The ultimate guide to running a high impact messaging sprint 🏃 (with templates!)
Great messaging scales everything.
But to get to great messaging requires a lot of thought and collaboration with great minds in your company.
Extracting expertise from product leaders, while removing technical complexities in their descriptions. Using the creativity and wit of brand and copywriters while not losing the essence of the message or differentiated value. Communicating in a compelling way while not being generic, boring or creating “me too” messaging.
It’s harder than it looks folks. This is why you need a messaging sprint.
Ermm….. what’s a Messaging Sprint?
A messaging sprint is inspired by the designing thinking framework that has prooven itself out in the UX design industry. We are applying the principles of design sprints to messaging - a proven methodology for solving problems through designing, prototyping, and testing ideas with users.
Design thinking framework
A messaging sprint is a focused workshop where you and your team work together to develop and refine your messaging strategy. It's a great way to ensure that your messaging is clear, concise, and persuasive, and that it resonates with your target audience.
Where do design sprints come from?
The Design Sprint methodology was developed at Google from a vision to grow UX culture and the practice of design leadership across the organization. Multiple teams within Google experimented with different methods from traditional UX practice, IDEO, the Stanford School, business strategy, and even psychology, applying them to support divergent and convergent thinking with teams. The resulting framework and set of methods is flexible, and teams are continuing to adapt it based on different goals and organizational cultures.
Planning Your Messaging Sprint
Preparing for your Messaging Sprint is as important as the running of the Sprint itself.
Write a Sprint Brief ✍️ align your team and stakeholders on the goals and deliverables for the Sprint. Make it a shared document and allow stakeholders to input anything upfront they would like to cover to align on new messsaging. Clearly articulate the methods you will use to achieve your goals. It should also include the background for the sprint, the ultimate DRIs on messaging and any guest speakers that may attend.
Identify the Challenge – Is It Right for a Messaging Sprint? Each Messaging Sprint is centered on a single, clearly defined Sprint Challenge. This acts as a 🌟 north star 🌟 throughout the Sprint to keep the team focused on the problem they are trying to solve for. Reviewing the Sprint Challenge and goals with your team’s leadership early in the planning process ensures your Messaging Sprint has the necessary support for the outcomes after the Sprint. Examples of good challenges for Design Sprints include:
Create a storyboard, vision messaging document for a new AI product you are launching into market
Redesign a product’s messaging & website copy to increase conversion
Explore new messaging for articulating your product’s value in different industries, verticals or different personas
Redesign or reposition your brand messaging and homepage
Define the vision and ultimate customer facing message for a new product offering
Assemble Your Messaging Sprint Team 👯👯👯 The ideal Messaging Sprint group size is 5 - 10 people. If you have a larger team, break up the team into smaller groups of five to seven people each. A Messaging Sprint team should include people who will be responsible for executing the product development, messaging, copywriting, or strategy after the Sprint. Every person whose input is required in determining the product’s core value to end users and key differentiation should be involved in the Sprint. This includes those who can reject unclear messaging and those who will use the messaging forward after the Messaging Sprint.
Teams typically include a Product Manager, PMMs, brand & creative marketing, content & copywriters, campaign managers.
Identify guest speakers for the sprint too, like sales reps, executive leaders, customer success folks - anyone who has direct contact with the customers or users ideally!
Creating your Sprint Agenda 📜 Start with the Challenge Statement and working backward to select methods that suit your Messaging Sprint’s needs, planning time accordingly. Most Messaging Sprints are between 2 - 5 days long.
Replace the word “brand” with “product” and this Miroboard works really well for a product focused messaging sprint agenda.
Find sprint tools ⚒️ 🧰 this is where the fun begins! Decide whether the sprint will be in person, fully remote or hybrid. I’d suggest one or the other, the hybrid model tends to not benefit the remote participants. If you are running an in-person sprint, you’ll need to book an appropriate room with whiteboards, markers, sticky notes, screens and all your AV needs.
If you are running a virtual sprint, there are tons of online resources available to help you run your sprint. Here’s a few I like to use from the Miro digital whiteboarding app.
