Experiments in Progress

This is where we think
out loud and give it away
before it's finished.

Free exercises, irreverent animations, tiny tutorials, provocations, and tools — tested in public, refined in real time. The garage door is open. Come see what we're making.

Monday
Culture Design
Redesigning what's working (and what's not) in real organizations.
Wednesday
Plot Twist
Scenario planning and strategic surprises. What if the thing you're afraid of is the thing you need?
Friday
Paper Bag Moment
Creative awakenings and the exercises that trigger them. Start your weekend designing.
14 experiments
Podcast

AIGA: Design & Storytelling with Jack Roberts

Jack joins AIGA to talk about where design thinking meets narrative — and why the best design work starts with the story you’re telling yourself.

#designthinking #storytelling #AIGA
Podcast · AIGA Share
Podcast

Play Bold: Narrative Design & Innovation with Jack Roberts

Jack sits down with Innovation360’s Play Bold podcast to explore how narrative design reshapes the way organizations innovate — and why the boldest move is often the quietest story.

#innovation #narrativedesign #PlayBold
Podcast · Innovation360 Share
Article

Why Your Brand is Just Samesies

You hired an agency. They gave you a "narrative." It has words like "innovative" and "passionate" in it. Here's why — and what sacred geometry has to do with fixing it.

#brandstory #culture #narrativedesign
Mon · Culture Design Share
Exercise

The Five-Minute Dreamcatcher

A pocket version of our empathy protocol. One person, five minutes, five questions. You'll learn more about your user in five minutes than most surveys reveal in five weeks.

#dreamcatcher #empathy #designthinking
Fri · Paper Bag Moment Share
Animation

The Meeting That Could Have Been an Email (But Shouldn't Have Been)

A 90-second animation about why the problem isn't meetings — it's the absence of story structure inside them. Featuring a protagonist named Dave and a whiteboard named Despair.

#meetings #storytelling #irreverent
Wed · Plot Twist Share
Tool

The One-Sentence Agent Test

If your AI agent could only say one sentence to a stranger, what would it say? A deceptively simple diagnostic that reveals everything about your agent's character — or lack of it.

#storyai #characterdesign #diagnostic
Fri · Paper Bag Moment Share
Article

The Org Chart Is a Fiction. Start Writing It Like One.

What if you stopped treating your organizational structure like an engineering diagram and started treating it like a cast list? Roles as characters. Relationships as plot.

#orgdesign #screenplaylogic #culture
Mon · Culture Design Share
Exercise

Kill an Assumption in 3 Minutes

Pick your most sacred business belief. Write it down. Now run it through three questions that will either confirm it or destroy it. Most people don't make it past question two.

#assumptions #innovation #designthinking
Fri · Paper Bag Moment Share
Video

The Polarity You're Ignoring Is Running Your Company

A three-minute breakdown of why every organizational tension is actually a polarity in disguise — and why solving it is the worst thing you can do.

#infiniteloop #polarity #leadership
Wed · Plot Twist Share
Tool

The Magic If (Pocket Edition)

Stanislavski's most powerful acting tool, reformatted for business. One card. Three prompts. Takes any stuck decision and opens it up like a switchblade.

#magicif #designthinking #decisions
Fri · Paper Bag Moment Share
Article

Your AI Sounds Like Everyone Else's AI (And That's a Brand Problem)

Every company's chatbot sounds like the same helpful, slightly apologetic stranger. That's not AI's fault — it's a character design failure. And it's fixable.

#storyai #brandvoice #characterdesign
Mon · Culture Design Share
Animation

Creation vs. Reaction: Same Letters, Different Order

A 60-second visual essay on why the opposite of creation isn't destruction — it's reaction. Same letters. Rearranged. Everything changes with perspective.

#creation #perspective #narrativedesign
Wed · Plot Twist Share
Exercise

The If, Then, But (Bar Napkin Version)

storylab's worldbuilding exercise, compressed onto a bar napkin. Three prompts that uncover the hidden constraint blocking your next move. Works on businesses, careers, and relationships.

#ifthenbutt #worldbuilding #constraints
Fri · Paper Bag Moment Share
Video

I Gave My AI a Belief System and It Changed Everything

A walkthrough of what happened when we stopped writing prompts and started writing character bibles. The before and after is unsettling — in the best way.

#storyai #echo #beliefsystems
Wed · Plot Twist Share

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