Some of our adventures over the past years

Transforming the way organizations learn and adopt new ways of working. We designed Transformation Quest, a game to be played by all functions of the organization to go from problem to solution while exploring methods from innovation and continuous improvement.

We trained 14 curious and committed UWV employees to become innovation facilitators. During 8 months they went through 4 modules, each designed to give more indepth experience in facilitation, innovation, Design Thinking, team dynamics and personal facilitation style.

This is one of the 8 teams participating in a Design Sprint, at the same time. Each team had a dedicated room and facilitator-in-training. Robert would speak to all 50 participants at 2 key moments during the day and Margriet was point of contact for all facilitators. This program started with a 2 day bootcamp, time and coaching for the teams to do their preparation work and then, during the 4 day Design Sprint week, it was all about validated learnings for their challenges. A great plus: it was a great moment for facilitators-in-training to gain experience.

We master the Design Sprint process, not the topic. This week we jumped into the world of family law. An exciting experiencing and 3 months later the validated solution was live at 2 courthouses in the Netherlands.

The University of Amsterdam needed to renew their post-Master education for the faculty of Law. They wanted to solve their challenge for 'life long learning' with a new apprach: a Design Sprint. We loved that they were open to apply new ways of learning to themselves as well.

Making a Service Blueprint can be incredibly insightful to your customer process and to how you respond internally. In a period of 6 weeks we created a Service Blueprint with UWV. We identified the key moments for the customer and employees. We then ideated solutions for customers and employees to have the best experience.

Being in a different place where you have the full ability to focus without distractions, that's gold and why be in a meeting room and hotel, if you can rent a large property with a more communial vibe. With ERIKS we are part of the leadership development program where we deliver a Design Sprint with additional time for reflection in some very peaceful locations in the Netherlands.

We can do much more for our customers. Let's explore new propositions with great value to our core customers. That's how Bol. came to us. Firstly we started understanding the needs of their customers with customer discovery. Then we ran 3 Design Sprints. We created an overview of problems and possible solutions that we tested in 1:1 calls, but also in Utrecht downtown

We love it when a Design Sprint turns into a live product. Reality is, that new propositions or ideas are often invalided. Which is of course a valuable outcome. Not this time. Armed with customer insights from interviews the team build a portal that added value for both the customer and the company. A strong Gasunie team, dedication and the openess to explore new ways of working helped enormously here. We were happy to kickstart their journey with a Design Sprint

We trained 3 innovation managers at ENGIE (today Equans) to become Design Sprint facilitators. The program we designed took 6 months. 2 Design Sprints and a bootcamp later these three rockstars (Milan is unfortunately missing from the picture) are ready to rock and roll.

Just like everyone else we had to move all our work online in 2020. We teamed up with the neuro-economist Woutrer van den Berg from BrainCompass to create a training to increase engagement and impact while collaborating online. Over 250 people trained, hello Magical Virtual Meetings!

It's amazing to realize the amount of people you meet on any journey. In this case it's Sabrina Goerlich who we met online as part of the Design Sprint Facilitator Community. On our way to Austria to work remotely, we stopped by and stayed for two days with her family. We talked about the beauty of design and collaboration.

Design Sprints are intense. But with small tweaks we aim to make each one a memorable experience. In this case we chose for Champagne to celebrate a week of online work. Each participant was sent a small bottle. It was also our 100th Design Sprint. Happy moments!

The beauty of online Design Sprints? We can work with people from all over with world without the effort and impact on taking planes. In this case we helped a client in Qatar while facilitating and designing from Spain, The Netherlands and Belgium.

One of our more interesting Design Sprint locations. We facilitated two Design Sprints in Spain in this villa near Barcelona. It was big enough to fit 2 Design Sprint teams. Since 2018 we've partnered with SHV Energy to deliver on their leadership development program. During this module people come in from all over the world to spend a dedicated week to solve a local business unit's challenge. This location in Spain was way more inspiring than hotel and conference rooms. It truly made our week a unique and memorable experience.

Working for Vedett (you know the speciality beer that was around before everything became craft beer) we spent the week at a location to fit the challenge: Blauwe Theehuis in Vondelpark, Amsterdam. Part of this Design Sprint also included bar hopping for some customer research. We love our work :).

Validation is one of the most important parts of our work. You have to be smart about it. During an intense Design Sprint In Ivory Coast we chose ferry rides to show a prototype and test our solution. Why? People are stuck for a few minutes and don't feel they have to hurry to go somewhere else. A perfect opportunity to talk. Take in mind, it was 35 degrees. Quite a memorable experience.

'We run many Design Sprints, but we think we can have more impact if we understand the tool even better.' That's where our Design Sprint coaching started with We Are the Garage - part of E.ON & Essent. A 5 month journey preparing & running multiple Design Sprints together and coaching a facilitator on the job.

We travelled to Lebanon to be part of the an Accelerator in which the Design Sprint program was the kick-off for the startup teams. What better way to let teams explore customer testing and validation, making ideas more concrete and experiencing teamwork than with a Design Sprint? Startups that were part of these Design Sprints are now live in Saudia Arabia, Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Turkey & Lebanon. How cool.

Margriet loves books, so we were thrilled to work with the libraries in Flevoland, The Netherlands. We facilitated multiple Design Sprints and taught them to use the method too. Then we went 'on tour' with an Innovation Experience where we visited every library for an evering of inspiration and prioritizing problems to solve. How cool!

Remember day 5 of the Design Sprint where a feedback wall was created with hundreds of feedback post-its after customers interviews?! It was a great way to listen, cluster and learn. But we are so very glad we have Miro & Mural now, especially combined with their AI technologies.

Design Sprints in Hong Kong & China. These were surely exotic locations. Facilitating for 3 weeks straight was long, full of hurdles, but fruitful and sweet :-D. The tested product can now be bought in the local convenience stores.

High energy for this team of TVM Verzekeringen (specializing in truck insurance). We facilitated 6 Sprints over the course of 6 months, all in the beautiful National Park Dwingeloo. What a ride!

In the early days facilitated Design Sprints for Nationale Nederlanden 8 times. We were lucky to travel to Turkey (Istanbul), Czech Republic (Prague), Germany (Berlin), Hungary (Budapest) and the Netherlands (The Hague) just to name a few! We were obviously excited.

One of the first Design Sprints we ran was with Wolters Kluwer. Multiple sprints were run. Those solutions are now new products in the market. It started with extremely dedicated teams, a little help of the Design Sprint proces and enormous amounts of iterations and energy after the Sprint. In collab with Aimforthemoon.