Every organisation has one: a case that has been “almost decided” for months. The team keeps working, the steering committee keeps postponing, and nobody officially stops it. The Case Sprint ends that in ten weeks. Before any work starts, we agree with you what must be true to say yes. Your team gathers the evidence. You decide: go, pivot or stop.
PLAN A DIAGNOSTIC CONVERSATIONDuration: 10 weeks
For: the sponsor, the innovation manager and 2 to 4 team members
Location: at your organisation and online
Fee: € 7,500 fixed, 50% at the start and 50% at the decision
Language: Dutch or English
WEEK 0 | HALF A DAY
KICK-OFF WITH THE SPONSOR
Not “what do you think of the idea?” but “what must be true to say yes?”. Together we set the decision question and the criteria. The mandate problem is solved before the work begins.
WEEKS 1–2 | 1 DAY
STAKEHOLDERS AND RISKY ASSUMPTIONS
A workshop with your innovation manager and team. We map who supports and who blocks, and which assumptions could sink the case if they turn out to be wrong.
WEEKS 3–6 | YOUR TEAM, COACHED
GATHER THE EVIDENCE
One or two fast experiments or customer conversations, run by your team and coached by WAAI. A working prototype convinces a CFO faster than forty slides.
WEEKS 7–8 | 1 DAY
BUILD THE CASE AGAINST THE CRITERIA
We build the business case and the value story against the criteria from week 0. No storytelling around the gaps: what we don’t know, we say.
WEEKS 9–10 | WITH THE SPONSOR
THE DECISION SESSION
A decision file of ten pages at most, and a session where you decide: go, pivot or stop. A case that stops on evidence after ten weeks saves more than one that drags on for another year. A stop is a result too.
AFTER WEEK 10 | OPTIONAL
WHAT COMES NEXT
Your team keeps the method. Is there a portfolio to steer after the decision? Then we continue as your Innovation Board Partner, one day a month. Deep user research or business model work by WAAI partners is quoted separately.
Evelien Neirynck is service designer and partner at Twisted Studio
Sarah Boone is professor Entrepreneurschip and Innovation at Ghent University and Associate partner at Decimal Health
Jan Van Caneghem is a lecturer digital strategy and innovation and design thinking at Artevelde University of Applied Science
A ten-week, fixed-price trajectory that takes one stalled innovation case to a decision: go, pivot or stop. You set the decision criteria in week 0 and make the call in week 10. In between, your team gathers the evidence, coached by WAAI.
Agree upfront what must be true to say yes. Gather evidence against exactly those criteria. Then put a short decision file in front of the person who can decide. Most cases stall because step one never happened.
€ 7,500, fixed. Half at the start, half at the decision. It is usually paid from a project budget, not a training budget, so it can be decided without a long purchasing round.
You as sponsor, your innovation manager and two to four team members. You are needed for half a day in week 0 and for the decision session in weeks 9–10. WAAI puts in about five days over ten weeks. No sponsor at the table, no sprint.
Then the sprint worked. A case that stops on evidence after ten weeks saves more than one that drags on for another year.
No sponsor at the table, no sprint. Innovation managers rarely fail because of a bad idea. They fail because nobody with authority has said what a yes would take. That’s why the sprint starts and ends with you: you set the criteria in week 0, and you make the call in week 10. In between, your team does the work and WAAI coaches. About five days of Jan’s time over ten weeks.
Paid from a project budget, not a training budget
A fixed price and a fixed end date, so it can be decided without a long purchasing round. Ask us whether your organisation can still use this year’s budget for a start in January.
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