Support Local Businesses Through Design

The paper illustrates a case study of crisis-driven innovation that emerged in the age of COVID19 to help create the future for local and small businesses, which are extremely affected by this pandemic. Tied to the urgency of this situation, a one-week design sprint with 12 multidisciplinary teams, mentors and motivational speakers, involving more than 100 people, was launched with very short notice. The work was done in one week, in a 100% online environment with participants from 15 different nationalities, resulted in 12 concept solutions to support tourism, culture, events, restaurants, municipalities, shops, and services to children and families. This is a promising approach to address complex societal and business challenges with wide applications in the fields of education, capability building and stakeholder engagement.