Four-Step Sketch
Each person works alone through four steps to produce a detailed solution sketch: notes (gather material from the room), ideas (rough private doodles), Crazy 8s (eight quick variations), and the solution sketch itself, a three-panel storyboard that stands on its own. Sketches are anonymous and self-explanatory, so they can be judged on merit later.
Use when a team needs well-developed solution concepts from every member, not just the ideas of whoever talks most in a brainstorm.
Solves: Group brainstorms produce a wall of shallow sticky notes and nobody owns a worked-out idea.
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Step 1: Notes: walk the room and copy down goals, questions and inspiration gathered so far (20 min).
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Step 2: Ideas: privately doodle rough ideas, then circle the most promising ones (20 min).
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Step 3: Crazy 8s: fold a sheet into eight and sketch eight variations of your best idea, one minute each (8 min).
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Step 4: Solution sketch: draw a three-panel storyboard on sticky notes on a sheet of paper, with a catchy title, that explains itself without you there (30-90 min).
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Step 5: Collect the sketches face down without names, ready for the decision step (2 min).
- Work alone together. Silence in the room is a good sign.
- Words matter. Encourage real headlines and text in the sketch, not lorem ipsum.
- Make sketches anonymous so seniority does not decide.
- Run steps 1-3 in the afternoon and the solution sketch as homework.