Sprints Got Us Here—Surges Take Us Forward
Why Sprints still matter—and how it’s evolving in the age of AI
Not so long ago, the "UX Sprint" was the gold standard. Five tightly choreographed days. One big question. Sticky notes, sketching, and a prototype tested by Friday, all with UX at the center, playing conductor. It felt focused. Collaborative. Meaningful.
But that was before many of us were moved to work from home during 2020–2022, and while many are now making their way back to the office, our ways of working haven’t quite landed. Calendars shattered into time zones and back-to-back meetings. Budgets are tighter, product timelines collapsed. Then AI entered the chat—and suddenly, we’re expected to move faster, with clearer answers, sooner.
We’re racing light years ahead of the original Sprint model. What once felt structured now feels too slow for the future we’re actively shaping.
We’re not just swapping one process for another—we’re working inside a new tempo. Questions come faster. Expectations are higher. We need answers yesterday. The original "Sprint framework," once a reliable space for collaboration and creativity, now feels too rigid for the velocity and volatility of what we’re building today.
One caveat: this is a fluid topic. The way we collaborate is shifting constantly, and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I can let you peek into the way I’m seeing our work evolve—and how we’re experimenting in real time to keep clarity, creativity, and connection alive.
Defining the Surge
Not all surges look the same. Some are fast and focused, others are strategic and wide-ranging. Later in this piece, I’ll break down the types of surges I’ve seen work best.
A surge is a focused burst of collaboration that can happen at any point in a project—not just mid-flight. It’s what you do when the problem is fuzzy, the user need is real but unproven, and everyone has a different idea of what success looks like. Just like in the best sprints, you need structured space to align, explore, and decide. But now, instead of one set playbook, you need methods that flex to your pace, context, and constraints.
In my experience, teams want to sprint not because they love frameworks, but because they’re standing at the edge of uncertainty. There’s a hunch. A hypothesis. Maybe even a whisper of an idea. What they really want is to use the collective mindshare of the team to invent something new—a new solution, a new expression, a new way to meet the need.
That part hasn’t changed.
What’s shifted is the ecosystem around us: tighter budgets, quicker cadences, dispersed teams, divided focus—and yes, AI layered into nearly every step. The classic five-day sprint doesn’t quite land anymore. Schedules can’t hold it, and teams can’t wait for it.
So how do we keep the best parts of the sprint—the clarity, the momentum, the cross-functional trust—and adapt them for how we actually work now?
Because here’s the truth: UX sprints delivered great outcomes not just because of their structure, but because of the conditions they created.
Time-bound focus: The team paused everything else to tackle one challenge together. That kind of collective energy is rare.
Cross-functional magic: Designers, PMs, engineers, and researchers sharing space, riffing in real time, building alignment through collaboration—not slides.
Test-and-learn mindset: It wasn’t about being right, it was about learning fast and pivoting smart.
Human connection: Trust formed through working side by side, sketching, debating, and seeing the shape of an idea emerge together.
UX sprints worked because they made space for both clarity and connection. That’s the part we have to protect.
So What’s New?
Before we go further—credit where credit is due. The original UX sprint framework, introduced by Jake Knapp and popularized by Google Ventures (The Sprint Book), was a game changer. If you haven’t explored the foundation, start with The Sprint Book. It’s still one of the most powerful methodologies for structured collaboration when the conditions are right. To break the rules, you need to know what they are.
The UX sprint was great at polishing ideas. But today, we need ways to protect the messy ones, too.
In Loonshots by Safi Bahcall (link), they explore how breakthrough ideas often start fragile and are easily crushed by overly rigid systems. Surges—like the phase transitions he describes—are meant to protect those early ideas just long enough for them to take form.
But ideas can’t evolve in a vacuum. One of the most powerful habits in a surge is knowing when to loop users—and stakeholders—back in.
Don’t wait for a perfect prototype. Use lightweight moments to check your thinking. Here are some practical ways to try this:
Run a quick usability test with three users. Capture their feedback, adjust your prototype, and share the update.
Post a friction point in Slack with a prompt like: “Would this make sense to you if you were using it?”
Set up a fast FigJam poll or emoji vote to get a pulse from your internal team.
And for your partners—keep a rhythm. Weekly Loom recaps, async progress snapshots, or even a simple “What we learned this week” post in your team’s channel can build trust and visibility.
