Design Studios
Creative AI AdvantageHackathon.
An immersive week of Creativity powered with AI. 23 invited builders across Hubs & Spokes, plus 2 floating, five intensive days in London. Squads sorted at Day 0. Every squad ships a working POC, a Product Plan, and clear next steps. The first of three Hackathons in 2026 — the AI Lab's pilot build cycle — landing a month before the July Governance Session arms the decisions.
An immersive week of Creativity powered with AI.
23 invited Creative Technologists — drawn from Hubs (BEK · MAD · NXC) and Spokes across every other office. One room, five days, working in parallel on the highest-leverage tracks DS could ship. Squads sorted at Day 0. Every squad walks out with a working POC, a Product Plan, and named next steps.
This is Hackathon 1 of 3 in 2026 — the AI Lab's first Accelerator Sprint and the pilot that locks the bi-monthly cadence in. The Foundation set the bar: real outputs, real direction, real consequences. The Hackathon name carries the energy. The Sprint format carries the rigour.
The week lands a month before the Foundation's July Governance Session. By design. This Hackathon is the build that arms it. SLT walks into July with four POCs, four Product Plans, a Marketplace direction, and a film already in hand. The Sprint produces the material. Governance makes the calls.
One programme, three cycles. Design Studios · Creative AI Advantage · Hackathon is the parent name — the through-line that carries across all three 2026 instances. This is the first.
Creative AI Advantage Hackathon
One programme. Three Hackathons. DS doesn't enter the BCG Creative AI space cautiously — it sets the standard, and this is the moment it does.
One cohort. Four tracks. Four POCs.
23 invited, two floating, four tracks — squads sorted at Day 0 against the tracks that matter most. Every squad walks out of London on Friday with the same four things:
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01A running POCDemonstrable, on the screen, with an owner.
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02A Product PlanWhat it does, who it's for, criteria, scale/iterate/set aside.
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03Next steps · time neededWhat it takes to get to v1. Sized in weeks, not hand-waved.
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04What's onThe commitment. Who picks this up after Friday. Named, not implied.
The Foundation calls this "the evaluation standard". If a squad can produce a credible POC, it ships. If it can't, the Product Plan documents why — and "set aside" is a successful output, not a failed track. That's how four tracks fit into five days without dilution.
This also resolves the Section 10 KPI gap in the Foundation — at the Sprint level. Outcome-based, not activity-based. This Hackathon becomes the dry-run for the firm-wide measurement framework.
Four tracks. One per squad.
Each track has a named output: a working POC, a Product Plan, named next steps. Tracks are locked at the Day 0 kickoff call one week before London, with pre-reads and squad pairings distributed before anyone books a flight.
Marketplace Shell MVP
The home for everything the Lab makesProducts · squad picks one
Existing DS products, made sharperSkills · Claude Projects · GPTs
The reusable AI infrastructureCreative workflows
Figma · Wave · Magnific · RunwayOne cohort across four tracks — squads and track pairings confirmed at the Day 0 kickoff call. Pre-reads distributed. Go-in briefs signed off before anyone books a flight.
Day 0 sets it up. Five days earn it.
Five intensive days in London — Monday through Friday, 22–26 June. Plus a Day 0 kickoff call one week earlier. By the time the room opens in London, tracks are locked, squads are paired, pre-reads are read, and Day 1 opens with Oli's intro and a teaser, not with orientation.
- The cohort meets the cohort. 23 builders + the SLT + the floating roles, faces on screen for the first time. The room exists before the room exists.
- Creative AI Lab teaser premieres. Cohort-only reveal. This is what you're about to build. Something to talk about over the weekend before flying.
- Tracks locked, squads paired, owners named. Per-track pre-read packs distributed — scope, constraints, what exists, success criteria, target user. Anti-brief: what we explicitly will not build.
Late afternoon: squads scope. Per-squad structured session against their pre-read. Each squad ends Day 1 with two artefacts locked:
- A written POC hypothesis — what they believe will work and why, in one paragraph.
- A 90-second demo script — what Friday's pitch sounds like, written before the build starts.
The full SLT. The CDs (optional). 23 invited.
