Ruth Kikin-Gil is a design strategist, a digital product designer, and a practical dreamer who focuses on product innovation across devices, input methods, and platforms. At Microsoft, she leads the Responsible AI Practices for Microsoft's security organization. She helps drive responsible AI and Microsoft through serving on multiple AI and ethics in engineering and research workgroups. Ruth is a co-creator of the Guidelines for Human-AI Interaction, and is on the programming committee of Microsoft's Machine Learning and Data Sciences internal office. We talk about humans, artificial intelligence, and ethics.
Listen to learn about:
- How designing for human-AI interaction differs from typical UI/UX design
- Microsoft’s guidelines for human-AI interaction
- Ethical implications of AI
- The process of curating content for conferences
- Synthetic creativity
- The future of design and designers
Our Guest
Ruth is a design strategist, a digital product designer, and a practical dreamer that focuses on product innovation across devices, input methods and platforms. In Microsoft she leads the Responsible AI practices for Microsoft's Security org. She helps drive Responsible AI in Microsoft through serving on multiple Aether (AI and Ethics in Engineering and Research) work groups, is a co-creator of the Guidelines for Human-AI interaction and is on the programming committee of Microsoft’s Machine learning and Data sciences (MLADS) internal conference.
In her Microsoft career, she designed future experiences for Office, for an innovation lab, and for a strategy team. In addition, she lectures at the Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE) department in the University of Washington, Seattle. Before Microsoft she co-founded a digital product design agency in Tel-Aviv, was the corporate art director of a startup, worked for Nokia in Helsinki, freelanced in London, and earned her Interaction Design Master degree from IDII in Italy.
She’s interested in the interplay between society and technology, and the ways in which people appropriate technology in unexpected ways. She explores how existing social interactions and behaviors can be supported or transformed by technology and influence the creation of new products and services..
Show Highlights
[01:55] Ruth talks about her AI work at Microsoft.
[03:03] How AI and design connect and interact with our lives.
[04:10] Curiosity as a guiding force in Ruth’s career.
[04:50] What it means to be a designer.
[06:46] How Ruth started working on AI.
[08:06] Finding and talking to others at Microsoft who were working with AI.
[09:44] Thinking about how AI might influence design, and the ethical implications.
[10:26] The AETHER team at Microsoft.
[11:53] The work to craft guidelines for human-AI interaction.
[12:40] Creating her own dream job.
[15:01] The “Wild West” of the AI field, and the concept of responsible AI.
[16:08] The question that started the work to create the 18 guidelines for human-AI interaction.
[17:58] Ruth gives an example to show why the guidelines are important.
[19:30] Guiding AI to make sure it is learning and changing in appropriate ways.
[21:25] AI is about probability.
[22:48] Designing for being wrong.
[25:24] How people are using the guidelines in the design process.
[26:01] Auditing existing experiences.
[28:30] Ruth talks about being the Programming Director for the 2019 IXDA Conference and curating content.
[31:23] Teaching design at the University of Washington.
[32:09] The recent explosion in synthetic creativity.
[34:50] The importance of good prompts when it comes to AI-generated art, and the rise of “prompt engineering.”
[37:11] Thinking about the future and relevancy of design and designers as AI continues to evolve.
Links
Ruth on Twitter
Ruth on LinkedIn
Ruth’s website
Ruth on Medium
Ruth on Women Talk Design
Ruth on the Interaction Design Foundation website
Humanizing Technology through Design
Interview with Ruth on all tech is human
The Design of Everyday AI Things
Guidelines for Human-AI interaction
Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE) – University of Washington
Microsoft Aether (AI and Ethics in Engineering and Research)
Writings:
AI Design. How AI can enhance the design process. | by Ruth Kikin-Gil | Medium
Talks:
Better together: Guidelines for designing Human-AI Interactions on Vimeo
Humanity-centered design: How can AI disrupt and augment the design process
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Innovation Culture + Future of Work + Designing Value with Marc Bolick — DT101 E93
UX + Navigating Rough Design Waters + Design Leadership with Dennis Lenard — DT101 E82
Marina Nitze is co-author of the book Hack Your Bureaucracy and works at Layer Aleph, a crisis response firm that specializes in restoring complex software systems to service. Marina was the Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs under President Obama after serving as a Senior Advisor on technology in the Obama White House and as the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the U.S. Department of Education. Marina is also a fellow at New America's New Practice Lab, where she works on improving America's foster care system. Today, we discuss five and a half things every designer should know about hacking bureaucracy.
Listen to learn about:
- How bureaucracies work
- Journey mapping
- Stakeholder mapping
- Interpersonal relationships and bureaucracies
- Bureaucracy hacking
Our Guest
Marina Nitze, co-author of the new book Hack Your Bureaucracy, is currently a partner at Layer Aleph, a crisis response firm that specializes in restoring complex software systems to service. Marina is also a fellow at New America's New Practice Lab, where she works on improving America's foster care system through the Resource Family Working Group and Child Welfare Playbook. Marina was most recently the Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs under President Obama, after serving as a Senior Advisor on technology in the Obama White House and as the first Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the U.S. Department of Education. She serves on the advisory boards of Foster America, Smartsheet, and Think of Us; created TaskTackler, the personal productivity app for Type-A personalities; and previously authored the book Business Efficiency for Dummies. She lives in Seattle, WA.
