Jake Knapp
Jake Knapp is a trailblazer in the design industry and a luminary in the areas of innovation and business transformation. He is the Co-Founder and General Partner at Character, a venture capital firm that supports startups with capital and sprints. Jake spent more than a decade working at Google, where he was instrumental to the corporation’s growth and success. He is also the Creator of the Design Sprint methodology, which empowers teams to solve complex problems in days, not years. He has more than two decades of experience working with top companies, creating some of the most successful products in recent history. Together with John Zeratsky, they have helped more than 300 teams design new products and bring them to market, including those at YouTube, Gusto, One Medical Group, 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
Using Design Thinking ideas, the Design Sprint is a 5-day approach to help goods and services get to market faster.
The process solves tough problems using design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers.
The concept has since been used by many international companies, including NASA, the New York Times, Lego and Slack.
EARLY CAREER
Jake has played pivotal roles in shaping the success of tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and startups such as Slack, Uber, and One Medical.
He helped build Gmail and Microsoft Encarta, co-founded Google Meet, and was a Partner at Google Ventures.
His groundbreaking methodologies, prominently featured in his bestsellers “Sprint” and “Make Time,” offer radical approaches to workplace challenges.
He is a frequent visiting lecturer at top universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and the London School of Economics.
He is a frequent keynote speaker on the topics of startups, business strategy, marketing, design, and time management.
MEDIA & PUBLICATIONS
Jake has spoken at hundreds of events for organizations like Airbnb, LEGO, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and NASA.
He and his work have been featured in preeminent publications, including the Financial Times, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, NPR and Bloomberg.
His writing on startups and productivity has appeared in Fast Company, TechCrunch, Slate, and LifeHacker.
He has spoken at conferences from Google I/O to the Lean Startup conference.