Zippy 8s
This exercise is intended to encourage divergent thought about a problem.
Introduction
In this exercise, Product Managers will have to come up with eight new and distinct ideas in rapid succession. By doing so, they are encouraged to diverge in their thinking as well as to think outside the box.
Requiring the participants to think so fast forces them to produce something and not dwell too much on the possible consequences. This is a really powerful way of encouraging the creative flow and generate ideas that may never have been explored.
Required Materials
Paper and pens.
Workflow
Each participant folds their piece of paper in half 3 times to get 8 panels of equal size.
The facilitator can decide whether to give 1 or 2 minutes per section.
In each panel, participants should draw/visualise their ideas. They are encouraged to try out different ideas and diverge as much as they want: iterating the same aspect in different ways or trying out many elements of an idea.
Set a timer, and after this goes off the participant must move on to the next panel with prompts from the facilitator about the current panel number they should be completing.
In collaboration, it can be really useful to swap sheets and get inspiration from each other just like in Idea Generation. Whether the organisations have distinct focuses or are collaborating on a shared goal, inspiration can be drawn from each participants rapid production of ideas.
The participants should be encouraged to discuss the new sheets they have in front of them.
After some discussion, participants can dot vote elements that stand out most. The sheets should be moved somewhere accessible for everyone to see. It is good to limit the number of dots per person at 3-5. Participants may dot an aspect of their own or can use all their dots on other people's sheets.
Collaboration
Introducing dot votingallows for participants to sum up the discussion in a non-verbal manner as well as to provide a record of which aspects were most popular. During the dot voting, the participants are not voting for their favourite panels but are focusing on aspects they find stand out. This process encourages the participants to merge their ideas or take inspiration in order to create a more solid solution.
Facilitator notes
Many participants have reported feeling intimidated by this exercise at first, but after completion really understand the value and often say it is their favourite exercise in retrospect. Preparing participants for this can be helpful to ease their worries about what they will produce, but sometimes encouraging them to really trust in the process is all you can do!
Resources
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