Free workshop template · For educators
Two hours. One real problem. Something built.
A single-session run of the F7 design process — Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test — sized for one sitting. Run the two-hour sprint as a taste, or the four-hour intensive when students should leave with something published and a pitch they've rehearsed.
- Formats
- 2 hours or 4 hours
- Grades
- 8–12
- Group size
- 8–40 students
- Cost
- Free to use
Everything on this page is free to use, copy, and adapt for your students.
Two hours for the spark. Four for the proof.
Both versions run the same arc. The difference is how much real evidence students gather and how finished the build gets. Pick by the clock you actually have — not by how ambitious you feel that morning.
The innovation sprint
A fast, high-energy taste of the process. Students interview each other instead of outside users, ideate hard, and build one screen. Best as a club kickoff, a career day session, an assembly breakout, or educator PD where adults experience the process themselves.
- A problem statement in their own words
- One chosen idea with a reason behind it
- A rough one-screen prototype
- A 60-second pitch delivered out loud
Best for · Club kickoff · career day · PD · single class block (double period)
The innovation intensive
The same arc with room for real evidence and a real build. Students interview people outside the room (in person, by phone, or by message), build a working page, run a feedback round, revise, and present. Best as a break-camp day, a Saturday program, or a school-wide innovation day.
- Notes from at least two real interviews
- A sharpened problem statement backed by quotes
- A published, working prototype with a live link
- A rehearsed 90-second pitch and a feedback pass
Best for · Break camp · Saturday program · innovation day · summer intensive
The innovation sprint, minute by minute.
Six blocks, no slack. Set a visible timer for every block and hold it — the constraint is the teaching tool. If a block runs long, take the time out of ideation, never out of the pitch.
Welcome, framing, and teams
Name the day in one sentence: 'In two hours you will build something that helps a real person.' Show one example from a past F7 cohort. Form teams of two or three — pairs beat solos and beat fours.
Sign in to the platform, meet their partner, and write down one thing in their school or neighborhood that annoys them.
Interview the person next to you
Hand out the five-question script. Model one bad question ('Wouldn't an app be great?') and one good one ('Tell me about the last time that happened'). Time two rounds of eight minutes and call the switch yourself.
Interview their partner about the annoyance, taking notes on exact words. Then switch roles. Circle one quote that surprised them.
Write the problem statement
Put the frame on the screen and keep it there. Walk the room and push every team to name a specific person, not 'students' in general. Reject the first draft once — the second is always better.
Fill the frame: [Person] needs a way to [need] because [insight from the interview]. One sentence, out loud, to another team.
Twenty ideas, then one
Ten minutes of quantity with no judgment allowed — count out loud at five. Then five minutes of clustering, five minutes of choosing. Say the rule: pick the idea you can show, not the idea that sounds most impressive.
Generate twenty ideas on sticky notes or in the platform, cluster them, then pick one and write a single sentence on why.
Build one screen
Set the scope out loud: one screen, one clear message, one button. Circulate and unblock; do not touch keyboards. Give a five-minute warning and mean it.
Build a single page that a real person could look at and understand — headline, what it does, who it's for, one action.
Sixty-second pitches and close
Run pitches back to back with a visible timer. After each, ask the room for one thing that worked and one question. Close by naming what they just did: research, definition, design, and a build, in two hours.
Pitch: the person, the problem, what we built, what we'd do next. Then give feedback to two other teams.
The innovation intensive, minute by minute.
Ten blocks with one real break. The extra two hours buy the two things the sprint can't fit: evidence from outside the room, and a second pass after feedback. That second pass is where the learning lands.
Framing, examples, and teams
Set the stakes: by the end of today there will be a live link with their name on it. Show two past projects — one polished, one rough but honest. Form teams of two or three.
Sign in, meet their team, and list three problems they've personally run into this month.
Choose a challenge and write questions
Offer the six challenge prompts as starting points; teams may bring their own. Teach the difference between asking about the past ('tell me about the last time') and asking about the future ('would you use'). Approve each team's questions before they leave the room.
Pick a challenge area, name who is affected, and write five interview questions with no solution baked into them.
Real interviews
Send teams to talk to at least two people outside the team — staff, other students, a family member by phone, a message thread with a coach. Keep a list of willing adults on hand for teams with nobody to ask.
Run two or more interviews. Capture exact quotes, not summaries. Note what surprised them.
Synthesis and problem statement
Have teams read their quotes aloud before writing anything. Push for a statement that a stranger could repeat. Sign off on every team's statement before they touch a build tool.
Group the quotes, find the pattern, and write the statement: [Person] needs a way to [need] because [insight].
Break
Real break. Reset the timer visibly when you restart so the second half feels new.
Move, eat, talk about something else.
Divergent ideas, then a decision
Fifteen minutes of quantity, ten of clustering, five of choosing. Use AI as a research and thinking partner out loud — show a prompt on the screen and critique its answer with the room.
