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Design Studio

Design Ideas

What Is It?

A design studio is a workshop that helps uncover many different solutions from different perspectives to a pre-defined problem. It helps align the team on the general user experience a product or service may have. This activity is also known as Crazy 8’s.

Why Do It?

Encouraging members of the balanced team to participate in the design process allows the team to come up with a larger, more varied set of solutions and evaluate them from different perspectives.

When To Do It?

We use design studios early on in the product development process to generate solutions across a wider set of problem areas. Later in the development process, we use this tool to generate solutions to more specific problems that are uncovered.

Who To Involve?

Balanced team - Designers, PMs, Engineers, Stakeholders, Data Scientists...Any interested party!

Tools You Might Need

  • Whiteboarding tool (Figjam, Miro, etc.) or paper and pens (for in-person activity)
  • User journey map or service blueprint
  • User personas
  • Prioritized problem statements
  • An open mind

How To Do It (Steps)

  1. Define the problem: Using artifacts like journey maps, personas, research synthesis, data and problems statements, walk participants through the problem you’ll be focusing on for the session.

  2. Go wide: Set a timer for 8 Minutes. Have participants sketch out or jot down 8 ideas for what the solution for this problem might be. After each minute have participants move on to the next idea. Once completed- have participants share out their ideas with the team. crazy8s-example

  3. Narrow down and refine: Once everyone has shared their 8 rough ideas - allow participants to pick their top 1-2 ideas and draw out more detailed sketches. Once completed - have participants upload their sketches to the board.
    solutionsketchexample

  4. Review and vote: Have participants talk through their (now more detailed) solutions. Once everyone has a chance to talk through their solutions, give participants 3 votes to pick the solution they think most effectively solves the problem(s) identified in step 1.

  5. Discuss: Have participants who voted discuss why they voted the way they did. This can also be done with a smaller team (Design/PM/Dev Anchor) if needed.

Design Studio Figjam Template