Genius Hour is a time built into the school day or week to enable students to actively create their learning rather than passively consume it. During the time set aside for Genius Hour, students choose what they will learn about, the strategies they will use to learn it, the pace of their work, the materials and resources they will use, and the formats for their final products. But this type of empowerment isn't simply a matter of leaving students alone and letting them learn independently, points out John Spencer. Drawing on his more than 10 years implementing Genius Hour projects, Spencer defines the teacher's role as that of an architect, designing the seemingly invisible ecosystem in which student voice and agency can thrive. In this article, he offers a design thinking protocol called LAUNCH that teachers can use to guide students through Genius Hour projects: Look, Listen, and Learn; Ask Tons of Questions; Understand the Process or Problem; Navigate Ideas, Create a Prototype; and Highlight and Fix.