Crazy Eights Template for User Research

Everyone can draw boxes, arrows, and stick figures. Crazy 8s is explicitly not about drawing quality. The warm-up round helps reduce anxiety. Remind participants that the goal is to communicate a concept, not to create art. Words and annotations are perfectly valid on the panels.

Yes, and you should for complex challenges. Run Round 1 with the broad challenge. After voting and discussion, narrow the focus (e.g., "Now sketch 8 variations of the morning brief concept") and run Round 2. Two rounds typically produce better results than one.

In a Google Ventures [Design Sprint](/guides/how-to-run-a-design-sprint), Crazy 8s happens on Day 2 (Ideate/Sketch). It follows the "lightning demos" session where participants review existing solutions for inspiration. The top-voted Crazy 8s panels feed into the "Solution Sketch" activity, where one participant creates a detailed three-panel storyboard of the winning concept.

Not usually. Crazy 8s is optimized for user-facing solutions where visual sketches communicate the idea. For technical decisions, a structured [decision log](/templates/decision-log-template) or architecture decision record works better. That said, some engineering teams use Crazy 8s for API design or data flow sketching with good results.

Four to six participants is the sweet spot. With fewer than three, you do not get enough variety. With more than eight, the gallery walk and voting phases take too long and energy drops. If you have a larger group, split into teams of 4-6 and run parallel sessions with different challenges. ---