Generate at least twenty ideas, cluster, then choose one and defend it in a sentence to another team.
Build block
Scope it: two screens maximum, one clear action. Circulate constantly, ask 'who is this for again?' and keep hands off the keyboard. Warn at fifteen, ten, and five minutes.
Build and publish. Headline, the problem in one line, what the thing does, one working action, and their names.
Feedback round
Pair teams and run structured feedback: what's clear, what's confusing, one thing to change. Keep it to four minutes per direction. No defending allowed — only questions.
Show their live link to another team, take notes on confusion, and pick one change to make.
Revise and rehearse
One change only — protect them from starting over. Have every team say their pitch out loud once before the showcase, even if it's rough.
Make the single change, then rehearse the 90-second pitch with the team.
Showcase and close
Invite anyone available — staff, families, partners. Time each pitch. Close by naming the evidence: they interviewed real people, defined a problem, built something live, and improved it after feedback. In one day.
Present: who we talked to, what we learned, what we built, what changed after feedback, what's next.
Everything fits in a tote bag.
Everything below fits in a tote bag and a shared doc. Do the prep the day before, not the morning of — the only thing that reliably breaks is sign-in.
The room
- Tables students can sit around in twos and threes
- A screen or projector for the frame and the timer
- Wall or window space for sticky notes
- A visible clock or on-screen countdown
Materials
- Sticky notes and thick markers (one pad per team)
- Printed interview scripts, one per student
- Printed problem-statement frames
- Snacks for the four-hour version — non-negotiable
Tech
- One device with a browser per student or per pair
- Working wifi, tested from a student device
- Platform accounts created and tested the day before
- A backup: paper prototypes still teach the whole arc
People & roles
- One lead facilitator holding the clock and the frame
- One floater per ten students to unblock builds
- A short list of adults willing to be interviewed
- One person on photos and links for the showcase
One facilitator. Run it as one room, pitches to each other.
One lead plus one floater. Split pitches into two circles, then finals.
One lead plus two floaters. Pitch in three rooms, one finalist per room.
Read these aloud. Nothing to download.
Six challenge prompts
Getting there
Transportation, buses, walking routes, and getting to work, practice, or school on time.
Money and work
First jobs, applications, pay, saving, and knowing what a paycheck actually means.
Health and rest
Sleep, stress, food access, mental health, and where students go when they need help.
School itself
Homework load, tutoring, missing information, and the gap between classes and real life.
Neighborhood
Safety, vacant spaces, parks, trash, and things that used to exist and don't anymore.
Belonging
New students, language barriers, finding your people, and things to do after 6 p.m.
The five-question interview script
Five questions, twenty minutes, no solutions. The goal is a story you didn't expect — not agreement with an idea you already have.
- 1Tell me about the last time this happened to you.
- 2What did you do about it? Walk me through it step by step.
- 3What was the most frustrating part of that?
- 4Has anything ever made it better, even a little?
- 5If nothing changed about this in a year, what would that mean for you?
- — Ask about the past, not the future — memory is evidence, prediction is not.
- — Never pitch. If they ask what you're building, say you don't know yet.
- — Write exact words in quotation marks.
- — Silence is fine. Count to five before filling it.
The problem-statement frame
[Person] needs a way to [need] because [insight from the interview].
A sophomore who works until 9 p.m. needs a way to get tutoring after her shift because the only help offered ends at 4.
Students need an app for tutoring because tutoring is important.
The good one names a specific person, a specific need, and a reason that came from a real conversation. The bad one names a solution and skips the evidence.
The pitch frame
Sixty seconds in the sprint, ninety in the intensive. Same five beats either way.
- The person
- Who we talked to, in one sentence with their words.
- The problem
- The statement, said out loud exactly as written.
- What we built
- Show the screen. Don't narrate the menu — show the one thing it does.
- What we learned
- One piece of feedback and what we changed because of it.
- What's next
- The one thing we'd do with another week.
A four-criteria rubric
Evidence
The problem comes from a real conversation, and the team can quote it.
Clarity
A stranger can repeat the problem statement after hearing it once.
Build
Something exists that a real person could look at and understand without narration.
Response to feedback
The team can name one change they made because of what someone told them.
A workshop is an on-ramp.
A workshop is an on-ramp, not a destination. Students who finish one leave with proof they can make something — and that proof is the easiest thing in the world to build a club on.
- A problem statement grounded in a real conversation
- A published prototype with a link they can send to anyone
- A pitch they've delivered in front of people
- Evidence they can put in a portfolio, application, or interview
Turn it into a club
Use the F7 Facilitation Playbook: twelve sessions across the same five steps, with the depth the workshop couldn't fit. Everyone who came to the workshop already knows the arc.
Read the playbook →Partner with F7
Want us to run the workshop with your students, or to host paid clubs and camps together? Tell us about your program and we'll design the fit.
Talk to us →