Are you interested in organizing or participating in the Global Sustainability Jam? Check our report on planning a Jam and our key takeaways on designing a great Jam experience. #GSusJam #DoingNotTalking #ServiceDesign #Sustainability

1. SID Laurea MBA 2017
Laura Järveläinen / Nina Kostamo Deschamps / Marta Kuroszczyk / Kristina Stening

2. Hi!
This is a summary of Helsinki Sustainability
Jam 2016. We put together this in hope to
encourage and inspire people designing
future Jams or design thinking workshops.
We also wanted to share our experience
because we had such a rewarding time
designing and delivering this experience.
A big thank to everyone who helped making
this jam experience; Jaakko Porokuokka &
Antti Kytö who helped to facilitate the
ideation part of the design process,
speakers Rami Ratvio, Piritta Hannonen and
Henrietta Sarpakunnas for inspirational
keynotes and insights, mentors Kati Pihko,
Robin Pettersson, Samuli Cantell and Lotta
Julkunen for valuable feedback session and
thought provoking discussions. And last,
but not least, all the enthusiastic jammers
who participated in this 48-hour event!
Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any
questions and keep on Jamming!
Kristina, Laura, Marta and Nina

4. What is a Jam?
Jam session - a special performance
by musicians who do not regularly
play together.
Jamming is all about having fun and getting
people together. All that is needed is an
interest in services and sustainability,
accompanied with an open mind.
It doesn't matter whether you are a more
experienced or a newbie: in a Jam, you won't
just be talking about service design or listening
presentations, you will work
hands-on with your team. Teams have
48 hours to develop new services inspired
by a globally shared theme.
During a good Jam, you should learn about
design thinking, service design methods and
sustainability, as well as get to know lots of
new awesome people.

5. What is
Sustainability?
Sustainability can be defined in many
ways; there is no universally agreed
definition about it. It strives for long-term
ecological balance, economic prosperity
and social justice, while ensuring the
wellbeing of present and future
generations.
Global Sustainability Jam is the world’s
biggest non-profit innovation event
targeting sustainability and organized
annually.
We took sustainability into consideration
as much as possible when designing the
Jam; from choosing speakers & mentors to
selecting workshop & prototyping
material.
Participants were interested in
sustainability topics. As a result, there
were several vibrant and thought-
provoking discussions about
sustainability during the Jam.
ENVIRONMENTAL
ECONOMICSOCIAL
SUSTAINABILITY
ENVIRONMENTAL-ECONOMIC
ECONOMIC SOCIAL
SOCIAL-ENVIRONMENTAL

6. FRIENDLY
Designing a Jam
Time: 3 weeks / Budget: 0 €
We ended up hosting the Jam on a very
extempore decision, 3 weeks from start to
finish.
Since we wanted to keep it inclusive, which in
our opinion is the meaning of a Jam (i.e. open
to everyone), we needed to manage it on a very
tight budget. We also had very little time to get
sponsors and, in the end, felt that it was
liberating.
When designing the event, we thought about
the overall experience, not only for the
participants, but also for the speakers, mentors
and us as organisers.
THINKING ABOUT THE WANTED ATMOSPHERE
During the Jam design phase, we set up some
keywords to guide us through the process.
These words represented what we wanted the
experience to be. Later, all decisions, paths and
touchpoints were reflected through these
words.
#keywords
GOOD VIBES
LAUGH
COLLABORATIVE
ECOLOGICAL
LEARNING VALUE
INVOLVING
INCLUSIVE
APPROACHABLE
MORE ACTION, LESS TALK
DIVERSITY
DISCOVER NEW

7. Mood Goals
When planning the schedule, we also
set mood goals, i.e. what feelings we
wanted the Jam to evoke in each day to
make ‘target’ more concrete for
ourselves.
DAY 1 GOAL
Getting people invested in the Jam and weekend
ahead by making participants feel comfortable,
setting a friendly atmosphere, connecting
jammers with one another.
DAY 2 GOAL
Inspiring participants to trust in the design
process with the help of speakers and hands on
facilitation. Keeping energy levels high with
energizers.
DAY 3 GOAL
Learning value: making people feel the work &
effort had been worthwhile by validating their
work with feedback from subject matter experts
(our mentors). Our goal was to leave
participants feeling inspired and excited
about collaborative design.

8. ROAD MAP FOR THE JAM: 3 weeks from start to finish
Building the
core team:
Finding a common
vision &
understanding.
Assigning roles and
responsibilities.
Finding the right
venue for the event
Research: Forming an
understanding of
what sustainability is
& means to us during
this event
Defining the Jam concept
Organizing
the registration:
sign-up
Designing the event / service
blueprinting: from overall
strategy to single touch points
Identifying the communication
tonality and visual look & feel of
the event and communicating it
to mentors, participants and
speakers
Marketing the event to
attract participants
Organizing practicalities:
food, materials, checking &
arranging the venue
Documenting the process
& communicating the
event in social mediaBooking speakers,
recruiting mentors
JAM TIME!

