Written by Ronald Poon I 3 min
TL;DR — Key Takeaways:
- Strategic Alignment: A GenAI Idea Sprint offers a focused environment to align leadership and identify opportunities in the Generative AI landscape.
- Learn from GenAI Experts and Founders: Inspire your leadership by hearing from AI founders and experts who are actively building and advising companies in GenAI.
- Customized Approach: Onova's tailored sessions ensure that you address the most impactful areas within your organization.
The next evolution in strategy meetings: A GenAI Idea Sprint
In today's fast-paced technological landscape, the challenge isn't just keeping up—it's knowing where to focus your efforts. While the concept of an idea sprint is powerful, a GenAI Idea Sprint goes beyond mere ideation. It serves as a specialized workshop that aligns leadership and uncovers strategic opportunities in the realm of Generative AI (GenAI).
The three major benefits of running a GenAI Idea Sprint are:
- Identifying and prioritizing opportunities within Generative AI
- Having a set of defined opportunities (which are framed as “challenges” to solve).
- Condense extensive strategic planning into one focused 8-hour work session
What does a GenAI Idea Sprint look like?
1. Introduction: Understanding GenAI's Business Impact
- Onova-Led Session: The day begins with a focused introduction that outlines the significance of GenAI in the context of digital transformation. This sets the stage for the day's discussions, providing a shared understanding of the goals and objectives.
2. Exploration: What is Possible with GenAI
- Art of the Possible: This session aims to broaden your understanding of GenAI's capabilities. It features discussions on real-world applications, informed by case studies from startups like Blaze AI and Tempo Labs.
- Expert Panel: The agenda also includes a panel of thought leaders, AI founders and CEOs who are building industry-leading GenAI startups and have raised millions in funding in our investment portfolio. We also bring in domain specialists and technical mentors from companies Google Cloud, IBM, Cohere and Microsoft, depending on the technology partner chosen.
3. Contextualization: Aligning GenAI with Your Business Objectives
- Design Thinking Exercises: The core part of the day is dedicated to brainstorming sessions facilitated through design thinking exercises. Methods such as "Crazy 8's" and "How Might We" statements are employed to help generate effective ideas and solutions.
4. Prioritization: Focusing on Key Challenges and Opportunities
- Voting and Group Prioritization: This segment involves collective decision-making to identify and prioritize the challenges and opportunities that are most relevant to your business.
5. Elaboration: Diving Deeper into Selected Opportunities
Detailed Challenge Statements: The day concludes with participants selecting one or two key opportunities to elaborate on. This results in detailed challenge statements that provide the context needed for actionable strategies.
Additional Considerations:
- High-Quality Inputs: Prior to the sprint, we provide curated briefs and detailed process maps to guide the discussions.
- Cross-Functional Teams: With multiple participants, the sprint allows for the formation of cross-departmental teams, enriching the diversity of perspectives.
- Outcome-Oriented: The sprint culminates in a collaborative strategy presentation and feedback session, summarizing the opportunities identified.
Why a generative AI idea sprint in particular?
GenAI is still in its early stages
Generative AI is not just another buzzword; it's a transformative technology that's still in its infancy. Despite being around for just a year, GenAI is already showing its potential to revolutionize large-scale industries,
While Generative AI (GenAI) may have entered the public consciousness nearly a year ago with the launch of ChatGPT, it remains a nascent technology: brimming with untapped potential. Its infancy should not be mistaken for insignificance; GenAI holds transformative promise for key sectors, such as finance and retail. This emerging wave of technology is still in the early phases of showing what it can achieve on a mass scale when fully integrated with traditional larger companies and businesses.
Generative AI, or GenAI, is more than a trending term; it's a technology in its formative stages with the potential to significantly impact various sectors, including finance and retail. While it may have gained widespread public attention and adoption with the launch of ChatGPT, its true potential is far from fully realized. The technology is still in the early stages of demonstrating what it can accomplish when integrated into traditional business models.
Most leaders do not have the time or resources to strategically align on generative AI
Many established organizations, particularly in sectors like banking, find themselves trailing in the adoption of GenAI. The reasons are multifaceted, ranging from economic constraints to internal restructuring. However, the primary obstacle often lies in the scarcity of time and resources to develop a coherent GenAI strategy.
The opportunity cost of inaction
In today's business climate, many organizations are understandably focused on maintaining their core operations. This often leaves limited bandwidth for strategic planning around emerging technologies like GenAI. However, this lack of proactive engagement comes with its own set of costs—missed opportunities for innovation and the risk of falling behind competitors who are quicker to adapt to technological advancements.
A focused platform for strategic alignment
Given these challenges, a GenAI Idea Sprint serves as a focused platform for strategic alignment and opportunity identification. It offers a way to condense what would typically be weeks of strategic planning into a single, highly focused day, thereby enabling organizations to make informed decisions about their GenAI initiatives.
How Onova Adds Structure and Strategy to Your GenAI Idea Sprint
A process-oriented approach
Organizing a GenAI Idea Sprint involves multiple moving parts, from stakeholder alignment to agenda setting. Onova brings a structured methodology to these complexities, allowing you to concentrate on the core objective: identifying strategic opportunities in the GenAI landscape.
A proven formula
Our methodology is grounded in real-world applications. Over the years, we've facilitated sprints that have led to actionable proof of concepts, offering tangible benefits to organizations. This isn't theoretical; it's a practical approach to innovation.
Tailored and targeted approach
Recognizing that each organization has its unique challenges and opportunities, our GenAI sprints are tailored to focus on areas that will have the most significant impact on your business. This ensures that the strategies developed are not only viable but also aligned with your current business context.
Efficient use of time
For decision-makers, time is a scarce resource. Our GenAI Idea Sprints are designed to be time-efficient, condensing what could be weeks of strategic planning into a single, focused day. This enables you to make rapid yet informed decisions in a fast-paced technological landscape.
An energizing and high-impact way to explore Generative AI within your organization
Our strength lies in the details. We meticulously plan each session, from stakeholder engagement to brainstorming exercises, ensuring a focused, energizing and high-impact agenda. Our expertise in building and investing in generative AI allows us to tackle your organization's most pressing challenges and needs effectively.
The Next Frontier: From GenAI Idea Sprint to a Global GenAI Hackathon
For those interested in taking a leap to the next step — from ideation and strategy to implementation — we wrote a case study article on our global generative AI hackathon with Capgemini and Google Cloud.
This immersive event serves as a catalyst for turning the strategic insights and challenge statements from a GenAI Idea Sprint into tangible prototypes and Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). It's a unique platform that empowers cross-functional teams to collaborate and innovate, all while focusing on the specific challenges and opportunities outlined and discussed by senior leadership.
Make implementing Generative AI at your company less daunting now
If you're considering how GenAI could fit into your organization's future, now is an opportune time for exploration. As you venture into the next frontier of innovation, remember that the journey may seem daunting, but it's also where groundbreaking discoveries and transformations occur. So, go ahead, embrace the future, and turn your AI aspirations into reality. With GenAI, you have the power to unlock new horizons of possibility, and the journey is just beginning.