Show Highlights
[01:49] Marina gives a brief outline of her five and a half things about bureaucracy.
[02:35] Bureaucracy is everywhere.
[03:47] Starting to work within bureaucracies.
[04:18] The Five Whys concept.
[04:45] Marina uses the Paperwork Reduction Act as an example.
[06:27] The importance of understanding root causes.
[06:51] Know the source.
[07:38] Journey and process mapping can help us hack bureaucracy.
[08:38] Using journey maps with bureaucracies.
[09:07] One of Marina’s favorite journey mapping tactics.
[09:50] How Marina shortened a state’s foster application process by a month.
[12:37] What happens when you see for yourself the journey your users make.
[13:36] Considering the needs of employees when making bureaucratic changes.
[14:20] Employees are also stakeholders.
[16:32] The design challenges that stem from how employees identify themselves and the work they do.
[18:32] Bureaucracies are made up of people.
[19:23] Finding your allies in your organization.
[21:22] Marina talks about an example from her time working for the VA.
[23:28] Creating a stakeholder map to understand organizational relationships.
[25:50] Finding the historian of your organization.
[26:42] How bureaucracies make decisions, and using that to your advantage.
[29:45] Making sure people have the knowledge they need to make informed decisions.
[31:45] “Stabbing people in the chest” is a tactic from Hack Your Bureaucracy.
[32:44] The importance of relationships when working inside bureaucracies.
[34:34] Beware the obvious answer.
[37:24] Hack Your Bureaucracy is meant to give people hope when it comes to working within bureaucracies.
[39:13] Tackling big, complex problems, and having a North Star.
Links
Marina on Twitter
Marina on LinkedIn
Marina on New America
Marina at the Federation of American Scientists
The Impact Summit 2020 – Closing Keynote from Marina
Unlocking Bureaucracy Through Smart Hacks With Marina Nitze
Hack Your Bureaucracy: Get Things Done No Matter What Your Role on Any Team, by Marina Nitze and Nick Sinai
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19
Designer’s Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21
Trauma-informed Design + Social Work + Design Teams with Rachael Dietkus — DT101 E81
Lisa Elzey Mercer is a designer, educator, and researcher. Her interests are in developing and executing design interventions focused on the topics of human trafficking, incarceration, race, and racism. She's an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Design for Responsible Innovation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. We talk about learning to see, and responding to, racialized design.
Listen to learn about:
- Ethics in design
- Impact over intent
- Racism Untaught
- The elements of racism
- Racialized design
Our Guest
Lisa Elzey Mercer (she/her/hers) is a designer, educator, and researcher. Her interests are in developing and executing design interventions that fuel and sustain responsible design for social impact. The developed frameworks and tools are intended to create a space for conversation and knowledge exchange where participants can collaborate in creating new ideas and solutions. This type of methodology is evidenced in her current projects focused on the topics of human trafficking, incarceration, race, and racism. She is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and Design for Responsible Innovation in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Show Highlights
[01:25] How Lisa’s aptitude for designing presentations led her from biomedical engineering into design.
[03:38] Some surprises Lisa has encountered during her design journey.
[04:03] Finding ways to navigate the often male-dominated design spaces.
[04:40] Enjoying the freedom to explore new methods and pathways in graduate school.
[05:48] Lisa answers the question, “What is it you do?”
[06:03] Two exercises Lisa uses to get students thinking about ethics in design.
[08:54] Helping corporations integrate ethics and collaboration with their customers into their thinking.
[10:54] The evolution of the Racism Untaught framework and tools.
[13:24] The activity every Racism Untaught workshop starts with.
[14:49] Starting with context instead of empathy.
[15:15] Lisa talks through an example of how the workshop uses prompts and examples to help participants learn about the elements of racism.
[16:17] How the elements of racism become a shared language that allows workshop participants to have a real conversation about racism.
[19:32] What is racialized design?
[20:09] One example of racialized design in urban architecture from the 1920s–1960s.
[20:53] Tearing down a highway system that divided a Black community in Detroit.
[22:58] Once you understand racialized design and how it works, you will see it everywhere.
[23:25] Racialized design is very much still happening now.
[25:47] Lisa explains Racism Untaught framework’s “levels of oppression.”
[29:31] Another example of racialized design from public restrooms.
[30:08] One important reason the DT 101 podcast exists.
[31:29] One of the reasons Lisa and Terresa started Racism Untaught.
[32:49] How the University of Illinois is teaching students about diversity, equity, and inclusion.
[34:59] Turning criticism into a generative force.
[38:25] Lisa talks about the book she and Terresa Moses just finished writing.
[43:29] Next steps for leaders who want to bring Racism Untaught to their organizations.
[47:01] Lisa thanks other designers who are also doing work around racialized design.
Links
Lisa on LinkedIn
Lisa on Instagram
Lisa on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign website
Lisa’s website
Racism Untaught: An Interview with Terresa Moses and Lisa Mercer
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Design Joy + Design Education + Design Justice with Jennifer Rittner — DT101 E84
Critical and Emancipatory Design Thinking with Lesley-Ann Noel — DT101 E57
Design for Good + Gut Checks + Seeing Power with George Aye — DT101 E50
Rich Wiener is an educator and consultant who works to engage K-12 learners at a high level, and has zeroed in on design thinking as a key component. Rich's career has included being a school principal, Director of Curriculum for Ramsey Public School District in New Jersey, and an adjunct professor of education at Columbia University. We talk about the impact of design thinking in K-12 education.