10. The Design Process
During the Jam, we guided the participants through a design process based on
the Double Diamond model. When setting up the Jam plan, we altered the DD design
process to better suit the concept of a Jam. In a Jam, part of the design
process is finding a design challenge that the teams feel is worth solving in the
context of sustainability.

11. We started this phase with Rami’s keynote about urban sustainability
and displaying the secret theme from Jam headquarters in Colombia.
Both became an inspiration and opening to start the discovery phase.
Participants started by brainstorming around the theme, then
clustering of ideas and discovering main topics. After this, participants
had time to evaluate how might we questions and then vote for the
most interesting problems to solve. By voting the jammers also formed
teams based on what theme they wanted to work with during the Jam.
Rest of the evening was spent on team building.
Areas of Interest

12. Defining the Design Brief
We started the day with a keynote from customer
insight specialist Henrietta on the topic of research after
which jammers started conducting their first interviews.
The aim for the jammers at this stage was to find a
problem worth solving. This is also the phase where
jammers usually need support to trust the design
process. For this, they got help and excellent ideation
facilitation from Antti and Jaakko.

13. Developing Possible Solutions
Jammers started exploring possible solutions by
prototyping - after all, it is about doing, not talking!
During this phase, participants were provided with an
inspirational kick from Piritta’s keynote on design
development.

14. Continuing with Show and Tell
Most Jams (and all Hackatons) usually pronounce a winner
at the end of the event. For this event, we felt a competition
would not have added more value to the experience.
Therefore, instead of final pitching rounds, the delivery phase
was more about creating value together through discussions
and receiving feedback from mentors.I.

15. Communication
Building up to the Jam Experience

20. TOP 3 LEARNINGS
a Great Jam Experience
Our
of what makes

22. TO BE PRESENT AND ENGAGED
Making an effort to be present and engaged during
the entire Jam experience is crucial to gain wanted
atmosphere: a psychological safe space where
creativity can happen and people feel good being in.
Good planning reduces stress and enables
organisers and facilitators to be present in the now
and not think too much of the steps ahead.
1Tip 1: Detailed planning & getting
enough people involved are key
aspects of a successful Jam

23. PROVIDE VALUE THROUGH
FACILITATION & MENTORING
When planning a Jam, it is very important to figure out what kind of
facilitation participants need. Some teams and participants need closer,
hands on, facilitation, while others are better off with a more open style,
possibly unstructured, facilitation.
During the Jam, it is a good practice to balance facilitation based on the
actual needs of participants. In the end, people should feel secured and
excited on the possibilities of Design Thinking and Service Design
methods. Facilitators and Jam mentors should enable a successful
outcome by providing value and concrete tools, while provoking
meaningful questions and discussions.
2Tip 2: Be prepared to adjust the
facilitation once you get to know the
participants better. Always keep the
outcome in mind.

24. EMBRACE THE FRAMEWORK AND
PROCESS but ALSO HAVE FUN
A successful Jam gives an opportunity for jammers to discover design thinking
and service design methods, in the context of sustainability. It should not
matter if participants are newbies or more seasoned designers - everyone
should get something out of the experience.
However, it is very important not to forget about the fun part! Relaxed
atmosphere and connection to others help to create a psychologically safe
environment - crucial to creativity and value creation.
During the Jam, it is valuable to stimulate the mood and energy levels of the
jammers. Team building exercises, ‘icebreaker’ activities and other warm-ups
are almost always regarded as fun, but they are also very important for the
structure of a Jam.
3Tip 3: After the first 24 hours getting
people to stick with the process can be
challenging. Pay a special attention to keep
the jammers energy up.

25. “This was the best
thing ever!”
Susanna

26. “I have never
done anything
like this before,
I learned
so much”
Laura

27. “This was the most
rewarding event I
attended this year”
Emil

28. “Felt amazing that we
actually managed to create
something concrete, I had
my doubts on Friday but
was positively surprised”
Aino

29. Thanks for Viewing!
Please contact us if you have questions or
thoughts you’d like to share.
Laura Järveläinen / www.linkedin.com/in/laurajarvelainen/
Nina Kostamo Deschamps / www.linkedin.com/in/nkostamo/
Marta Kuroszczyk / www.linkedin.com/in/martakuroszczyk/
Kristina Stening / www.linkedin.com/in/kristinastening/