There’s another essential piece: ensuring outcomes from a surge are actionable. They need to move beyond abstract ideas into something prototypeable, testable, and ready to ship. That’s how you build business confidence without losing creative momentum.
The best surges don’t just explore possibility. They turn it into momentum.
The biggest shift is this: surges are adaptive by design. They aren’t tethered to a calendar. They don’t rely on physical rooms or set durations. They can happen at the start of an idea or mid-build. Sometimes it’s one designer riffing with an AI tool. Other times, it’s a cross-functional team sprinting across time zones. Surges flex to fit.
It’s less about process, more about presence.
Surge Without Losing the Why
To protect what made the sprint powerful, we need to be intentional in how we surge:
Recognize the Moment A sprint gave us a dedicated window to focus. A surge can too—but only if we mark it. Set a clear timebox (even if it’s just 90 minutes) and give it a name: decision jam, idea break, confidence builder. Frame the problem with a single prompt and align on what success looks like at the end.
Try this: Create a FigJam or doc titled “What are we solving right now?” with space for people to add assumptions, constraints, and early ideas. Use a Loom to explain it instead of calling a meeting.
Define Roles In a sprint, we had a Decider, a Facilitator, a team. In a surge, the roles still matter—sometimes even more. Define who’s leading, who’s making decisions, and who’s weighing in.
Try this: Add a simple table to the top of your surge doc with three fields: Who’s Leading / Who’s Deciding / What We Need From You. It cuts the noise in half.
Use AI to Clear the Path, Not Shape the Idea
AI can help you go broad and fast—but it can’t define the emotional core of your design. Use it to speed up the busywork, not replace your gut.
Try this: Ask AI to generate five UI variations from a prompt. Then, run a quick critique to select and evolve what’s most promising. Use it as raw material, not the final say.
Make Connection Visible
Sprints worked because people felt seen. In remote surging, we have to make that happen on purpose.
Try this: Require a Loom walkthrough when sharing early work. Or leave a Figma comment like “What would you do differently if we had twice the time?”
Close with a Retro
Even a one-hour surge deserves a retrospective. It’s how you build learning into your rhythm.
Try this: Send a single question in chat or email: “What’s one thing we learned? One thing we’d do differently?” Keep it visible. Build that feedback loop.
A New UX Surge Toolkit
These aren’t fixed formats. They’re flexible modes you can move between depending on what your team needs most. Each one serves a different purpose—some unblock momentum, others create clarity or confidence. Here's how I think about the different styles of surging:
Micro-Visual Sprints
Goal: Fast sketching to unblock decisions
Best For: Debating options and aligning on visuals
Try this: Run a 30-minute Crazy 8s session, then let people develop deeper sketches async. Share and review in a follow-up thread.
UX Strategy Surge
Goal: Build alignment around research, goals, and scope
Best For: Kicking off a new initiative or shifting direction
Try this: Use NotebookLM to summarize past research. In a shared doc or live Loom, align on what’s missing, then fill in the blanks.
Dual-Track Experiments
Goal: Explore emerging ideas alongside delivery
Best For: Unlocking creativity without stalling builds
Try this: Pair a designer with a PM or engineer to build a speculative version of the feature. Test ideas without risking velocity.
Weekly Rituals
Goal: Keep everyone aligned with minimal ceremony
Best For: Distributed or fast-moving teams
Try this: Share a weekly “What we learned” video using Loom. Let AI summarize it into a team update. Keep it brief, useful, and consistent.
Whiteboard Sketch Sessions
Goal: Spark creative ignition
Best For: Early phase brainstorming or energy resets
Try this: Jump into FigJam with a loose prompt. Draw, comment, layer ideas. Use AI to prototype low-fi sketches into usable components.
You don’t have to pick one. Just move fluidly between them—like tools in your kit.
So What Now?
We don't need to toss the sprint playbook. We just need to evolve it.
What we’re after—clarity, trust, momentum—hasn’t changed. But how we get there has. Surges are flexible enough to meet the moment, but still anchored in the values that made sprints so successful: focused collaboration, fast feedback, and space to think.
The question isn’t “Are we sprinting or surging?” It’s “Are we making space for what matters?”
The tools will keep shifting. AI will keep accelerating. But if we can protect the conditions for creativity—if we can build teams that trust each other enough to think out loud—we’re going to be okay.
I’m still experimenting with this. You probably are too.
Let me know what’s working for you.