Five Days. One Decision. One Working Prototype.

There are two situations where this format works.

• The first: your company strategy no longer matches the world around it. Markets have shifted, competitors have moved, and the business model that worked three years ago is under pressure - but no one has made the call on what to do about it. You need to redefine the destination and use AI to start building toward it.
• The second: you already know where you need to go. The strategy is clear. But the organisation is stuck between knowing that AI matters and having anything in production to show for it. There are experiments, scattered tools, maybe some fatigue from pilots that went nowhere. You need to stop exploring and start building.

The Company Design Sprint addresses both. In five days, a small group of senior decision-makers works hands-on with AI - and leaves with a strategic direction and a working prototype to back it up.

The Problem

Most organisations are caught in what might be called the exploration trap.

There are initial experiments. Some uncoordinated tool adoption. Individual teams trying things out. But the fundamental rethinking of how value is created - that has not happened. Meanwhile, the day-to-day business demands full attention, the competitive landscape shifts structurally, and uncertainty about the future relevance of the current business model grows quietly.

At the same time, internal processes are reaching their limits. Complex approval chains, manual routine tasks, and coordination loops absorb the capacity that should be spent on strategic development. Everyone is stuck in an over-engineered system of sign-offs, alignments, and decision templates.

The Company Design Sprint breaks that cycle. Not with a strategy deck. With working software.

The Week

Day 1 - Understand

You analyze your current state and market environment. Using value chain mapping or lean canvas, the team identifies core processes and maps products and services against them. You assess alternative approaches. The day ends with a shared, documented view of where you stand.

Day 2 - Sketch

Using AI-assisted development - describing requirements in plain language and letting AI generate working software - your team sketches reimagined applications, products, or services. You explore what AI agents could do in your organisation. Internal one-purpose applications. Customer-facing services. Process automation. The scope is yours.

Day 3 - Decide

The strategic turning point. You review the sketches, AI applications, and agent concepts from Day 2. You prioritise using impact mapping. And you make a clear call: optimize the current system, or replace it with something purpose-built. This is not a theoretical discussion. You have working software in front of you.

Day 4 - Prototype

You build. Using prompting and AI-assisted development, you create functional software and AI agents in your actual business context. This is live product development - real data, real workflows, real constraints. Not simulation.

Day 5 - Validate

You test the prototype under real-world conditions. The team gains immediate technical evidence - what works, what does not, where the gaps are. You decide on next steps for scaling within the organization. The week ends with a decision and a working artefact, not an open question.

Optimize Or Reinvent - You Decide by Day 3

Many companies are paralyzed because they know they need to work both in the system and on the system simultaneously - but cannot find the decision point.

The Sprint resolves this by making both directions tangible before anyone has to choose.

Optimize the system. You receive working prototypes that show how AI makes existing processes, products, or services leaner and faster. Internal workflows that absorbed significant headcount become automated. Manual routing becomes intelligent. You improve what exists - with evidence that it works.

Reinvent the system. You identify a core process - internal or customer-facing - and radically reimagine it. You build a purpose-built, one-purpose application that replaces complexity with a single focused solution. Not a plan to build one. A working version.

By mid-week, you know where your greatest leverage is. And you know whether to invest your energy in optimization or reinvention.

What You Leave With

Strategic clarity. You determine whether your business model needs optimization or reinvention - and you have the technical evidence to support that decision. The exploration phase is over.

A working prototype. A functional AI application, one-purpose solution, or AI agent built during the week in your business context. Not a concept. Not a mockup. Software that runs.

AI-assisted development capability. Your leadership team learns to translate business requirements directly into working software - without intermediaries, without waiting for an engineering team. This is a skill that stays with you after the week.

A validated investment case. You test ideas before committing budget. Five days of building produces more signal than six months of strategy discussions. Wrong ideas are killed early. Right ones are proven.

Two Firms. One Format.

The Company Design Sprint is a joint offering of Beratung Judith Andresen and Gradion. It combines strategic facilitation with technical execution in a single, coherent engagement.

Beratung Judith Andresen leads the strategic reframing and facilitates the decision-making process. Judith Andresen is a recognised expert in organisational development, agile leadership, and strategic transformation. She has spent more than two decades working with leadership teams navigating structural change - helping organizations find genuine leverage rather than incremental adjustments. She is the author of multiple publications on agile methods and organizational design, runs an established practice out of Villa Henriette in Hamburg's Harburg harbour, and delivers MasterClasses and leadership programs across the DACH region. Her approach is structured, direct, and designed for leaders who need to reach a real conclusion - not facilitate another round of alignment.

Gradion translates strategic decisions into functional prototypes live during the week. AI-assisted development, technical architecture, and the engineering judgement to distinguish what is feasible from what is not. Across live deployments, Gradion's AI systems process more than 20 million tasks every month - the Sprint draws on the same production experience.

Strategy without execution produces slide decks. Execution without strategy builds the wrong thing. This format delivers both in five days.

Who This Is For

The Sprint is designed for up to three senior decision-makers: owners, CEOs, board members, and leadership teams at a strategic turning point.

We limit the group deliberately. Depth requires it. Speed requires it. Decision-making authority in the room requires it. If the people in the Sprint cannot commit budget and direction on Friday, the format does not work - and we will tell you that before you book.

We work across industries and geographies. The format is designed for international leadership teams regardless of regional market. The common thread is not sector - it is an organization that wants to secure its relevance through AI, not just discuss it.

How It Works

Team: 3–5 participants from your organization. 1 strategic coach (Beratung Judith Andresen). 1 AI developer (Gradion).

Location: At your offices, at a venue of your choice anywhere in the world, or at Villa Henriette at Hamburg's Harburg harbour.

Language: English or German.

Duration: Five consecutive working days. Monday to Friday.

Investment: Fixed fee + travel (if applicable)

What Happens After The Sprint

You own the prototype and all strategic outputs. No lock-in. No dependency.

If you want to take the prototype to production, Gradion can scope the engineering path - from Sprint output to production-grade system, with the architecture, monitoring, and governance that production requires. If your internal team can take it forward, the handover is clean.

Either way, you leave with a decision and a working artefact - not a proposal for more consulting.

Connecting To Gradion's Practice

The Company Design Sprint sits at the intersection of Gradion's AI and Consulting practices. Depending on the Sprint's outcome, the natural next step may be:

Agentic AI - if the Sprint produced an AI agent that needs to move from prototype to production at scale.

AI Strategy & Readiness - if the Sprint revealed that data quality or organizational readiness needs work before AI can run reliably.

Strategic Realignment Project - if the Sprint exposed a broader strategic misalignment that extends beyond AI into technology, teams, or operating model.

The Sprint is a standalone engagement. It becomes more valuable when it connects to a delivery practice that can execute what it produces.

Day 1 - Understand You analyze your current state and market environment. Using Value Chain Mapping or Lean Canvas, we identify your core processes and map your products and services. You leave the day with a shared picture of where you stand.

Day 2 - Sketch Using AI and vibe coding - describing what you need in plain language and letting AI generate working software - you sketch reimagined applications, products, or services. You explore what AI agents could do in your organization.

Day 3 - Decide You review the sketches, prioritize using Impact Mapping, and make a clear call: optimize what exists, or rebuild from scratch. This is the strategic turning point of the week.

Day 4 - Prototype You use prompting and vibe coding to build working software and AI agents in your actual business context. This is live product development, not simulation.

Day 5 - Test You validate your prototype under real-world conditions. You gain technical evidence and decide on next steps for scaling within your organization.