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About Nesta

Nesta is a research and innovation foundation. We apply our deep expertise in applied methods to design, test and scale solutions to some of the biggest challenges of our time, working across the innovation lifecycle.

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In A healthy life A sustainable future A fairer start

Fostering collaborative work through mission sprints

This project started in June 2026 and will end in March 2027

Nesta’s design and technology team is holding a series of two-day design sprints. 

The primary reason is to allow more time for collaborative work across the team, who are largely embedded within missions and focus on specific mission project work. This opportunity for collaboration has the benefit of building professional relationships and design expertise, providing a safe space to try new creative ways of working and exchanging diverse approaches to problem solving. Our secondary aim is to hopefully generate interesting or relevant learning for each mission team.

Each design sprint will be aligned to a mission and we currently have three in the planning or delivery stages: 

  • June 2026 - an AFS-aligned sprint
  • November 2026 - an AHL-aligned sprint
  • Early 2027 - an ASF-aligned sprint 

We are learning and iterating the process as we go to make the most of the time available and ensure the way we are working and the challenges we address are suitable for the relevant mission. 

What is a design sprint?

A design sprint is a time-constrained, structured process that takes a multi-skilled team from a challenge or opportunity to a concept or prototype in a set number of days. The model, originally developed by Google Ventures, usually runs over five days but we developed our own version that worked in the two days we had available.

Get involved

If you would like to know more about what we did and what we learned, or are interested in trying something, similar then please contact us at [email protected]

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