Listen to learn about:
- The design thinking classroom program in the Ramsey public school district
- How design thinking impacts Ramsey’s high school students and teachers
- Advice to school districts wanting to start their own design thinking program
- Some of the partner projects students worked on during the program
Our Guest
Rich Wiener has served the educational community as a teacher, principal, curriculum director, and adjunct professor of education. He received his Masters Degree from the University of Oregon and his Doctoral Degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. He taught the supervision course in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia and courses on change leadership and methods of teaching at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Rich is currently the CEO of the educational consulting firm, GEN Z Innovate.
Throughout his career, Rich has worked to develop educational programs and experiences that inspire student engagement, foster creativity and complex problem-solving, and promote deep understanding and insight. As a part of that journey, Rich and his colleagues in Ramsey, New Jersey established a high school level design thinking course, modeled after the Stanford University d. school. The Ramsey High School Design Lab established partnerships with American Express, Liberty Science Center, Boxed Wholesale, All Things Media, The Center for Social Innovation in New York City, Crisis Text Line, and the New Jersey Legislature, among others. The design thinking model has proven to be a successful approach to engaging high school students in an experience that successfully fosters the creative mindsets that underlie innovative, complex problem-solving.
Show Highlights
[01:47] Rich’s story begins at the Ramsey Public School District.
[02:32] How Time Magazine’s How to Build a Student for the 21st century article influenced and inspired the school district.
[04:10] Rich explains the concept of transfer in education.
[05:03] Performance assessments and complex problem solving.
[06:37] Rich’s thoughts on educational curriculum.
[07:10] Our curriculum overemphasizes content over creative thinking.
[08:39] Our curriculum doesn’t focus enough on teaching students how to respond to societal issues and problems.
[09:15] Our curriculum doesn’t help students understand themselves and their place in the world.
[10:17] Rich’s reaction to seeing the 2013 60 Minutes’ interview with IDEO’s David Kelley.
[11:37] The question Rich and his colleagues created for their design thinking project.
[12:45] The school district’s first foray into teaching design thinking to students.
[14:14] Lessons learned during that first project.
[16:18] The deeper goals and outcomes of the project.
[17:26] Helping kids embrace risk-taking and failure.
[18:06] The traditional classroom vs. the design thinking classroom.
[20:00] The students’ first project on the first day of class.
[21:22] Teaching empathy.
[22:25] Partnering the classroom with an outside organization to give students a real-world experience.
[24:51] The positive impact the design thinking course had on the teachers, and on teaching and learning outside of the classroom.
[28:48] Students tackling English curriculum revision using design thinking.
[30:25] Rich gives advice for other K-12 schools that may want to start their own design thinking course.
[32:44] How to find businesses and organizations to partner with.
[34:44] Rich talks about a student partner project with All Things Media.
[42:34] Another student partner project, with American Express.
[44:13] Where to learn more about Rich and his work.
Links
Rich on Twitter
Rich on LinkedIn
Design Lab and Design Thinking Course at Ramsey High School
60 Minutes David Kelley interview
Book Recommendations
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design, by IDEO.org
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Design Thinking + Learning Science with Adam Royalty — DT101 E18
A Short Introduction to Design Thinking with Dawan Stanford — DT101 E32
Design for America: Founding + Present + Future, Part 2 — DT101 E37
Kara DeFrias is the current Chief of Staff for the Intuit QuickBooks Platform, with a background rich in both private and public sector experience. Previous work includes serving as senior advisor to the leadership team of the technology and design consultancy 18F in the Obama Administration, founding TEDxIntuit, and being part of the Emmy Award-winning production staff on the Oscars. A do-gooder at heart, Kara has done pro bono digital strategy. Today on the show we talk about UX and moving into, through, and almost out of design.
Listen to learn about:
- Advice for newcomers wanting to get into design
- Seeing the world through design
- The importance of choosing work that aligns with your values
- The need for new voices in the design industry
- Designing in-person UX
Our Guest
Kara DeFrias' passion for designing engaging experiences has brought her to many exciting places, including the Super Bowl, the Oscars, and two White Houses.
Kara's background is a unique mix of private and public sector experience, including 9 years with Intuit and an appointment to the first class of Presidential Innovation Fellows. In the latter she served as entrepreneur in residence, reimagining the relationship between the government and the people from a technology perspective. Kara was Director of UX for then-Vice President Biden at the Obama White House, where she led the Cancer Moonshot work around cancer clinical trials. She then served as Senior Advisor in the Office of Technology in the Biden-Harris White House. She’s currently Chief of Staff for the Intuit QuickBooks Platform team.
Previous work includes Senior Advisor to 18F’s Executive Director and senior leadership team, founder of TEDxIntuit, and part of the Emmy award-winning production staff on the Oscars. She also worked on the Women's World Cup press operations team and the Super Bowl. A do-gooder at heart, Kara has done pro-bono digital strategy and communications for the likes of Team Rubicon and spent 10 days in rural India teaching micro-entrepreneur women human centered design, product management, and business skills.
