D-Ford Team Building

A 2022 reorganization of D-Ford, Ford’s human-centered design organization, shuffled many team members to new projects. As part of a two-day onsite to launch the new Detroit lab structure, I organized an activity to foster camaraderie among 12 newly formed teams.

With a $300 budget, I designed an activity that got just about all of the 120+ participants laughing. Using recycled materials, each team built a conceptual vehicle and presented it in both a live demo and a recorded ad. Audience-voted awards sparked fierce competition, bringing teams together in the fight for fame, glory, and gift cards.

What I did:

  • Event Design

Who I worked with:

  • Erin Walker (Naming)
  • Sean Carbary (Logo Design)
A woman sits laughing on a strange, crafted vehicle that featuers a toilet, a desk, and a stuffed animal. To her side is the text "The Ford and the Furious," and in the background are a crowd of people smiling.

The assignment was simple: build a vehicle out of the provided recycled materials, present its features in a live demo to the audience, and share a 30-second video advertisement. Once we shared the brief with the teams, they made a mad scramble for materials and got to brainstorming and building.

Collage of images showing process of building vehicles: a pile of materials, a sketch, and three people assembling something with cardboard and tape.

At the end of the two-day onsite, all 12 of the teams came together to demo their vehicles...

Collage of 12 photos. Each shows a different group of people presenting a handmade "vehicle" to an audience.

... and debut their 30-second ads. (Thanks to the F2U team for letting me include their ad!)

After the presentations, the audience voted on “Best Demo” and “Best Ad,” bestowing glory and gift cards upon the winning teams. All teams also received pin badge awards from the panel of judges to celebrate highlights of their creations.

Three button pins: the first features a turtle and is an award for the "Sturdy Turtle: Best build quality," the second features a clown and is an award for "Clown Car: Most surprising cargo," and the third features an alien and is an award for "Extra-Terrestrial: Most out-there concept."