Crazy 8s 🌀 Prompts

SUMMARY

Purpose: Crazy 8s is a rapid ideation method designed to push designers past obvious concepts and uncover a range of creative ideas in a short time. 

Design Thinking Phase: Ideate 

Time: 8 minutes per participant + 10–15 mins group discussion 

Difficulty: ⭐⭐ 

When to use: When you're stuck on the same types of solutions and need to break pattern thinkingTo kick off divergent thinking in workshops, particularly during design sprintsWhen you want fast input from a cross-functional group regardless of design expertiseWhat it is

Crazy 8s is a fast-paced sketching technique used during ideation workshops. Each participant folds a sheet of paper into eight sections and must sketch one idea per section in eight minutes — one idea per minute. The point isn’t precision or polish, but volume. The time limit prevents overthinking and encourages less obvious, more creative directions to emerge.

📺 Video by AJ&Smart. Embedded for educational reference.

Why it matters

In cross-functional teams, it’s easy to converge on familiar ideas too quickly. Crazy 8s solves that by encouraging breadth before depth. It helps uncover surprising directions early, increases psychological safety for sharing “imperfect” thoughts, and boosts team ownership by making everyone a contributor — not just designers. It’s a staple in Google Ventures’ Design Sprint process and remains one of the most effective (and underused) divergence methods in UX.

When to use

•  During the ideation phase of a design sprint or product workshop
• To generate fast alternatives before refining UI or UX concepts
• When your team defaults to safe solutions or you've hit a creative rut

Benefits

• Rich Insights: Surfaces wild, usable, or overlooked ideas quickly
• Flexibility: Can be used solo or with engineers, PMs, and marketers
• User Empathy: Encourages sketching with real scenarios in mind, not just features

How to use it

• Start with a clear “How Might We…” statement or specific UX problem.
• Distribute A4 paper and black markers to every participant.
• Ask each person to fold their sheet into 8 equal sections.
•  Set a timer for 8 minutes — 1 minute per idea. It’s rapid and rough by design.
• After sketching, have each participant talk through their 8 ideas quickly (30–60 seconds).
• Group or vote on promising directions as a seed for deeper exploration.

Example Output

Let’s say the prompt is: “How might we reduce friction during mobile account signup for first-time users?”

Participant sketches might include:

• 1-click sign-in with Apple/Google
• Progressively disclosed forms (email > password > name)
• Option to “skip setup” and personalise later
•  Live validation with playful animations
•  Welcome bot walking users through setup conversationally
•  Auto-reading verification codes from SMS
• Gamified profile completion tracker
•  Voice-based onboarding for accessibility

Common Pitfalls

• Overexplaining: Some teams get bogged down explaining the exercise. Keep it brief — sketching should begin in minutes.
• Focusing only on UI: Remind teams the ideas can be flows, mechanisms, or concepts — not just screen layouts.
• Judging too early: Avoid critiquing or refining during sketch time. Encourage quantity, not quality at this stage.

10 Design-Ready AI Prompts for Crazy 8s – UX/UI Edition

How These Prompts Work (C.S.I.R. Framework)

Each of the templates below follows the C.S.I.R. method — a proven structure for writing clear, effective prompts that get better results from ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or any other LLM.

C.S.I.R. stands for:

• Context: Who you are and the UX situation you're working in
• Specific Info: Key design inputs, tasks, or constraints the AI should consider
• Intent: What you want the AI to help you achieve
• Response Format: The structure or format you want the AI to return (e.g. checklist, table, journey map)

Level up your career with smarter AI prompts. Get templates used by UX leaders — no guesswork, just results.Design faster, research smarter, and ship with confidence. First one’s free. Unlock all 10 by becoming a member.

Prompt Template 1: “Generate Ideation Prompts Based on ‘How Might We’ Questions”

Generate Ideation Prompts Based on ‘How Might We’ Questions

Context: You are a Service Designer preparing for a Crazy 8s session focused on improving client onboarding.  
Specific Info: You have 3 key HMW statements developed during discovery, and the session includes stakeholders from sales and dev.  
Intent: Produce 5–7 warm-up prompts that help participants stretch their thinking across behaviour, value, interaction, and interface layers.  
Response Format: Return a structured list of prompts grouped by UX layer (e.g. behaviour, value, interface).

If anything about the stakeholders or product type is unclear, ask clarifying questions first. 
Then, suggest one wildcard prompt to introduce off-the-wall thinking.