Kara graduated summa cum laude from Penn State University with a masters degree in instructional systems design, and was a finalist for San Diego Woman of the Year. According to her 2nd grade report card, Kara “likes to talk. A lot.”
Show Highlights
[02:05] The three stages of Kara’s career.
[02:34] Her time in instructional design, including a graduate degree from Penn State.
[03:03] Moving to California and working in the entertainment industry.
[03:51] Starting work at Intuit and finding UX and design.
[05:11] Working with the NJM Insurance Group New Media team on usability and user research.
[06:39] Developing her UX skillset, and having a great mentor.
[09:03] Some of today’s challenges for new people wanting to get into design.
[12:44] Advice for newcomers wanting to get into design.
[13:20] Kara mentions a few good design conferences.
[14:34] The need for design veterans to mentor and support, and conferences to make their spaces accessible and welcoming to new voices.
[15:02] Volunteering is an important part of skillset and career development.
[17:11] Kara sums up her advice.
[19:56] The importance of ensuring that one’s design work endures, to be used and built upon by others.
[21:26] What do you do when you feel like you’ve done everything you can in design?
[22:30] Kara’s move out of design, and being Chief of Staff at Intuit.
[23:46] Learning design will change how you see the world.
[27:05] Kara talks about a life a-ha she had while leaving the Obama White House.
[27:57] Dawan and Kara talk about aligning your values with the work you choose to do.
[30:50] An early lesson Kara learned about treating one’s team well.
[33:18] Being OK with making mistakes publicly and taking steps to correct them.
[34:54] Asking for help.
[36:57] Kara and Dawan joke about a hypothetical Design Twitter Over Dinner podcast.
[38:36] Why new voices are a critical need in the design community.
[41:51] Book recommendations from Kara.
[42:45] Kara’s experience with TedX San Diego and founding TedX Intuit.
[45:18] Designing great in-person UX.
[47:09] Dawan closes by encouraging veteran designers to become mentors to emerging designers.
Links
Kara on Twitter
Kara on LinkedIn
Kara on Medium
Kara on Women Talk Design
Kara’s website
How to get out of your own way as a designer and get down to business
Designing the Intersection of Government, Cancer, and the People
Button content design conference
Confab content strategy conference
Book Recommendations
Don’t Make Me Think, by Steve Krug
The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, by Priya Parker
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67
Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19
Design Thinking + Learning Science with Adam Royalty — DT101 E18
This episode of the Design Thinking 101 podcast is 5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: the Opioid Overdose Epidemic. Our guest today is Stacy Stanford, the Senior Director of Overdose Injury and Violence Prevention at the National Association of County and City Health Officials in Washington DC (NACCHO). At NACCHO, she leads the overdose injury and violence prevention team to deliver funding and technical assistance to more than 60 communities across the United States.
Listen to learn about:
- The current state of the U.S. opioid overdose epidemic
- The ways COVID-19 has affected the healthcare system’s ability to work with and treat those who use drugs
- The core principles of harm reduction
- The role misperceptions and stigma about drug use play in making it difficult for those who use drugs to get treatment
Our Guest
Stacy Stanford joined NACCHO in 2012 and is currently serving as a Senior Director of Overdose, Injury and Violence Prevention. She provides leadership, planning and guidance to the team’s management and staff in the areas of drug overdose, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), falls prevention, and the intersection of COVID, ACEs, and Suicide Prevention. Prior to this position she was the Director of Public Health Transformation and led Project SHINE, a fellowship to strengthen health systems through interprofessional education. Ms. Stanford received her Masters of Science in Public Health Microbiology from The George Washington University School of Public Health. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Denver. Prior to joining NACCHO, she worked on Influenza surveillance and in the development of HAvBED, the Hospital Bed Availability Reporting System during H1N1 at the Department of Health and Human Service.
Show Highlights
[01:47] Stacy talks about her work at NACCHO, the membership organization of local health departments for the U.S.
[03:15] The current state of the opioid overdose epidemic.
[03:55] There have been three waves in the epidemic.
[05:04] How the COVID-19 pandemic affected our ability to respond to the epidemic.
[05:40] The worst problems caused by the pandemic.
[06:36] The rise in telemedicine and mobile vans.
[07:31] Harm reduction and keeping people safe.
[08:08] What is harm reduction?
[08:48] A misperception about drug use.
[09:42] The core principles of harm reduction.
[11:01] What implementation of harm reduction looks like in practice.
[12:42] Medication for Opioid Disorder.
[13:11] The importance of having peers throughout the programs and healthcare systems that serve those who use drugs.
[15:01] The need to change perspectives and de-stigmatize drug use.
[16:10] Intersectional stigma.
[18:09] What happens when someone gets labeled as an addict or abuser.
Links
Stacy on LinkedIn
National Harm Reduction Coalition
CDC Drug Overdose information website
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About Strategic Foresight with Bart Édes — DT101 E95
Diana Sonis is a passionate believer in holistic 360 strategy and design, with extensive expertise in UX and CX design, service design, and design thinking. Lis Hubert is an acclaimed design and strategy thought leader, writer, and speaker with extensive experience in digital strategy, customer experience, information architecture, and design. Together, they founded CX by Design, a human-centered design company that helps businesses design people-centric products, services, and organizational systems in order to create exceptional customer experiences.
Listen to learn about:
- Customer experience design
- Near- versus long-term strategy
- Helping organizations make design thinking part of their internal processes
- What exactly is innovation?
