Why we run 2-week sprints — not 1, not 4

"Why not 1-week? It's faster!" — a question we hear every new year. Here's the short answer.

1-week sprints

Pros: fast feedback loop, easier to change priority. Cons: 25% of the time goes to planning/demo/retro. That's 12 hours out of 40 — and the team burns out from constant context switching.

4-week sprints

Pros: more time for deep work. Cons: client sees progress once a month. If something's off — a month is lost. And there's always a deadline panic at sprint end.

2 weeks — the sweet spot

- Deep work time: 8 days - Ceremonies: 2 days - Client sees progress every 2 weeks — early enough to correct, late enough not to burn out - Retro drives real change between sprints

Our ritual

- Monday of week 1: planning (2h) - Daily standup: 15 min - Friday of week 2: client demo (1h) - Monday of week 2: retro (1h)

Total ceremonies: 4-5 hours per 2 weeks. That's 5-6%. Acceptable.

Exception

For a startup MVP we run 1-week sprints for the first month. Fast validation matters. But after MVP — we switch to 2 weeks.