Creative Leadership
Experimentation is great–and our product teams at Insider had gotten really good at it. But with so much focus on small, incremental improvements, our designers were losing opportunities to step back and think bigger.
I wanted to change that. Here's how I made it happen.
The Opportunity
During a company hack week, I reintroduced a team brainstorm called Stay Inspired, completely re-vamping the format with a more structured, outcome-oriented process.
Starting with a theme relevant with stakeholders at the time, First Impressions, I developed a creative brief to focus the team's thinking and guide the initiative. We kicked off the day with a group brainstorm, and dedicated the rest to exploring and designing ideas.
The team shared their concepts to the Product & Tech org, alongside other Hack Week projects, and the response was encouraging, both from the team and within the org and other leaders.
Process
Starting Small
Building on that first experiment, I expanded Stay Inspired into a full-week design initiative during the next hack week.
This time, we focused on two existing product experiences: slideshows and live blogs. Alongside providing another brief, I organized the team into small groups, and assigned each to one of the features.
Each group had the freedom to brainstorm, explore, and develop its own vision. My role shifted from directing the work to creating the conditions for it—establishing the focus, organizing the teams, and providing guidance when needed.
At the end of the week, we brought the work together into a separate presentation for product leadership, including other Directors and our VP.
Expanding the Process
Building on that first experiment, I expanded Stay Inspired into a full-week design initiative during the next hack week.
This time, we focused on two existing product experiences: slideshows and live blogs. Alongside providing another brief, I organized the team into small groups, and assigned each to one of the features.
Each group had the freedom to brainstorm, explore, and develop its own vision. My role shifted from directing the work to creating the conditions for it—establishing the focus, organizing the teams, and providing guidance when needed.
At the end of the week, we brought the work together into a separate presentation for product leadership, including other Directors and our VP.
Outcomes
Ideas moved into the product roadmap.
The concepts were well received by leadership, and ideas from the initiative were prioritized and ultimately built into the live product.
Designers had space to think creatively again.
Stay Inspired gave the team an opportunity to work beyond their usual delivery responsibilities, collaborate with other designers, and contribute ideas that could shape the future of the product.
Design became a more proactive contributor to product direction.
Rather than responding only to requests and experiments within existing roadmaps, the team demonstrated its ability to identify opportunities, propose solutions, and influence what came next.