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Three-Hour Brand Sprint

Brand Sprint

Jake Knapp · GV (Google Ventures)

Purpose & Claim
Why Knapp and GV Built the Sprint

Knapp and his GV colleagues developed the Brand Sprint for three reasons.

To make the brand concrete. Knapp admits that he is "no brand expert". For most of his career, the word brand made him uncomfortable, and brand exercises seemed close to a waste of time. When he joined Google Ventures (GV), he worked with startups for which brand work was new. They were naming their companies, designing logos and creating visual identities. In other words, they were making many big decisions (Knapp, 2017, introduction). Two of his GV colleagues, Laura Melahn and Daniel Burka, helped them through these decisions, starting with brand exercises. To Knapp's surprise, the exercises were not a silly waste of time. Their point is to turn the abstract idea of "our brand" into something concrete. Afterwards, the team has a common language to describe what the company is about, and later decisions about visuals, voice and identity become much easier (Knapp, 2017, "Brand Exercises Make Big Decisions Easier" section).

To fit the work into three hours. At GV, teams use the five-day Design Sprint for product and marketing challenges. GV put the brand exercises into a fast, sprint-like routine that any team can run, and squeezed it into three hours. Knapp gives two reasons for the short format. First, he says, more time does not automatically give better results. Second, the fast pace means the key people can take part. Knapp's article is a do-it-yourself guide that any team can follow without special expertise (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" section).

To leave a guide for later decisions. The sprint ends with a set of diagrams, "a simple brand cheat-sheet" for making decisions (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" section). These diagrams can help with big decisions on naming, identity and marketing, and even on company policy (Knapp, 2017, "Competitive Landscape" section). Knapp does not see the cheat-sheet as a substitute for a good branding agency, but as much better than nothing (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" section). For him, the three hours are well spent because of what a brand really is. When a company really gets its brand right, it is not a thin, fluffy coat added at the end, as he had often feared. Instead, it covers everything: what a company builds, how it builds it, who it builds it for and how it works (Knapp, 2017, "Competitive Landscape" section).

The Model
Six Exercises in Sequence

Three-Hour Brand Sprint: six sketched whiteboard diagrams for the six exercises, from a timeline to a two-by-two matrix
Redrawn after Knapp (2017), schematic of the six exercises in order.

Structural Logic
Motivation, Detail, Position

The Brand Sprint is a fixed sequence of six short exercises. Each one ends with a decision and a photo of the whiteboard. The photos go into a slide deck called the "Super Simple Brand Guide" (Knapp, 2017, "20-Year Roadmap" section). Taken together, the six diagrams give a strong, concrete picture of the company's brand (Knapp, 2017, "Competitive Landscape" section). Five principles shape the sprint:

  • From motivation to detail to position: the first two exercises deal with the company's motivation, the next two add detail, and the last two place the brand in relation to others (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" section). Near the end, the team checks whether its place among competitors fits all its earlier answers (Knapp, 2017, "Competitive Landscape" section).
  • One Decider: one participant is the Decider, the person who truly decides about the company's brand. In most cases this is the CEO, sometimes a co-founder or the chief marketing officer (CMO) (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section). The Decider makes the final call in every exercise (Knapp, 2017, sections 1–6).
  • Note-and-Vote: this is Knapp's name for a simple routine that he uses "throughout the Brand Sprint". Each person first writes down ideas quietly. Then everyone reads them aloud, votes quietly and discusses for a few minutes with a timer, before the Decider chooses. In the last two exercises, people mark where the company sits on four scales or place competitors on a chart instead of voting, and the discussion stays short. Knapp says the routine speeds up thinking and decisions because it alternates between solo and group work (Knapp, 2017, "20-Year Roadmap", "Personality Sliders" and "Competitive Landscape" sections).
  • Ranking, not lists: the team cuts long lists down and ranks what is left. It keeps three values in order, with a single value that matters most, and ranks its top three audiences (Knapp, 2017, "Top Three Values" and "Top Three Audiences" sections).
  • Time boxes: each exercise gets a fixed slot of time, 15 or 30 minutes (Knapp, 2017, sections 1–6). A simple timer keeps every activity within its slot. Laptops and phones are put away, apart from a single mid-session break for snacks and email (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section).

