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<title>Sprint Labs Playbook · Policy Innovation User Manual</title>
<meta name="description" content="An operational playbook for running EU Policy Labs: the runway timeline, the five scoping questions, the facilitator-steward model, the Miro architecture, and the checklists — for the teams running the next generation of labs.">
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<noscript><a href="index.html">Introduction</a> · <a href="cases.html#eu-labs">EU Labs case</a> · <a href="tools.html">Tools</a></noscript>
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<section class="hero reveal">
<span class="eyebrow" style="color:var(--tier-integrated)">06 · For practitioners</span>
<h1 class="page-title">EU Policy Labs<br>A <span class="accent">Playbook</span></h1>
<p class="hero__deck">An operational guide for teams running the next generation of EU Policy Labs — a working record of what we tried, what we learned, and what we would do differently.</p>
<dl class="hero__meta">
<div><dt>Author</dt><dd>Georgia Cameron, Task 6.5 Lead</dd></div>
<div><dt>Covers</dt><dd>Labs 1–3 · Oct 2025 – Spring 2026</dd></div>
<div><dt>Read it</dt><dd>Before you scope, not after</dd></div>
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</section>
<div class="practitioner" open style="margin-top:0">
<summary><span class="badge">Practitioner annex</span> How to use this playbook</summary>
<div class="practitioner__body">
<p>The most important decisions — who you target, how you frame the invitation, what you promise participants, how you manage the EC relationship — are made months before a session opens. Getting those right is where this document earns its place. It is intended to be read <strong>before</strong> you scope your lab.</p>
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<section class="prose reveal">
<h2><span class="section-num">Part I</span>What we were trying to do</h2>
<p>An EU Policy Lab is a structured multi-actor dialogue designed to build <strong>vertical policy coherence</strong>: the alignment of action across EU, national, regional and local levels around a shared challenge. The goal is sense-making: helping cities understand what the EU landscape means for their specific situation, identify where the real blockers sit, and generate grounded input at a moment when it can land. Cities can already read the policy documents; the value is in working through them together.</p>
<p class="pull" style="margin:2rem 0">The two 90-minute sessions are the visible tip of a lab. Beneath them sits everything that makes those sessions possible.<cite>Part I · the iceberg</cite></p>
<h3>What actually makes a lab work</h3>
</section>
<div class="card-grid cols-2 reveal">
<div class="card"><h3 style="font-size:1.12rem">Tie the invitation to a live, concrete problem</h3><p>Broad thematic hooks recruit generalists. Specific problem framings recruit the people actually close to the problem — and the quality of conversation differs sharply.</p></div>
<div class="card"><h3 style="font-size:1.12rem">Identification is not engagement</h3><p>The gap between knowing who the right person is and getting their committed, prepared participation is what the runway exists to close. It cannot be compressed.</p></div>
<div class="card"><h3 style="font-size:1.12rem">The facilitator is also a steward</h3><p>Each facilitator owns a small group from pre-lab to post-lab — contacting participants, keeping them oriented, carrying the thread between sessions. This is relationship work as much as facilitation.</p></div>
<div class="card"><h3 style="font-size:1.12rem">Clarity of purpose is internal before external</h3><p>Where sessions drifted, the root cause was usually a lack of internal alignment about what the lab was actually for. Agree the primary purpose before designing anything else.</p></div>
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<div class="note reveal">
<span class="note__label">The structural tension to navigate</span>
EU partners often come to collect evidence — to hear from cities what needs to change. That is legitimate, and the Policy Briefs serve it. But when that extractive dynamic enters the working sessions — Commission officers in breakout rooms, conversation becoming an interview — cities lose the space to think together and arrive at specifics, and both sides get less than they came for. The resolution: the pre-lab briefing and post-lab reflection are the right spaces for direct city–Commission exchange. <strong>The working sessions belong to the cities.</strong>
</div>
<hr class="rule">
<section class="prose reveal">
<h2><span class="section-num">Part III</span>Before you scope anything: five questions</h2>
<p>The team needs to answer these before any design work begins. If you cannot answer them — or answer them differently from each other — that is the work to do first.</p>
</section>
<div class="shifts reveal">
<div class="shift"><div class="shift__n">1</div><div><h3>What is the specific policy window?</h3><p>The precise moment when input can land: a consultation deadline, a transposition date, a communication expected in a given quarter. The sharper this is, the better the participants.</p></div></div>
<div class="shift"><div class="shift__n">2</div><div><h3>What is the primary purpose?</h3><p>Choose one: diagnosing blockers, peer learning, evidence for an EC process, or building city agency to act nationally. Other things may also happen — but one must be primary.</p></div></div>
<div class="shift"><div class="shift__n">3</div><div><h3>Who specifically needs to be in the room?</h3><p>Not "cities working on housing" — which person, in which role, with which relationship to this challenge. If you cannot name the profile, you cannot target effectively.</p></div></div>
