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DIGPrograms & Workshops

A first-day orientation rebuilt from 1 video and 2 activities into 5 games and 13 videos

The build half of our work with DIG. In four months we turned the first day for new chefs into a session of games and original video, made six games for a Sous Chef Program, chose a new learning platform and filmed the winter menu.

DIG Orientation kit laid out: a box, cards, buzzers, a flavor wheel sheet and a phone showing a welcome screen

13new videos in one orientation, up from 1

Friday at DIG's Test Kitchen, and a group of new chefs is about to start. On the tables: a deck of game cards, a pair of dice and a set of lightning round buzzers. Next comes a Values Wheel of Fortune, a round of Don't Forget Your Uniform and the DIG Dictionary. And a catch: you can fail orientation.

The challenge

By this point, DIG and Wavetable had spent six weeks finding out what DIG's academy needed and a first 12-week Loop testing four fixes. That's the strategy study → The second Loop was for building: five projects.

The biggest was orientation, the session every new chef (a CIT, in DIG's words) goes through before their first shift. It ran on 1 video and 2 activities. DIG wanted it to do three jobs at once.

What orientation had to do

  1. A "wow" on day oneSomething a new chef remembers from the first day.
  2. A second interviewA pass or a fail, with DIG's team watching for engagement and contribution.
  3. English and SpanishThe same session for both, in two to three hours, in person.

What we built

  1. Project 1Orientation for new chefs5 original games, 9 audio pieces, 13 original videos, a deck of game cards and our own DIG flavor wheel, and 6 points in and after the session to capture what people learned.
  2. Project 2The Sous Chef ProgramSix games and activities, made week by week with DIG's talent leads, for a six-week program that had run once.
  3. Project 3Classes for chef operators10 activities built and one launched first. The hospitality one has captured more than 100 conversations.
  4. Project 4A new learning spaceAfter demos from five vendors, DIG chose Circle, Typeform and Videoask for its new learning space.
  5. Project 5The winter menu, on filmThree ideas and 8 short videos, shot over two days in a busy restaurant by DIG's production partner, with us as creative directors.
Four DIG cards, each with a photo and a name in English and Spanish: DIG Hat, Black apron, Cut glove, Black non-slip shoes.
Don't Forget Your Uniform. Every card in English and Spanish.
Four DIG values cards in green and white: Invest in Building Trust, Customer Obsession, Forever a Student, Follow the Food.
Values cards. DIG's values, one to a card, from the orientation's own deck.
A black card reading DIG Non-negotiables beside three cards: Sense of ownership, Desire to cook, Teamwork.
Non-negotiables. What DIG expects of every new chef, one card each.
A circular flavor wheel with DIG at the center, splitting flavors and textures into colored rings of words.
The DIG flavor wheel. Our own, for describing food.
A green title card: DIG, Sous Chef Leadership Development Program.
The Sous Chef Program. Six weeks, with a game or video for each.
Four pink title cards: Effective Communication, Taking ownership of the details, Composed Under Pressure, Desire to Teach.
Week by week. Title cards from the program's wrap video.
A one-page candidate file headed Candidate A: 4 years of working experience with high turnover, with interview notes and a resume.
Draft Day. A card game played with invented candidate files like this one.

Inside a session

Orientation runs for about three hours. This is the second version, after the first pilot.

Orientation for new chefs · version 2 · about three hours

  1. WelcomeWelcome and prep, then a short intro, 35 minutes
  2. DIG ArcadeThree games on values, uniform and DIG's own words, 40 minutes
  3. Special Powers20 minutes
  4. Out into the real worldPuzzles from the kitchen, allergens included, 45 minutes
  5. Final HurdleThe pass or fail, 25 minutes
  6. WrapTen minutes to close

By our notes, the first pilot drew plenty of discussion, and the group liked every one of the videos. Between that and the second pilot six weeks later, DIG's team and ours logged 85 changes, 56 of them raised by DIG. One puzzle, an escape room on allergens, felt flat until its third version, which hid the topic inside the story. At the second pilot, the dice game did.

What happened next

Orientation had one weak spot: it was built for a full room, and in DIG's outer markets a session might have one or two new hires. So DIG began planning a fully online version for those markets. Both orientation and the Sous Chef Program were set to be measured on their next run, after our work ended. We wrapped up with DIG ten months after the first Loop began.

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