A strong team isn’t built only through projects.
Sometimes it’s built in the five minutes before work actually begins.
After long meetings, deadline pressure, or simply another ordinary Monday, I often prepared small warm-up activities for the team.
Nothing complicated.
No slides.
No lectures.
Just enough to make everyone laugh, talk, and create something together.
Some sessions only lasted five minutes.
One of my favorites was asking everyone to describe the person sitting next to them using three adjectives, then quickly sketch something recognizable about that person before presenting it to the room.
People rarely remembered whether the drawing looked good.
They remembered the stories behind it.
Someone was “responsible, practical, hilarious.”
Someone else became recognizable only because of a messy hairstyle or the coffee cup they always carried.
Those tiny moments helped teammates notice each other beyond Jira tickets or Figma files.
Disbcribe the next person
We experimented with acrylic painting, paper collage, shape composition, and other hands-on creative exercises.
These activities reminded us that creativity isn’t limited to Figma. Working with physical materials helped us slow down, observe differently, and appreciate composition, balance, texture, and storytelling from another perspective.
Game – Catch the word
Game – Hot Seat
Other sessions focused on creative thinking.
One activity we revisited often was Crazy 8s.
Eight ideas.
Eight minutes.
No judging.
No polishing.
Just momentum.
For designers, generating ideas quickly is a skill that gets stronger with repetition.
Removing the pressure to produce “good ideas” often resulted in more interesting ones.
Crazy 8 technique
How Might We technique
How Might We technique
