What just happened at Mindjam?
A roundup of the unexplainably productive chaos of the inaugural Mindjam experience, at the British Red Cross
Who knew a swipe could achieve so much
On a cold, rainy morning in November 2017, I met a guy in a bar. We met online and whilst I’d never done it before, we were a match so I thought it was worth the risk.
We’d been connected the week before via the networking app Shapr. The concept is tinder for networking. You throw in a bunch of professional interests and it matches you with people in your area who are into the same thing. I hate networking so it felt like an interesting way to meet like-minded people.
We’re early in Sprint Valley’s history and my philosophy is always “take bigger risks”. Meeting Ben Cohen, Innovation Manager at The British Red Cross, didn’t feel too scary so we agreed to grab a coffee and see how this Shapr thing works.
We had a great conversation and I started explaining what Sprint Valley was and what we were trying to do — find a way to fuse behavioural insights with fast design-thinking processes to build better products and services.
I mentioned that I’d had an idea for an event where I’d bring together psychologists and design thinkers and get them to work together to try and make progress on an issue that mattered to a charity. Ben was up for it and Mindjam was born.
If you build it, will they come?
So the first hurdle was cleared. We had an event and we were going to try and help the charity improve the performance of it’s crisis response campaigns. We had a date. We had a cause and I’d committed to filling the basement of the charity’s HQ near Moorgate, London. We had space (although not a lot) for 40 people. I was frankly nervous we wouldn’t fill the space.
We put up a post and I started reaching out through some Facebook groups. Quickly word started to spread about the event. It turns out there are lots of inspiring people out there blending behavioural insights and design thinking and even more wanted to learn how to do it themselves. Added to that the context was using their powers for good, and we had something exciting.
In the end we had 87 people apply and we had to put most people on a waiting list. Our second hurdle was cleared.
What exactly do we do with all this brainpower?
Our next challenge was designing a format that actually made the most of these kind people ‘donating’ their time to a worthwhile cause.
I had half the room comfortable with design processes and half who were new to a non-academic way of working. I needed to build a process that kept teams on the rails, gave freedom to experiment but avoided getting to the end of the day without anything to show. It was time to experiment with a one-day Design Sprint.
This felt like the perfect time to experiment with a totally new format (nothing sharpens the wits like a high-stakes situation in front of your peers). Time to walk the tight rope of a one-day design sprint :)
What is a one-day sprint?
We split the room into 8 teams, each with 5 people. We had someone from the charity to make any tough decisions that were needed on the day, two people with a psychology tilt to their background and two with more of a design thinking / service design / User Experience leaning.
Each team had a unique problem to focus on but all teams were focused on helping the charity explore new ways to be more effective when raising funds for high profile emergencies like terror attacks, tsunamis, typhoons or earthquakes.
The outcome? They had to produce a prototype of a new solution, created by very talented people with unique areas of expertise.
Asking the right question
Teams spent the first 2 hours immersing themselves in the problem. Each team had been given a pre-briefing and a challenge statement but this part of the day was spent making sure they were headed on the right path.
They shared perspectives, ran interviews in their groups and researched how other organisations were solving similar challenges. They agreed on a focus for the sprint and it was time to jump into developing solutions.
Uncovering the strongest hunches
Teams spent the next hour generating quick ideas and exploring them within their team. The goal here was to quickly help teams get their various perspectives on the table without getting stuck in deliberation. They interviewed their team members about their ideas and quickly uncovered which of their ideas had the most potential to develop further.
Teams then developed out their individual ideas into ‘detailed’ storyboards and shared those back with the group. Deciders started to sweat as they had to pick which idea(s) would be prototyped in the afternoon and once we were done, it was time for food and an hour to decompress before the afternoon.
Building actionable prototypes
The afternoon’s challenge was to take their chosen solution and build a prototype they could share back with the team. The groups had 90 minutes to complete their pitch back to the room and teams hurried through a fast and furious prototyping activity with a few minutes to spare before show time.
8 challenges, 8 unique prototypes
Teams took it in turns to present back to the group using a 4 minute format and the ideas were fantastic.
Solutions were a blend of super actionable tweaks to emails through to innovative concepts around contactless donating at train stations. The ideas were diverse and the use of behavioural insights to drive their performance was clear for all to see.
So how did we do?
We had 40 brilliant minds generate 200 solutions, whittle them down to 40 possibilities and refine them further into 8 thought-through prototypes. In 8 hours.
Mindjam was an experiment in a new format, bringing together motivated, talented teams to work intensely on high-impact problems. For me personally, the biggest outcome was getting to jam with some really exciting, interesting and talented people. I hate networking and this was simply an awesome way to meet like-minded people.
The vibe was excellent and we’ve been delighted that 100% of attendees said they would come again. Notwithstanding a few tweaks, the format was a success.
Did we save lives? Not yet. Did we inspire the British Red Cross with new ways of working and thinking about how they fundraise? Without a doubt. Here’s some of the feedback from The British Red Cross.
“The most valuable thing about Mindjam was the expertise in the room, approaching a familiar problem (to us) from a new and unique perspective”
“Mindjam was intense, interesting and inspiring”
“The most valuable thing was hearing people’s input on small changes we could make that could ellicit big changes”
“Mindjam helped the British Red Cross understand where to look next”
“It’s helped the charity think differently and create a base of behavioural insights we can now test going forward”
“It’s really helped us gain new perspective, question how we do things and unlock exciting new ideas”
So the moral of the story?
Take bigger risks. Use Shapr. Meet guys in bars. Say yes and work out the details later. If you build it, they will come.
I’d like to say a massive thanks to all the Mindjammers who joined the event last week, we did something special and I’ll be reporting back on how the charity takes forward the incredible solutions you donated. High five to you. You are officially a Mindjam Founder.
Interested to be part of Mindjam 2?
Sign up here to find out about our next, bigger, better, bolder Mindjam experience….watch this space…
