Part of the Festival Design DNA project from the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab. See design.festivalslab.com for full context & details

1. ESTABLISH
YOUR
FESTIVAL
PROJECT
{A RANGE OF TOOLS TO HELP YOU INSTIGATE PROJECTS
& GET THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON BOARD.}

2. WHERE HAS THIS COME FROM
Festival Design DNA is a project produced by Snook for festivalslab.
It is both a set of practical tools and an exciting new conversation
about what happens when cultural professionals and organisations
start to think like designers and work to make the experiences they
create better from a person-centred point of view.
festivalslab or the Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab works with
and for the twelve Edinburgh Festivals on how to use new thinking
and new tools to the experience of the world’s festival city even better
for audiences, creative talent and festival organisations.
Snook is a Glasgow-based service design and social innovation
agency focusing on transforming the way services are delivered in
Scotland, ensuring people come first.

3. ESTABLISH YOUR FESTIVAL PROJECT
Purpose Exit Tools;
This pack is to help you to pull a project together Move into the part of the design process you think
and get it off the ground. You may also want to use is relevant to you.
this pack to help organise a co-design workshop or
event around design for the festivals.
Time Frames + Re-framed Question
Establish and collaborate tool: 1/2 day
(Run this as group activity for a couple of hours
between festival organisations to map spaces for
opportunities to collaborate and create projects)
Getting people on board: 2 hours
(Take some time to think about how you can create
an advert to get people on board)
Stakeholder Map Tool: 4 hours
(Work with your organisation and others to look at
who could be involved in your project)
Alter Assumptions Tool: 1 hour
This should be a quick task, if you make it longer it
will become unproductive)
Start a blog: 1 day
(Blogs are quick and easy to set up, give yourself a
day to get some basic graphics and copy together)
Brand your project: 2 days
(You don’t have to be proficient in graphics soft-
ware. A photograph might help brand your project,
or chunky thought. Give yourself some time to
think it through and create a logo/materials)
Project kick off meeting: 1 day
(Spend a day kicking off your project. Talk through
aims/objectives and invite everyone to make a con-
tribution that day)

4. 4 1
DELIVER DISCOVER
3 2
DEVELOP DEFINE
ESTABLISH
ESTABLISH & COLLABORATE “GETTING EVERYONE ON BOARD
AT THE START IS CRUCIAL TO A
USE ME TO:
GOOD PROJECT”
Establishing a project and getting
people on board is sometimes
difficult.
• Create a project team.
One way to find opportunities for
festival cross collaboration work is YOU WILL NEED:
using the ‘Calendar tool’ to outline
where festival organisations could • A basic questionnaire template
work together to collaborate on which you can tailor
research or development of new
• Email’s
ideas for Edinburgh festivals.
• Eventbrite
Commonly most people will say
‘I don’t have time’ or ‘My diary is
full this week’. Fighting against
busy schedules and a lack of will is
difficult.
Either (a) run a competition or call to
action around organisations relevant
to your cause.
Or (b) make it a compulsory
exercise, part of the daily to do.
Look for people who are keen to
come on board with your project
and give time to it.
Holding an event prior to launch
or creating a sign up page on your
website is an ideal way forward to
generate interest.

5. 4 1
DELIVER DISCOVER
3 2
DEVELOP DEFINE
ESTABLISH
GET OTHER PEOPLE ON BOARD
No matter how big or small
your idea is it’s important you
USE ME TO:
gain support, enthusiasm and
confidence from your colleagues • Build a team of like minded
and peers. Sometimes this is tricky people who are willing to
so this is a tool to help you along invest time and energy in your
the way. This is a blank template idea
that you can pin up on your office
notice board, mail around to
colleague or hand out over coffee.
YOU WILL NEED:
• Infectious enthusiasm and
It asks you to specify exactly what
your idea is in 140 characters and
patience
then complete a wanted ad. For
example: “looking for individuals
who are open minded, risk taking
and excellent communicators.”
It is your job to sell the idea of being
part of this project - what will I get
out of it? What will I learn? How
much of my time will it take up?
It’s important in the early stages
“WORK WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE
when trying new ways of working to
have an open minded team who are
willing to try things a bit differently.
EXCITED TO BE PART OF YOUR
Build yourself an engaging getting
people on board tool, and set a
unique task (i.e draw yourself and
PROJECT”
see how people respond )

6. 4 1
DELIVER DISCOVER
3 2
DEVELOP DEFINE
ESTABLISH
STAKEHOLDER MAP “WHEN WE MAPPED EVERYTHING
(For starting projects, different from mapping stakeholders on project) AROUND THE FRINGE WE SAW
A stakeholder map is useful
at the start of the project to
USE ME TO: COUNTLESS OPPORTUNITIES”
understand what other festival • Plan project relationships
and cultural organisations and see the bigger picture
could be part of your project.
Furthermore, it forces you
to consider other influential
YOU WILL NEED:
stakeholders such as Trip
• Post its
Advisor and Stage Coach
• Pens
Travel.
• Open mind
A map of stakeholders can be
visualised using concentric
circles with close relationships
being mapped in the centre
and distant relationships
towards the outer circles. This
is a great way to step back
and look at who you want to
pull closer into the project and
question how you will do this.

7. 4 1
DELIVER DISCOVER
3 2
DEVELOP DEFINE
ESTABLISH “PUTTING YOUR THOUGHTS DOWN ON
THE TABLE AS A GROUP HELPS YOU
PROJECT START - ALTER ASSUMPTIONS UNDERSTAND WHERE PEOPLE ARE
COMING FROM”
We all make assumptions in our USE ME TO:
daily lives and it’s difficult not
to judge a book by it’s cover. • Create a mutual understand
of views
This activity is about gathering • Start a project
the team together and asking • Inform what needs
everyone to share their discovered
assumptions around a topic in
an open, frank and honest way.
This is a great way for everyone
YOU WILL NEED:
to express their opinions and
• Paper & pens
prejudices around an idea.
• The project team
It helps the team understand
what they need to focus on in
the next stage of the project.
This is particularly good at the
beginning of a project or when
more people are joining the
project team.

8. 4 1
DELIVER DISCOVER
3 2
DEVELOP DEFINE
ESTABLISH EVENTS/PLATFORMS/TOOL
START A BLOG
During a project, a regularly updated attempting to use service design
blog is a fantastic means of dynamic for the festivals, e.g. It is important
engagement with the rest of the to use service design to identify the
cultural sector. It is also a great way fall through points from a customer
to document the progress of your perspective to avoid focussing
project and communicate with other resources on unnecessary changes to
team members/interested parties. a particular process.
You may have plenty to say but if your Don’t forget that you can embed
not sure what to communicate, here images, quotations, links and videos
are some things you could include: in your blog post, as this will make it
more visually interesting (photographs
Successes - and how you achieved of prototypes, workshops etc)
them, e.g. Results of shadowing a
festival customer.
USE ME TO:
Failures - and possible reasons/
solutions, e.g. The single mum • People like to hear what you
focus group was poorly attended, think. People like opinions.
because it was held during the school Write with passion and
holidays. everything else will fall into
Learning - perhaps something you
didn’t know, e.g. That it’s important
place.
YOU WILL NEED:
“A BLOG REALLY HELPED US
GET EVERYONE ON BOARD AND
to find out if other festival teams are
surveying schools at the same time
as you. • A wordpress blog
• Imagination
Progress - did you meet your
milestones/targets this month? If not,
why not? Or did you exceed them?
REACH A WIDER AUDIENCE”
Warnings - to help anyone else

9. 4 1
DELIVER DISCOVER
3 2
DEVELOP DEFINE
ESTABLISH EVENTS/PLATFORMS/TOOL
BRAND YOUR PROJECT “ONCE WE HAD BRANDED OUR
PROJECT IT BECAME A REAL
USE ME TO:
THING TO SHARE WITH OTHERS”
Branding a project gives the
impression and look and feel of it
being a ‘real’ project. It brings it
• Make a project look or feel
to life! This can be useful before
complete
the project is at a finalised stage.
It can also be useful for keeping YOU WILL NEED:
consistency throughout the
different project documentation. • Your imagination
This doesn’t always have to be
digital. You could, for example,
get a stamp of the project title
made online?
Why not use the colour orange
in everything you produce for the
project?
Thinking about the brand at
initial stages is also beneficial as
it saves time and resources at a
later stage when other aspects
take priority.
Think about how this brand ties
in with the brand of the festival
you are designing for!

10. 4 1
DELIVER DISCOVER
3 2
DEVELOP DEFINE
ESTABLISH EVENTS/PLATFORMS/TOOL
PROJECT KICK OF MEETING
Face it. Projects are temporary designed festival programs for the past
organizations. People come together 12 years”
on projects as strangers. You’re not
likely to change that. What you can do Invite every person to say what they
is make sure people share a context, want from the project. Encourage them
have intentions that are aligned, and to be selfish. Set the example of saying
have a relationship that allows them to what you want. Make no promises that
successfully coordinate action together. each intention can be satisfied only that
The best way to do this is to have a collectively you will look for ways to
project kick off meeting. explore those intentions.
What would you do in those meetings? The kick-off meeting gets you started
Here’s a proposal for an agenda. well. The conversation you have that
day provides the context for navigating
Open the meeting with a statement of in the unfolding of the project. You’ll
the value that will be realised by the find that you and your team members
customer. Why is this an important will frequently refer back to the
project for the customer? Seriously conversation you had that day. How
consider having the customer in the about sharing your agendas on your
meeting. If that is not practical, then project blog?
get the customer on the phone. For
example, “This project will enable
customers to plan their day at the
Festival more efficiently”.
USE ME TO: “MAKING SURE WE SPENT ENOUGH
Review the promise(s) to the customer.
• Start your project
• Introduce your team members
TIME GETTING TO GRIPS WITH THE
Exactly what will you provide and by
when? to each other
PROJECT WAS SO IMPORTANT TO IT’S
For example, “We want to create a
new web platform that integrates with YOU WILL NEED: SUCCESS”
google calendar by the end of 2012.”
• An agenda
Tell everyone on the team why each • The project team
person is on your team. What talents
are you calling on? For example, “We
• Space to meet
have brought Ann in because she has

11. A range of tools to help you instigate projects &
get the right people on board.
Includes;
Establish & Collaborate
Get People On Board
Stakeholder Map
Alter Assumptions
Start A Blog
Brand Your Project
Kick Off Meeting
find out more at
design.festivalslab.com
FESTIVAL DESIGN DNA
An initiative of Edinburgh’s Festivals