A deliberately stacked room. The Hackathon builds in front of the firm's senior creative leadership, not in private. The week's outputs are reviewed live, decisions made in the same room, commitments earned in real time.
The leadership panel
Oli confirmed · Richa & Justin optionalThe Creative Directors Optional
Regional CDs · invited, not requiredRegional CDs are invited to join — pressure-testing outputs the moment they're shown, anchoring craft, carrying the work back into their regions. Attendance is optional, same as Richa & Justin: come for the days that matter, dial in for the rest. The wider CD voice is how the Hackathon's outputs ship as firm-wide on Day 5, not as one-region experiments.
The Creative Technologists
23 invited · 2 floating · bench held for next cycle23 builders invited for Hackathon 1 — drawn from Hubs (BEK · MAD · NXC, where DS has critical mass) and Spokes (every other office). Esteban & Oli float, holding the spine of the week. 18 on the bench, held for Hackathon 2 or 3 — or ready to swap in if anyone can't make Hackathon 1. Squad assignments and pre-read projects locked at the Day 0 call.
25 in London · 23 invited + 2 floating · bench held for next cycle
Invited list pre-ticked · Oli confirms · bench candidates available if anyone can't make it- Hubs · BEK · MAD · NXC · 12
- Krishna Abhimanyu BEK → In London
- Anshul Patria BEK → In London
- Diwakar BEK · APACME → In London
- Edu Hernandez NXC · AMR → In London
- JP Lopez NXC · AMR → In London
- Gema Arrieta NXC · AMR · Lead · primary → In London
- Rigo Lopes CSS3 · NXC · AMR → In London
- Marcela Amador NXC · AMR → In London
- Jose Eguidazu MKA · EMESA → In London
- Paula Sanchez MKA · EMESA → In London
- Jessica Manzano MKA · EMESA · Lead · backup → In London
- Cayetano EMESA → In London
- Spokes · 11
- Bill Moore PIT · AMR → In London
- Stephen Spencer AMR → In London
- Ave Versteeg NXA · AMR → In London
- Pradeep Menon APACME · Lead · RCD → In London
- Praveen APACME · Lead → In London
- Aishwarya APACME → In London
- Prtish APACME → In London
- Prashant APACME → In London
- Daljeet IND · APACME → In London
- Nakul IND · APACME → In London
- Adam Bartczuk ECC · EMESA → In London
- Yoojin Choi SEO · APACME → Bench
- Yuna Moon ANZ · APACME → Bench
- Hijing GC · APACME → Bench
- Ryan Davis PIT · AMR → Bench
- Celestia GC · APACME → Bench
- Lee Gavin GC · APACME → Bench
- Diwakar Singh APACME → Bench
- Mariana Dominguez AMR → Bench
- Nacho Rodriguez AMR → Bench
- Juan Biancardi ATL · AMR → Bench
- Oscar Armelles EMESA → Bench
- Rand Samara ME → Bench
- Shivali Chandra APACME → Bench
- Kaivalya Joshi APACME → Bench
- Suranjan Maiti APACME → Bench
- Raymond Fung APACME → Bench
- Shivam Soni APACME → Bench
- Shiju B. APACME → Bench
- Esteban Cervi Global · runner Floating · host
- Oli Shaw Global · sponsor Floating · leading
The architecture: Invited are the 23 builders confirmed for Hackathon 1 — drawn across Hubs (BEK · MAD · NXC, where DS has critical mass) and Spokes (every other office that carries the work back into regions). Bench are regional nominations held for Hackathon 2 or 3 — visible, named, ready to swap in if anyone can't make it. Floating roles hold the spine of the week. The British flag marks ticked names. Squad assignments and pre-read projects are confirmed at the Day 0 kickoff call. Final Lab membership confirmed in the weeks following this first Hackathon per Foundation §3.
Plus me (running the week), Oscar Armelles (EMESA CD, regional anchor where present), and the capture crew working light-touch. ~25 people in the room across five days. Selected, not invited.
What this Hackathon produces.
Six concrete outputs, all sized to feed the July Governance Session and the Lab's BAU rhythm from August onward.
Everything this Hackathon produces needs somewhere to live.
