Our Design Sprints

What if? Let's Find Out.

EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF WORK

The ways in which we work today - weekends off, 8-hour shifts, overtime, employer-based health care - were structures fought for and imagined by workers from over 100 years ago. We need new solutions for 21st century work and modern workers. 

Design sprints are "for anyone with a big opportunity, problem, or idea who needs to get answers now," explains Google designer Jake Knapp in his book, Sprint. At The Workers Lab, we make this Silicon Valley process our own. Once a year, we lead Design Sprints to explore ideas that can impact workers and the future of work.

Read about our most recent Design Sprint below.

WHAT'S A DESIGN SPRINT?

We adapted Google's Design Sprint methodology - an intensive, time-bound approach to solve problems that reduces risk when bringing a new product to market - in order to:

  1. Understand the problem and existing solutions
  2. Ideate a set of solutions
  3. Decide on a solution 
  4. Prototype and Validate a Minimal Viable Product (MVP)
  5. Pilot the solution with upwards of 500 workers and evaluate its impact

DESIGN SPRINT FOR SOCIAL CHANGE 

We tackled the issue of worker income volatility from 2017 - 2020 with a Design Sprint focused on getting emergency cash to workers.

“What if,” we asked, “workers had $1,000 available - no strings attached - when they needed it for unexpected expenses?” 

In what we called our “Design Sprint for Social Change,” we partnered with thought leaders across the fields of financial inclusion, product innovation, and labor and employment policy to design and test an emergency cash delivery pilot.

Our methodology and findings from this experiment are now available in a report and recorded briefing.

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What We Learned

Our Design Sprint for Social Change led to the 2019 pilot of The Workers Strength Fund, which made $1,000 in emergency cash available to gig workers. What did workers spend the money on? Was $1,000 enough? Learn more about our methodology and findings.
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DESIGN SPRINT UPDATES

The Workers Fund - How Our Lab Grew an Emergency Fund from Idea to Implementation

How Our Lab Grew an Emergency Fund

 When COVID-19 hit, we were tasked with developing a plan for getting emergency cash to workers quickly. Our role as a lab for ideas that increase worker power helped us answer that call, and so did...

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Sharing the Impact of Emergency Cash

Two years ago, we set out to explore the impact that emergency cash could make in the lives of gig workers. On May 21, we shared findings from the Workers Strength Fund in a virtual briefing.

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The Workers Lab - In The News

The Workers Lab Knows How to Get Emergency Cash to Workers

The Workers Fund was profiled by Fast Company and Mashable on May 1 - which was International Workers Day. Both of these publications reach over 25 million viewers.

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WHAT WILL DESIGN SPRINT 2020 BE?

We’re looking for our next big opportunity, problem, or idea that could unlock potential for every worker. Send us your thoughts.

Email us: designsprint@theworkerslab.com

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