How to Run a 5-Day Innovation Sprint, with Sierra Calhoun-Pollard, Ph.D., Director of Blackstone LaunchPad x UF | Professor of Innovation | CEO Winnovation Agency

In this episode of Beyond the Core, Ben Yoskovitz sits down with Sierra Calhoun-Pollard, Ph.D., Director of Blackstone LaunchPad x UF | Professor of Innovation | CEO Winnovation Agency, to unpack how she designed a 5-Day Innovation Sprint that connects industry partners and cross-disciplinary teams to generate ideas, build prototypes, and test them with real users (all inside a single week).

What started as a university program has become a repeatable framework that companies can use to accelerate learning, build creative muscle, and make innovation actually move at market speed.

Together, Ben and Sierra co-build her full playbook live so you can adapt the same model inside your organization.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

- How to design and run a 5-Day Innovation Sprint that produces tangible results

- Why the “How Might We” statement is the North Star of every sprint

- How cross-disciplinary teams outperform experts when solving tough problems

- The exact cadence Sierra uses (from problem framing → prototyping → pitching)

- What to do after the sprint to keep the momentum aliveIf you’re leading innovation, transformation, or venture-building inside a large organization, this episode is your blueprint for speed, structure, and creativity that scales.

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Timestamps

0:00 — Introduction: Why this episode is different

1:30 — The story behind Blackstone LaunchPad and Winnovation Agency

5:00 — How Sierra built a repeatable innovation system

10:00 — The anatomy of a 5-day sprint

20:00 — Real examples: QR cups, Adobe Express prototypes, and more

35:00 — How to craft a great “How Might We” statement

45:00 — What to do after Day 5: turning ideas into action

50:00 — Building culture through rapid experimentation

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🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube

📄Download the full 5-Day Innovation Sprint Playbook + Watch the full live video: highlinebeta.com/beyond-the-core