Anatomy of a Sprint

One complete sprint cycle · 10 business days · Delivery + Discovery side by side

Delivery
Discovery
Ceremony
Convergence
Milestone
Release
Day
Delivery Track
Discovery Track
Sprint Start — Build Momentum
01
Wednesday
Week 1
W
No-meeting day · Heads down
Async standup in Slack. Pick up stories from sprint backlog. Start building immediately.
R
Release (prior sprint)
Mid-morning. Stakeholder comms go out for work completed last sprint.
U
User/stakeholder interviews
Continue conversations from prior sprint. Discovery is always running.
R
Release comms
PM sends release notes, notifies stakeholders of new features.
02
Thursday
S
Standup
12:30 PM ET / 9:30 AM PT · 15 min
First synchronous standup. Progress, plans, blockers.
P
Problem framing
Synthesize interview insights. Frame problems worth solving. Update opportunity backlog.
03
Friday
S
Standup
12:30 PM ET / 9:30 AM PT
D
Data review
Review Metabase dashboards, session reports, journey analysis. Look for patterns.
Mid-Sprint — Validate & Explore
04
Monday
Week 2
S
Standup
12:30 PM ET / 9:30 AM PT
E
Solution exploration w/ Design
Sketch 2-3 approaches to prioritized problems. Keep it rough — whiteboard, not Figma.
05
Tuesday
S
Standup + Mid-Sprint Health Check
12:30 PM ET · 30 min
Are we on track? Stories at risk? Need to adjust scope?
F
Feasibility check-in w/ Engineering
Informal: "Can we do this? What would it cost?" Surface technical risks early.
Tracks converge — eng informs discovery feasibility
06
Wednesday
W
No-meeting day · Deep work
Async standup in Slack. Heads down on sprint stories.
B
Prototype building
Designer builds testable prototypes. Cheapest format that answers the question.
Close Preparation — Converge & Finalize
07
Thursday
G
Backlog Grooming + Standup
60 min + 15 min standup
PM presents candidate stories for next sprint. Devs assess dev-readiness and provide rough t-shirt sizing (S/M/L/XL).
V
Present validated stories
PM brings stories that went through discovery — problem validated, solution explored, acceptance criteria written.
Primary convergence — discovery feeds delivery backlog
08
Friday
S
Standup
12:30 PM ET / 9:30 AM PT
!
Code cutoff — COB
All PRs must be submitted. No new feature code after today. Monday is for reviews only.
R
Refine stories from grooming
Address questions raised Thursday. Tighten acceptance criteria. Attach updated designs.
Sprint Close — Verify, Review, Plan
09
Monday
Close
Q
Sprint close day
PR reviews, QA verification on staging, production deployment, smoke testing. Sprint closes COB. No new code.
A
Verify acceptance criteria
PM confirms completed stories meet acceptance criteria on staging before sprint close.
PM validates delivery meets discovery intent
10
Tuesday
Ceremonies
D
Sprint Review
12:30 PM ET / 9:30 AM PT · 30 min
Demo completed work to stakeholders. Show the thing, don't describe it. Collect feedback.
R
Retrospective
1:15 PM ET / 10:15 AM PT · 30 min · Internal only
What went well? What to improve? One action item with an owner.
P
Sprint Planning
2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT · 60 min
Final point estimation. Commit to sprint goal and backlog.
F
Collect stakeholder feedback
Sprint review surfaces new problems and validates assumptions. Feed insights back into discovery.
C
Sprint planning — final estimates
Groomed stories get final story point estimates. Team commits to what they can deliver.
Full convergence — both tracks align on next sprint
+1
Wednesday — Next Sprint Starts
Release goes out mid-morning. No meetings. Both tracks reset: devs start building, PM/design start discovering for the sprint after next. The cycle repeats.

Delivery Track Summary

Dev days (writing code) 7 days
Review/QA/deploy day 1 day (Monday)
Ceremony day 1 day (Tuesday)
Grooming (shared) 1 hour
Standups 7 sync + 2 async
No-meeting days 2 Wednesdays
Total ceremony time ~4-5 hrs / sprint

Discovery Track Summary

User/stakeholder interviews 2-3 hrs/week
Data review & analytics 1-2 hrs/week
Solution exploration 2-3 hrs/week
Feasibility check-ins 30-60 min/week
Story refinement 2-3 hrs/week
Convergence points 4 per sprint
PM discovery time ~10-14 hrs/week

Convergence points are where discovery and delivery intersect. Day 5 (feasibility check-in) — engineering informs what's buildable. Day 7 (backlog grooming) — validated stories enter the delivery pipeline. Day 9 (sprint close) — PM verifies delivery matches discovery intent. Day 10 (ceremonies) — stakeholder feedback flows back to discovery; team aligns on next sprint.

See scrum-process.md (delivery) and discovery-process.md (discovery) for full process documentation.