Sierra Calhoun-Pollard
When most organizations try to “move fast,” they usually end up moving in circles. This episode shows what it looks like when speed is designed.
At the University of Florida, Sierra Calhoun-Pollard built a 5-Day Innovation Sprint that connects industry partners with cross-disciplinary student teams. Together, they turn real-world corporate problems into validated prototypes (in under a week).
The results speak for themselves.
One team designed a QR-coded cup that fixed a local healthcare provider’s patient feedback issue. It was a real solution, implemented within months. Another team built a fully functional Adobe Express app prototype in 72 hours.
This exercise is a repeatable innovation framework any organization could use, whether you’re running a startup accelerator, a university program, or a corporate innovation lab.
Here’s what we learned from Sierra’s playbook.
Before sprinting, Sierra spends time on one thing most teams skip: problem definition.
Every sprint starts with a company bringing a “How Might We” statement.
As Sierra put it:
“It has to empathize with the user. It can’t be too broad or too small. It’s the Goldilocks Rule.”
That means no vague goals like “We want more customers” and no ready-made fixes like “Build us an app.”
Instead, she reframes problems around the human need underneath them. That single step turns business challenges into creative catalysts. Because when participants start with empathy, not ego, everything else moves faster.
Sierra’s secret isn’t just the process. It’s who’s in the room.
Each sprint brings together students from engineering, business, design, and the humanities. Most have zero experience in the industry they’re solving for.
That’s the point.
As Sierra explained:
“Innovation is the study of different perspectives. How can you have innovation if everyone looks at the same problem the same way?”
The results prove it.
A team with no experience in healthcare ended up creating the feedback cup that a local clinic implemented. Two students were even hired from this sprint. Innovation thrives when you mix people who ask why with those who know how.
Give a team six months, they’ll take six months. Give them five days, and they’ll surprise you. Each sprint follows the same structure:
Day 1: Hear the challenge and empathize with users.
Day 2: Ideate. Thousands of sticky notes, rapid games, no bad ideas.
Day 3: Prototype. Sketch, build, iterate.
Day 4: Validate with real users.
Day 5: Pitch. Five minutes to sell your concept to the judges.
That’s it. No months of back-and-forth meetings. Just momentum.
In five days, participants go from total ignorance to presenting prototypes that corporates actually use.
Sierra’s main insight: speed is clarifying. It forces focus on what matters: learning and constant iteration.
The best ideas in these sprints aren’t perfect on day 1. But they’re usable to learn more and advance quickly.
One team replicated Pokemon Go for a corporate partner in a single week. Another group built an app mockup for Adobe Express that impressed Adobe’s product team.
No one’s raising venture rounds on day six. That’s not the point.
The point is to prove that creative learning compounds fast when the structure is tight.
As Sierra said:
“It’s not about being right or wrong. It’s about what you learn in five days that you wouldn’t learn in five months.”
That learning (the discovery, the feedback, the experiments) often becomes the real deliverable. The prototypes are just evidence of progress.
The magic doesn’t end on day five. Corporates walk away with fresh ideas and brand equity with the next generation of talent.
Students walk away with experience, mentorship, and sometimes jobs.
But the biggest win? The cultural ripple.
Every sprint creates new collisions: between departments, between leaders and interns, between people who’d never otherwise meet.
That connection sparks what Sierra calls “innovation literacy.” It’s the belief that anyone can solve problems creatively, regardless of title.
That’s the kind of mindset any company can and should build internally.
Sierra’s 5-Day Innovation Sprint is about designing structure that forces creativity, empathy, and collaboration. The framework scales far beyond academia. Any corporate innovation leader could apply it tomorrow:
When you compress time, you expand possibility. That’s how Sierra Calhoun-Pollard turned five days into a system for innovation and design thinking that actually works.
To hear the full conversation, watch or listen to this episode of Beyond the Core wherever you get your podcasts.
— Ben Yoskovitz
We always enjoy conversations about innovation and startup building so please get in touch.
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