A Quick Path to Powerful Brand Clarity

In a world where consistent branding can increase revenue by 23% and 64% of consumers cite shared values as the primary reason they form relationships with brands, it’s clear: your brand is more than just your logo or color palette. It’s the soul of your business.

But when you’re moving fast—launching a product, pivoting directions, or aligning stakeholders—you might not have weeks (or even days) to build your brand strategy from scratch. That’s where the Brand Sprint comes in.

Originally popularized by Jake Knapp and the Google Ventures team, the Brand Sprint is a rapid, high-impact workshop designed to distill your brand’s essence in just three hours. And with our Three-Hour Brand Sprint Template, your team gets a guided framework to make the most of that time—no prior branding experience required.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to conduct a Brand Sprint effectively, what to expect from each phase, and how to use the template to create a shared brand philosophy that drives decisions and builds unity across teams.

What Is a Brand Sprint?

A Brand Sprint is a structured, collaborative session that helps teams rapidly define their brand identity. It's especially useful for early-stage startups, teams undergoing rebranding, or organizations that need to align stakeholders before engaging with designers or marketing agencies.

Rather than trying to build a brand in a vacuum, the sprint format guides your team through six powerful exercises that cover:

Why your company exists (your mission)
What you stand for (your values)
Who you serve (your target audience)
How you talk and behave (your personality)
Who your competitors are
What you want to be known for (positioning)

The result? A brand cheat sheet that acts as a compass for everything from product naming and design to advertising and hiring.

When to Run a Brand Sprint

A Brand Sprint isn’t for every situation, but it’s ideal for moments like:

Founding a startup and needing to define your brand DNA
Preparing for a website redesign or new product launch
Onboarding a design agency or marketing partner
Rebranding after a merger, shift in audience, or change in mission
Clarifying direction after internal misalignment or confusion

If your team ever says, “I’m not sure if that’s on-brand,” or, “We all have different ideas of what we stand for,”—it’s time for a sprint.

How to Conduct a Brand Sprint in 3 Hours

Let’s break down the six activities in our Three-Hour Brand Sprint Template and how to run them effectively.

🕐 1. 20-Year Roadmap (20 minutes)

Objective: Get your team aligned on the long-term vision.

Ask your team: Where do we want this company to be in 5, 10, and 20 years?

This isn’t just goal-setting—it’s about capturing ambition. Are you aiming for IPO? Becoming a household name? Staying small but beloved?

Tips:

Keep it aspirational but grounded.
Encourage bold thinking.
Capture all ideas visually using the template timeline.

🕐 2. What, How, Why (20 minutes)

Objective: Define your company’s purpose using Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle.

What do you do?
How do you do it differently?
Why do you do it (your mission)?

Example:
What: We sell handmade plant-based skincare.
How: We use local ingredients and no synthetic chemicals.
Why: Because we believe in clean, conscious beauty.

Tips:

Get to the emotional core of your "Why"—it inspires loyalty.
Keep statements short and clear.

🕐 3. Top Three Values (30 minutes)

Objective: Identify the core values that guide decisions and behavior.

Provide your team with a list of potential values (the template includes a built-in value bank) and ask them to vote on their top three. Then discuss and refine.

Tips:

Values should be actionable, not generic.
Test them: Would you fire or hire based on them?
Use examples from real team behavior to validate each value.

🕐 4. Target Audience & Personas (30 minutes)

Objective: Define who you’re serving—and who you’re not.

Use the template’s persona builder to describe key customer types: demographics, needs, pain points, behaviors, and values.

Tips:

Focus on 2–3 primary personas, not everyone.
Use real customer feedback if available.
Don’t forget to map how each persona interacts with your brand.

🕐 5. Brand Attributes (20 minutes)

Objective: Define your brand’s personality.

Using a slider scale (included in the template), rate your brand between pairs of traits like:

Traditional ↔ Modern
Serious ↔ Playful
Exclusive ↔ Inclusive

This builds the foundation for tone of voice and visual design.

Tips:

Avoid contradictions (e.g., “casual and formal”).
Choose attributes that reflect how you want to be perceived, not just how you are now.

🕐 6. Competitive Landscape (30 minutes)

Objective: Understand how you fit into your market and differentiate.

Use the two-axis mapping template to plot yourself and your competitors based on attributes like price vs. quality, or niche vs. mass appeal.

Tips:

Don’t try to be everything to everyone.
Spot the white space where your brand can own a unique position.
Document key competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.

Wrapping It Up: The Brand Cheat Sheet

At the end of the three hours, your team walks away with a one-page summary—your Brand Cheat Sheet. It’s your internal brand bible, and it should be shared widely across departments:

Marketing uses it to craft messaging.
Designers reference it for visual consistency.
HR uses it during hiring and onboarding.
Leadership uses it for decision-making alignment.

Our template helps you compile all outputs into this final sheet, ready to distribute, present, and revisit.

Pro Tips for a Successful Brand Sprint

Limit participants: Aim for 3–6 people max to keep it efficient. Include a founder, product lead, designer, and marketer if possible.
Use a neutral facilitator: Someone who can keep time, prompt discussion, and remain impartial.
Don’t aim for perfection: The sprint is about clarity and direction, not polishing final assets.
Timebox discussions: Stay on schedule and avoid rabbit holes.
Record decisions visually: Use sticky notes, diagrams, and the template’s built-in collaborative tools.

Final Thoughts: Move Fast, Build Clarity

Branding doesn’t have to be a months-long project with huge budgets and endless meetings. In just three hours, a well-run Brand Sprint can set the foundation for everything your team does—from storytelling and design to product development and hiring.

And with the Three-Hour Brand Sprint Template, you don’t have to start from scratch. You can guide your team through an insightful, collaborative experience that generates clarity, alignment, and momentum.

Because the truth is—your brand already exists. This sprint just helps you see it clearly and share it confidently.