Jake Knapp

Co-creator of Design Sprint and Foundation Sprint at Character Capital

Co-creator of the Design Sprint and Foundation Sprint, co-founder of Character Capital venture firm, author of Sprint and Click, previously at Google where he helped build Gmail and co-founded Google Meet, has worked with over 300 teams at companies like Google, YouTube, Slack, and Uber to refine and test startup ideas.

The Scientist The Craftsperson 2 appearances

Dimension Profile

Strategic Vision 62%

Execution & Craft 83%

Data & Experimentation 56%

Growth & Distribution 26%

Team & Leadership 46%

User Empathy & Research 57%

Key Themes

Make Time productivity framework daily highlight as anchor for intentional days busy bandwagon and infinity pools changing defaults instead of adding willpower highlight laser energize reflect cycle project A versus reactive tasks

Episode Summary

Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky share the Make Time framework, which emerged from applying Design Sprint lessons to everyday productivity. The core idea is choosing a daily highlight — the one thing you'd want to tell someone was the best part of your day — and protecting 60-90 minutes of peak attention for it. They explain why the busy bandwagon and infinity pools create a bad flywheel that willpower alone can't break, and why changing defaults rather than adding productivity hacks is the path to feeling good about how you spend your time.

Leadership Principles

→ Start your day by choosing a highlight — imagine it's the end of the day and someone asks what was the highlight, then protect 60 to 90 minutes for that one thing
→ It's not about productivity or time management — it's about having one great moment where you have your peak attention and you use it well
→ The busy bandwagon and infinity pools create a bad flywheel — name them and you can start to deliberately change the defaults around them

Notable Quotes

"Imagine it's the end of the day. If someone asks you 'what was the highlight of your day,' what would you say? That's the anchor of everything. That's the core, that's the foundation."
— On the daily highlight concept at the heart of Make Time

"Most people try to get better and faster at doing what's right in front of them. We don't change the defaults in our environment so we can focus on more important things."
— On what most people get wrong about productivity

"Project A things are big, not easy to start, slow to create dopamine hits, non-urgent. The things that stand in our way are small, obvious how to start, create dopamine right away, and supposedly urgent."
— On the fundamental tension between meaningful work and reactive tasks

Want to know how you compare?

Take the Assessment