Could One Hour of Onboarding Save Your Entire Design Sprint?

Does the Design Sprint Really Start on Day 1?

Most teams walk into a Design Sprint thinking the real work starts on Day 1.

It doesn’t.

By the time your team hits the virtual whiteboard, the game is already halfway decided—by who’s in the room, how aligned they are, and how much trust they’ve built before the sprint even begins. And that’s exactly why Team onboarding and Decider onboarding aren’t nice-to-haves. They’re your quiet power moves for a sprint that actually works.

Let’s break down why this matters — and how to do it right.

Why do even high-performing teams feel thrown off by Design Sprints?

Design Sprints are designed to push teams into uncertainty. That’s where the breakthroughs happen. But most professionals aren’t used to this level of ambiguity — especially when they’re high-performers used to having answers.

When ambiguity hits, discomfort shows up in subtle but telling ways:

• Participants rush to solutions

Instead of exploring the problem space, they jump ahead. They start solutioning—not out of confidence, but because sitting in the fog feels uncomfortable. Offering solutions gives them a sense of control, even if it’s premature.

• The Decider pushes for clarity too early

When a Decider demands fast answers right from the start, it’s often because uncertainty makes leadership feel exposed. But clarity doesn’t come from quick decisions—it emerges through exploration, trial and error, debate, and navigating conflicting perspectives. Pushing for decisions too early can shortcut the very process designed to reveal what truly matters.

• The team stalls in open-ended discussions

When there’s no obvious “right answer,” momentum slows. People worry about being wrong, about looking foolish, or about wasting time. The ambiguity feels threatening, not productive.

These aren’t signs of failure. They’re human responses to ambiguity—and they’re exactly why onboarding matters. When people know what to expect, they’re less likely to resist the process when it gets uncomfortable.

How do we prepare the team to handle ambiguity before the sprint begins?

Your team isn’t a group of sticky-note generators. They’re a group of strangers being asked to think together, take risks together, and build something—fast. That kind of collaboration doesn’t just happen on Day 1.

It only works when:

• Everyone knows why they’re there.
• They understand the problem space.
• And they trust each other enough to get uncomfortable.

That’s what Sprint Team Onboarding is for.

In just 60 minutes, you can shift a group from “strangers in a room” to “a team with shared purpose.”

What happens during Sprint Team Onboarding—and why does it matter?

At Design Sprint Academy, we don’t treat onboarding as a formality. We treat it as mission-critical infrastructure.

Why? Because after years of facilitating design sprints in complex, high-stakes environments, one thing has become clear: what happens before Day 1 often determines how successful the sprint will be.

That’s why we invest time in setting the team up to win—by aligning the right people, building trust, and giving them just enough context to enter the sprint with confidence and focus.

🖥️ Format:

• 60-minute online session, typically held 1–2 weeks before the sprint
• Delivered via Miro, Zoom, or the client’s preferred tools

🎯 Goals of Sprint Team Onboarding:

• Help participants get to know each other in a real, human way
• Create early psychological safety and shared understanding
• Introduce the challenge, customer segment (MVS), and purpose of the sprint
• Capture early ideas and perspectives from each team member
• Clarify roles, expectations, and the sprint structure
• Ask for commitment and surface availability issues before they become blockers

What Happens During Sprint Team Onboarding?

1. 👋 Icebreaker (But With Purpose)

This isn’t a random warm-up. Our icebreakers are crafted to uncover shared values, motivations, and points of curiosity. We want participants to feel seen—not just as colleagues, but as humans with something meaningful to contribute.

The goal? Build early team cohesion and reveal common ground. Diverse in skills, yes. But more alike than they realize.

2. 🎯 Introduction to the Sprint Challenge

We don’t walk through the full Design Sprint Brief here—but we do offer a lightweight orientation:

• Outline the business challenge and area of opportunity
• Share the Problem Statement (decided after the Problem Framing workshop with key decision-makers)
• Introduce the Persona - a snapshot of the MVS (Most Valuable Customer Segment)

It’s just enough to sketch the landscape without overwhelming anyone.

Think: orientation, not immersion.

3. 🧠 Early Team Intelligence

Now that they’ve seen the challenge, we want to know: what’s already on their radar?

Each participant answers four questions individually:

• What do you already know?
• What works?
• What doesn’t?
• Where do you see a solution?

This creates a first wave of insight—captured without the risk of groupthink. These reflections often reveal blind spots, opportunities, or tensions we’ll explore further during the Understand phase. It also helps us tailor the Lightning Talks for Day 1, using their own words as the starting point.

4. 🛠️ Roles & Sprint Process Overview

We demystify what a Design Sprint is—and more importantly, what it isn’t.

