Focus Sprint: extreme collaboration to reach a goal

One goal, two weeks, the whole team focused. The experiment that changed how we deliver.

Eighteen months ago at Medexprim, we tried something different. Instead of juggling multiple projects (yes, the usual startup life), we decided to pause EVERYTHING for two weeks to focus on ONE single objective. This initiative, which would later be followed by our Operation Health and Innovation Week, was our first experiment in exploring new ways of working.

Inspiration: Impact Teams

Impact Teams are a project management approach that brings together a multidisciplinary team to solve a complex problem or achieve an ambitious goal in a short period. This method has proven effective across various industries, enabling rapid and significant progress on critical projects.

Key elements of Impact Teams:

1. Dedicated, multidisciplinary team
2. Clear, time-bound objective
3. Autonomy and flexibility in approach
4. Total focus on the goal, free from distractions

Our Golden Rule for the Focus Sprint: Concentration and Collaboration

The fundamental principle was simple but crucial: free an entire team from their usual responsibilities to concentrate on a single goal. This meant:

• Canceling all non-essential meetings (yes, it's possible!)
• Putting other projects on hold (with everyone's agreement)
• Bringing together teams that usually work separately
• Daily check-ins to stay focused and avoid distractions

As one of our engineers noted: "For the first time, we could truly dive deep into something together, as a unified team, without any distractions."

Structure of the Focus Sprint

Preparation (2 weeks prior)

• Clear definition of our objective
• Team assembly
• Workspace and schedule organization

Execution (2-3 weeks)

• All-hands kick-off
• Quick daily sync to maintain focus
• Continuous cross-team collaboration

Conclusion

• Achievement assessment
• Remaining tasks identification
• Lessons learned

"Finally being able to dive deep into a complex problem without constant context switching made all the difference." said by Cécile Heyvaert when describying this event

Organization

We created conditions for total immersion:

• Protected team time (seriously protected!)
• Clear communication with the rest of the company
• Dedicated workspace
• Flexible daily organization

Results and Impact

The Focus Sprint delivered significant results:

• Major progress on our main objective
• True collective building across different teams
• Strengthened collaboration between complementary expertises

What really stood out was seeing teams that rarely collaborated working hand in hand, each bringing their unique expertise to the table.

Coralie Carron , our Product Manager, observed: "Having everyone in the same room, not just R&D, helped us focus directly on business needs. This cross-team collaboration brought real value to the project."

Lessons Learned and Challenges

Three key learnings hit home:

1. Get management fully on board. Your goal needs to be clear and supported before day one
2. Give freedom with focus. Complete team autonomy yes, but each day we had to decide: "Does this serve our goal?" If not, out it goes
3. The "back to reality" moment needs serious planning. When the sprint ends, every remaining task needs an immediate decision: either it gets a spot in the roadmap, or we kill it. No middle ground

Impact on Our Company Culture

The Focus Sprint had a positive impact on our way of working:

• Strengthened our ability to tackle complex challenges
• Improved cross-team collaboration
• Development of a results-oriented mindset
• Renewed team motivation

Conclusion

The Focus Sprint was an intense and enriching experience. For several weeks, we were completely immersed in a shared project - a unique experience of collaboration and concentration.

While some tasks took longer than expected to finalize once we returned to our regular rhythm (yes, that's the reality!), this initiative showed us what a fully focused team can achieve.

For our next Focus Sprints, we know we'll need to:

• Better define our exit criteria
• Be brave enough to stop certain actions to ensure a cleaner conclusion
• Find a better way to handle the transition back to regular work

But one thing's for sure: this first experience opened the door to a new way of tackling our most ambitious challenges.

What about you? How do you handle projects that require total team focus? Have you tried something similar? Share your experiences!

#FocusSprint #Innovation #StartupLife #MedTech #TeamCollaboration

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