The Joy of Design Sprints: Understanding the 4 Happy Brain Chemicals They Create
Why are the teams that run Design Sprints so happy during and after it?
I talked in previous posts about how Design Sprints get you 7 times faster work done and make it valuable and also why Design Sprints help teams to stay in the optimal stress area which brings them the best performance.
This post is about the cocktail of happiness 😜 that the Design Sprints bring to your team.
I will explain which are the happiness neurochemicals and for each one of them, I will give an example of how Design Sprints are helping us arrive at the happiness state.
Which is the cocktail that Design Sprints create out of the happiness neurochemicals?
The happiness state neurochemicals are there when our brain identifies something good for our survival instincts.
🎲 Dopamine - motivation or drive to reach the things that create pleasure; related with the reward network of the brain; makes you go forward to something that you marked is good for you
How it is created within Design Sprints: the biggest need of the teams that decide to make a Design Sprint is that they need fast feedback from their real users instead of losing time to get there, and this of course releases a lot of dopamine when happens, instant feedback being one of the top drivers of performant teams
🎲 Oxytocin - produces the feeling of safety; vulnerability connection with another person; psychical connection; motivates to trust other people to feel safe in their company; a sense of belonging; focus on what you have in common, relatedness
How it is created within Design Sprints: in a Design Sprint the team focuses on a common goal, decides together throughout the whole time, and relates to each other ‘s perspectives all day long; most of the teams I worked with told me at the end they had the impression it’s a teambuilding that bonds together people, so most probably a lot of oxytocin was released.
🎲 Endorphin: the oblivion that masks pain, helps ignore pain when running away from something or when you are hurt; morphine produced on our own body;
How it is created within Design Sprints: there is a lot of laughing happening during a Design Sprint, at least the ones that I was guiding so far - working together as one team for one week creates a safe environment where we can laugh about anything together and this releases (as per studies) a lot of endorphins
🎲 Serotonin - produces the impression that you are respected by others; motivates you to raise your status; when you are grateful for what you have here and now; brings silence and balance in your life;
How it is created within Design Sprints: accomplishing so much together in such a short time raises your status and respect for each other during a Design Sprint; most of the teams are having at the end of a week like this a high gratefulness of here and now as one team
One-phrase summary:
Every time I run a Design Sprint for a team I wonder how come they are in a few days so happy all of them and this euphoric feeling still stays with them afterward for a while. Looking at the neuroscience part of the Design Sprints and the cocktail of happy chemicals it creates, it all makes sense now 😜
How can I help you with Design Sprints?
I love the power of Design Sprints. When doing a back-to-back Design Sprint (2 weeks) the outcome is even stronger and I saw prototypes that arrived at 95% in production afterward. It was amazing to tackle different versions of Design Sprints - in person, online, summer edition ( 3 months and workshops spread around the holidays season with an amazing outcome), and so on. It depends on the team and product needs.
If you have challenges around your product and want to try something new, to replace months of work with valuable teamwork, send me inquiries at: contact@asinnovativeminds.com
Resources:
Book “Habits of a happy brain” by L. Graziano Breuning
A.Hubermann Podcast
Want to turn complex information into an eye-catching visual story?
Try Drawify, I got in love ❤️ with it and you can use a special discount (in the link) to play and create visuals as well (I am a Drawify Ambassador).
I usually hear that a Design Sprint needs to be conducted in the strict structures of 4 or 5 days in a row. You mention there are other ways of doing it. Could you write about options how else a Design Sprint could be done? Maybe you have an idea for a shorter version "Design Sprint teaser" if a company wants to try it?