We walk through the rhythm of the week, clarify the purpose behind each phase, and explain everyone’s role. This part is about setting expectations and reinforcing that every voice matters.

5. 📆 Ask for Commitment

Design Sprints are fast, focused, and intense.

We’re transparent about that upfront. We ask participants to reflect on competing priorities and raise any conflicts now—before the sprint begins.

If someone’s availability is limited, we solve for it early. Better a small shift in timing (or even a team member replacement) than a critical absence in the middle of a key decision.

And here’s what we’ve seen time and time again:

When people are invited to take ownership—and they do—it sticks. Once someone declares their commitment in front of their team, they rarely walk it back. Public accountability builds follow-through. It’s simple, powerful, and it works.

What makes Decider onboarding different—and why can’t we skip it?

Deciders can make or break a Design Sprint—not just because they have authority, but because their presence (or absence) directly influences how the team thinks, acts, and stays engaged.

Here’s the catch: most Deciders enter with a completely different mental model. They’re wired for outcomes, timelines, and risk mitigation. Ambiguity feels inefficient—even threatening. And if they walk into Day 1 without clarity (which they often do), their tension can ripple through the team before the sprint even starts.

That’s why we facilitate a separate, focused onboarding session just for the Decider. It’s not about over-preparing—it’s about setting expectations, building trust, and aligning early on what success really looks like.

🕐 Format:

• 60-minute online meeting
• Held separately and prior to the team onboarding

🎯 Goals of Decider Onboarding:

• Understand the Decider’s vision, priorities, and expected outcomes
• Define what success looks like—and what “done” means
• Clarify their role at key moments during the sprint
• Align expectations around engagement and availability
• Build a strong, trust-based partnership between Facilitator and Decider

How do you get your Decider truly aligned (not just “informed”)?

1. 🎯 Align on Vision and Success

We start with their expectations:

• What do they hope this sprint will accomplish?
• What kind of outcome are they looking for—insight, direction, validation, a decision?
• Are there constraints or risks already on their radar?

This helps us tailor the sprint around real priorities, not assumptions.

2. ⏰ Set Expectations Around Engagement

We walk through the key moments where we’ll need them most—like Lightning Talks on Day 1 and the final decision-making block at the end of the sprint.

This isn’t just about logistics. It’s about setting up a rhythm they can commit to—so the team isn’t left waiting for input that never comes.

If schedule conflicts exist, we solve them here—not mid-sprint, when timing is tight and tensions are high.

3. 🎤 Address Concerns or Resistance

Some Deciders are all in. Others are skeptical. They don’t question the speed or structure of the Design Sprint—but they sometimes question the scope. They’re thinking big: end-to-end customer experiences, complex systems, long-term transformation. So when the sprint zooms in on a single moment, user segment, or problem slice, it can feel too granular—like it’s solving too little, when they want so much.

We meet those concerns head-on—with empathy and outcomes. We show them how the Design Sprint is structured, fast-paced, and optimized for clarity—not chaos. And we help reframe their expectations: the goal isn’t to redesign everything—it’s to make focused, validated progress on something that matters. Because trying to solve everything at once often leads to solving nothing well.

That’s usually the moment their posture shifts—from cautious to curious. Once they see that laser focus is a feature, not a flaw, the sprint becomes a strategic advantage—not a constraint.

4. 🤝 Clarify Their Role in the Sprint

We end by reframing their role.

The Decider isn’t just there to approve ideas. They set the tone. When they’re engaged, the team feels empowered. When they’re curious, the team feels safe to explore.

We position the sprint as a co-led process—where their involvement can unlock not just solutions, but team confidence.

Onboarding the Decider isn’t about control—it’s about clarity.

Because the sprint will only move as fast as your Decider is aligned, available, and engaged.

‍

So, Could One Hour of Onboarding Save Your Entire Design Sprint?

In our experience, yes—it absolutely can.

Because a Design Sprint isn’t just a workshop. It’s a strategic tool for innovation—one that helps teams explore the unknown, align fast, and move ideas toward impact in days, not months.

But innovation only happens when people feel safe enough to challenge assumptions, focused enough to avoid chaos, and supported enough to stay curious under pressure.

And that environment doesn’t start on Day 1.

It’s built during that one quiet hour of onboarding—when the team gets aligned, the Decider steps into their leadership role, and everyone understands not just what they’re doing, but why.

So if you’re using the Design Sprint to drive innovation, ask yourself:

• Have you created space for alignment before jumping into solutions?
• Have you framed ambiguity as fuel, not failure?
• Have you equipped your Decider to unlock—not block—creative momentum?

If not, one hour might be all it takes to shift your Design Sprint from just another meeting… to a moment that actually moves the work forward.

Want to embed this approach in your org?

Explore our training programs: Design Sprint Training and Design Sprint Facilitation Training.