Biases in Design Sprints at Google

Speaking at Google’s SprintCon 2018 in San Francisco gave me a unique opportunity to address something often overlooked in design sprints: our biases. As Design Sprint Facilitators, we aim to create environments where innovation and creativity can flourish, yet hidden biases often shape outcomes in ways we don’t immediately recognize.

To illustrate this, I started my keynote with a simple image—a shape that, at first, resembles a frog. After a few moments, it transforms into a horse, reminding us how our first impressions can deceive us. In design sprints, our initial judgments are often based on ingrained biases, which can cloud our decision-making process. Visual illusions are easy to adjust by changing our perspective, but biases are more challenging to address.

How Bias Shapes Our Thinking

Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, in their book Thinking, Fast and Slow, popularized the idea that humans process information through two systems: the rapid, instinctual System 1 and the slower, analytical System 2. In design sprints, we rely heavily on System 1 to keep pace with deadlines, which helps us make quick decisions and sparks creative ideas through mental shortcuts or “rules of thumb.” While System 1 is often seen as biased, it’s also where much of our creativity and spontaneity originate—qualities essential for pushing boundaries in a sprint.

That said, balance is key.

We need System 1 to explore new ideas rapidly, but we also lean on System 2 for deliberate evaluation and refinement as we narrow down options and make final decisions. This combination allows us to maximize creativity while ensuring thoughtful, impactful outcomes.

To demonstrate how quickly biases can surface, I ran a quick exercise with the audience, asking everyone to repeat the word “FOLK” each time I lifted my hand. After several repetitions, I asked, “What’s the white part of an egg called?” Many people quickly answered “yolk,” illustrating how repetition and time pressure can bypass our analytical thought and lead to automatic responses. This same bias often appears in design sprints, especially under tight deadlines.

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So, What Triggers Biases in Design Sprints?

Biases are particularly likely to emerge during certain moments in a design sprint. Here are a few situations where we need to stay alert:

1. ‍Time Pressure: The sprint environment is designed to push participants to make rapid decisions, which can unlock creative potential. However, it can also lead participants to default to familiar ideas or choose “safe” solutions that may not be as innovative.‍
2. High Stakes: Anxiety and stress amplify biases. Imagine being told, “If this sprint fails, we lose funding.” Such pressure stifles bold ideas and pushes participants toward risk-averse choices.‍
3. Ambiguity: Mondays in a sprint are often filled with a flood of information, some of it conflicting. This lack of clarity can trigger biases as we try to fill in the gaps with pre-existing beliefs or assumptions.‍
4. Understanding New Information: We constantly rely on stereotypes to make sense of or categorize people, ideas, and things. These frameworks help us process information quickly, but they can also distort our interpretation of data, especially at key moments during a sprint. On Day 1, for example, during lightning talks, team members share varied perspectives that are crucial for understanding the challenge but can sometimes be unintentionally filtered through our pre-existing assumptions. Similarly, when we evaluate solutions or interpret feedback during testing, we may unconsciously favor information that aligns with our expectations and overlook data that challenges those assumptions.

How Bias Impacts Sprint Outcomes

Unchecked biases can significantly impact sprint outcomes, leading to:

• ‍Less Creative Ideas: Known as the “curse of knowledge,” this bias keeps us anchored in familiar concepts, especially if we’ve had past success with them. Experienced team members may find it harder to think divergently because they rely on established methods.‍
• Less Courageous Decisions: Our brains are wired to minimize uncertainty, often keeping us on a “safe” path. While this instinct is excellent for survival, it’s not ideal for innovation.‍
• Sticking with Bad Investments: The sunk-cost bias convinces us to stick with bad decisions because of past investments, even when it’s clear it’s time to let go.

How to Counter Bias in Sprints

Bias is part of being human, but as facilitators, we can take steps to create more objective, inclusive sprint environments:

1. Self-Awareness: Acknowledging our own biases is the first step toward creating an inclusive sprint environment. Small actions, like using get-to-know-you icebreakers or holding team-building activities outside the sprint room, help us see the team as a cohesive whole. Here are a few other tactics to build genuine connection:‍

• Share a meal together: Sitting around a table and sharing food breaks down social barriers. Simple acts—passing dishes, unfurling napkins, or asking a stranger for the salt—disrupt the perception that those who look or sound different don’t deserve our full attention.‍
• Interrupt the interruptors: Often, you’ll see someone’s idea taken over or credited to someone else. When you notice this, redirect the credit to its rightful owner, ensuring everyone’s voice is heard and valued.‍
• Focus on collaboration, not competition: Rather than trying to win arguments, aim to win hearts and build trust. Use “we” language, emphasize shared goals, and acknowledge people’s intentions.

2. Listen Deeply and Embrace Reality: Encourage the team to bring real research insights into the sprint and present them in a visual way so that everyone can understand. Use journey maps, ecosystem maps, and other visual metaphors to make unfamiliar concepts more relatable. This approach helps the team see the problem from new angles, making it easier to uncover hidden biases and blind spots.

3. Remove the Pressure of Being Right: When experienced team members are present, risk aversion can increase. To counter this, encourage a beginner’s mindset by introducing “kamikaze concepts”—ideas meant to be challenged and discarded to learn from them without ego attachment. This exercise gives everyone a chance to experiment and critique freely.

While we can’t eliminate bias, we can recognize it, work with it, and prevent it from dominating the design sprint process. By taking these steps, we make room for creativity, foster bold decision-making, and create an environment where innovation can thrive.

Reflecting on SprintCon 2018, I was reminded that while our brains are wired for efficiency, they aren’t always wired for innovation. As facilitators, our role is to create spaces where teams feel empowered to challenge biases—and to make bolder, more inspired decisions

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