Crazy 8s timer
Eight sketches, eight minutes, one minute each. Hit start and put the laptop where everyone can see it.
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What Crazy 8s is for
Eight minutes, eight ideas, one minute each. The point is not to produce eight good ideas — it is to get past the first obvious one. Most rooms have decided on their answer within ninety seconds of hearing the problem, and Crazy 8s forces the fourth, fifth and sixth idea out of people who would otherwise have stopped.
Run it silently. No discussion, no critique, no showing your neighbour. When the timer stops, everyone pins their sheet up and the room votes with dots. The best idea usually turns up somewhere around sketch five, once the sensible ones are out of the way.
How to run it
- Fold an A4 sheet into eight boxes, one per idea.
- State the challenge once, clearly, before you start the clock.
- Sketch — boxes and arrows are fine. Nobody is being marked on drawing.
- One minute a box. When the chime goes, move on even if it is unfinished.
- Pin everything up, then dot-vote in silence before anyone explains their work.
Using this in a real sprint?
We run sprints for enterprise teams, and we train teams to run their own.
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