Key points
- For over 20 years, Camp Quality’s Primary School Program has been driven by a puppet theatre show that visits schools to raise awareness and educate about cancer.
- Camp Quality wanted to reposition the show to be more relevant to the national school curriculum in order to become the trusted source of cancer education for kids aged between 0-13 years.
- We adapted our usual Design Sprint process to suit the nature of the medium, which was a performance.
- Camp Quality left the program with a clear strategy and a new direction for the education program project.
Their brief to us
When Camp Quality asked us to help steer their Primary School Program towards a more sustainable future, their goal was to change the perceived value of the show from entertainment to more educational – but they didn’t know quite how to get there.
Educators perceived the show – which had run unchanged for almost 20 years – as a bit of fun, rather than being a platform to educate. And some schools resisted inviting Camp Quality to perform as they didn’t want to scare the kids or cause uncertainty around cancer. To counter this, Camp Quality’s long term goal was to become better aligned with the curriculum, so that it wasn’t such an effort to get into schools, which would result in funding and repeat bookings.
What we did
Our Design Sprints are typically geared towards making a product or service, so we had to adapt our standard program to suit the nature of the medium, which was a performance. For example, in lieu of solution sketching, we asked the group to express their ideas using a storyboard, and instead of prototyping, we asked one of the participants, who was a scriptwriter, to lead the group in building a story arc. We were also able to leverage the experiences of the Sprint Team for character development by conducting role-playing exercises and referencing material they generously shared from their experience during treatment.
The insights from people affected directly by cancer meant we were also able to incorporate a whole bunch of topics would have otherwise been missed in a way that would resonate with the target audience, for eg. side effects such as anxiety, as well as the more serious topics of death, bereavement, and bullying.
By the end of the sprint, we’d come up with a whole new story that aligned with the vision. The new material spoke to all of Camp Quality key audiences – the cancer patients themselves, siblings that are affected, and kids who have a parent or carer that’s impacted.
The result
We asked Camp Quality actors to perform the new material and invited families to watch. We gathered their feedback using a live Google survey they were asked to complete at the end of every scene, and asked questions like ‘Did you find anything offensive?’, and ‘What did you learn?’. Then, we split up the kids and the adults and conducted two different discussions, so we could gather their individual insights.
Camp Quality was blown away by how quickly they were ready to perform, and how much they managed to accomplish in such a short time. They left the program with a clear strategy, a new direction for their performance project, and a complete testing plan – plus the knowledge that engaging with their community for feedback isn’t such an arduous and expensive undertaking. Most importantly, they’ve created a valuable piece of content that not only helps educators achieve their goals, but provides immense support to families and kids affected by cancer.
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There were so many unknowns. However, I had full trust in our Facilitator and everything went incredibly well. I am now a Design Thinking convert!
