Deloitte + Sprintbase: Taking global collaboration to a new level

The story

As a globally dispersed team, collaboration on innovation projects can be challenging. As part of the ‘2018 Creative Week’ – a firm-wide event focused on the latest technologies, trends and methods to support creativity and innovation – Sprintbase was used to bring people from around the world together to collectively tackle a real innovation challenge.

The team sought to push the limits of remote collaboration by having all of the field research conducted by a globally dispersed team, ideas generated in London and prototypes created in New York, using a mix of in-person and virtual participants along the way.

“Sprintbase is the tool our globally spread out team has been missing to efficiently harness design thinking.”

Gretchen Schulfer

Creative Brand Senior Manager

Around the world in 48hrs

A few weeks before the in-person event, a team of 10 people drawn from Deloitte offices around the world formed a design team focussed on this challenge: How might we use our physical spaces to help people be more creative at work?”

To kick off the sprint, this virtual global team went out into the field to gain empathy with users and seek out inspiration wherever it might be found. The team captured photos and videos, conducted interviews about what was working well, what could be improved and also looked outside of their industry for fresh ideas about how physical space is being used as a catalyst for creative working.

Next it was time for in-person teams to jump in to help the virtual team translate their field research findings into insights and ultimately new ideas and prototypes. The effort started in Deloitte’s London office and then handed off to a team in New York.

In-person and virtual teams used Sprintbase to collaboratively generate, build on and ultimately select a set of innovative ideas that could be taken on to prototyping, following the Creative Week event.

Just the beginning

In the space of 48 hrs, our design challenge had been worked on by teams on both sides of the Atlantic, using the inspiration provided by the global virtual team in the weeks before. The team generated some great prototypes, but more importantly, had a powerful collaborative experience that demonstrated the power of the firm’s collective creative potential.

Deloitte is now using Sprintbase to bring virtual innovation teams together to tackle strategic challenges around the globe.