Solving for Scale with a Cross Functional Team Design
THE CLIENT
Braven is a national nonprofit focused on helping college students turn their potential into meaningful early-career opportunities.
Through partnerships with colleges and employers, Braven delivers an intensive, project-based learning experience and ongoing coaching that supports students from the classroom through graduation and into their first professional roles.
PROJECT SCOPE
Braven, a national nonprofit preparing to scale its Accelerator program from 7,000 to 25,000 Fellows annually by 2032. Fall 2026 is a major inflection point, with three new sites and new course formats coming online. Braven came to The Group Forward to make sure its already high-impact Accelerator launch could grow in a way that was sustainable for staff and consistent for Fellows.
Braven asked The Group Forward to help re-imagine the launch so it was simpler, more scalable, and more sustainable—without losing the magic of the experience.
Challenges The Launch Was Facing:
As Braven prepared to grow, the Accelerator launch model was:
Increasingly complex
Putting pressure on staff capacity
Ready for a refresh to support sustainable scale
How We Moved Braven Forward
We designed a three-day in-person design sprint with a cross-functional core team, anchored in four human-centered phases. The question wasn’t whether the Accelerator was working—it was how to keep it working at much greater scale:
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1. Listen & Learn
Before the sprint, we spoke with staff, reviewed artifacts, and synthesized findings into an Insights Report.
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2. Adaptive Awareness
In the room, we created psychological safety and a shared language for talking about what needed to change—both in the work and in the ways of working.
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3. Ideate & Prioritize
We then moved from insight to possibility.
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4. Prototype the Plan
Finally, we turned the best ideas into tangible prototypes & outlined next steps.
The Design Sprint Provided:
Clarity on the priorities and path forward
A simpler, more scalable set of experiments for launch model
Momentum, cohesion, and confidence
A more connected, cross-functional leadership group who left the room energized and aligned on “what we’re actually going to do next,” not just what they talked about.
“Cornelius and Hannah led this sprint with clarity, empathy, and momentum. You turned a really complex challenge into a space where the team could see the whole picture, name the real tensions, and move toward concrete, doable next steps. The way you listened, built trust, and pushed us from insight into action gave us a simpler, more scalable path forward. The team left aligned, energized, and confident. Thanks for helping us “see all sides of the elephant” and chart a path we can actually execute together.”
— Hilary Cymrot, Vice President of Program Operations, Braven