The session was structured as a pitch-readiness sprint rooted in the Design Thinking framework. The objective was to help students reframe fashion challenges, recognize cognitive and systemic biases, understand stakeholder dynamics, and sharpen their solution narratives — all within a tight two-hour window.

Participants engaged with custom-designed visual frameworks and toolkits developed by Nonlinear to support rapid ideation and deep reflection. They began with Stakeholder Mapping using Power-Legitimacy-Urgency grids to identify influence and interest across the fashion ecosystem. Cognitive Bias Cards — such as sunk cost fallacy, groupthink, and confirmation bias — were introduced to challenge default thinking patterns and encourage more critical decision-making.

To build entrepreneurial mindset, students explored a set of Mindset Cards covering principles like empathy, creative confidence, embracing ambiguity, and iterative learning. These were followed by guided interactions with Design Thinking Process Cards, which walked them through key phases including synthesis, insight clustering, idea selection, prototyping, and feedback.

As the challenge theme revolved around sustainable fashion, the teams worked with Opportunity Landscape Boards aligned to global consumer and supply trends. Using SCAMPER as a guiding method, students examined ways to substitute, combine, adapt, or eliminate elements across fashion systems to drive more conscious design.

In the second half of the workshop, students were introduced to advanced innovation frameworks. The 3S Strategy — Sense, Secure, Shift — helped them evaluate the feasibility of their ideas under real-world conditions. The 10 Faces of Innovation model was used to help students reflect on their team roles and creative strengths, with personas like the Storyteller, Cross-Pollinator, and Experimenter bringing the work to life. Finally, Salience and Impact Models enabled students to evaluate the consequences of their solutions across stakeholder layers — from direct users to those indirectly affected.

By the end of the session, each team had identified clear innovation zones, framed insight-led “How Might We” questions, and rebuilt their pitch narratives using proven design structures. Students also demonstrated a stronger ability to think systemically about stakeholder impact and align their ideas to long-term value and social relevance.