Participants will ground the retreat in direct human-centered inquiry by interviewing fellow leaders about real pivot points, stress patterns, and decision contexts. They will produce evidence-based empathy artifacts that surface non-obvious needs and assumptions, creating a rigorous foundation for defining meaningful leadership challenges in the next phase.

Participants will synthesize their peer leadership interviews and reflection data into a clearly framed, evidence-based leadership pivot problem statement. Through structured clustering, dialogue, and peer critique, they will produce a rigorous How Might We statement and rationale that anchors the next phase of ideation in real human need rather than assumption.

Participants will generate a wide range of human-centered leadership practice concepts grounded in peer interview evidence, then converge on 2–3 high-potential solutions for prototyping. Through structured divergence, analogy, and evidence-based decision-making, they will create annotated concept sketches that clearly link design features to documented user needs and retreat insights.

Participants will translate their defined leadership pivot challenges into tangible, testable prototypes; gather structured feedback from real users and peers; and iterate their designs to better align with documented user needs, core values, and strategic priorities.

Participants will conduct a final live validation of their cohort leadership prototype with new users, synthesize feedback into last refinements, and present their full design journey—from empathy research to iteration—to an authentic audience during the closing evening circle.