Andrea Beliczki

Get inspired today by a world 20 years away.

Sometimes it helps to start from the end. This exercise will help you align with your team on an audacious vision for your project - one that you can work backward from.

Name all the bad ideas to make room for good ones. Coming up with the perfect solution right off the bat can feel paralyzing. So instead of trying to find the right answer, get unstuck by listing all the wrong ones.

Try on a relentlessly positive, can-do attitude before tackling the big stuff. The proverb goes "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Practice the art of positive thinking to unlock creative ideas. Use this as a warm-up before brainstorming or to energize your team meetings.

Build on your ideas by looking at them from someone else's perspective. What would your favorite actor think of your concept? Would your president or prime minister endorse it? What if you were to switch hats with another organization? How would they change or build on your idea?

Find new opportunities by testing the limit of what's possible? Sometimes getting unstuck means zooming out and then dreaming big. Here's your opportunity to get fantastical. Don't worry about viability or resources, worry about saving the world.

Learn through careful observation.

Observation and intuition are critical design tools. This exercise helps you leverage both. Find clues about the context you're designing for that may be hidden in plain sight.

Build personas of ideas, products or experiences.

Imagine your product is a person. What's its name? What would its ideal date night be? Does it prefer the beach or the woods? This exercise is a playful way to nail down the essence of your idea, product, or service. Use it in ideation or as a way to hone an existing concept.

Build empathy by retelling someone's story.

Understand your users day-to-day. To better design for people, try shadowing them for a day. By observing someone in their own context, you'll notice details about their life - the way they engage with people, pr their routine - that you'd otherwise never see.

Understand your users through visual artifacts.

A mood board is a collage of images and texture that communicates a feeling or experience. See what inspires people by asking them to make their very own.

Gain empathy by trying something new.

Imagine a day in the life of a person you're designing for - their morning routine, diet, hobbies, commute, commonly used products, and more.

Let people show you what matters to them.

Give people a chance to explain their priorities in their own words by inviting them to create a care package for a specific purpose.