Challenge   I am a member of an organization, and my challenge is to improve the value of belonging to a union  group, in order to retain associates and for new companies to join. The project scope includes an  ad-honorem board of directors and a small staff composed of tree employees. The organization is  limited to internal resources (time, budget, resources, etc.).

The first tool I used was the tool of Visualization (Module 1), or Visual Thinking using Crazy 8's –  Design Sprint, proposed by Jake Knapp, to achieve a shared understanding of a problem space among  a diverse group of stakeholders before attempting to identify and define possible solutions to the  problem.

So, getting in the habit of doing visualization is actually a way of cultivating that side of our brain  work. Visualization is really important. For the process of design because it's actually a way   of unlocking a different part of our brain.

For the activity, I will divide the participants into groups of 2-3, each representing a different  organization or area of interest. Each group receives a poster-size copy of the Crazy 8's – Design  Sprint.

Instructions for Crazy 8's:

•  Set a timer for 8 minutes

•  Ask the group to sketch 8 quick ideas each in 8 minutes. I give them two-three  questions to answer, such as:

*What kind of value do you think you get by joining a union?  * What professional development opportunities can be part of the organization offer  you?

•  It’s important to remind participants that these sketches do not need to be perfect.  The sketches should be rough. The purpose of the exercise is to generate a variety of  ideas. To put people at ease, show some examples to set the expectations for the  quality of sketches.

•  When the timer pings, everyone stops sketching.

•  Ask people to present their top three ideas to the group

The idea is to generate as many ideas as possible within a short timeframe, focusing on quality of the  ideas, and then once you’ve got a bunch of divergent thinking on one topic, to begin converging on  some winning ideas by voting on the favorites.

Dot voting is a handy tool where each team member votes for ideas, usually 3 votes each. Together,  evaluate the set of ideas

These chosen ideas can then be worked up into prototypes, more refined designs, or you could even  do another round of rapid sketching on them and then another round of voting to hone in even  further on the top, top ideas.

Then additional insights that come from the group discussion are included and incorporated in the  final design.  After the session, I digitize each group’s poster as an artifact, create a view that  combines the shared and new insights from the group discussion, and then create a revised draw  compiled that incorporates their feedback and proposals.

For our first learning launch, we focused on the structure a design thinking project for a business  plan.

Insight & Approach

What I have learned from conducting this exercise with a few groups of people is that while the draw,  especially the revised draw that incorporates their feedback – is important for reinforcing their  feedback.

They can quickly identify where they are in the draw, and can more quickly gain new insights about  relationships between key entities instead of taking time to identify them. They can also identify  variables in the problem space.

Since I discovered that the most valuable aspect is the shared insights and learning, next time I would  use the visualization activity (design Sprint), as a starting point for a series of design thinking activities.

Benefits

Some team members without a design background may find this method intimidating at first, so it is  helpful to reassure everyone that these are rough sketches. But this is a great technique to get  team members to work collaboratively in a cost-efficient way.     It is advisable to use this technique if you have a limited amount of time and you want to get all of  the ideas out without filter.    After you have finished this exercise, you will have new variations and now you can sketch your first  solution.

