Tactical Sprints: Targeted Solutions for Quick Wins
Businesses often face challenges that require immediate attention and quick solutions. Understanding this need, we’ve created the Tactical Sprint, a service designed to address specific problems with precision and efficiency. This service aims to deliver quick results.
A “sprint” refers to a fixed time frame during which a team works to complete specific tasks and deliverables. It is common jargon used with groups that practice agile methodologies (like COLAB). The purpose of a sprint is to facilitate the team’s focus on delivering value over time. At COLAB, each sprints lasts 2-4 weeks and encompasses the planning, execution, and review of work.
The Tactical Sprint provides fast and effective solutions to pressing issues. If this is our first time working together, we take some time (on our dime) to get your project and any technical details in order before we start.
Our first step is understanding how the piece we’re working on fits into your ecosystem. This step helps ensure we’re solving the right problem AND gives us a greater understanding of the big picture. Often, a deeper understanding allows us to identify related issues and sometimes highlights root causes.
Why do we offer this service?
We know that sometimes you need a bug squashed or a small feature added without a big contract. This need has made us accustomed to stepping into the unknown and rapidly learning to work within existing systems. Luckily, our team has dealt with some very hairy issues, so we are comfortable diving in.
What is involved in a Tactical Sprint?
Before the Tactical Sprint begins, we work closely with you to discuss the scope of the problem that needs a resolution. A dialog before we’re in the work ensures a clear focus and sets the stage for a concise, impactful engagement. We want to ensure we’re driving results with any work we take on.
We’ll estimate how much work we think it will take to hit your goal. We’ll schedule the work and move into production if you feel good about that. We’ll let you know if we run into anything unexpected, but we try to get ahead of that in our discussion.
In production, the project team (sometimes an army of one) will plan the work and begin to execute it, providing updates to you on an appropriate cadence. The cadence of this may look different depending on the duration of our engagement.
Once we complete the work, we run quality assurance (QA) tests to ensure we’ve effectively addressed the issue and our work has kept pages consistent with the updates we were making.
When we feel good about the work, we share a preview link with you for approval. If we have noticed anything unusual or concerning, we’ll communicate that to you to get it on your radar. Assuming you feel good about our work, we’ll get the change deployed to production and QA the live site to ensure there is no disruption to visitors.
How much does a Tactical Sprint cost?
Structuring work as sprints helps us schedule and complete projects much more rapidly than a strict time and materials engagement (by the hour). Our clients have preferred this simple pricing structure tied to scope rather than what can feel like an ambiguous hours estimate. As a result, we offer the following cost options to suit various needs:
| Sprint Size | Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter Sprint | $5,000 | A quarter sprint usually handles a couple of problems or one juicy one. |
| Half Sprint | $10,000 | A half sprint usually involves a couple of team members, covering several tasks of different types (e.g., design AND development, strategy AND design). |
| Full Sprint | $20,000 | A full sprint includes an entire team over two weeks, capable of producing a variety of outputs (e.g., new features, page layouts, etc.). |
The most obvious concern is that every task differs, so the sprint size varies depending on the ask. The emphasis of our work is on delivering value. We prioritize tasks that promise the most significant impact within the limited timeframe of a Tactical Sprint.
Let’s talk about what you need. Clear communication is a cornerstone of our approach, ensuring you are well-informed and engaged throughout the process. We aim to avoid assumptions and foster open dialogue to ensure satisfaction and alignment.
Sound interesting? Send us a note.
The Tactical Sprint is a fancy name for getting things done and problems solved. You can be sure we’ll be focused, delivering quick results and valuable insights. Whether you’re looking to address a specific challenge or explore potential opportunities for growth, the Tactical Sprint will meet your needs efficiently and effectively.