By Mehdi HassanHow should a founder prepare for a brand sprint?
A founder prepares for a brand sprint by settling the facts and logistics before day one, so the sprint's time goes into decisions and design. The sprint moves fast. Every hour spent finding a pitch deck or debating who the customer is comes out of the time for testing the brand on real screens.
This checklist is the one we send before a sprint, written for founders who haven't done one. If you're still deciding on the format, our guide to what a brand sprint is explains what it delivers. If you want to see how the days run once you've prepared, read the brand sprint agenda.
What's on the brand sprint preparation checklist?
The checklist has seven items, and most are quick to complete. The first one, naming and booking the decision-makers, matters more than all the others combined.
- Name the decision-makers. Two or three people with final say, usually the founders. Book them for the day-one session and the review where one direction is chosen.
- Gather your words. Pitch deck, current homepage, product screenshots, sales emails and any customer quotes you have permission to share.
- List the alternatives. Three to five competitors, plus what buyers do instead of buying anything, with links.
- Note what must stay. The name, a color, a symbol or a phrase with real recognition.
- Rank where the brand appears first. Website, pitch deck, product, app store, events. In order.
- Collect references. A few brands you admire, inside or outside your category, with one line on why.
- Answer the questionnaire. The questions below, in plain words, by the founders.
What questions should you answer before a brand sprint?
Answer questions about customers, the problem, the alternatives and the future before the sprint, so day one starts from your knowledge rather than from a blank board. Rough, honest answers are more useful than polished ones.
Question | Why we ask it |
|---|---|
Who is your best customer today, in one sentence? | Sets the primary audience |
What were they using before you? | Defines the real alternatives |
Why did they switch, in their words? | Becomes proof points and headlines |
What do people get wrong about your company? | Shows what the brand must correct |
What should the company stand for in 10 years? | Tells us how far the identity must stretch |
Which three words should never describe you? | Rules out directions early |
What's the next big moment: launch, raise or hire? | Sets which screens matter most |
Who signs off if the founders disagree? | Names the decider |
Have each decision-maker answer separately before comparing. Where answers differ, that's the agenda for day one. If you'd rather work from a fuller document, our brand design brief template expands these questions into a brief you can reuse with any designer.
Should you run GV's three-hour workshop before a paid sprint?
You can, and it rarely hurts. Running the exercises internally first gets the founders comfortable with ranking and cutting, and surfaces disagreements early. Bring the output to the sprint as an input, not a final answer.
The one risk is locking in choices too early. Treat the workshop's values and sliders as a draft the sprint can challenge. The three-hour brand sprint explains each exercise if you want to run it yourself.
What materials should you gather before a brand sprint?
Gather what already shapes how people see your company: the words you use, the screens customers see and the competitors they compare you with. Put everything in one shared folder with clear names, and send it before the sprint starts.
- Current brand assets. Any logo files you have, ideally the editable source, plus colors and fonts in use.
- Product screenshots. The core views customers use most, including dark mode if you have one.
- Sales and investor material. The latest deck and a couple of strong sales emails.
- Customer language. Reviews, support tickets or interview notes you're allowed to share.
- Brand references. Links to brand books you admire. Brand guidelines examples has a list to start from.
- Constraints. Accessibility requirements, regulated wording, or partner logos the brand must sit next to.
Don't make a moodboard or sketch logos unless you already have ideas you care about. If you do, bring them and say so. A designer would rather know your attachment on day one than find out on day three.
How do you prepare your calendar and team?
Block time first, then prepare everything else. The decision-makers need most of the first session, the review where one direction is chosen, time to comment on the applied screens and a walkthrough at handover. We agree the exact calendar on the intro call. Treat these like investor meetings.
Book the sessions
Put the first session and the direction review in every decision-maker's calendar before the sprint is confirmed.
Clear the week
Avoid fundraising meetings and launches in the same week. Brand decisions need attention, not leftover minutes.
Brief the wider team
Tell the team what's happening, ask for questionnaire input and say when they'll see the result.
Pick a file owner
Decide who receives and stores the final files, and who briefs the developer afterwards.
What should you plan for after you prepare for a brand sprint?
Plan where the brand goes next before the sprint starts, so the files land somewhere useful. For most startups that's the website, then the deck, then the product. Knowing that order helps the studio choose which screens to design.
If you'll hand the files to your own developer, read preparing Figma files for a clean build so you know what a build-ready file looks like. And plan to turn the sprint's rules into working guidelines your team will use; what brand guidelines should include covers the essentials.
