Intro to Beyond the Prototype
Learn how to maintain momentum after an ideation session

Bringing an idea to life isn’t always easy or straightforward.

Based on his experiences running Design Sprints for top companies, Douglas Ferguson wrote Beyond the Prototype to offer practical advice for people shifting from discovery to realization.

In this 90 minute interactive workshop, Douglas shares insights from his book and outlines a six-step plan for moving any initiative, vision, or prototype forward.
Date
September 9, 2020
Time
9am - 10:30am CT​
Location
Live Online
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What to expect
What to Expect
You’ll spend 90 minutes with the author walking through key principles from the book and explore how you can apply them to your work. Throughout the workshop you’ll work through a Mural template to build your own personal action plan. You can check out the template here. It’s been a year since the initial release of Beyond the Prototype and Douglas has version 2 in the works. He’ll also be sharing with you early access to all of the new tools and ideas.
What You'll Learn
Douglas will walk you through the 6 steps for navigating the post sprint slump including brand new tips that are schedule to launch in the next version of the book. Starting with how to prepare ahead of time to minimize loss of momentum, then moving to post sprint activities like understanding how to wrap up your sprint to maximize learnings and extend your momentum. You’ll hear stories from Douglas’ experience running 100s of sprints and how important it is to build a narrative for the broader organization, build and organize your post sprint team, and how to adopt a Sprint mindset to transform your organization.
How You'll Learn
The class will be activity-based with guided instruction and collaborative sessions. You’ll not only learn the 6 steps to avoid Slumps, the why and how of the Beyond the Prototype approach, you’ll also get to practice some of the activities guided by the author and master facilitator, Douglas Ferguson. He won’t just talk at you ; you’ll learn through doing, work with other participants, and get feedback on how to address your slump. There will be plenty of time for Q&A, so you can learn from our experience launching hundreds of ideas at some of the most innovative companies and organizations.
Agenda
What is a Slump
Learn the characteristics of a slump and how to avoid them.
How did we get there
Explore the root cause of our slump
What’s keeping us there
Challenge ourselves to action.
What are we going to do about
Commit to change.
Who Should Attend
Leaders & Executives
who learn how to harness the power of innovative momentum
Creatives & Innovators
who want to to learn to navigate the messy middle
Project Managers
who want to move from idea to execution smoothly
Design Sprint Facilitators
who want to learn how to help their customers get the most out of Design Sprints
Key Takeaways
Design Sprints are not the answer
Good preparation is the best way to avoid a slump
Share the story to build allies
Adopt the Sprint mindset for continued growth
This event has ended
Interested in hearing when this workshop will occur next?
Douglas Ferguson
Douglas is a thought leader and master facilitator of Design Sprints, Innovation Acceleration, Team Alignment, Meeting Systems, Culture Transitions, and Change Transformations. He is also the author of three books: Beyond the Prototype, How to Remix Anything (co-authored), and Start Within (co-authored).
Motivated by a mission to rid the world of horrible meetings and offer meaningful meetings in their place, Voltage Control is calling upon fellow facilitators to transform meeting and innovation culture. From free weekly community meetups to Control the Room–the annual facilitator summit, Voltage Control is building a community of facilitators to change the world.

What People Are Saying
I realized my entire role is facilitation. I have to do a lot of lateral influencing. So I use these skills even if it is not a super-structured workshop. Our product team has micro meetings all the time, and these methods help us get the most of those moments. My team can lean on me to facilitate. You will redesign the way you have conversations. I can’t believe every college student doesn’t have to take a class like this. This is how you collaborate. It is the underpinning of the future of work.
Savannah C.
PRODUCT DESIGNER @ TAILWIND
Apply for a Diversity Scholarship
A key part of our mission is to support diverse facilitators from different methodologies, backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations, cultures, and ages. If you are a part of, or serve, a traditionally underrepresented group and feel that this scholarship would allow you to amplify this mission, please apply now.
Photo Disclaimer
Please note that photographs, video & audio recordings will be taken throughout this event. These will be used by Voltage Control for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in social media, or in any third-party publication. Please contact us via email if you have any concerns or if you wish to be exempted from this activity.​
The Books
Bring Your Ideas to Life
Innovation can seem complex or reserved for the exceptional. But we believe innovation is for everyone. We’ve set out to illuminate a path for you to generate bold ideas, visualize and share them, overcome obstacles, and turn them into reality. Our books are equal parts guidebook and stories from years of experience helping companies adopt an innovation mindset and culture. They’re practical & actionable, so you can get started now. We hope they’ll help you on your journey to realizing your biggest, boldest ideas.