Hackathon 1 ships four POCs, four Product Plans, a teaser video, a film, a photo bank. Hackathon 2 ships another four. Hackathon 3, another four. Inside twelve months the Lab has thirty-plus pieces of validated AI work, plus all the GPTs, Claude projects, prompts and MD files that underpin them. That can't live in a folder.
A destination, not a folder.
A platform-agnostic, CMS-driven, database-backed web product — internal-first, externally-facing-to-BCG second. Fully responsive. Up-to-date by design. The single home for everything DS makes, finds, learns and ships in the Creative AI space.
What it hosts. Seven content types, one taxonomy, one search.
The trajectory. Internal first. BCG-wide second. External-facing (BCG audience) when the work earns it.
Not a SharePoint folder. Not a Notion page. Not a wiki. Not a Box drive. A real web product with a CMS, a database, a content model, an auth layer, search, taxonomy, and a design system that matches what DS already ships externally. Owned and operated by DS. Built for the firm.
This Hackathon is not the build week for the Marketplace — that's a separate multi-quarter workstream. But it is the moment to lock the principle: every output we ship from this week lands in the Marketplace. The Marketplace gives the Hackathon somewhere meaningful to point. Without it, the work disappears into the same folder graveyard everything else lives in.
Four flags worth naming.
Not problems — but the things that will go wrong if we don't address them upfront. Each has a proposed mitigation.
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01 · Squads of four can fragment under pressure.Three Creative Technologists plus one CD is the right shape on paper. In practice, a squad of four can split — three building, one drifting; or two pairs working separate angles. Either pattern dilutes the POC.Mitigation: CDs are accountable for squad cohesion, not just craft. Day 0 brief includes the team-shape conversation explicitly. The Wednesday mid-day demo catches drift early.
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02 · Building under the gaze of senior leadership changes the room.SLT in the room means every demo is also a moment of evaluation. The risk: squads play it safe, build the demo rather than the real thing, or stop being honest about what's broken. Building for approval is different from building toward truth.Mitigation: Tuesday and Thursday are closed build days — no demos, no presentations, no leadership drop-ins. Those days belong to the squads. SLT visible Monday (Oli's intro) and Friday (evaluation); deliberately absent in between.
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03 · The room can't honestly kill its own work.If the cohort feels they're being evaluated on building something that scales, no track will produce a "set aside" recommendation — even when that's the right call. The Foundation supports kill decisions; the room has to feel that's true.Mitigation: name it explicitly on Day 1. Celebrate a credible "set aside" in the Wednesday cross-track demo. The first track to honestly call its own death sets the culture.
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04 · Capture feels intrusive and dampens the room.Film and photo crew working a small in-person event can change the energy if they're heavy-handed. Especially in moments where people are struggling — and those are the moments worth capturing.Mitigation: light-touch crew — one shooter, one producer. Lav mics over boom. Capture build moments, not staged ones.
What I need from you.
01 · Naming — Design Studios · Creative AI Advantage Hackathon. 1 of 3 in 2026. Sign-off on the parent name and the cycle numbering. The brand carries across all three Hackathons; this is the first, in London.
02 · Dates — Monday–Friday, 22–26 June. Day 0 kickoff call Wednesday 17 June. Confirm the calendar holds — and that the July Governance Session timing is fixed.
03 · The room — SLT confirmed (you, Richa & Justin optional), CDs invited as optional, 23 Creative Technologists invited across Hubs (BEK · MAD · NXC) and Spokes + 2 floating (Esteban, Oli) = 25 in London. Bench held for next Hackathon or backfill. Sign-off on the invited list before invites go out.
04 · Track lock — Day 0 call with you and Oscar. Four tracks confirmed (Marketplace shell · Products · Skills + GPTs · Workflows). Squads paired against them, named owners.
05 · Teaser video — commission the Creative AI Lab teaser this week. Premieres at the Day 0 kickoff (Wed 17 Jun) to the cohort. ~60–90s. I'll brief production.
06 · Marketplace direction — in-principle approval to scope DS Marketplace as a downstream workstream. This Hackathon's outputs land here. Owned and operated by DS — built for the firm.
07 · Budget envelope — separate doc. I'd like averages from you so the costed plan is credible without being to-the-pound.
This is the moment DS takes the BCG Creative AI space. Let's lock the week in.