Fostering a common culture of innovation

Public Services & NGOs

Services

Culture & Skill Development

Innovation strategy

Applied Methods

→ Qualitative user interviews
→ Unpacking frameworks
→ Creative brainstorming
→ Rapid prototyping
→ User testing
→ Roadmapping
→ Design sprint

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Digital tools

Duration

5 day design sprint

client

challenge

ITC wanted to combine their internal know-how in the field of international trade with an exploratory innovation approach to be able to develop new ideas and rethink existing projects. Eager to introduce its employees to the agile method of Human-Centred Design, the Bootcamp555 initiative was launched.

Qualitative research

In the first phase of the design sprint, the teams mapped out stakeholders and learned how to conduct qualitative Interviews. They subsequently prepared and scheduled the interviews and went out to the field to conduct them.

Analysis

During this step, the teams collectively unpacked the interviews and analysed all the collected data. They then formulated “How might we questions”, precise problem statements from which they brainstormed during the next stage, the Ideation phase.

Ideation

After the analysis, the teams went through the creative process of generating as many ideas as possible to address their problem statement. Applying different brainstorming techniques and working in interdisciplinary teams boosted the creativity of the participants and enabled them to challenge their own assumptions as well as to think outside the box.

Prototyping

At the end of the Ideation phase, each team presented their (best) idea to the other teams and collected valuable feedback. Accordingly, each team turned their idea into tangible prototypes on day four, with the goal of testing them out in the field

User testing

During this phase, the teams were coached to conduct user testing and collect feedback on their concepts. They went out and tested their prototypes with the end-user to understand how they interacted and behaved with them. This process enabled the groups to collect qualitative feedback and refine their concept(s) with the learnings from the field.

Roadmapping

At the end of the Design Thinking sprint, each team sat together to determine future steps and priorities. Together, they created a roadmap with goals and milestones for pushing their project forward in the following months.

“Spark Works has been a great partner for ITC's Innovation Bootcamps. Our facilitators, were knowledgeable, resourceful, and flexible, accommodating to our needs without compromising on the quality of the workshops. They created an environment that allowed participants to embrace innovation in their project ideas.”

– Mayara Louzada Alarcao Sobra, workshop organiser ITC

outcome

At the end of the week each team had created a roadmap with goals and milestones for pushing their project forward for the next five months. Empowered to apply Design Thinking mindset and tools, they further iterated their approach to fulfilling the user need and progressively validated their findings.

Project Lead

Linda Armbruster

Director Collaborative Innovation

Linda holds an M.A. in Strategic Design from the design akademie berlin. As a trained Design Thinker from the Potsdam and Stanford d.school, co-founder of Spark Works and lecturer at the ETHZ, she builds and leads research and training programs in the private and public sector, blending methods grounded in Human-Centred Design to inform and inspire insight-driven innovation.

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