Knapp makes clear that GV did not invent these ideas or exercises. The Brand Sprint builds on ideas from great branding thinkers. Laura Melahn's favourites are a 1997 internal meeting at Apple with Steve Jobs, Stewart Butterfield's essay "We Don't Sell Saddles Here" and Simon Sinek's TED talk "How Great Leaders Inspire Action". She also lists the Nike memoir Shoe Dog by Phil Knight and the identity agency Hello Monday. As Knapp puts it, if these are the greatest hits, then the Brand Sprint is GV's mix tape (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" section). The What, How, Why exercise is "based completely" on Sinek's Golden Circle (Knapp, 2017, "What, How, Why" section). Knapp calls the last two exercises familiar classics that readers may have seen before (Knapp, 2017, "Top Three Audiences" section).

Elements
Six Exercises as Knapp Describes Them

Definitions follow Knapp (2017, sections 1–6). All examples are his own. Where he names no brand, the box shows his sample answers or remarks.

Motivation

  • 01

    20-Year Roadmap

    Fifteen minutes. Most teams focus on what they are doing now. But a successful company's brand will last a long time. So the team looks 20 years ahead. On a timeline marked 5, 10, 15 and 20 years ahead, everyone notes what the company might be doing at each date, and the Decider picks one item per date. Nobody will expect the company to stick to the roadmap later. The point is to get the team to think about how long the brand will live (Knapp, 2017, "20-Year Roadmap" section).

    What could the company be doing 5, 10, 15 and 20 years from now? (Knapp, 2017, "20-Year Roadmap" section)

    Time horizon: Knapp wrote in 2017 and closes the exercise by saying that a great brand lasts until 2038 and beyond (Knapp, 2017, "20-Year Roadmap" section).

  • 02

    What, How, Why

    Thirty minutes. The exercise is based completely on Simon Sinek's "Golden Circle". The team draws three circles inside each other: what on the outside, how in the middle, why at the centre. What is a phrase for the company's main business over the next five years. How is the "secret sauce", the technology or approach that sets the company apart. Why is the reason people get up in the morning and go to work. It should reflect the core reason the company exists and will not change much over time. The business may change course or enter new markets, but the why remains the same. Knapp agrees with Sinek that brands with a why are stronger, meaning brands whose motivation shines through. Finding the why is hard, so today's version may be a placeholder that the team comes back to later (Knapp, 2017, "What, How, Why" section).

    What does your company do? How do you do it? Why? (Knapp, 2017, "What, How, Why" section)

    Apple and Nike: in a 1997 internal meeting, Steve Jobs explained Apple's why to its employees. 20 years later, Knapp finds this why "still relevant". Looking back at Nike's earliest days in 1964, Phil Knight writes, "I believed in running." More than 50 years later, Nike still stands for almost exactly the same thing. Its mission promises inspiration and innovation for athletes everywhere, and a footnote counts everyone who has a body as an athlete (Knapp, 2017, "What, How, Why" section).
Detail

  • 03

    Top Three Values

    Thirty minutes. Values make the why more specific. Knapp knows that "company values" can sound like "consultant baloney". For him, they are what really matters to the company or, better still, "decision-making principles". Many companies list values, but few do the hard work of reducing and ranking them. The team must cut its list down to three values and rank them, so that one value stands out as the most important. Knowing that value makes decisions easier, clarifies the message and sets the company apart from its competitors (Knapp, 2017, "Top Three Values" section).

    Typical values: honesty, integrity, trust, reliability, simplicity, service, sustainability, affordability, luxury, being data-driven and accessibility for all (Knapp, 2017, "Top Three Values" section).

  • 04

    Top Three Audiences

    Thirty minutes. Values are not the whole picture, because a brand must know whom it is talking to. The team lists all possible audiences and then decides which matter most. Customers count, but Knapp suggests thinking more broadly about whose opinion matters. The brand may also matter to other businesses, the press, advertisers, staff, job candidates and even government regulators. Whether to use broad categories such as "athletes" or segments such as "runners" is up to the team. Each person votes for the two most important audiences, and then the Decider writes down the top three in order (Knapp, 2017, "Top Three Audiences" section).

