IdeationSpeedSketching ~10 min · 8 steps

Crazy Eights

Often the secret to great design lies in quantity, not quality. Generate eight divergent ideas, fast.

Overview

Divergent ideation is about generating as many different ideas as possible. It helps you explore a wide range of possibilities, ideas, and perspectives, and is crucial for generating innovative, creative solutions to complex problems. It's especially useful when the traditional approach isn't enough. If you're building a digital product or a new service, there are thousands of combinations for your approach, experience, positioning, and pricing.

Crazy Eights is a great exercise to train your brain to think more creatively and come up with more ideas, even when it's challenging. It stretches the ideation muscles and encourages you to think beyond the obvious, which can lead to breakthroughs. Practiced regularly, it builds a more flexible and adaptive approach to problem-solving you can apply anywhere.

Sketching isn't Art

It's easy to freeze up when you're given a sketching exercise. But it probably came naturally to you when you were a child. One reason we freeze is the fear of rejection and the need for perfection. Over time, school and work teach us that someone is better at this than us and our work might not be good enough.

For this exercise, imagine yourself as a five-year-old again. Come up with wild, zany ways to solve the challenge. Don't worry about perfect boxes and icons — start with simple rectangles for cards and sketchy lines for walls of text. You can clean it up later. The goal isn't art, it's getting lots of bad ideas out first.

Ben Affleck once told Matt Damon: "Judge me for how good my good ideas are, not how bad my bad ideas are." You'll have time later to turn bad ideas into better ones.

The worksheet

Set an 8-minute timer. One idea per box, one minute each. Don't make art — make quantity. Refine later.

How to do it

This is a simple exercise you can do on paper or digitally on a whiteboard. The goal is to generate as many different ideas as possible.

If you're using paper, fold a sheet in half three times, then unfold it flat — you'll have a grid of 8 rectangles.

Grab a pen and start an 8-minute timer. Spending just one minute per box, sketch an idea or way of solving your problem. If you aren't a great sketcher, it doesn't matter — just write words.

When the timer goes off, finish where you are and review or share with a partner or team.

Thought Starters

Try different layouts. What happens if you change the design from a list to a set of cards? To a calendar? To a slide-out detail panel?

Try different contexts. What if someone does this at home on the couch? In a meeting? On transit? Co-browsing with other people? Is there an admin view?

Try different data. What if charts became short stats and sentences? What if you added or removed profile images? What if dropdowns became tags or buttons? What if a form became a fun quiz?