Brand Design Sprint

Highly adapted from GV’s Brand Design Sprint

When to Use

20-Year Roadmap - where you’ll be in the long-term.
What, How, Why - why your company exists.
Top 3 (Brand) Values - how we want to be perceived (makes your why more specific).
Top 3 Audiences - who do solve for.
Personality Sliders - how we express ourselves (Tone of Voice & Style)
Competitive Landscape - how we are different compares your brand to other companies.

Draw a timeline that includes 5 milestones: Now, 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years
Each person quietly writes down his or her own prediction for all four dates.
Going around the room, each person reads their answers aloud and the facilitator writes them on the whiteboard.
No argument or discussion yet.
Each person looks at the list and quietly writes down their favorite answers.
Going around the room, each person reads their votes aloud and the facilitator marks the votes on the whiteboard.
Discuss and argue for about five minutes (use a timer to keep it to five minutes!).
The Decider chooses her favorite item for each future date.
Take a photo of the whiteboard and put it into a new slide deck called “Super Simple Brand Guide”.

Each person quietly writes down his or her ideas for what, how, and why.
Going around the room, each person reads their answers aloud and the facilitator writes them on the whiteboard.
No argument or discussion yet.
Each person looks at the list and quietly writes down their favorite answers.
Going around the room, each person reads their votes aloud and the facilitator marks the votes on the whiteboard.
Discuss what and how for about five minutes each, but don’t argue the semantics — it’s not that important.
At the end of each five-minute segment, the Decider chooses her favorite answer.
Discuss why for about ten minutes. This can be difficult, so agree that today’s version will be a placeholder — you can come back to it later.
After ten minutes, the Decider makes the call.
Take a photo of the whiteboard and add it to your slide deck.

Each person quietly writes down a list of values—as many as they can think of.
Going around the room, each person reads their values aloud and the facilitator writes them on the whiteboard in one giant list.
No argument or discussion yet.
Each person looks at the list and quietly writes down the three values they think best describe the company.
Going around the room, each person reads their votes aloud and the facilitator marks the votes on the whiteboard.
Discuss for about five minutes.
At the end of five minutes, the Decider makes the call. Give her a few minutes to quietly write down her top three values, in order. This is the hard part, but it’s also the key to success—you must narrow down to three, and most importantly, you must choose a single most important value.
The Facilitator writes the final decision on the whiteboard.
Take a photo of the whiteboard and add it to the slide deck.

Each person quietly writes down their own list of the company’s audiences.
Going around the room, each person reads their list aloud and the facilitator writes one giant list on the whiteboard.
No argument or discussion yet.
Each person looks at the list and quietly writes down the two audiences they believe are most important.
Going around the room, each person reads their votes aloud and the facilitator marks the votes on the whiteboard.
Discuss for about five minutes.
At the end of five minutes, the Decider makes the call. Give her a few minutes to quietly write down her top three audiences, in order.
The Facilitator writes the final decision on the whiteboard.
Take a photo of the whiteboard and add it to the slide deck.

Draw a diagram on the whiteboard with four ranges:
- “Friend” to “Authority”
- “Playful” to “Serious”
- “Mass Appeal” to “Elite”
- “Youthful” to “Mature”
- “Innovative” to “Classic”
Everyone write on a Post-It there name for each range and place it where they believe it lands on the range
Discuss any diagram where people disagree about where the company should be. For example, if Andy put a dot right by “Mass Appeal” and Beatrice put a dot right by “Elite”, they should explain their positions. Time this discussion—it needn’t take longer than five to ten minutes.
At the end of the discussion, the Decider makes the call. She should be given a few minutes to quietly plot her final choices on the whiteboard.
Take a photo of the whiteboard and add it to the slide deck.

Draw a 2x2 matrix: a. “Classic” to “Modern” on the x-axis b. “Expressive” to “Reserved” on the y-axis
Each person writes down a list of other companies in the same space or industry.
Each person chooses the one or two most important companies on their list.
Going around the room, each person reads their choices aloud and the facilitator writes the company names on sticky notes (one name per sticky).
One at a time, place the sticky notes on the matrix. Quickly discuss where it should go. Repeat.
Once all the sticky notes are up, the facilitator should ask the Decider if she’d like to move any of the notes.
Finally, plot your own company on the matrix. This should be fairly easy — after all, you’ve just been doing brand exercises for 150 minutes.
Double-check: Look back at the rest of the sprint exercises. Does this placement make sense for your 20-Year Roadmap, What How Why, Values, Audience, and Brand Sliders?
As always, the Decider makes the final call.
Take a photo of this whiteboard and add it to the slide deck.

Common font associations include:

Serif Fonts, including Times New Roman, Georgia, and Garamond: Authoritative, Traditional, Respectable
Sans Serif Fonts, including Helvetica, Arial, and Verdana: Modern, Clean, Stable
Slab Serif Fonts, including Rockwell, Courier, and Museo: Bold, Strong, Modern
Script Fonts, including Lobster, Lucida, and Brush Script: Elegant, Friendly, Creative
Modern Fonts, including Politica, Eurostyle, and Matchbook: Fashionable, Stylish, Exclusive

Common color associations include:

What does your voice sound like?