In February 2025, Svitlo Education and University College London (UCL) School of Management partnered to deliver a two-day Design Sprint for 80 UCL students. This marks the second year of collaboration between Svitlo and the Information Management for Business (IMB) program, following last year’s sprint, where a team of Svitlo students participated.
This year, Svitlo became a real-life case study for UCL students. Eight teams explored Svitlo’s work through both secondary research — analysing our website, impact report, and financial statements — and primary research. Five members of the Svitlo team attended the event, giving students the opportunity to engage directly with the team. One group even designed a questionnaire for our teachers to gather additional insights.
Each team focused on tackling one of three key challenges Svitlo is currently facing:
Beyond working with the Svitlo team, students received guidance from IMB alumni, who now work at companies such as IBM, NatWest, and JP Morgan Chase. These guest speakers delivered presentations on design thinking, pitching, UX design, and more, equipping participants with valuable skills to refine their ideas.
At the end of the two days, the teams presented their final findings and solutions to a panel of judges, which included Svitlo team members, IMB alumni, and UCL professors. The students’ work was truly remarkable — they immersed themselves in Svitlo’s mission, demonstrating empathy for the charity while developing innovative and effective solutions.
The winning team and the runner-up both tackled Svitlo’s digital transformation strategy, focusing on automating and streamlining our operations through a custom-built application.
🏆 The Winning Team designed an application from scratch, incorporating all of Svitlo’s daily tasks and automating analytical processes currently handled manually by our team. They even started coding the application and showcased a working prototype!
🥈 The Runner-Up Team developed a cost-effective and time-efficient solution that integrates multiple APIs to centralise Svitlo’s resources, offering a seamless experience for students, teachers, and the admin team. The team also created a high-fidelity prototype of their solution.
Beyond these, the other teams also presented inspiring and well-thought-out ideas, many of which we look forward to integrating into Svitlo School.
This collaboration between UCL and Svitlo School is truly inspiring, demonstrating the power of unity and cooperation in creating a lasting impact. For Svitlo, this event was invaluable as we plan to implement the students' ideas into our operations. For UCL students, it was also a fantastic opportunity to enhance their problem-solving skills by working on a real-life scenario, knowing that their solutions will make a meaningful difference.
“Working on real-life cases, especially in the non-profit sector, provides students with invaluable hands-on experience. It not only sharpens their problem-solving skills but also fosters meaningful collaborations that create lasting impact. Initiatives like the UCL x Svitlo Consult for Good Design Sprint empower students to apply their knowledge for social good, making a tangible difference in the world.”
Maya Cara, Programme Director for Information Management for Business (IMB) at UCL School of Management
We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Maya Cara, Mark De Freitas, Oliver Peachey, Laura Langley, Edyta Kostanek, Karen Stepanyan, and the entire IMB team for making this event possible! A special thanks to the IMB alumni for their insightful presentations, which inspired and guided the students.
And of course, a massive thank you and congratulations to all the students who took the time to get to know Svitlo and developed incredible solutions for Svitlo School.
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