• INNOVATION
• Design Thinking
• rapid prototyping

Ideation and Rapid Prototyping Masterclass for Bayer Consumer Health’s Innovation Team

Experience Haus worked with the Bayer Consumer Health team in Basel, Switzerland to co-design and deliver a bespoke ideation and rapid prototyping masterclass as a centrepiece of the organisation’s inaugural Innovation Week — equipping participants from across the business with the tools and mindset to develop and prototype new product concepts against live internal briefs.

THE TASK

Bayer Consumer Health approached Experience Haus to design and deliver a key piece of interactive content for the inaugural Bayer Innovation Week: a masterclass that would bring ideation and rapid prototyping techniques to life through direct application. The broader event sought to showcase new approaches to innovation and demonstrate how developing new skills can drive improved product delivery. The team required a session that was genuinely hands-on — one where participants would engage with live project briefs set by internal teams, rather than working through abstract exercises. The session needed to inspire a mindset shift: helping people across the organisation understand that innovation is a learnable practice, not a fixed trait.

ACTIONS

Experience Haus designed and delivered a four-hour masterclass for approximately 30 participants drawn from a range of divisions and functions within Bayer Consumer Health. The session was structured around two live project briefs co-developed with internal stakeholder teams, each containing a problem overview, user and brand challenges, desired success metrics, brand guidelines, and supporting research. The masterclass was preceded by a short keynote talk delivered to the broader Innovation Week audience of approximately 200.

• Business modelling and identification of target user audiences
• User story development to define success criteria before solutioning
• A series of structured ideation exercises to generate and narrow down concepts
• Rapid prototyping — sketching, peer feedback, and concept refinement
• Stakeholder management techniques and final concept presentations to Global Brand Directors
• Industry case studies illustrating how leading products were developed and brought to market

Every exercise was applied directly to the live briefs, ensuring that the frameworks covered were not theoretical — participants left having practised each method on a real organisational challenge.

THE OUTCOME

By the close of the masterclass, teams had moved from brief to presented prototype in a single session — a tangible demonstration of what structured creative practice can produce under time pressure. Participants gained both the frameworks and the confidence to approach product and service challenges differently. Key outcomes included:

• Practical experience of ideation and rapid prototyping techniques applicable to day-to-day product work
• Exposure to journey mapping frameworks, design thinking methods, and product roadmap thinking
• Stronger cross-functional collaboration, with participants from different divisions working together towards shared outputs
• Confidence in presenting concepts and articulating their approach to senior stakeholders
• A measurable shift in mindset — participants recognising innovation as a structured, learnable discipline

EKATERINA KHARITONOVA, GLOBAL DIGITAL MANAGER

It's been a long time since I wanted to collaborate with Experience Haus and bring the spirit of inventive thinking to Bayer teams alongside a practical workout on ideation and prototyping. The masterclass was fully booked in under two hours by 30 people from various divisions and functions. An important mindset change that needs to happen is for people to understand and feel that they too can be innovative, and there are special techniques to practise. We surely need to have a lot more of such workouts, and many colleagues in Bayer now look forward to the next sessions.