Jake Knapp
Jake Knapp is a trailblazer in the design industry and a leading authority on innovation, product strategy, and business transformation. He is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Character, a venture capital firm that supports startups with both capital and sprint-based guidance. Knapp spent more than a decade at Google, where he played a pivotal role in driving product development and shaping some of the company’s most influential initiatives. He is best known as the creator of the Design Sprint methodology, a process that enables teams to solve complex problems and validate ideas in a matter of days. With more than twenty years of experience working with top companies, he has contributed to the creation of several highly successful products. Together with his longtime collaborator John Zeratsky, he has helped more than 300 teams design, test, and launch new products, including teams at YouTube, Gusto, One Medical, and Slack.
Jake Knapp Professional Experience / Academic History
Professional Experience
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Co-Founder and Startup Advisor
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Design Partner at Google Ventures and Designer at Google
Academic History
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B.S., Interdisciplinary Visual Arts
DESIGN SPRINT
The Design Sprint is a five-day problem-solving framework that draws on Design Thinking principles to help teams bring products and services to market faster.
The process enables organizations to tackle complex challenges through structured ideation, rapid prototyping, and real customer testing.
Since its creation, the Design Sprint has been adopted globally by leading organizations such as NASA, The New York Times, LEGO, and Slack to accelerate innovation and reduce development risk.
EARLY CAREER
Jake Knapp has played key roles in the success of major technology companies including Google, Microsoft, Slack, Uber, and One Medical.
He helped create Gmail and Microsoft Encarta, co-founded Google Meet, and served as a Partner at Google Ventures where he refined his sprint methodology with high-growth startups.
His bestselling books “Sprint” and “Make Time” introduced groundbreaking approaches to innovation, productivity, and workplace problem-solving.
Knapp is also a frequent visiting lecturer at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and the London School of Economics and is a sought-after keynote speaker on business strategy, design, time management, and startup innovation.
MEDIA PRESENCE & PUBLICATIONS
Jake Knapp has spoken at hundreds of events for organizations such as Airbnb, LEGO, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NASA.
His work has been featured in leading publications including the Financial Times, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Bloomberg.
His writing on startups, design, and productivity has appeared in Fast Company, TechCrunch, Slate, and Lifehacker, and he has presented at major conferences including Google I/O, the Lean Startup Conference, and many other global innovation events.