In this workshop, Mike went over what the word ‘design’ means in Design Sprints. Often, people think that participation in a Design Sprint is limited to those that have some artistic ability.

Mike argued that design isn’t limited to only art. He showed examples of beautiful design outside of the art world including the beautiful Singapore Changi Airport, the world’s best restaurant in France, and Spotify’s Discover Weekly. Each show great design in architecture, food, organization, and algorithms. Good design doesn’t happen overnight, it’s done with purpose and by cycling through different iterations of the design.

Then, building off of the concepts from their first two Design Sprints workshops, Mike presented participants with a “how might we?” question. Denver, Colorado has grown 10% year-over-year since 2010, which presents a challenge for the city. Young professionals who moved to Denver hoping to have the best of both the city and nature are finding it increasingly time-consuming and painful to get out of the city on the weekends. Mike asked participants, “How might we help the urban professional have easier access to nature on the weekend?”

He kicked off the interactive portion of the workshop by asking participants to manifest the first idea that came to their head on paper. Then he asked them to take their idea and design eight iterations in eight minutes, in a process he called ‘crazy 8s.’ After the eight minutes, he had participants present their ideas. The ideas ranged from mobile apps and better mass transit options to teleportation. Participants were then told to draw out three scenes of how their solutions come to life.

At the end of the activity, Mike asked for feedback on the exercise. One participant said, “When you’re not even thinking about a budget, you’re much more creative. I liked forcing myself to think differently.”

As the Moonshot team progresses through their workshop sessions you can see how the Design Sprint changes the way people approach problem solving and design thinking. A Design Sprint allows participants to create a product or solution in a matter of days, not weeks or months like traditional methods.

Thank you to Mike Kim, Mike Edmonds, and the Moonshot team for hosting their workshop at the Chicago Connectory. We look forward to part 4 of their Design Sprints workshop, register for that session here.