- Systemic innovation
- Designing for customer intent
Our Guests:
Diana Sonis
Diana is a passionate believer in holistic, 360 strategy and design, with extensive expertise in UX Design, CX Design, Service Design, and the Design Thinking methodology.
As founding partner of CX by Design, Diana’s mission is to identify nuggets of opportunity within an organization, reorient its existing systems and structures to improve the human experience, help others extend their thinking, and drive material business advantage.
Having designed, built, and successfully sold several companies, Diana works to help businesses shape abstract concepts into concrete online and offline experiences that respond to the needs and motivations of real people.
When she’s not solving strategic challenges, Diana can be found in pursuit of good coffee everywhere.
Lis Hubert
Lis is an acclaimed design and strategy thought leader, writer, and speaker with extensive expertise in Digital Strategy, Customer Experience, Information Architecture, and Design Thinking.
As founding partner of CX by Design, she has made it her mission to help companies meet their strategic goals. She does so by making the invisible visible through research, making the complex simple through her unique perspective, and bringing understanding and meaning through expert facilitation.
With over a decade of designing successful products and strategies for clients of all sizes, her passion lies in helping her partners think holistically about driving, and enacting, real change. Lis helps businesses not only increase their bottom line, but also their longevity through customer loyalty.
When not tackling complex strategic problems, you can find Lis traveling the world enjoying the human experience to the fullest.
Show Highlights
[01:18] Diana and Lis talk about their paths into design and customer experience.
[07:04] How Lis and Diana approach systems design.
[08:11] The three components of a business ecosystem.
[09:03] Gauging the health of the business based on the components.
[11:27] Lis’ and Diana’s business backgrounds and how it’s helpful for the work they do now.
[12:37] Near-term strategy versus long-term strategy.
[13:40] Strategy is no good without a roadmap and a process.
[16:25] Working backwards from the goal to create the map to get there.
[18:38] Why CX by Design starts their weekly client meetings with a few minutes of non-work-related chat.
[20:58] Helping clients see the potential of design thinking as a problem-solving method.
[24:32] Getting an entire organization to shift into thinking like a designer.
[26:47] Creating a culture of innovation.
[27:39] CX by Design’s “sweet spot.”
[28:24] What is innovation?
[29:26] The importance of language in an organization’s innovation culture.
[31:56] The concept of systemic innovation.
[33:40] Design for customer intent.
[35:32] Looking for ways customer intent and a business’ core values interconnect.
[36:08] Diana and Lis use the company Patagonia as an example.
[38:48] How CX by Design uses information architecture tools in their work.
[43:43] Books Lis and Diana recommend that have influenced their work.
Links
Diana on LinkedIn
Diana on Twitter
Diana on Medium
Diana’s website
Diana’s articles on UX Booth
Diana’s articles on boxes and arrows
Lis on LinkedIn
Lis on Twitter
Lis on Medium
Lis’ personal website
Lis’ professional website
Lis on Women Talk Design
Lis’ articles at UX Magazine
Lis’ articles on boxes and arrows
Lis’ articles on UX Booth
CX by Design – sign up for their newsletter
CX by Design on Twitter
Book Recommendations
Who Do We Choose to Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity, by Margaret J. Wheatley
Pervasive Information Architecture: Designing Cross-Channel User Experiences, by Andrea Resmini and Luca Rosati
Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs, by Larry Keeley, Helen Walters, Ryan Pikkel, and Brian Quinn
The Compass and the Nail: How the Patagonia Model of Loyalty Can Save Your Business, and Might Just Save the Planet, by Craig Wilson and Kyle Tait
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Third Edition, by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Emily Gregory
The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage, by Roger Martin
Designing for Growth: A Design Thinking Tool Kit for Managers, by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie
This Is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design Thinking in the Real World, by Marc Stickdorn, Markus Hormess, Adam Lawrence, and Jakob Schneider
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Civic Design + Innovation Ops + System Design with Ryann Hoffman — DT101 E62
Sarah Cantor is a co-founder and the executive director of Greater Good Studio, where she and her team think of themselves as pissed-off optimists. We talk about design for good, ethics in design practice, and creating social impact.
Listen to learn about:
- Human-centered design
- Greater Good Studio’s project “gut check”
- The power designers wield
- Better ways of co-designing with clients
- Community-based design work
Our Guest
Sara Cantor is a creative leader and human-centered designer focused on equity, inclusion and social innovation. After seven years using human-centered design to create new markets for corporate clients, she co-founded Greater Good Studio in 2011 to apply the process and principles of design to the more pressing challenges of the social sector. Her team of “pissed-off optimists" has helped nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies to build internal capacity for social innovation, create and prototype new programs and services, and sustain and scale their impact.
Show Highlights
[01:06] Sarah’s journey into design, and the influence of Tom Hanks’ movie, Big.
[01:45] Studying engineering at college.
[02:34] Finding her true passion during an engineering design course.
[03:52] Attending the Institute of Design.
[04:39] Discovering her love of design research.
[05:34] The first project where Sarah was able to use her design skills.
[09:22] Sarah talks about her early design career.
[10:31] Her rising disillusionment with the for-profit, corporate world.
[15:57] Co-founding Greater Good Studio.
[18:27] Designing for behavior change has no “marketplace.”