<div class="shift"><div class="shift__n">4</div><div><h3>What does the EC relationship look like?</h3><p>Who are your contacts, what do they want, and where will they appear? Agree upfront: working sessions belong to cities; Commission engagement happens in pre- and post-lab formats.</p></div></div>
<div class="shift"><div class="shift__n">5</div><div><h3>Are the three workflow streams covered?</h3><p>Technical input & translation (owns the EU landscape and the Brief); participant journey & comms; and design & purpose (holds the arc). Named people, protected time — the accountability cannot be fuzzy.</p></div></div>
</div>
<section class="prose reveal">
<h3>The operational essentials, in brief</h3>
<p><strong>On targeting:</strong> use city advisers as active brokers — ask "who in this city is closest to this challenge? Can you introduce us?" Frame the invitation around the problem itself. Prepare the email a practitioner can forward to their manager to justify the time.</p>
<p><strong>On facilitation:</strong> the steward model is essential — personalised contact before the briefing, being the named point of contact, a personalised recap after Session 1, a nudge during the mid-lab, a check-in before Session 2. Budget for it explicitly. Brief facilitators on <em>why</em> the Miro frames are sequenced as they are, not just the content.</p>
<p><strong>On the Miro board:</strong> it only works if participants know what is coming. Share a PDF of the frames in advance; walk through the structure as well as the content in the pre-lab; run the first frame as a plenary. Keep the number of frames to what can be completed with depth. One frame done well beats four skimmed.</p>
<p><strong>On the mid-lab week:</strong> make it specific or cut it. It only works with a bounded task and an active facilitator prompt — not an open invitation to reconvene.</p>
<p><strong>On post-lab synthesis:</strong> the Policy Brief takes about two full days for a solid first draft. Protect that time before the lab starts, and make sure the writer was in every session. Send the draft to all participants before publication.</p>
<p><strong>On the EC relationship:</strong> Commission officers are welcome at the pre-lab briefing and the post-lab reflection; they should not be in breakout rooms. Frame it as being in the Commission's interest — a working session that produces rich, grounded insight is more useful than a facilitated Q&A.</p>
</section>
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<section class="prose reveal">
<h2><span class="section-num">The runway</span>A timeline for each stage</h2>
<p>The sprint — pre-lab, Session 1, mid-lab, Session 2, post-lab — is the visible structure. But the work that makes it possible starts ten to twelve weeks before the pre-lab briefing opens.</p>
</section>
<div class="timeline reveal">
<div class="tl-phase">
<div class="tl-phase__when">T-12 to T-8 wks</div>
<div class="tl-phase__what"><h4>Scope & EC alignment</h4><p>Arrive at a confirmed topic, a clear policy window, internal team alignment and EC buy-in — before any public communication goes out. Build in buffer; EC drafting timelines slip.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="tl-phase">
<div class="tl-phase__when">T-8 to T-4 wks</div>
<div class="tl-phase__what"><h4>Targeting, outreach & registration</h4><p>Get the right people genuinely committed and registered. Brief city advisers to recommend specific individuals; open registration only once dates are confirmed.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="tl-phase">
<div class="tl-phase__when">T-4 to T-2 wks</div>
<div class="tl-phase__what"><h4>Materials, Miro & facilitator prep</h4><p>Dossier drafted, Miro board built and tested by every facilitator, pre-lab deck ready, facilitator briefing held — walking through the facilitation logic as well as the content.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="tl-phase">
<div class="tl-phase__when">Sprint · 4–6 wks</div>
<div class="tl-phase__what"><h4>Pre-lab → S1 → mid-lab → S2</h4><p>A consistent, warm communication cadence around each touchpoint — the steward model in practice. Recordings within 24h; personalised group recaps within 48h.</p></div>
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<div class="tl-phase">
<div class="tl-phase__when">Post-lab</div>
<div class="tl-phase__what"><h4>Synthesis & staying connected</h4><p>Two protected days for the Brief; participant review; submission to the DG; a mailing list for future updates; a team reflection; and this playbook updated with new learning.</p></div>
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<section class="prose reveal">
<h3>Phase 1 checklist — Scope & EC alignment</h3>
<ul class="checklist">
<li>Lab brief drafted: topic, policy window, why now, what cities get, what the EC gets</li>
<li>Brief shared with DG RTD and the relevant topic DG for input and alignment</li>
<li>EC feedback received; the policy window confirmed as real and well-timed</li>
<li>Co-lead partner(s) confirmed and onboarded to scope and purpose</li>
<li>Three workflow streams named: technical input, participant journey, lab design</li>
<li>Draft dates proposed for all sprint touchpoints</li>
<li>Previous lab Miro boards and Policy Briefs reviewed by anyone new to the team</li>
</ul>
</section>
<div class="note reveal">
<span class="note__label">Source materials</span>
The full Miro boards, dossiers and submitted Policy Briefs for each lab live in the consortium's internal workspace:
<span class="placeholder-link">SharePoint · internal link</span> and <span class="placeholder-link">Miro board · internal link</span>. Ask the Task 6.5 team for access.
</div>
<section class="prose reveal">
<p class="pull">The point is to produce insight and agency that would otherwise not exist; a smooth process only ever serves that. The visible tip matters because the iceberg beneath it matters.<cite>End of playbook · Georgia Cameron, May 2026</cite></p>
</section>
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