Project Setup

Everything that happens before Day 1.

1. Review Past Sprints

Review past sprint results and retrospectives when setting up the project.

1a. Review Learnings

Before setting up a new project, review learnings-zebra-design-sprints.md and adapt the sprint setup accordingly.

The learnings file captures project-specific observations that aren't process changes but affect how you prepare. Examples: calibrate facilitator directness to client type, protect sprint weeks from travel, ensure all attendees have project context.

Each learnings entry is tagged to the project it came from. Over time, this builds a checklist of things to watch for.

1b. Check the Sprint App Roadmap

Review before-next-sprint.md for anything that needs building before this engagement starts. That file is the MoSCoW-prioritised build list — triggered on booking day, built with the specific client's context. These are delayed as the priority is getting clients, not optimising for non-existent clients!

2. Project setup

2a. Technical

Setup the project plan and files and background. Creating a documentation folder in a fresh repo ready for the project. Move any files such as the proposal, call notes and transcripts.

Then create the client dashboard on the sprint.zebradesign.io app:

See the Research Tech Dashboard as an example of a final dashboard at the end of the project.

This helps everyone understand where they are in the sprint process and have one link which is one source of truth for all the files they need. No pings "where is the link for X" mid-project.

2b. Team onboarding

Setup the team onboarding flow on sprint.zebradesign.io

All attendees complete the sprint onboarding flow before Workshop 1. This ensures everyone understands what the sprint delivers, what it doesn't, and where the boundaries are.

See the Research Tech onboarding as an example of the flow.

2c. Workshop setup

Who Should Attend the Workshop

Must attend:

The Decider — Person with final authority on product decisions. Without them, decisions stall.
Domain Expert(s) — People who understand the users, the market, or the technical constraints. Their knowledge prevents the designer from making assumptions alone.

Onboard Workshop Attendees

Send calendar invites to all attendes.

Appendix - Example Docs

Example Onboarding Email

Hi everyone,

I'm Charlie from Zebra Design. We're kicking off Sprint 1 next Monday 5th of January — here's what to expect. 

Workshop — Day 1
You should have received a calendar invite - 11am CET Monday 5th of January 
We'll spend 2-3 hours together mapping the onboarding and/or "Chat with your Diligence" flow. I'll facilitate — you bring the knowledge about your users and product. This is an important process where you as the knowledge experts inform the design and make sure we focus on the most critical user journey for success.

It's an intensive session, so block the time fully and come ready to focus. No prep work needed — just show up present.

After the workshop, scope locks. You know exactly what you're getting, I know exactly what I'm building. New ideas become Sprint 2 or 3.

Designing — Days 2 to 4
I design and build the new user experience in code. You'll get daily Loom updates — no calls needed. If you want me to iterate from an existing codebase rather than start from scratch, we can discuss in the workshop.

Validate — Day 5
We test with real users, review findings, and iterate together. For this project, we may delay user testing until Sprint 2 — testing more features in one session.

What You'll Have at the End of Sprint 1
Onboarding flow: Sign up → Create project → First insights
Deployment-ready code (Next.js/React) — not Figma files
Responsive: Desktop, tablet, mobile
The Full Picture — 3 Sprints

Sprint 1: Onboarding flow
Sprint 2: Report interface + "Chat with your diligence"
Sprint 3: Landing page + iterations based on user feedback
We define the exact scope in the workshop at the beginning of each sprint — adjusting to exactly what you need. This is just an example.

Your Dashboard: 
https://sprint.zebradesign.io/dashboard/research-tech-1 

See you on the 5th!
Charlie

Example Calendar Invite

What to expect:
I'm Charlie from Zebra Design. We're kicking off Sprint 1 on Monday 5th of January 2026.

Workshop — Day 1
We'll spend 2-3 hours together mapping the onboarding and/or "Chat with your Diligence" flow in Miro — you bring the knowledge about your product. This is an important process where you as the knowledge experts inform the design.

Next: Workshops