"Super helpful framework to learn, taught in a really hands-on and engaging way."
The Challenge
Like many mission-driven organizations, Forum One recognized that as teams grow and projects become more complex, maintaining a collaborative and innovative culture becomes increasingly difficult. Existing design and decision-making processes often require significant time and coordination, making it challenging to rapidly test ideas, incorporate user feedback, and align diverse stakeholders around a shared vision. The organization also sought a more sustainable approach to balancing client expectations, user needs, and product value—one that would empower employees with practical tools to solve problems more efficiently while fostering greater ownership, creativity, and cross-functional collaboration.
Beyond improving project delivery, Forum One wanted to build a shared innovation mindset across the organization. They recognized that the greatest opportunities often emerge when individuals from different disciplines collaborate early, challenge assumptions, and experiment with ideas before investing significant time and resources. To remain a leader in the mission-driven technology and consulting space, the organization needed a repeatable process that encouraged creativity, accelerated decision-making, reduced risk through early user validation, and equipped employees with the confidence to lead innovation initiatives long after the workshop concluded.
The Sprint
The workshop was held at Forum One’s original headquarters in Washington, DC. The team comprised cross-functional members from various departments, including marketing, design, product development, and executive team leadership. This diverse representation ensured a range of perspectives and expertise, which enriched the workshop experience.
Prior to the workshop, the facilitation team coordinated closely with key stakeholders to ensure participants arrived prepared and aligned. Attendees received light pre-reading materials and clear guidance on how to prepare for the full-day training. This upfront preparation helped build early buy-in and set the foundation for a highly productive session.
Rather than delivering a traditional, lecture-style workshop, we intentionally designed the experience around learning by doing. The bootcamp embedded hands-on practice throughout the agenda, enabling participants to immediately apply each major concept to a real-world scenario. Consistent with the training design, participants worked through a fictional “Luggage Tracker” technology company case to practice sprint methods in a realistic context.
The session began by examining existing barriers to collaboration and innovation within the organization. Through structured exercises—including expert interviews, “How Might We” reframing, and journey mapping—participants surfaced key pain points and opportunity areas. They then moved into individual solution sketching, generating concepts for collaborative tools and approaches that strengthen communication, alignment, and team engagement.
In the second half of the day, participants presented their solution sketches, followed by a facilitated group discussion to evaluate and refine the strongest ideas. Through structured voting, the team narrowed the field to two primary concepts: a digital collaboration platform and an interactive feedback tool. After further deliberation, the group selected the digital collaboration platform to move forward into prototyping.
The remainder of the bootcamp focused on developing a high-fidelity prototype of the selected solution. Participants were highly energized by the hands-on creative process and worked collaboratively to prepare for usability testing. To simulate real-world user research, teams were divided into small groups and engaged in role-play testing sessions, enabling them to gather immediate feedback and surface actionable insights.
At this point, two ideas floated up to the top that sought to address the problem Lobbyists for Good set out to solve during the sprint - convincing people to contribute to a campaign to hire a lobbyist for a social cause. The first idea was to design an Ambassador Program on college campuses and leverage their energy and passion. The second idea was around messaging and improving the user experience of their campaign pages to inform the public on the benefit of lobbyists for good. Once again, Billy helped us decide on the latter idea when we got stuck.
Once we decided on what to prototype, we took another look at the improved user journey we had created on day one after listening to lightning talks. We used that to design a storyboard for our prototype, and then split up the storyboard into groups of two. This allowed us to prototype more quickly, since we really only had a few hours to create something that looked and felt real for user testing. We all used Google slides, along with some ready to go UI kits, to design our improved campaign page. Then, we had our "stitcher", the person responsible for putting the slides together, finish up the prototype in time for our user feedback sessions on the third and final day.
By the end of the workshop, participants walked away not only with a tangible framework for delivering client services, but also with a renewed sense of teamwork and shared purpose. The experience strengthened cross-team relationships and sparked fresh momentum around innovation across the organization.
The Design Sprint methodology enabled Forum One to rapidly develop and validate a solution that has the ability to address the needs of their client priorities, customer needs, and product value, rapidly. Just as importantly, the workshop empowered participants to take ownership of their ideas and contributions, increasing the likelihood that the new approaches would drive lasting impact on the organization’s culture and performance.
"Participating in this bootcamp was transformative. It allowed us to break down silos and think collaboratively about real issues we face. The energy in the room was palpable, and it inspired us to continue this momentum in our daily work."
Betsy Cecil, Vice President, Client Services
What we learned after the design sprint
Through the Design Sprint Bootcamp, Forum One successfully embedded sprint practices into its client workflow and firm culture, laying the groundwork for sustained innovation and deeper team engagement. The ability to rapidly learn, ideate, and test solutions within a compressed timeframe not only accelerated product development but also strengthened a culture of collaboration and shared vision across the organization.
For teams seeking an effective way to answer critical business questions, Design Sprints offer a powerful approach grounded in radical collaboration, rapid prototyping, and creative problem-solving. By the end of the bootcamp, participants had gained the skills, tools, and confidence needed to independently run design sprints and generate user-tested solutions with real organizational value.
With the bootcamp complete, the team reflected on several key lessons. First, they learned that innovation is most effective when it is grounded in user feedback rather than assumptions. By testing ideas early and often, participants saw how rapid prototyping could reduce uncertainty and lead to stronger, more informed decisions.
Second, the workshop reinforced the value of structured collaboration. Bringing together individuals with different perspectives helped uncover better ideas, build stronger alignment, and create a shared sense of ownership around the solutions being developed. Finally, participants discovered that Design Sprints are more than a workshop—they are a repeatable framework for tackling complex challenges.
By the end of the bootcamp, Forum One walked away with the skills, tools, and confidence to integrate sprint practices into future client engagements, creating a lasting culture of innovation, experimentation, and continuous learning.
Now it's your turn