The News Product Design Sprint is a tuition-free, online program that takes 12 newsrooms from Latin America from idea to prototype in 12 weeks. With funding from the Meta Journalism Project, participating newsrooms will learn the tested, step-by-step process of building news product prototypes that align with their sustainability strategies, guided by expert coaches along the way.
Product thinking has been demonstrated to be a catalyst for digital transformation in newsrooms and a path to sustainability. It is not magic; it is a collection of approaches and techniques that improve teamwork, center the audience, rely on data, exploit the best in tech, and reveal new revenue streams.
The News Product Design Sprint is a practical, step-by-step, intensive training that follows the four phases of a product sprint, the accelerated process by which product developers create products – Ideation → Research → Prototype → Test. Participants will work on their own news product project during six classes, two bootcamps and multiple coaching sessions.
At the end of the program, participants will have applied key product design concepts and methodologies and delivered a final prototype. More importantly, they will understand how to build digital products in their organizations in a user-centered, data-informed, agile way.
Two experienced product coaches who are fluent in Spanish and Portuguese will work with the teams one-on-one and lead weekly class sessions to center the program and create a holistic process. Over the course of the program, coaches will help participants design their product prototypes.
The program will serve a cohort of 12 newsrooms from Spanish-speaking Latin America and Brazil between May and July 2022.
Marie Gilot
Kyle Plantz