Based on the work of April Dunford, a simple tool for mapping out the positioning of a product.
The Message Sprint Deck
This workshop method is based on a card "game" that tricks your team into sharing their feelings and stories, and helps get your best market messaging out of your team's heads and out onto the table "literally."
Build a Deck 🏗️ Some people like to lead their Design Sprints with a deck, others might prefer to using a Miro board (or other digital whiteboard product). If you do like to use a deck, I have linked some templates you are welcome to use. Participants may not be familiar with the methodology and the deck can help support you explain the methodology as the facilitator.
Running Your Messaging Sprint
Here are some tips for running a successful messaging sprint:
Communicate clear goals upfront. What do you want to achieve by the end of the sprint? Make sure everyone on the team is aligned on the goals.
Involve the right people. Be sure to include representatives from all relevant stakeholders. This will help to ensure that your messaging is comprehensive and effective and also will be adopted downstream as they were involved in crafting it.
Make it fun! We all have ADHD now and attention grabbing will be your biggest hurdle. Make it a healthy competition with prizes if that is appropriate.
Have many breaks to check emails and bio/snack breaks. People need to stretch and shake it off.
Take lots of pictures during the sprint. This will be used as evidence of success later on.
So I ran my sprint… now what?
Before you start implementing the messaging, it’s important to share the success of the sprint activity. Why? Because you asked for a lot of time from the resources and it’s important they and their leaders know that is was time well spent.
Summarize what happened during the sprint and send out a communication via email or slack. Identify the objective of the sprint, the outcomes, the wins, the next steps. Thank everyone for their time. Share all documents and resources in this communication too (the deck you used, the outputs)
Spotlight the most enthusiastic sprint participant in the communication
Ensure executive leaders get a copy of this communication so they are aware of changes coming to messaging strategy and how it was aligned on cross functionally.
Here is a plan to implement your messaging after the messaging sprint:
Test your messaging before you launch. Once you have developed a few messaging concepts, test them out with potential customers to see which ones resonate the most. Or use message testing platforms like Wynter (for B2B buyers) or something equivalent if you are in the B2C space.
Get feedback from others. Once you have a draft of your messaging, get feedback from other stakeholders outside the sprint group, and potential customers. This will help you to refine your messaging and make it as effective as possible.
Create a marketing workback schedule to tackle where the new messaging will launch. This can include:
Update your website. Make sure your website copy is consistent with your new messaging. This includes everything from your homepage to your product pages to your blog posts.
Update in app messaging. This can be pop up notifications, in app help centers, admin portals, tutorials and more.
Update your social media pages. Update your bio, profile photos, and cover photos to reflect your new messaging. You should also review your social media posts and make sure they are aligned with your new messaging.
Update your marketing materials. Update your brochures, flyers, and other marketing materials to reflect your new messaging.
Update your email marketing campaigns. Update your email subject lines, body copy, and calls to action to reflect your new messaging.
Train your sales and customer support teams. Make sure your sales and customer support teams are familiar with your new messaging so they can communicate it effectively to customers.
Develop a plan for tracking and measuring the results of your new messaging. This could involve tracking website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates and click-through rates, and sales leads and conversions.
Additional tips for implementation post sprint
Make it gradual. Don't try to change all of your messaging overnight. Start by updating the most important pages and campaigns, and then gradually roll out the new messaging to the rest of your website and marketing materials.
Be consistent. Make sure your messaging is consistent across all channels. This means using the same key messages and value propositions on your website, social media pages, marketing materials, and email campaigns.
Be authentic. Your messaging should be authentic and reflect your brand's tone of voice and personality. Avoid using jargon or clichés.
Be clear and concise. Your messaging should be clear, concise, and easy to understand. Avoid using technical language or overly complex sentences. Simplicity always wins.
Be persuasive. Your messaging should be persuasive and convince customers to take action. Use strong calls to action and highlight the benefits of your product or service.
You are now ready to run a high-impact messaging sprint!
Gather your team, set your goals, and get pumped to develop messaging and positioning that actually moves the needle. Good luck!
