Translated complex technology into a creative brief non-technical participants could actually use. Before anyone could generate viable ideas, they needed to understand what Just Walk Out's underlying components could actually do—not how they worked technically, but what problems they were uniquely capable of solving. I interviewed a senior principal engineer, reviewed technical documentation, and wrote a document that broke the technology down into three core capabilities: determining who is in a space, what they're interacting with, and where they are at any moment. I documented each hardware and software component in a consistent framework—what it is, where it lives in a store, why it exists—and paired each one with thought starters designed to stretch participants' thinking beyond retail. That document became the foundation for the pre-workshop info session and the day itself.

Structured the day so 125 people moved from divergence to a deliverable. The workshop followed an understand, diverge, converge, build, and test arc. Teams of approximately seven were balanced across function, tenure, and level—deliberately mixing perspectives rather than clustering by expertise. After a shared review of the technology primer and market research delivered by our head of research, teams moved through structured brainstorming using the thought starters as prompts, narrowed to a single concept, and built it out using a business model canvas I adapted for this context. Teams then got feedback from other groups, iterated, and turned their concept into a mini-PRFAQ—a one-page strategy document using a template I created. Presentations to director and VP leadership followed on subsequent days.

Used the business model canvas to push ideas toward viable strategy, not just creative concepts. The creative brief was deliberately dual-sided: "How might we leverage existing Just Walk Out capabilities to create new, innovative, and profitable experiences that delight customers?" Delight alone wasn't the bar—viability was. I chose the business model canvas because it forces teams to articulate value proposition, customer segments, revenue streams, and cost structure together, which surfaces whether an idea is actually a business or just an interesting thought. Pairing it with the mini-PRFAQ format gave leadership something concrete to evaluate, not just a set of workshop outputs.

Trained and deployed the design and research org as a facilitation infrastructure. With 125 participants across simultaneous workstreams, I couldn't facilitate everything myself. I trained the design and research team ahead of the workshop to serve as facilitation leads—one per team—so every group had dedicated support. I kicked off the day, moved between teams throughout, cleared blockers, and supported facilitators where they needed it. The design org wasn't just a participant in the innovation process—it ran it.

See below example artifacts from the workshop: