BCG · Design Studios — Creative AI
London · June 22–26, 2026
Design Studios AI Hackathon

Design Studios
AI Hackathon.

Creative AI Advantage · Sprint Zero · Hackathon 1 of 3 · 2026

Four squads. Four tracks. Five days. The work that sets up Design Studios' Creative AI Advantage for the second half of the year.

Builders16
Squads4
Days5
DatesJune
22–26
01 · Four Tracks

Four squads. Four bets. One week.

Each track is a focused mandate — a real output, a real owner, a real deadline. Not experiments. Not prototypes. Foundations that the Lab builds on after June 26.

Track 01

Marketplace Shell MVP

A functional CMS-driven marketplace platform where all Lab outputs live. Ensures nothing disappears into disconnected folders.

Led by Stephen Spencer + Ryan Davis
Track 02

Products

Advance one existing DS product: Vidio, Liveslides, or HTML Newsletter. Meaningful, measurable progress on production-ready tools.

Led by squads
Track 03

Skills & Infrastructure

Reusable AI components: markdown-defined skills, Claude Project templates, GPT library discoverable across the organisation.

Led by squads
Track 04

Creative Workflows

End-to-end production workflows: Figma → Wave → Magnific → Runway. Templates case teams can adopt immediately.

Led by squads
02 · The Week

From kickoff to POC freeze.

A structured five-day sprint with a virtual pre-kick, daily building blocks, and a final evaluation presentation. Every day has a clear purpose — and a clear output.

1
Virtual Kickoff
5
Sprint Days
4
Squads Active
Jun
22–26
London Dates
  • Day 0
    Virtual Kickoff — June 17
    Cohort intro, teaser premiere, track lock-in. Everyone aligned before landing in London.
  • Day 1
    Arrival — June 22
    Leadership orientation, squad scoping, demo script drafting. Set the week's intent and lock in scope.
  • 2–4
    Intensive Build — June 23–25
    Heads-down building with mid-week cross-track critique sessions. Ship fast, share often, steer hard.
  • Day 5
    POC Freeze — June 26
    POC freeze, Product Plan finalisation, evaluation presentations. Work lands — or it doesn't.
03 · Deliverables

What every squad ships.

No ambiguity. Each squad exits the hackathon with four tangible outputs. These aren't slide decks about doing things — they are the things.

  • D1
    A Functioning Proof-of-Concept
    Working software, a live workflow, or a deployable tool. Something that runs, not something that describes running.
  • D2
    A One-Page Product Plan
    The what, the why, the who, and the when — on a single page. Scope, value proposition, and the path to production.
  • D3
    Documented Next Steps with Time Estimates
    Specific, sequenced actions. Not "continue development" — but named tasks with hours attached so momentum doesn't die on the flight home.
  • D4
    Named Ownership Going Forward
    A named person owns each output after June 26. No orphan work. No "the team will figure it out." One person, one mandate.

The job isn't to use AI. The job is to make work that couldn't exist without it.