    Whose opinion do you care about? (Knapp, 2017, "Top Three Audiences" section)

    Whiteboard photo: a photo in the article shows a final ranking on sticky notes, with 1 end user, 2 interior designer and architects, 3 influencers. The article does not say which company it belongs to (Knapp, 2017, "Top Three Audiences" section).
Position Relative to Others

  • 05

    Personality Sliders

    Thirty minutes. This exercise sets the attitude and style of the brand (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" section). The whiteboard shows four lines, each running between two extremes: Friend to Authority, Young & Innovative to Mature & Classic, Playful to Serious, and Mass Appeal to Elite. On these lines, the team places the company's "sliders", marks that show where the company sits. Everyone first marks a printout, then copies the marks onto the whiteboard and adds their initials. There are good reasons to sit on either side of any line, and some sliders may end up in the middle. But it helps to hold a strong opinion on at least one or two of the ranges. After a short discussion, the Decider plots the final positions (Knapp, 2017, "Personality Sliders" section).

    Disagreement: if Andy puts a dot right by "Mass Appeal" and Beatrice puts one right by "Elite", both explain their positions. The discussion does not need to take longer than five to ten minutes (Knapp, 2017, "Personality Sliders" section).

  • 06

    Competitive Landscape

    Thirty minutes. The last exercise sets the brand against other companies (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" section). It uses "a simple 2x2 matrix", two crossing axes that form four fields. Classic to Modern runs along the horizontal axis, Expressive to Reserved along the vertical one. Each person lists other companies in the same market or industry and picks the one or two most important. Their names go on sticky notes, one name per note, and the team places them on the matrix one at a time. The Decider may move any note. Finally, the team plots its own company, and the Decider makes the final call (Knapp, 2017, "Competitive Landscape" section).

    Final check: before the last decision, the team looks back at all earlier exercises. The team asks whether the placement makes sense for the roadmap, the what, how and why, the values, the audience and the sliders (Knapp, 2017, "Competitive Landscape" section).

Application
Trigger, Team, Rules and Common Mistakes

A Brand Sprint starts from a trigger, an event that needs the results right away. Good triggers include choosing a company name, getting a logo designed, hiring an agency or writing a manifesto (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section). Knapp then explains who should take part, how to plan the sprint and what it produces:

  • Team: a Brand Sprint needs two to six company executives, people who have authority over the company's identity and feel it is theirs. The CEO must be in the room, together with at least one of these: a co-founder, the head of marketing, or the head of product or design. One of them is the Decider. The team also needs one or two facilitators, for example from marketing, product or design. They should have good writing skills (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section). During the exercises, they write the answers and votes on the whiteboard (Knapp, 2017, "20-Year Roadmap" section).
  • Customer view: sometimes a customer expert joins. In GV's Brand Sprint with Element Science, CEO Uday Kumar was the Decider, and design director Maarten Dinger took part. Kumar also brought along John White, an expert on medical devices, to help the team look at things as a customer would (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section).
  • Time and room: the sprint fits into a morning or an afternoon. It works best as one block of three hours, in a room with plenty of whiteboard space, blank paper and pens (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section).
  • Homework: ideally, all participants read the article and fill out a PDF worksheet beforehand. Without this homework, the sprint still works (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section).
  • Result: the "Super Simple Brand Guide" is only a slide deck full of whiteboard photos, but Knapp warns not to underestimate it. A company that hires a branding agency can start by walking the agency through it, which gives a big head start. It can also show new employees what the company is about (Knapp, 2017, "Competitive Landscape" section).
Common Mistakes

Knapp warns against five things that can spoil a Brand Sprint:

  • Sprinting without a need: Knapp advises against a Brand Sprint when there is no real need. If the team will not use the results right away, it should wait for a trigger (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section).
  • No Decider: the sprint does not work without the Decider. If the Decider will not make the time, the team should not run the sprint (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section).
  • Too much open talk: Note-and-Vote is used throughout because, as Daniel Burka says, letting people talk freely will make the whole thing a disaster (Knapp, 2017, "20-Year Roadmap" section).
  • Long lists of values: with ten or twenty values, anything the company does can count as "on brand" (Knapp, 2017, "Top Three Values" section).
  • A pragmatic why: a great why "sounds basic. It's not." The CEO or founder should be idealistic and remember why they started the company or took the job. Knapp adds that this is no time to be practical, but a time to wear one's heart on one's sleeve (Knapp, 2017, "What, How, Why" section).

