Becoming an Innovation Strategist @ Spielfeld

If I were to summarize my first few months here at Spielfeld in one word, it would be “growth”. Since I have joined Spielfeld in September 2019, we have worked with many international clients identifying customer needs and innovation potential, established various internal processes and grown together as a team. The growth of our team, our client base, our repertoire and my personal growth have been going hand in hand.

Starting the new year, I wanted to take a moment to review my journey at Spielfeld. So in this short article, I will talk about my milestones in 2019 and share my six key learnings from the past months.

My milestones in 2019:

Creating a new persona brainstorming tool: As part of a workshop with a Spanish insurer, our team developed a mix and match card game which supports clients during the persona development process. Since the tool has received great feedback, we have established the “lifestyle cards” as an integral part of our workshop services.

Designing a new workshop space: In the past few months, we have renovated a former office at Spielfeld and turned it into a workshop room. Our aim was to create a space that would allow our clients to go on a mental exhibition in a safe, creative and purposeful room. We call it “Basecamp”.

Creating a skill map for Innovations Strategists: Since the innovation service of Spielfeld is fairly young, I wanted to define what the Innovation Strategist position at Spielfeld entails. The resulting skill map is now part of our internal performance review.

Running a LEGO workshop: Together with my colleague Marlen, I have developed and run an internal LEGO Serious Play workshop which has provided our team with a tool to visually explain their individual job functions and areas of improvement within the team.

After four months at Spielfeld, I couldn’t be more happy to already be entrusted with moderation tasks and being able to develop Design Thinking tools by myself. Since I am preparing and running workshops for the first time, I felt like sharing my insights.

My key learnings in 2019:

1. You can tackle stage fright with impro theater classes: The first time I was moderating a workshop task, I was utterly nervous. What I have learned since is to be patient with myself and to keep on practicing — which in my case also includes taking part in impro theatre classes.
2. Content is king: While coordinating and re-structuring our internal and external newsletters, I realized once more how important it is to create and deliver value to peers.
3. Prepare, prepare, prepare: Always have a workshop energizer up your sleeves and be prepared to spontaneously adjust a workshop agenda when a group works specifically fast or slow.
4. Focus: Keep the big picture in mind and don’t get lost in details. Focus on what is important and prioritize tasks accordingly.
5. Clear communication is key: Clearly explaining things to a diverse audience is difficult. One method that helped me improve my communication skills is by answering three questions during my explanation: What? How? Why?
6. Diversity of character enriches a team: Working together with different personalities is truly enriching and I have learned a lot in the past few months about teamwork in general, but also about striving for character traits that I admire in others.

Are you interested in running a strategy workshop with us? Check out our website for more information.