INSPIRE
Step 1 | Sponsorship & planning
Establish Roles & Sponsorship
Establishing strong sponsorship, coaching, and teams during the Inspire phase of the innovation design journey is critical for success. Here is a breakdown of suggested roles:
| Role | Description |
|---|---|
| Business Sponsor | Ensure Inspiration Teams have the support, time, and resources needed to conduct knowledge scanning and empathy building. |
| Inspire Phase Leader | Accountable for the Inspire phase of the overall design journey: work effort, team management, client satisfaction, quality, and budget. Ensures Inspire plan and materials are completed to support design. On-site guide for any knowledge scanning and empathy building efforts during accelerated design sessions. Provides coaching/advisory to Inspiration team coaches and leaders. |
| Inspiration Team Leader | Accountable for their specific team’s knowledge scan and empathy building efforts, and ensuring the team achieves the level of documentation needed to support the next phase of work in the Design session. |
| Documenter | Accountable for managing the shared online team folder, capturing learnings from sessions and activities, and ensuring the final knowledge scan and empathy building slides are completed prior to final webinar. |
| Inspiration Team | • Ideally, Inspiration Team members are willing to participate as part of the design team for the overall journey through each phase. • Each Inspiration Team has approx. 5 team members responsible for: 1. Conducting knowledge scan activities on designated scan categories, including online research for innovative trends and leading practices and conducting stakeholder interviews. 2. Conducting empathy building activities to immerse, observe, engage, and reflect. 3. Complete at least 5 knowledge scan slides and build out 2 personas for the final shared learning webinar. 4. Participating in team check-ins and any additional scheduled intensives, webinars, etc. |
| Innovation Coach | Selected coaches could include members of the overall innovation design journey team, as well as other qualified internal or outside resources: • Provides team with training at the kickoff • Provides coaching during knowledge scanning and empathy building (weekly check-ins) • Guides the inspire process • Facilitates learning webinars and/or briefings |
Approach
Once sponsorship and roles have been established, the Inspire Phase Leader should work with the Business Sponsor to create an Inspiration Approach, which provides a framework and guidance for this phase of the journey.
Determine an approach for gathering inspiration that includes the following elements:
Inspiration Team Leaders
Inspiration Team Members
Knowledge repository (i.e. Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.)
- Timeline
Determine Scan Knowledge Categories:
What information, trends, research, and analogous organization information will provide inspiration for the challenge?
Assign 1-2 categories to each team
Determine Personas for Empathy:
Who are the key customers and stakeholders who engage with the service that we need to learn more about?
Assign 1-2 personas to each team
Administration
With sponsorship, roles, and the approach established, the Inspire Phase Leader and Business Sponsor can iron out the administrative details for this phase of work, which include:
Knowledge Repository Buildout | Determine which online sharing program, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, etc., fits best for your team, and then build out a file structure for each Inspiration Team to house and share information throughout this phase.
Inspire Tools & Templates | Provide tools and templates to help guide teams through the Inspiration process. Be sure they are ready to launch at the Inspire Kick-Off Meeting!
Communications | Outline list of key communications needed (i.e. invitations to Inspire Kick-Off Meeting and final webinar, coaching check-ins, etc.) and determine point person for drafting and distributing.
Inspire Kick-Off Meeting
The final step of Inspire planning is to host a Kick-Off Meeting with Sponsors, Innovation Coaches, Team Leaders, and Team Members to launch this phase of the design journey, as well as gain support and engagement for knowledge scanning and empathy building activities. Be sure to have all the Inspire planning materials completed and ready to present at the Kick-Off!
Design Thinking as a Common Language for Innovation: Establishing a common language for innovation is critical for the success of the overall journey. If your team has not received previous training in design thinking methodology, we strongly recommend kicking off the Inspire phase by going through the award winning ExperienceInnovation™ simulation developed by our partners IDEO and ExperiencePoint®.
Meeting Details:
Who’s leading the meeting? Designated Engagement Leader and Inspire Phase Leader for overall design journey, along with a Sponsor representative
Participants? Overall Design Journey team, Business Sponsors, and Inspiration Team Leaders, Coaches, and Team Members
Where? Virtual or in-person
How long? ½ Day – 1 Day (depending on whether or not your team conducts the ExperienceInnovation™ simulation)
| Time | Agenda Details |
|---|---|
| 8:30 | Welcome and Introductions |
| 9:00 | ExperienceInnovation™ Simulation |
| 1:00 | Lunch |
| 1:30 | Leading & Fostering Innovation: A panel discussion |
| 3:00 | Inspire Kick-off |
| 3:15 | Teams create an Inspire Plan |
| 4:00 | Teams Present Plans |
| 4:30 | Closing remarks |
| 5:00 | It’s a Wrap |
Team Check-ins
After the Kick-Off Meeting, Inspiration teams are supported by a 30 minute weekly or bi-weekly check-in (virtual or in-person) with an Innovation Coach. The purpose of the check-in is to provide support and guidance for the team and monitor progress of knowledge scanning and empathy building activities. Coaches are responsible for communications and scheduling with their teams.
Midway through this phase of the journey, the Inspire Phase Leader conducts a check-in with Team Leaders and Innovation Coaches to review deliverables and discuss an approach for the Final Share Inspiration Learning webinar/meeting.
Agenda for First Team Check-In:
(Innovation Coach leads | Team Leader + Team Members participate)
Review shared online Team folder in designated Knowledge Repository (i.e. Google Drive)
Review/confirm your Team’s Inspire Plan (completed during Inspire Kick-Off Meeting)
Review Inspire Toolkit (templates should be provided in Knowledge Repository)
Discuss coaching approach + set date/time for future Team Check-Ins
Confirm participation in Team knowledge scanning and empathy building activities
Agenda for Midpoint Coaching Check-In with Team Leaders:
(Inspire Phase Leader leads | Innovation Coaches + Team Leaders participate)
Review Knowledge Scan Deliverables, Timeline, and Final Share Inspiration Learning Webinar/Meeting approach
Update from Team Leaders + Share (1) Knowledge Scan Slide
Discuss Persona work
Discuss Immersion and other empathy building activities
Open discussion