Takeaway
Key Contributions and Limitations

Key Contributions

  • Brand work in three hours: the sprint packs the start of brand work into one timed session of three hours. Knapp doubts that more time brings better results by itself, and a short session gets the right people into the room (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" section). By comparison, a survey of brand consultancies by Carsten Baumgarth and colleagues found that classic brand positioning projects took almost six months on average (Baumgarth et al., 2023, pp. 171–172).
  • A Decider in the room: one person with real authority over the brand, usually the CEO, takes part and makes the final call in every exercise (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section and sections 1–6). Baumgarth and colleagues kept this role when they built their own version, the New Brand Sprint. They assume that deciders who take part early will be more committed to carrying out the results (Baumgarth et al., 2023, p. 173).
  • Note-and-Vote: quiet writing and voting come before a short, timed discussion. This speeds up thinking and decisions (Knapp, 2017, "20-Year Roadmap" section). Baumgarth and colleagues kept this rule too. In their words, it lets everyone present their opinions without being swayed by other group members (Baumgarth et al., 2023, pp. 173, 176).
  • Ranking, not lists: values are cut to three and ranked, and audiences are ranked too. Knowing the most important value makes decisions easier, sharpens the message and sets the company apart from competitors (Knapp, 2017, "Top Three Values" and "Top Three Audiences" sections).
  • The long view before detail: the sprint starts 20 years ahead and then asks why the company exists. Only then does it turn to values, audiences, personality and competitors (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" section). The why exercise itself is not new. It is based completely on Simon Sinek's Golden Circle. What the sprint adds is the order, so that the details are chosen in the light of a why that will not change much over time (Knapp, 2017, "What, How, Why" section).
  • A brand guide any team can make: the result is six simple diagrams that a team produces itself, "without any special expertise", and then uses as a guide for decisions (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" and "Competitive Landscape" sections).

Limitations

  • Customer benefit only implied: the what and the how describe the business and the approach that sets it apart. No exercise asks what customers gain from the offer.
  • Audiences without a customer picture: the sprint ranks whose opinion matters, but it does not describe these people. It has no element for their needs or for a community around the brand. Nor does it ask which typical user customers should picture, or how the brand should make them feel about themselves.
  • No signature elements: naming the company and designing a logo are typical triggers for a sprint (Knapp, 2017, "Set the Stage" section). The sliders set the brand's attitude and style, and the sprint is meant to make later decisions about visuals and voice easier (Knapp, 2017, "Brand Exercises Make Big Decisions Easier" and "Introducing the Brand Sprint" sections). Yet none of the six exercises defines the recurring signs that should express the brand, such as name, logo, colours or typical wording.
  • No touchpoints: no exercise asks where people should come into contact with the brand, for example in communication, sales or service.
  • Meant as a start: Knapp presents the sprint as no substitute for a good branding agency (Knapp, 2017, "Introducing the Brand Sprint" section). Even the why may stay a placeholder that the team comes back to later (Knapp, 2017, "What, How, Why" section).
  • Adapted by others: Baumgarth and colleagues tested the sprint and concluded that it has to be adapted to fit the needs of brand managers more closely. Their New Brand Sprint keeps the format but changes the exercises. It works on a persona, a detailed picture of a typical customer, and on the main trends that shape the market. It also covers competitors, the company's most valuable resources and brand values (Baumgarth et al., 2023, pp. 173, 175–176).

References

  1. Baumgarth, C., Boltz, D.-M., & Kaibel, C. (2023). Creating Value for Brand Practice by Design Research – New Brand Sprint as an Illustrative Example. Journal of Creating Value, 9(2), 166–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/23949643231199513
  2. Knapp, J. (2017, March 16). The Three-Hour Brand Sprint: GV's Simple Recipe for Getting Started on Your Brand. GV Library. https://library.gv.com/the-three-hour-brand-sprint-3ccabf4b768a (archived December 29, 2018). Retrieved October 6, 2026, from https://web.archive.org/web/20181229074228/https://library.gv.com/the-three-hour-brand-sprint-3ccabf4b768a

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