[20:53] Greater Good Studio’s approach to business and its work.
[21:01] Codifying the “is this the right project for us?” gut check.
[23:49] Some of the gut check questions to ponder.
[27:28] The power that a designer wields.
[29:13] Being accountable not just to the client, but to the end user.
[30:16] Helping clients share their power with their end users.
[31:18] “Sharing the Sharpie,” co-designing and building ownership of the work.
[34:58] Being able to let the client do the designing while providing guidance and support.
[36:39] The future direction of Greater Good Studio.
Links
Sara on Twitter
Sara on LinkedIn
Sara on IIT
Sara on SEGD
Greater Good Studio on Twitter
Five Questions with Sara Cantor
The Gut Check, by Sara Cantor
In/Visible Talks 2021: Sara Cantor - Design is Not Neutral: How to Align Work and Values
How to Change the World Designing for Good with Sara Cantor
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Design for Good + Gut Checks + Seeing Power with George Aye — DT101 E50
Critical and Emancipatory Design Thinking with Lesley-Ann Noel — DT101 E57
Innovation Culture + Future of Work + Designing Value with Marc Bolick — DT101 E93
This is a Design Thinking 101 episode in the Ask Like a Designer series. Ask Like a Designer helps people explore thinking and solving like a designer. You’ll learn about design thinking, service design, learning design, leading and building high-performing teams, and ways to achieve better outcomes.
This episode is based on this article: ALD012 // Want Better Outcomes? Find Better Problems. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:53] The human desire to create.
[01:15] Rushing solutions leads to poor outcomes.
[01:37] Problem spaces and finding the right question to answer.
[02:15] The people inside the problem space.
[02:38] The context in which the people experience the problem.
[03:02] The history of the people and the context reveal changes over time.
[03:15] Problem finding.
[04:11] Finding and refining problems is not our natural inclination.
[04:52] Problem framing.
[05:17] How Might We questions.
[06:01] Getting comfortable with ambiguity as a designer.
[06:47] The eight things you can do with a How Might We question.
[08:08] The best solutions come from diverse teams.
[08:29] Fluid Hive’s free thinking tool will help you focus your solution energy.
The Design Thinking 101 Podcast’s Ask Like a Designer series
Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 2 — Telling Well // ALD 011 — DT101 E92
Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 1 — Crafting Well // ALD 010 — DT101 E89
The 30-Minute Solution Matrix: How to Think and Solve Under Pressure // ALD 009 — DT101 E87
Three Little Words for Better (Business) Relationships // ALD 008 — DT101 E79
The Innovation Saboteur’s Handbook // ALD 007 – DT101 E77
Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73
The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 — DT 101 E69
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67
There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 — DT101 E65
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63
Chelsea Mauldin is the Executive Director of the Public Policy Lab and an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
Listen to learn about:
- The work of the Public Policy Lab
- How design and design thinking can help governments make better public policy
- Human-centered design in public policy
- The preparatory work that often goes underrecognized in the design cycle
Our Guest
Chelsea Mauldin is a social scientist and designer with a focus on government innovation. She directs the Public Policy Lab, a nonprofit organization that designs better public policy with low-income and marginalized Americans.
The Public Policy Lab partners with government agencies and NGOs to develop more satisfying and effective policies and service delivery through ethnographic research, human-centered design, rapid prototyping, and formative evaluation. Find out more on PPL's website, or on Twitter.
Chelsea is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist at global conferences, and she serves as an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Previously, she consulted to municipal and federal agencies, directed a community-development organization, led government partnerships at a public-space advocacy nonprofit, and served as an editor for publishing, arts, and digital media organizations. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the London School of Economics.
Show Highlights
[01:02] Chelsea’s journey from book editor to information architect to designer.
[01:44] Getting a graduate degree in design and social policy.
[02:03] Founding the Public Policy Lab in 2010.
[03:34] What happens when you start using design in the context of creating public policy and services.
[04:38] The disconnect between those who set policy and those who use the results of the policy.
[05:31] Chelsea talks about some of the ways design is currently being used by U.S. government agencies.
[07:07] The need for a more holistic, less digital approach.
[09:09] Public Policy Lab’s “Layer Cake” framework model.
[09:45] The four layers of government.
[12:46] How Public Policy Lab begins work with a new government partner.
[14:34] Our first responsibility is to the public interest and need.
[16:12] Considerations when recruiting members of the public to interview.
[19:08] Some of the challenges of working with government agencies.
[20:45] Chelsea and Dawan offer advice for working with attorneys.
[24:27] The prep work needed before launching a test of a prototype or solution.
[26:07] Designating pilot leaders to help with launch.
[27:32] Next steps after a successful test launch.
[28:34] Handing the work over to the partner.
[29:59] The process of finishing and closing a project.
[31:23] Project storytelling.
[32:08] Design is change management.
[33:14] Chelsea makes an interesting observation about how those in the public sector measure their success and seniority.
[37:13] Designers can be so excited about the new thing they forget the loss that can be associated with it.
[38:18] Things that Chelsea is excited about right now in public policy design.
[42:21] Where to learn more about the Public Policy Lab.
