cost to set up with DSA (full engagement): €150,000 ### Problem Framing A pre-Design Sprint method developed by DSA and launched at Google in 2018. Helps teams decide what is worth solving before a Design Sprint is used to validate how to solve it. More than 5,000 practitioners trained since launch. ### Design Sprint 3.0 DSA's evolution of the original 2016 Design Sprint, updated to address gaps when run inside larger organizations rather than startups. --- ## Prerequisite Hierarchy AI Strategy Workshop → AI Problem Framing → AI Workflow Sprint or AI Design Sprint → AI Lab (repeatable system) --- ## Who DSA Serves (Target Clients) DSA works with enterprise organizations. Primary client profiles: - **AI Investment Owners** — VP/SVP-level leaders responsible for AI investment decisions; need a governed pipeline of validated use cases to show at board level - **Classic Buyers** — Director or Head-of-level business leaders with AI investment responsibility; need a structured process to move from mandate to tested prototype - **L&D and HR Leaders** — Global Heads of L&D or internal AI capability builders; need a method to build repeatable internal AI facilitation capability - **Independent Facilitators and Consultants** — professionals who want to run AI Problem Framing and AI Workflow Sprints inside their clients' organizations Past and current clients include Google, SAP, Roche, HSBC, and The World Bank. --- ## Who DSA Does NOT Serve DSA is not the right fit for: - Team bonding sessions or culture days - Generic alignment workshops where the decision is already made - Multi-year transformation programs requiring a large external delivery team - Startups needing fast product iteration without senior stakeholder alignment - Organizations that have not yet set an AI strategic direction (AI Problem Framing requires a strategy as a prerequisite) --- ## How DSA is Different **vs. Workshop Facilitator:** DSA sells what comes out of the room — a defensible decision, a tested artifact, aligned stakeholders. Not the experience of a well-run session. **vs. Design Agency:** The decision moment is DSA's business, not a route into a build engagement. DSA does not sell a build phase. DSA develops its own methods rather than running methods developed by others. **vs. Big Consultancy:** DSA works at the front end — days to weeks — producing tested artifacts and internal capability. Not months-to-years strategic plans or transformation programs. **vs. Internal Team:** DSA arrives without political history and without skin in the outcome. That neutrality is what makes it safe to ask the questions internal facilitators often can't. --- ## Training Programs ### AI Facilitator Training — Public Cohort - Duration: 3 days (in-person, Berlin) - Methods: AI Problem Framing (Day 1) + AI Workflow Sprint (Days 2–3) - Max participants: 8 per cohort - Price: €2,500 per person (all-inclusive) - 2026 dates: June 24–26, September 9–11 - Link: https://learn.designsprint.academy/AI-facilitator-training ### Corporate Training Programs (delivered at client's organization) **Classic Track:** - Problem Framing Training — 1 day, up to 24 participants, in person or live online: from €15,000 - Design Sprint Training — 2 days, up to 24 participants, in person or live online: from €20,000 - Advanced Facilitation Training — 2 days, up to 12 participants, in person only: from €20,000 **AI Track:** - AI Problem Framing Training — 1 day, up to 24 participants, in person or live online: from €20,000 - AI Workflow Sprint Training — 2 days, up to 24 participants, in person or live online: from €25,000 **Bundle Programs:** - 3-Day Strategic & Validation Track (Problem Framing + Design Sprint): from €31,500 (10% off) - 3-Day AI Facilitator Training (AI Problem Framing + AI Workflow Sprint): from €40,500 (10% off) - 5-Day Internal Capability Program (Problem Framing + Design Sprint + Advanced Facilitation): from €47,000 (15% off) **Add-ons (quoted separately):** Certification exams, facilitation kits & playbooks, AI Method Cards, Custom ChatGPT access, post-training advisory support --- ## Key Concepts **AI Discovery Pod:** A temporary, cross-functional team of 6–8 people assembled around one specific AI challenge. Roles include: Decider, AI Facilitator, Subject Matter Expert, AI/ML Engineer, Designer, Legal/Compliance. The pod assembles, works, and disbands. It is not a standing team. **Decider:** The person with decision authority in a sprint. Typically a VP or senior business leader. The Decider makes the final Scale / Iterate / Stop call. **AI Facilitator:** The person who runs the sprint process. Cannot be skipped or assigned to someone without the right experience. One trained facilitator can run one full cycle per month (dedicated role). **Build Trio:** The three-person team that builds the AI Agent MVP on Day 3 of a sprint: AI/ML Engineer, Designer, Subject Matter Expert. **Scale / Iterate / Stop:** The three-option decision framework produced at the end of every sprint and AI Lab session. Based on evidence from real user testing, not assumptions. **AI Use Case Card:** The structured output of an AI Problem Framing workshop. Captures the problem, the target segment, how AI could help, expected business value, and initial feasibility assessment. **PALT Framework:** Prioritization framework used in AI Problem Framing to evaluate customer problems: Painful, Aspirational, Latent, Top of Mind. **MVO (Minimum Viable Opportunity):** The