An Introduction to the Marshmallow Design Challenge
Almost 20 years ago, Peter Skillman presented the Marshmallow Design Challenge at TED 2006. The idea was simple (and partially edible): a team of four has 18 minutes to compete against others with just 20 pieces of dry spaghetti, one piece of string, and masking tape to build the tallest free-standing structure that can support one marshmallow.
Four years later, Tom Wujec presented his research into the “Marshmallow Problem.” He talked about why architects, engineers, and kindergartners were the most successful in completing the challenge. They took a more iterative approach to the process, which helped them prototype, give feedback, and refine repeatedly in the expedited time frame. Less successful teams tended to wait until the last minute to test, putting too much faith in their first idea.
The Marshmallow Challenge helps focus its participants on connections between their work and high-level team communication, problem-solving, and design thinking. Vantage facilitates this activity with higher ed IT teams, and we have found that it carries a lot of value in helping them collaborate better as a unit. Here’s how you can tailor the Marshmallow Challenge for your next team-building activity.
Facilitation Tips and Resources
If you’re offering this challenge as a departmental or office team building exercise, separate the participants evenly into small teams, preferably 4-6 people per team. Create a mix of employees from varying seniority levels in each group (student workers, entry level professionals, mid-level professionals and managers, senior staff, and executive leaders) to enable discussions rooted in the broader picture of working collaboratively across roles. A mix of newer staff with more senior members can also help you better understand the team dynamics at play. Provide each team with the necessary materials, deliver the prompt, and set a time limit for completion. You can download this worksheet example to use with your team.
With large group facilitation, Vantage focuses on three basic questions to help each team debrief:
- How did your team perform?
- What project planning approach did you take (Waterfall, Agile, something else)?
- What would you do differently?
Other questions that may inspire good conversation include:
- In your most high priority project, what would you define as your “marshmallow” (the risky assumptions we make)?
- How can the team more proactively consider your project’s “marshmallow” throughout iterations of the work?
Benefits of the Marshmallow Challenge
When Vantage recently facilitated the Marshmallow Design Challenge for a public community college, we found this activity helped them think differently about:
- Designing effectively with fewer resources: Many higher education IT departments are forever in a state of limited funding, staffing, and other constraints. Participants must prioritize the big picture while designing within prescribed limitations.
- Testing assumptions: Gaps in security, unseen dependencies, and unfounded assumptions can thwart IT solutions. Teams that tested early and often were more successful in completing the Marshmallow Challenge.
- A growth mindset: This activity is a low-stakes way to invite conversation focused on accepting failure, staying resilient, and adapting for the best outcomes in your department.
- Understanding team dynamics and cross-functional communication: This activity shines a spotlight on communication patterns, leadership styles, and how people contribute under pressure. By diversifying the roles within each team, the observer can also see the interplay between different levels of IT professionals and how they interact.
Conclusion
The Marshmallow Design Challenge is a great exercise to help you learn more about your team and how it functions. Providing a fun and engaging activity to center meaningful conversations in a low-risk, high-energy environment can help your staff open up about their projects’ successes and failures, team communication, and departmental priorities. Facilitate this on your own or reach out if you’d like Vantage to assist. Happy spaghetti-towering!
This post was written by Amie Runk, PMP, a Strategic Project Manager at Vantage. Amie is passionate about building relationships and guiding positive collaboration that leads to highly successful projects.
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