Constraints breed creativity and innovation.

Crazy 8’s is an ideation activity made popular by the Google Ventures Design Sprint. It’s simple, fun, and based on the premise that if you can push to about 8 ideas, you’ll generate more innovative ones.

Ideation activities can be intimidating, particularly those involving sketches like this one encourages. It's useful to lead a silly sketching warmup (like "Squiggle Birds") before Crazy 8's. In addition, you can emphasize that the ideas are meant to be roughly drawn and far from perfect. They only need to communicate the ideas, and in the early stages of ideation, the more wild and impractical the better!

Here are the instructions adapted from the Design Sprint Kit website:

1 – Each participant folds a piece of paper and folds until there are 8 sections and unfolds to reveal the 8 rectangles

2 – Set the timer for 8 minutes

3 – Individually, each participant sketches one idea in each rectangle, trying their best until all sections are filled

4 – When the timer goes off, all pens are down

Twisting the Crazy 8's: Better with Constraints

I’ve used the Crazy 8's countless times, including virtually. I wondered if the quality of the ideas could be improved so I've successfully experimented with a variation that includes constraints.

The difference between the variation and the original is that instead of generating ideas openly within each of the 8 rectangles over 8 minutes, participants sketch one idea that matches a category (constraint) assigned to the rectangle. Participants are instructed to spend 1 minute on a rectangle before learning what the next category is and then spending 1 minute on that.

Here's a sample list of categories my Identity Lab co-founder and I led our Lab participants through last year:

1: Worst

2: Food

3: Animals

4: Nighttime

5: Theatrical elements

6: Habits

6: Storytelling

8: Wild Card

The activity's slight difference makes a big difference. Starting with a “worst idea” in the first rectangle frees you up to be creative. Ending on a “wild card” rectangle enables you to get out something else creative to build on. You can adjust the categories you choose in between rectangles 1 and 8 based on the workshop and your needs.

I’d love to hear if you have tried Crazy 8’s with constraints!