Skip the meeting, get more efficient processes with Friday Hacks!

Fixed workshop and quantity training in methodology

We at Increo have many things we want to improve, develop and realize, but we do not have time for endless meetings. That's why we've ended up implementing what we call Friday Hacks, based on sprint methodology.

It was clear to us that we had a need to create an arena in which all possible issues within the agency, large or small, could be addressed without the need for a lot of time.

Secondly, we would invite all employees to a permanent workshop to provide crowd training in methodology, so that everyone in the agency became familiar with the format.

And as a bonus, we saw it as a safe venue to practice facilitation for those who want it.

Also read; How to get started with workshops?

Effective processes with Friday Hacks

We set up Friday Hacks as an experiment, but the experiment is over, we have it now as part of the way the agency evolves.

Here you get a little introduction to how we conduct and organize Friday Hacks, and hopefully it can inspire others to do something similar — and get quick results.

We have some simple running rules for our Friday Hacks:

• At 2pm every Friday, max 1 hour for completion.
• It should be digital and accessible to everyone in the agency, (we use Miro).
• We primarily use “note & vote” (write on notes and vote on best proposal) without discussion.
• There should be a high threshold to cancel a Friday Hack.
• A principal responsible for the implementation or follow-up of the results.

The Organization of Friday Hacks

There are four of us who organize the Friday hack, where one has the main responsibility. We take turns facilitating, and also encourage others to try themselves as facilitators.

What should be fixed in a hack can come from anyone in the agency. We ask the management team, run open requests to everyone in Slack, or we run a separate a workshop to build a good backlog (list) of challenges that can be solved in a Friday Hack.

Some of the things we have solved through Friday Hacks:

• new solutions for even better collaboration in internal teams
• Better and more effective recruitment
• explored possible innovation projects
• Suggestions on how we can create even better customer experiences
• new names for the meeting rooms

The best part is that everyone in the agency has attended at least one workshop and we have used different methodology almost every time.

And there is no doubt that we would never have come up with so many solutions in such a short period of time, if we had tried to solve it through traditional meetings.

Are you more curious about how to set up a Friday Hack? Check out the layout in Our Miro board for friday hack with the themeHow can we become more customer-oriented and proactive towards our customers.