Overview

Generate eight distinct design concepts in eight minutes with this Crazy Eights rapid ideation template. A cornerstone exercise in design sprints and product design workshops, Crazy Eights forces designers and non-designers alike to sketch fast, think broadly, and push past their first obvious idea.

Key Features

• Eight-panel layout per participant for timed concept sketching
• Individual sketching zones with clear panel boundaries
• One-minute timer prompt per panel with facilitation cues
• Gallery view for sharing all concepts after the exercise
• Dot voting zone for surfacing standout concepts across participants

How to Use

1. Assign each participant their own eight-panel frame on the canvas — use Ctrl/Cmd + D to duplicate the template for each person
2. Set a timer for 8 minutes total — participants sketch one concept per panel using the Pen tool, spending roughly one minute per panel
3. No polish required — rough sketches are the point; the goal is quantity and range, not quality
4. After 8 minutes, participants share their sketches using Presentation Mode — one panel at a time
5. The group adds sticky notes of observations to interesting concepts, then uses dot voting to identify the top ideas worth developing further

Benefits

Crazy Eights works because time pressure defeats perfectionism. When you have 60 seconds per idea, your brain stops editing and starts generating. Eight sketches per person means a room of four produces 32 concepts in under 10 minutes.

Crazy 8s Sketching (Design Sprint)

Lightweight CRM