“One of the core missions of The Worldwide Tribe is to change the refugee story from one about populations and governments, and to instead focus on the human struggle, suffering, and hope refugees live with every day.”

The Challenge:

Sometimes purpose is imposed, not sought. That’s what happened to Jasmin O’Hara in 2015 when a post on her travel blog went viral. Her blog had always been a way to share the stories of people she met around the world. Then, in August 2015, after visiting the Jungle Camp, a wooded refugee encampment in Calais, France with over 3,000 inhabitants, Jasmin wrote a blog post that changed everything. The emotionally raw post garnered over 65,000 shares and, suddenly, she had an active audience...and a mission.

Jasmin founded The Worldwide Tribe (TWT) to create positive change in the lives of refugees by harnessing her new audience. Staying true to Jasmin’s roots as a storyteller, TWT uses creative storytelling to humanize issues that are too often represented by statistics and trend reporting, and to invest in grassroots projects that make a direct difference in the lives of those in need.

TWT grew quickly and organically, launching multiple programs from France and Greece to Turkey and Jordan. There was very little time to strategize in the whirlwind. Then, after giving a talk at a hackathon, Jasmin was approached by Google’s Ricardo Davila Otoya who thought Google could help. That chance meeting turned into a planned Sprint led by Rick Farrell, Senior UX Designer, in Google’s London office.

“The emotionally raw post garnered over 65,000 shares and, suddenly, Jasmin O’Hara had an active audience...and a mission.”

The Team

The Sprint took place at the King’s Course Google office. The team included Jasmin and her brother Nils O’Hara, Lead Creative at TWT; Van Skoric, the TWT Strategist; and Joe Watson and Aryven Arasen of AryJoe Creatives, a firm TWT had collaborated with on multiple storytelling projects. In addition to Rick, Google brought in an Interaction Designer, a UI designer, and a UI writer.

The Sprint

Prior to the Sprint, Rick met with TWT founders several times, both in person and on video conference and telephone calls. It was determined that, due to tight schedules, a full three day Sprint simply wasn’t feasible. They agreed to run a two day Mini Sprint with the goal of generating actionable ideas that could be completed in a more leisurely time frame afterwards.

The meetings were also used to define the sprint challenge, its goals, and to consider possible deliverables. As Sprintmaster, Rick also spent time delving into TWT’s existing content and to study the output of similar organizations like Doctors without Borders.

Rick developed a brief that delineated the goals, the logistics, the team, and the schedule. The Sprint Challenge was defined as: Find new innovative ways of producing and delivering positive, uplifting content or experiences to highlight the refugee crisis. Increase engagement and awareness by creating impact that inspires audiences to act.

“Each phase of the (Sprint) process generates more than concepts, it actually generates motivation to get things done in the future."

While the Sprint wouldn’t conform to the typical 5 day process, Rick was convinced that even in two days the early phases of the sprint process would help TWT clarify its plan for moving forward. “One of the great things about Sprints is their adaptability,“ he says. “Each phase of the process generates more than concepts, it actually generates motivation to get things done in the future. With a small organization like The Worldwide Tribe, creating clear goals can be transformative.”

On the first day of the Sprint, the team met in the morning and went through introductions. They discussed the primary goals of the organization which included raising awareness, developing engaging content, ensuring donations, and providing humanitarian solutions. They quickly dove into lightning talks to better understand similar solutions from a large variety of organizations. Rick brought in a VR film producer to give a lightning talk that proved especially inspirational. This sort of inspiration is often critical to a successful Sprint. As Rick says, “If you can get the lightning talks right, it really gets people engaged. Hearing from folks that have had similar challenges is both inspiring and helps trigger ideas.”

The talks led to a round of How Might We’s written on post-its. The post-its were clustered into categories and themes and placed on the wall. Then, using dot stickers, participants voted on the “best” solutions for further exploration. Team members got three votes each, while Jasmin and Nils each got five votes to ensure that their ownership stake was represented in the voting.

Once the votes were tallied the team went into Crazy 8’s, sketching out different variations on the selected items. Each participant presented their Crazy 8 concepts and discussed them. Next, the team broke into pairs and started storyboarding the best of the Crazy 8’s. The storyboards were then presented and the whole team voted again with dot stickers. Again, Jasmin and Nils were given more votes. As the first day came to a close, the team had three ideas that everyone agreed were worth pursuing. “I always find storyboarding the most interesting part of facilitating a Sprint,” says Rick. “The seeds have been planted and the storyboards are like the first shoots of those seeds.”

“As the first day came to a close, the team had three ideas that everyone agreed were worth pursuing.”

Day two was dedicated to expanding the three ideas into presentable forms. This included more detailed storyboards, a video script and storyboard, and a presentation deck. The team worked in groups on each idea and developed prototypes until about 2 P.M. They then presented their work internally, shared feedback, and refined the prototypes.

At 3 P.M., Rick brought in Googlers from the office who had no knowledge of the project. The team presented the three prototypes and explained their purpose and vision. Another round of discussion ensued with the new audience and then the Sprint wrapped up with a quick talk about potential next steps that TWT could take with the work.

The Discovery

So what was it that The Worldwide Tribe and the Google Sprinters developed?

Remember the initial goal was to “Increase engagement and awareness by creating impact that inspires audiences to act.” Their Sprint efforts lead to three, clear, action items:

Website Redesign

The current site needed a better UX flow. It was difficult for people to know where to start and grasp immediately what the organization’s mission was. The first solution was to develop an About Us video that would be played on the homepage. The second solution was the development of an interactive map allowing users to zoom into locales and engage with relevant content like refugee and volunteer stories. This reimagined site would be designed to mirror the organization’s on the ground activities.

Interactive Refugee Experience

One of the core missions of The Worldwide Tribe is to change the refugee story from one about populations and governments to a focus on the struggle, suffering, and hope refugees live with every day. To reveal the daily reality of refugees, the team developed an immersive “choose your own adventure” story which allows users to place themselves in the shoes of the displaced. The story starts in Syria and users have to make choices to move the story along, critical decisions that could lead to safety or calamity, even death. Who do you trust? How do you evade enemy forces? Do spend money on fake documents or food for your kids? At the conclusion of the Sprint, TWT had a deck with multiple narratives that would be woven together into an immersive storytelling experience.

Internal Operations

While creative storytelling and visual design can feel like a sugary delight, every organization needs to eats its vegetables. During the initial brainstorming, it became clear that internal communications and processes within TWT needed to be codified. Solutions included the introduction of management tools like Trello, Slack and Teux-Deux. The team also developed a content calendar system that enabled TWT to prepare content relevant to popular dates like Mother’s Day.

The Outcome

At the end of the Sprint process, The Worldwide Tribe felt they had basically developed their production marching orders for the coming year in just two days. The key to running such a successful Sprint under such time constraints is time management. “Timing in a sprint is really important, both to keep the team moving in the right direction, and keeping momentum going,” says Rick. “As a sprintmaster, if you don't give the team the right amount of time at the various stages, it can affect the final outcome and the quality of the deliverables. But if you don’t manage the time spent on each task, you simply run out of it. It’s a real balancing act.”

As a small nonprofit, TWT doesn’t have the resources to bang out work immediately - helping refugees and raising awareness always takes center stage. But they now know exactly what they want to do as well as the resources required to put that plan into production. “We loved the experience. I’d definitely recommend it anyone trying to solve organizational issues,” says Jasmin. “I’d also recommend doing it at Google,” she adds laughing, “because the food there is fabulous. And the endless supply of coconut water keeps the brain’s creative juices flowing.”