Global Design Sprint Allows Students to Develop Real-Life Corporate Business Solutions
Jan. 7, 2022
Associate Professor of Business Management Veronica Manlow
Students will work in multidisciplinary international teams to bring their design and marketing concepts to life.
To develop their professional communication, marketing, and artistic skills, Brooklyn College students from the Murray Koppelman School of Business and the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts are invited to participate in the global Design Sprint competition led by the University of Hertfordshire in England and hosted by the Murray Koppelman School during the week of January 17.
The Design Sprint is a virtual, international, five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas—a “greatest hits” of business strategy, innovation, behavioral science, design thinking, and more packaged into a battle-tested process.
The “sprint” design of the competition helps students shortcut the debate cycle and compress months of time into a single week. Instead of waiting to launch a minimal product to understand if an idea is any good, they get clear data from industry leaders on designing a realistic prototype. The sprint gives students a superpower: They can fast-forward into the future to see a finished product and customer reactions.
This year, Brooklyn College will be part of a cohort of more than 300 students from the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire, Nagoya Zokei University of Art & Design in Japan, and Ruth Prowse School of Art in Cape Town, South Africa, working in multidisciplinary teams and collaborating on exciting industry set briefs to bring their design concepts to life.
Business partners will include Nanotronics, which is presenting a design challenge in the form of an informational kiosk that it would like to be housed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where the business operates. One of the mentors who will be working with several teams of students is business professional and Brooklyn College lecturer/mentor Norman Schwartz ’66.
Other companies that have set this year’s challenges are:
- AllSaints
- Harris Tweed Hebrides
- Lambeth Palace
- Lanificio Leo
- Power Africa
- Nanotronics
Last year, more than 170 students from Brooklyn College and the University of Hertfordshire put their creativity to the test in the ambitious online program, thought to be one of the first events of its kind held by a university anywhere in the world. Students studying everything from business to fashion design, visual arts, architecture, photography, and animation were split into teams and supported throughout the week by expert mentors from both institutions. The competitions were held over Zoom, and participating business partners—including Adobe, AllSaints, Harris Tweed Hebrides, Lambeth Palace, and WOOF&BREW—asked the teams to consider ways they could support their local community during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they could respond to some of the issues they have faced as a result of the current circumstances.
Dazne James, a Brooklyn College student majoring in marketing and minoring in business law, participated last year, and her team was the first-place runner-up. Her team created a health and wellness app for a pet company, WOOF&BREW, to help bring dogs and their owners closer together.
“I was hesitant about joining the Design Sprint because I had never participated in something like this before, nor did I have experience with Adobe XD. However, my mentor, Tricia Bryan, was extremely motivating and pushed my team and me to think outside the box with our design,” James said. “This competition propelled me to learn skills like wire framing and prototyping that were needed to complete the challenge. It made me want pursue a career in UX design and project management because I would help people and businesses solve problems in an innovative and creative way.”
For 2022, the Murray Koppelman School of Business and the School of Visual, Media and Performing Arts are offering two new three-credit courses during the winter intersession for participating in the Design Sprint competition, which again will be held virtually over Zoom.
The time commitment for the Design Sprint is 7 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday. Students on the winning teams will go on to compete in front of a panel of judges, officials from the companies participating in the challenge, mentors, administrators, professors, and other students. Students tend to surpass the time requirement and continue to work, some day and night, on meeting the challenge provided by the company to which they are assigned.
The new courses being offered as part of the Design Sprint are BUSN 3235—Small Business Operations and Entrepreneurship (Associate Professor Veronica Manlow) and, for nonbusiness majors, ARTD 2212—Design Thinking (Professor Nora McCauley). The School of Business is also offering a $500 prize to the winning team.
“I've been involved in the Design Sprint as a mentor last year when it was virtual and the year before on the campus of UH in the UK,” says Manlow. “Next year, we plan to hold the Design Sprint in person at Brooklyn College and to also partner with the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This is a great opportunity for honing leadership skills and for learning what it is like to work in an organization where one has to collaborate with executives and with a team comprised of people from different divisions with very different skill sets.”
Anyone interested in registering for the courses, which require permission, or participating in the Design Sprint without taking the courses should e-mail Associate Professor Manlow.