Links
Chelsea on Twitter
Chelsea on Columbia | SIPA
The Public Policy Lab on Twitter
Innovating Gotham: Interview with Chelsea Mauldin of Public Policy Lab
uses design thinking to create better policies
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Public Sector Design + Outcome Chains + Prototyping for Impact with Boris Divjak — DT101 E26
Democracy as a Design Problem with Whitney Quesenbery — DT101 E68
Design Council UK + Systemic Design + Design in Government with Cat Drew — DT101 E78
This episode of the Design Thinking 101 podcast is 5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: the Future of Higher Education. Our guest today is Bryan Alexander. Bryan is a senior scholar at Georgetown University and runs a consultancy focused on the future of higher education.
Listen to learn about:
- The current state of higher education
- Student loan debt and the financial structure of universities and colleges
- The role of tech and digital platforms in higher ed
- The effects of the lack of population growth and increased longevity on higher education and society
- The connection between higher education and the climate crisis
- How science fiction can help us think about the future
Our Guest
Bryan Alexander is an award–winning, internationally known futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, and teacher, working in the field of higher education’s future.
He completed his English language and literature PhD at the University of Michigan in 1997, with a dissertation on doppelgangers in Romantic-era fiction and poetry. Then Bryan taught literature, writing, multimedia, and information technology studies at Centenary College of Louisiana. There he also pioneered multi-campus interdisciplinary classes, while organizing an information literacy initiative.
From 2002 to 2014, Bryan worked with the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE), a non-profit working to help small colleges and universities best integrate digital technologies. With NITLE he held several roles, including co-director of a regional education and technology center, director of emerging technologies, and senior fellow. Over those years Bryan helped develop and support the nonprofit, grew peer networks, consulted, and conducted a sustained research agenda. In 2013, Bryan launched a business, Bryan Alexander Consulting, LLC. Through BAC he consults throughout higher education in the United States and abroad.
Bryan speaks widely and publishes frequently, with articles appearing in venues including The Atlantic Monthly, Inside Higher Ed. He has been interviewed by and featured in the Washington Post, MSNBC, The Wall Street Journal, US News and World Report, National Public Radio (2017, 2020, 2020, 2020, 2020), the Chronicle of Higher Education (2016, 2020), the Atlantic Monthly, Reuters, Times Higher Education, the National Association of College and University Business Officers, Pew Research, Campus Technology, The Hustle, Minnesota Public Radio, USA Today, and the Connected Learning Alliance.
He recently published Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education for Johns Hopkins University Press (January 2020), which won an Association of Professional Futurists award. His next book, Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Age of Climate Crisis, is forthcoming from Johns Hopkins. His two other recent books are Gearing Up For Learning Beyond K-12 and The New Digital Storytelling (second edition).
Bryan is currently a senior scholar at Georgetown University and teaches graduate seminars in their Learning, Design, and Technology program.
Show Highlights
[01:50] Bryan kicks things off by talking about the state of higher education financing.
[03:32] How do we achieve the promise of higher education?
[04:10] The idea of debt forgiveness.
[04:50] The varying experiences of college students in terms of the financial investment in a degree.
[06:45] Issues with the “sticker price” of tuition.
[07:20] The real price of tuition.
[09:11] The financialization of higher education.
[11:25] The digitalization of higher education.
[12:02] How the pandemic accelerated the use of digital technology in higher education.
[13:10] The contribution of higher education to digital, online content.
[14:27] The need for more support for faculty using digital platforms.
[15:02] Campus enrollment vs online enrollment.
[15:59] Bryan considers the future of higher education and digital tech.
[17:47] Backlash against the online learning experience.
[20:30] The demographic transition re-shaping the world.
[24:17] The increasing healthcare needs of an aging population.
[25:19] Population shrink and what it means for higher education.
[29:18] The enrollment challenge.
[30:41] College enrollment peaked in 2012.
[33:04] Lack of enrollment contributes to the financial precariousness of higher ed.
[34:46] Higher education is more concerned than ever before about students as people, and devoting resources to helping improve their health and wellbeing.
[36:56] The climate crisis and higher education.
[37:25] The future evolution of physical campuses.
[41:41] The possibility of addressing the climate crisis in higher education.
[44:34] Science fiction and thinking about the future.
[50:28] The Future Trends Forum.
Links
Bryan on Twitter
Bryan on LinkedIn
Bryan on Medium
Bryan’s website
The Future of Education Observatory
Book Recommendations
The Population Bomb, by Paul Ehrlich and David Brower
Rainbow’s End, by Vernor Vinge
The Highest Frontier, by Joan Slonczewski
The Actual Star, by Monica Byrne
Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education, by Bryan Alexander
The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media, by Bryan Alexander
Gearing Up for Learning Beyond K-12: Preparing Students and Schools for Modern Higher Education (Solutions) (Off-Campus and Blended Methods of Engaging in Advanced Learning), by Bryan Alexander
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Redesigning a Design School + Designing Higher Ed with Jason Schupbach — DT101 E30
Learning Design with Yianna Vovides — DT101 E58
Design + Afrofuturism + Doomsday Optimism with Raja Schaar — DT101 E91
Dr. Abby Bajuniemi holds a PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Minnesota and is currently a user researcher in industry. We talk about language, design research and researcher self-care.
