Run Iterative Possibility Sprints

A new way to explore the future without guessing or assuming

👋 Hey, Nikki here! Welcome to this 🔒subscriber-only 🔒 article from the User Research Academy’s Newsletter. I tackle reader questions about user research, impact, and accelerating your career. If you’re not a subscriber, here’s what you missed this month:

1. Episode 85: What if I Just Don't Care Anymore?

2. Work walk-through: Reviewing a report for a consultancy client

3. Episode 86: Beware this Case Study Trap

4. Walk-through: How I Structure a UXR Proposal

5. Episode 87: How can I do pricing research/market research/design/PMF?

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Hello, you curious human!

If you’ve been in any of the same meetings as I have, you might have been in a similar predicament to me.

Stakeholders want the next big thing. They want to know what people want in the future.

Essentially, they want you to be a psychic.

Unfortunately, we aren’t. At least I’m not. And I learned not to ask people what they would want in the future the hard way. People are terrible at predicting their future needs or wants. And they are even more terrible at creating future products or ideas. Which isn’t a huge surprise, is it?

If anyone else had said, “I want an iPhone” before Apple created it, I think they would have done a great job of investing early.

I could say that I would go to the gym if only my gym membership included a sauna and access to an app where I could track all my weight progress. So imagine I told a company that, and they went and created it. There is no guarantee I would buy a gym membership because what if the app isn’t exactly what I wanted because I actually wanted to scan the machine, also, it doesn’t include tracking free weights because they aren’t scannable…

And come to think of it, sharing a sauna with a lot of other people at once during peak gym hours really isn’t my thing.

Suddenly, that app and the sauna weren’t such a good idea.

I’ve fallen into this trap as a user researcher before, wanting to answer the big question of “what comes next.” And I’ve asked some very future-based questions that ended up missing the mark.

But hey, I’m not here only to chat about problems but to provide you with solutions to these tricky situations. So, let’s introduce this week’s solution:

 Iterative Possibility Sprints.

What are Iterative Possibility Sprints (and Have You Lost Your Mind, Nikki?)

I may have lost my mind, but iterative possibility sprints are great.

These sprints let you safely explore the future by building on what you already know from user research. Instead of just improving existing products, you’re testing bold new ideas. It’s a low-risk way to experiment with future possibilities while staying rooted in real user problems.

These sprints are a structured yet flexible way to explore what could be possible tomorrow without relying on predictions that users can’t visualize. You’re not committing to full-scale projects—just quick, low-cost tests to see how users react to new concepts today, then iterating based on their feedback. It’s fast, grounded in reality, and helps mitigate risk while you explore new directions.

How Possibility Sprints Mitigate Risk

The whole point of these sprints is to allow you and your team to test future ideas without betting the farm (I know, I saw this phrase the other day and was obsessed. Are you obsessed, too?). Instead of committing a lot of resources to speculative ideas, Iterative Possibility Sprints give us the chance to explore and de-risk new possibilities by:

1. You’re not starting from scratch—you’re building on what’s already broken. This means the future solutions you explore are based on current, validated pain points.

2. People might not know what they’ll want in five years, but they can tell you how they feel about an idea right now. Possibility Sprints test these reactions to future scenarios so you can see what resonates and what doesn’t without needing users to predict their behavior.

3. Since you’re working in short sprints, you have the freedom to pivot or adjust ideas based on feedback. This allows you to make informed decisions before going all-in on a new category or product direction.

4. Possibility Sprints help you explore new categories and future possibilities without committing too many resources upfront. This reduces the risk of spending too much time or money on ideas that don’t resonate.

Best part? You’ll be able to help your stakeholders answer that nagging question.

Actually, the BEST part is that you become more valuable to your organization by helping to see emerging categories, products, and innovative ideas.

How to Run An Iterative Possibility Sprint

Here’s how you can run a Possibility Sprint in your next project. You don’t need to overhaul your entire process—just use these sprints as a way to explore new categories and future opportunities without the risk of completely missing the mark.

Here is the step-by-step process I follow. If you scroll down, you’ll find a 5-day framework template for these sprints with everything you need, including frustration mapping and a user experience canvas, to know to run one!