$99 and 5 Days

The Design Sprint That Would've Saved Me 100k

Jedrzej Prywata

1 / 15

Multiple products.

Nobody wanted them.

Months of building.

Launch day arrives.

Nothing.

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Then

Months building

Hope

Guessing

→

Now

5 days validating

Data

Knowing

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Real Demand vs. Polite Feedback

Polite feedback: "That sounds cool."

Polite feedback: "Yeah, I'd probably use that."

Real demand:

A stranger clicks "Buy" without knowing you exist.

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The Stranger Principle

✕ Friends tell you what you want to hear.

✓ Strangers show you what they actually do.

Your network is biased.
Strangers are signal.

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Google Ventures' Design Sprint

5 days. Team of 7. Validated learning.

Used by: Slack, Blue Bottle, The New York Times

The problem? You need a team of 7.

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The Solo Adaptation

Claude Code replaces 5 roles:

🔍 Researcher

✍️ Copywriter

📊 Marketing

📈 Analyst

👹 Devil's Advocate

Same rigor. Solo execution.

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1

DEFINE

Claude Code as your Researcher

→ Who has this problem worst?

→ What solutions exist?

→ What's missing in the market?

Output

Problem statement + target customer

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2

DEBATE

Claude Code as your Devil's Advocate

→ Generate multiple solution approaches

→ Challenge each one

→ Choose the strongest to test

Output

One hypothesis worth testing

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3

DRAFT

Claude Code as your Copywriter

→ Landing page copy (not the product)

→ Value proposition clarity

→ Call to action

Output

Something strangers can react to

Test ideas before writing production code.

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4

DATA

Put it in front of strangers

The $99 in the title?

It's not about the money.
It's about the signal.

Small ad budget → Strangers see your page

Clicks (or silence) → Real data

Not opinions. Behavior.

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5

DECIDE

Build or Kill

Look at the data. Not your hopes.

Signal strong?

Build with confidence

Signal weak?

You just saved months

Either way, you win.

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What You Now Know

1

Test ideas before writing production code

2

Spot real demand vs. polite feedback

3

Make confident build-or-kill decisions with data

D

Define

D

Debate

D

Draft

D

Data

D

Decide

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The Shortcut

I wish someone had shown me this earlier.

Before the products nobody wanted.
Before months of building toward nothing.

5 days instead of months.

Data instead of hope.

Confidence instead of guessing.

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$99 and 5 Days

That's all it takes to know.

Jedrzej Prywata

15 / 15