Crazy 8s 🌀 Prompts

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.

Prompt Template 2: “Draft User-Centric Challenge Statements for Ideation”

Draft User-Centric Challenge Statements for Ideation

Context: You're a UX Lead designing an idea-generation session focused on reducing churn in your product’s retention UX.  
Specific Info: Users drop off mostly during post-onboarding week 1. You’ve got insight from journey mapping and NPS scores.  
Intent: Help reframe the retention problem into energising, human-centred ideas that inspire Crazy 8s sketches.  
Response Format: 5 “How Might We” statements grounded in behavioural intent and user struggles.

If the drop-off reasons or personas aren’t clear, ask clarifying questions. 
Then, propose one surprising user lens we’re likely ignoring.

Prompt Template 3: “Remix Existing Solutions into New Crazy 8s Directions”

Remix Existing Solutions into New Crazy 8s Directions

Context: You are running a second-round ideation after reviewing MVP concepts generated earlier.  
Specific Info: Previous sketches leaned heavily into UI solutions but neglected flow and affordance innovation.  
Intent: Push Crazy 8s participants to remap or reframe the ideas using different mental models or metaphors.  
Response Format: Suggest 5 remix directions based on shipping metaphors, interface alternates, or touchpoint inversion.

If any of the prior idea themes are unclear, ask for 3 example concepts. 
Then, recommend one physical-world metaphor to trigger lateral inspiration.

Prompt Template 4: “Create Icebreaker Prompts Before Sketching”

Create Icebreaker Prompts Before Sketching

Context: You’re facilitating a hybrid ideation session that includes remote and in-office participants.  
Specific Info: The team struggles with confidence and tends to default to feasibility over imagination.  
Intent: Prime Crazy 8s mindset with lightweight sketching challenges not tied to the current product.  
Response Format: Give 5 icebreaker prompts that can be done in 2 minutes each.

If team roles or sketching experience is unclear, ask clarifying questions. 
Then, suggest 1 optional group activity to reset mindset between execution and exploration.

Prompt Template 5: “Invent Constraints to Focus Creative Exploration”

Invent Constraints to Focus Creative Exploration

Context: You’re running a Crazy 8s session around ‘reimagining task management tools’.  
Specific Info: The scope feels overly broad and participants are drifting into feature wishlists.  
Intent: Generate timed creative constraints to provoke sharper design trade-off thinking.  
Response Format: List 5 challenge modifiers (e.g. “What would this look like for a child?”, "Design with no screen").

If constraints feel too vague for beginners, ask for team experience level. 
Then, suggest one wildcard constraint to explore accessibility-first design.

Prompt Template 6: “Suggest Lateral Thinking Triggers for Crazy 8s”

Suggest Lateral Thinking Triggers for Crazy 8s

Context: You’re a Product Designer exploring monetisation UX around free-to-paid conversion.  
Specific Info: You’ve already tried direct CTA variations with limited impact.  
Intent: Use lateral thinking strategies to shift the problem framing before sketching.  
Response Format: List 5 lateral prompts (e.g. analogy shift, reverse assumptions, random inputs).

If your product category or current metrics context isn’t clear, ask clarifying questions first. 
Then, propose one playful analogy to trigger surprising exploration.

Prompt Template 7: “List Competitive Alternatives to Spark New Solutions”

List Competitive Alternatives to Spark New Solutions

Context: You're ideating for a scheduling tool used by freelancers.  
Specific Info: Competitors include complex calendars and messaging hacks like WhatsApp invitations.  
Intent: Highlight creative patterns from unrelated industries or tools.  
Response Format: Provide a list of 5 comparative or adjacent solutions with standout UX mechanics.

If competitive landscape is unclear, ask for top 3 tools used by our target users today. 
Then suggest one unexpected industry to explore.

Prompt Template 8: “Generate Quick Sketch Prompts for Flows, Not Just Screens”

Generate Quick Sketch Prompts for Flows, Not Just Screens

Context: You’re a Senior Product Designer focused on user-driven habit formation for a wellness app.  
Specific Info: You’ve examined daily usage patterns and noted drop-offs in week 3.  
Intent: Guide participants to sketch flows or rituals rather than isolated UI screens.  
Response Format: Return 5 sketch prompt formats keyed to time-based sequences or micro-interactions.

If habit mechanics or failure points aren’t well understood, request data first. 
Then, push one prompt that explores emotion-led decision moments.

Prompt Template 9: “Prompt Teams to Think from Multiple Personas”

Prompt Teams to Think from Multiple Personas

Context: You’re designing a cross-functional Crazy 8s session for a financial tooling platform.  
Specific Info: The audience spans CFOs, analysts, and individual contractors.  
Intent: Encourage ideation from multiple user lenses.  
Response Format: Recommend 3 sketch prompts per persona group.

If any user type or job-to-be-done is unclear, ask for role summaries. 
Then suggest one tension point or conflict area worth exploring with trade-offs.

Prompt Template 10: “Use Journey Stage Prompts to Diversify Sketching”

Use Journey Stage Prompts to Diversify Sketching

Context: You’re facilitating Crazy 8s mid-project and want to avoid just improving onboarding again.  
Specific Info: You’ve mapped 5 key moments across the user lifecycle that could be reframed.  
Intent: Push exploration beyond early-stage UX and capture ideas across the lifecycle.  
Response Format: Map 1 sketch prompt per journey phase (e.g. discover, try, adopt, dwell, recommend).

If product modality isn’t clear, ask for channel mix or access patterns. 
Then propose a wildcard interaction moment to surprise teams.

Recommended Tools

• Pen and paper

Learn More

• NNGroup: UX Research & Design Articles
• Interaction Design Foundation – Topics
• Google Design Sprint Kit