Developers of the Future

After a one-year break, we were looking forward to this year's Future Day at our company. It was important to us that the children could learn and actively create something on this day. Our starting point is our experience in guiding companies through 4-day Design Sprints to develop new digital innovations and business cases.

Entwickler der Zukunft

English edition — originally published in German as Entwickler der Zukunft.

Introduction

After a one-year hiatus, we were looking forward to this year's Zukunftstag (Future Day) at our company. It was important to us that the children could learn and actively create something on this day. Our starting point is our experience in guiding companies through 4-day Design Sprints to develop new digital innovations and business cases.

The following questions occupied us for this year's Zukunftstag:

The Day's Theme: Gaming

9 schoolchildren from 5th to 6th grade visited us. During the introduction round, the children were also asked who their absolute superhero was, be it a Marvel character, a singer, or a football player. Afterwards, our owner Christian Fehrlin talked about our work as a software company and what exciting projects developers can implement. The children were asked to consider what features a game (e.g., their favorite game) must include: What all do you have to think about when developing a game? The results were then discussed in the group.

Then it was time to conceptualize their own game world – what world are we in, who are the characters, what is the goal of their game? In groups of 2 and 3, truly great and very different game worlds emerged. Here their superhero came into play again: one child, for example, named the football player Neymar. What would Neymar do here? What would he do differently? How would your best friend design this differently? These are classic questions in Design Thinking or Design Sprints. They help to adopt a different perspective.

During a mood board session, the groups could visualize their world using pictures and magazines, or with colored pencils and even Lego bricks. There were no limits to their imagination.

After a delicious pizza lunch, it was time for the interview phase: what does it look like in the real world? In groups of three, the students were allowed to interview a software developer, a designer, and a project manager. How long does it take to develop such a game? What does your day look like? How long do you work? These are just some of the curious questions that were asked.

We also quickly realized that all this brainpower requires quite a bit of energy, so we recharged with some autumn sun during a walk in the Rychenberg area (this is not just true for children; even during Design Sprints with adults, there's eventually an energy slump).

Their last task was to create a landing page for their game using the ideas and concepts they had gained. Some children really blossomed here. We also enjoy introducing young interested people to the world of technology.

As a well-deserved (almost) conclusion, the children were allowed to test our self-developed mobile game and even gave us very helpful user feedback.

We look forward to seeing what the future brings with such engaged children.

Conclusion

Deep Impact supports companies in their digital transformation with tailored solutions and proven expertise.