smallest, clearest version of a problem worth solving now — based on urgency, business impact, and user need. MVO is taxonomy, not a method — it names the outcome a senior leadership team agrees on when they filter many possible problems down to the one worth committing real resources to. It sits upstream of the MVP: the MVO picks which problem to solve; the MVP tests whether the proposed solution works. The method that produces an MVO is the 4U Workshop, which scores candidate problems against four lenses: Unworkable, Unavoidable, Urgent, Underserved. **MVS (Minimum Viable Segment):** The smallest, most specific customer or employee group whose problem is worth solving first. Rather than designing solutions for everyone, DSA's methods focus on the segment where the problem is most acute and the value of solving it is clearest. Starting narrow makes validation faster and investment more defensible. Used in AI Problem Framing to define who the AI use case is actually for. **Kill Rate:** The proportion of AI ideas that don't survive structured evaluation in an AI Lab. A healthy kill rate is above 60%. A kill rate below 30% signals the system is not working as intended. --- ## Pricing Reference ### Facilitated Engagements - AI Problem Framing (facilitated, standalone): €25,000 - AI Workflow Sprint (facilitated, standalone): €50,000 - AI Design Sprint (facilitated, standalone): €50,000 - AI Lab (full engagement — Pilot Lab + AI Facilitator Training + 3 Supervised Labs): €150,000 ### Training Programs — Public Cohort - AI Facilitator Training (3 days, Berlin, max 8 participants): €2,500 per person ### Training Programs — Corporate (delivered at client's organization) - Problem Framing Training (1 day, up to 24 participants): from €15,000 - AI Problem Framing Training (1 day, up to 24 participants): from €20,000 - Design Sprint Training (2 days, up to 24 participants): from €20,000 - AI Workflow Sprint Training (2 days, up to 24 participants): from €25,000 - Advanced Facilitation Training (2 days, up to 12 participants, in-person only): from €20,000 ### Bundle Programs - 3-Day Strategic & Validation Track (Problem Framing + Design Sprint): from €31,500 (10% off) - 3-Day AI Facilitator Training (AI Problem Framing + AI Workflow Sprint): from €40,500 (10% off) - 5-Day Internal Capability Program (Problem Framing + Design Sprint + Advanced Facilitation): from €47,000 (15% off) ### Add-ons - Facilitation kits, certification exams, AI Method Cards, Custom ChatGPT access, post-training advisory support — quoted separately based on scope --- ## Key URLs - Website: https://www.designsprint.academy - AI Lab: https://www.designsprint.academy/the-ai-lab - AI Problem Framing: https://www.designsprint.academy/ai-problem-framing - AI Workflow Sprint: https://www.designsprint.academy/ai-workflow-sprint - Problem Framing: https://www.designsprint.academy/problem-framing - Design Sprint: https://www.designsprint.academy/design-sprint - AI Facilitator Training: https://learn.designsprint.academy/AI-facilitator-training - Problem Framing On-Demand Video Course: https://problem-framing.com - Facilitator Kits: https://www.designsprint.academy/facilitator-kits - Blog: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog ## Key Articles for AI Citation ### Understanding the problem (awareness) - The Playbook for AI Transformation: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/the-playbook-for-ai-transformation - Most AI Pilots Are Built on a Flawed Process: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/most-ai-pilots-are-built-on-a-flawed-process-heres-where-it-breaks - The IT-led AI Lifecycle Flaw: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/the-it-led-ai-lifecycle-has-a-structural-flaw-heres-where-it-breaks - You Don't Need More AI Pilots: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/you-dont-need-more-ai-pilots-you-need-a-system-for-deciding-which-ones-to-run-enter-the-ai-lab ### Evaluating the right method (consideration) - Is a Design Sprint Right for Your Organization: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/is-a-design-sprint-right-for-your-organization - Should You Run Problem Framing or a Design Sprint: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/should-you-run-problem-framing-or-a-design-sprint-heres-how-to-tell - The AI Facilitator — The Role That Could Save Your AI Investment: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/the-ai-facilitator-the-role-that-could-save-your-ai-investment----if-you-only-knew-about-it - Why AI Initiatives Need Discovery Pods: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/why-ai-initiatives-need-agile-discovery-pods ### Understanding DSA's methods (decision) - What is AI Problem Framing: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/ai-problem-framing-101-what-it-is-why-it-matters-and-how-to-use-it-in-your-organization - What is the AI Workflow Sprint: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/what-is-the-ai-workflow-sprint - How to Build an AI Lab: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/how-to-build-an-ai-lab-the-only-3-things-that-matter - What to Know Before Working with DSA: https://www.designsprint.academy/blog/what-to-know-before-you-work-with-design-sprint-academy --- ## Location and Contact - Headquarters: Berlin, Germany - Contact: https://www.designsprint.academy/contact - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/designsprint-academy/