I know there's a lot of other amazing talks going

on at this moment right now at I/O. We almost

didn't come to this talk because there's so many good ones.

So super appreciate it.

We're going to talk to you guys today about design sprints.

And you actually totally scored by coming to this talk

because it's not just one talk, but two, two in one.

And first we're going to talk about design sprints

at Google Ventures with startups,

and then we're going to hear about designs

sprints at big Google.

So first of all Daniel and I are going

to talk to you about what we do at Google Ventures.

So Daniel and I are design partners at Google Ventures.

And we're going to tell you how to prototype and test

pretty much any product in just five days.

So Daniel take it away.

DANIEL BURKA: Well, before I even

get started I want to talk to you guys

about a problem I've got.

Unfortunately it's a really big problem.

In fact, it's a Super Mario scale problem,

a really big Super Mario scale problem.

I love Mario.

I have since it first came out.

And so you can imagine, this is going to date me a little bit,

but I was super excited when they announced the DS

and announced that they were making the new Super Mario

Brothers where you could become giant Mario.

And so at the time I was living in eastern Canada,

way off on the edge of the continent,

in a little place called Prince Edward Island where I grew up.

And I didn't have a whole lot of disposable income at the time,

but it was just after Christmas, and I

had gotten some cash gifts from some family.

And I was thinking, aw, you know,

I could totally get one of those things,

and it would be awesome.

I already had a little sneaking suspicion

that I had maybe a bit of an addiction problem with Mario,

but I decided, you know what?

Screw it.

I'm going to go get one anyway.

And so I drove up to this place called

the Future Shop in Charlotte Town.

I swear to God it's called the Future Shop.

It's like Best Buy.

And it was no less inviting in January

then as this photo, which I grabbed off Google Maps,

is now.

This is the actual shop, a real photo of it.

And so I went in there, and I threw down my hard earned

money.

And it was awesome.

It was just everything I imagined it would be.

So I played it.

And I played it a lot.

I played it every single day for about three months straight.

I beat every single level.

And then I beat every single level plus the secret levels,

then every single level plus the secret levels

with all the coins on every level.

And then on the DS you could have three different lives

per game.

And so I beat it once.

I beat it again.

And then I beat it again even faster.

And it was at the end of March.

And I was just about to reset the device so I could do it

three more times, and I was like, oh, fuck this.

And I put in a box, and I mailed it off my sister

in Los Angeles.

And I never saw the damn thin again.

But unfortunately I was out about $170

that I didn't really have to burn

and three months of my life.

I swear to God, I played hours of this game.

JAKE KNAPP: Well, to throw into sharp contrast what an idiot

Daniel is I want to tell you a story of my own.

And this also involves Nintendo.

This is from a simpler time.

So if you remember when Nintendo looked like this.

Raise your hand if you remember.

Oh, OK.

Awesome.

All right, great.

I'm glad that some of you are also old.

[LAUGHTER]

JAKE KNAPP: So my story takes place in the year 1986.

And it's actually a story about my wife

who was nine years old in 1986.

As was I, although I didn't know her at the time.

And like all nine year olds in the United States in 1986,

I don't know about Canada, but everyone wanted a Nintendo.

And this is what the Nintendo looked like.

It was a big box.

And everybody was so excited about it.

But it costs a lot of money.

So it cost $199, which if you adjust that for inflation it's

over $400.

It's a lot of money at any time if your nine years old.

Actually, Daniel, I don't know for you Canadians.

Hopefully this will help.

00:03:45,304 --> 00:03:47,470 DANIEL BURKA: I have to deal with this all the time.

Thanks.

JAKE KNAPP: This is actually how much

maple syrup you can buy for $200 in case you guys were curious.

And leaders is spelled the Canadian way.

Craftsmanship here.

So anyway, my wife is very industrious.

And she scrimped and saved.

She did chores around the neighborhood,

and she saved up her allowance.

And finally, finally she had $200.

She was ready to make the purchase.

And then right at the last minute she got cold feet.

She was like, oh my gosh, I saved up all this money,

I don't know if I should do this, I'm only nine years old.

I don't know if she thought that, but she wasn't sure.

And so she made this really unusual arrangement that for $4

she would rent a Nintendo from her neighbor.

And she'd have it all day Saturday, all day Sunday.

She could play it as much as she wanted, all the games, you

know, the laser gun, everything.

And I think that what my wife envisioned

was something like this.

So this is a photo from Nintendo on the box at the time.

And this is kind of like captures

the scene of excitement that everyone had about Nintendo.

If you look closely at these brothers

you'll notice that they don't even

seem to notice Super Mario Brothers is actually

a one player game.

But that's what it was like.

I mean, it was so great.

And so she pictured this, and she

pictured the family gathered, and everybody,

you know, watching her play.

And the reality was more like this.

And this is not a photo.

This is an artist's interpretation

that my wife was really excited about when she saw it.

But this is what it was like.

She's up till 3:00, 4:00 AM, you know, eyes bloodshot,

barely sleeping, playing Nintendo the entire time.

And by the end of the weekend when she gave the Nintendo back

she realized I cannot handle owning a Nintendo.

And she came to this realization after just $4

and 48 hours of her time.

This idea of renting before you buy we think also

applies to product development.

And that's the essence of what we're

going to talk to you about today.

DANIEL BURKA: So the way that we typically

see design and development done at startups

is that you come up with an idea, a hypothesis,

something that might be really great for your product.

And then you build the lightest weight version of it

that you can, you know a simple V1.

You really boil it down.

Launch it into the wild, measure the results,

learn from those results, and then iterate around the circle.

Also from our experience this is actually not a great way

to operate as a startup.

And what really happens in the real world is

you frequently are starting with a bad idea.

And that's fine.

I mean, that's the whole point of a hypothesis

is something you're not sure of that you want to test.