Prototyping Day
During module 5 of the Catalyst Lab, the collaboratio helvetica’s team organised a one-day virtual prototyping workshop. The goal of the prototyping day was to support further the catalysts towards convening their systems and tap into the resources and knowledge of the community. The invitation was to get into a prototyping mindset and discover the benefits of experimenting with rapid prototyping tools, crowdsourcing, and co-creating with other changemakers working on diverse challenges, all while having fun. This workshop took place online due to restrictions linked to covid-19.
Forging the new by building on what’s present, we invite playfulness and give it our best shot. We dare to fail, adjust our course and learn as a community of practice. We probe sense and respond. We build upon each other’s contributions and share our trials and knowledge openly. In other words, we aim to spend the day “prototyping” instead of launching prototypes.
Screenshot of the Mural Board used during the Prototyping Day
The day was divided into three parts:
Warm-up
To get into the challenging and playful mood, we shared a TED video that focused on the prototype mindset, followed by a “mission impossible” challenge. For the mission impossible, groups of 5 people were given only 15 minutes to provide the following:
Define a team name
Have a team chant
Make a fun screenshot of the team
Powerpoint presentation about one SDG in Switzerland (minimum 5 slides)
Know everyone’s birthday (OF THE ENTIRE GROUP, not just your breakout)
Find one Swiss german word that someone in the group didn’t know
Agree on a dream holiday destination and make a mood board for it
Nevertheless, to say, there was no right or wrong, only teamwork, action and lots of fun.
2. Three Sessions dedicated to a specific challenge
These three sessions were organized through the Mural app. Catalysts were invited to add a challenge, along with a key question, into the mural.
Each challenge owner had one minute to pitch their prototype session to the group.
Participants could choose what group they would like to join for a one-hour prototyping session.
3. Harvest Support
Finally, we provided “Open Spaces Breakout Rooms” to harvest the support available in the room and through the communities to the challenges.
The prototype day was organised online. We used the app Mural.co to pitch the challenges and breakout rooms in Zoom for the prototyping sessions. Each prototype session lasted one hour.
“Today’s prototyping session made me realize that my concept could very well work out. Nevertheless, I usually want to go really big - today showed me that I could probably already achieve great results with just one simple e-mail”. (Silvano Lieger - Catalyst).
“The Catalyst Lab’s prototyping day allows me to bring our project to a next level by using the collective intelligence of the whole Catalyst Lab crew. We were able to sharpen our message and further define the process to integrate all stakeholders including funders. In order to solve the problem of waste and to close the loops, we need to connect the entire ecosystem”. (Boryana Milova - Catalyst)
Claudia Marcelloni has worked in science communication and innovation for more than a decade, mostly at the world’s largest laboratory, CERN leading projects such as TEDxCERN and Sparks. While working towards bridging the gap between scientific and technological development to public knowledge, Claudia grew interested in learning how these advances could be put to use for the social good. She was part of the first cohort in Social Innovation at Cambridge Judge Business School, conducting research on collaborative methodologies for social innovation labs.