SPARK vs a design sprint.
A design sprint is a structured process, usually four to five days, for exploring and prototyping a solution to a design problem, popularised by Google Ventures. A SPARK day is a single day that takes a real problem from your business, runs it through commercial validation, and produces a build-or-don't verdict, a defined scope, and a working prototype, built live on MO_AI by senior engineers. The core difference: a design sprint explores an idea; a SPARK day pressure-tests whether it is worth building and starts building it.
One explores. One decides and builds.
| SPARK day | Design sprint | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | One day. | Four to five days. |
| Output | A working prototype plus a build-or-don't verdict. | A concept prototype to test with users. |
| Who runs it | Senior engineers building live on MO_AI. | A facilitator with your team in the room. |
| Focus | Commercial: is this worth building, and what would it take. | Design and user experience. |
| What you leave with | A verdict, a defined scope, and a prototype that proves the call. | Validated design directions and learnings. |
| Cost | £10,000, fixed and confirmed before you book. | Varies by facilitator and team time. |
In short: a design sprint spends four to five days exploring a design problem with your team; a SPARK day spends one day deciding whether an idea is worth building and starting to build it, for a fixed £10,000.
A design sprint is the better choice if your problem is genuinely a design and user-experience question that needs several days of divergent exploration with your team in the room. SPARK is deliberately fast and commercial, and it is not a substitute for deep design research.
SPARK is the right choice when you already roughly know what you want and need to know fast whether it is worth building and what it would take.