Develop phase

Crazy 8s

Rapidly sketch 8 ideas in 8 minutes to get front-of-mind ideas out quickly.

What it is

An exercise to get out all the front of mind ideas — the first things that pop into your head when you look at the design question.

A great way to ideate quickly and generate a lot of ideas while deferring judgement.

Give each participant a piece of A3 paper — or download the PDF A3 Template.

If you are using a blank sheet of paper, ask them to fold the paper in half three times then open to reveal 8 boxes.

Individually for 2 minutes draw or write an idea per box. Try and complete all 8 boxes.

Share your ideas with a partner and work together to combine and/or improve each other’s ideas for 2 minutes.

Together, pick your favourite ideas to share with the team.

Pairs well with these other methods from the develop phase.

A quick, fun lead-in activity to get teams into a creative mindset before any ideation session.

Define how your idea works, how it benefits the user, and how it solves the problem.

Generate ideas quickly by building on each other's thinking in rapid timed rounds.