Listen to learn about:
- How language and linguistics affect design
- The interaction of society and language
- Trauma-informed user research
- Researcher self-care
- The importance of asking for help
- Language and technology
- Being mindful about the language used in design
Our Guest
Abby is the manager of UX Research and Content at Calendly. She holds a PhD in Hispanic and Lusophone Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics with specialization in Second Language Acquisition and Sociolinguistics. She loves to nerd out with people about language and research methods, either together or separately. She loves the Oxford comma, but will never correct your grammar
Show Highlights
[00:57] How and why Abby moved from linguistics to user research.
[02:06] The importance of taking the time to think about language as a designer.
[03:30] Audience design.
[04:15] Aspects of linguistics that are helpful for designers and researchers.
[04:45] Being mindful of the language choices you’re making.
[05”07] Abby talks about the tone of language/voice.
[06:14] Abby’s “superpower.”
[07:00] How people understand and use language.
[10:03] Abby talks about what happens when stakeholders don’t follow the user research recommendations.
[11:22] You have to be a good storyteller for your stakeholders.
[12:16] Ways Abby has seen her work come to fruition.
[15:14] User research can be revelatory for organizations that have never used it before.
[17:06] Trauma-informed research and researcher self-care.
[18:03] User research can be intense and emotional.
[20:05] Dawan and Abby talk about the importance of asking for help.
[22:35] Asking for help is part of what collaboration is.
[24:15] Asking for help is working smarter.
[25:27] Abby talks about the book she’s writing.
[25:56] Cognitive language models.
[26:42] Voice-activated assistants.
[28:07] Language and chatbot design.
[29:34] Thinking about the future of language design.
[33:01] Books and resources for researchers and those wanting to learn more about language.
[36:52] The way language can play into stigma.
[39:39] Abby talks about an example of purposeful language design done at the 18F agency.
Links
Abby on LinkedIn
Abby on Medium
Abby’s website
Abby on Women Talk Design
On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?, by Emily Bender, Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major
Book Recommendations
Universal Methods of Design, Expanded and Revised: 125 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions, by Bruce Hanington and Bella Martin
Measuring the User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics, by Bill Albert and Tom Tullis
Thinking Through Methods: A Social Science Primer, by John Levi Martin
The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection, By Anne Berry, Kareem Collie, Penina Acayo Laker, Lesley-Ann Noel, Jennifer Rittner, and Kelly Waters
Your Computer Is on Fire, by Thomas Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Mar Hicks, and Kavita Philip
Mixed Methods: A short guide to applied mixed methods research, by Sam Ladner
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, by Safiya Umoja Noble
You Can Do Anything, Magic Skeleton!: Monster Motivations to Move Your Butt and Get You to Do the Thing, by Chuck Wendig and Natalie Metzger
Language And Power, by Norman Fairclough
Discourse and Social Change, by Norman Fairclough
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
User Research + Asking Better Questions with Michele Ronsen — DT101 E88
Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19
Design Thinking + Learning Science with Adam Royalty — DT101 E18
This episode of the Design Thinking 101 podcast is 5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: Strategic Foresight. Our guest today is Bart Édes. Bart is a professor at McGill University in International Development.
Listen to learn about:
- Future thinking and strategic foresight
- The benefits of using of foresight
- How to start using foresight in your organization
- Teaming up with a futurist
- Three skills decision makers need to prepare for the future
- The Futures Wheel
Our Guest
Bart Édes is a policy analyst, commentator, and author of Learning From Tomorrow: Using Strategic Foresight to Prepare for the Next Big Disruption. He focuses on Asian economic cooperation and integration, sustainable development, international trade, trends reshaping the world, and futures thinking. Édes contributes to the work of the OECD Development Assistance Committee's Friends of Foresight Community and Task Force on Foresight for Sustainable Development Finance. Based in Montréal, Édes is a Professor of Practice at McGill University's Institute for the Study of International Development.
Show Highlights
[01:09] Bart gives a quick introduction to himself.
[02:59] The short definition of strategic foresight.
[03:50] What does it mean to have ideas about the future?
[04:00] Foresight is multidisciplinary.
[04:35] There’s been a surge of interest in foresight since the beginning of the pandemic.
[05:12] What’s involved in strategic foresight?
[06:34] Foresight is not prediction.
[06:58] An exercise in foresight yields scenarios.
[07:10] Foresight scenarios are not the same as forecasting.
[07:57] Looking at emerging drivers of change.
[08:56] The 5.5 things you need to know about strategic foresight.
[09:23] Why organizations should use foresight.
[10:09] Bart talks about foresight work done by the Rockefeller Foundation in 2010.
[10:42] Why foresight is becoming more popular now.
[12:54] The tendency to focus on the immediate as opposed to the future.
[14:29] How to start using foresight in your organization.
[14:42] Scanning for weak signals.
[15:40] Some trends and new innovations on the rise because of the pandemic.
[19:17] How to use weak signals.
[21:42] Bart talks about best practices for partnering with a futurist, and where to find free resources on using foresight.
[24:11] Bart talks a little about his book, Learning from Tomorrow.
[26:08] The Global Trends Report put out by the US National Intelligence Council.
[28:04] Three skills Bart wishes today’s decision-makers had.
[28:38] Learning from past experience.
[29:14] Creating a learning culture.
[30:26] Becoming future-oriented.
[32:48] How to use the Futures Wheel.
Links
Bart on LinkedIn
Bart on CSIS
Bart on Medium
Bart W. Édes On Strategic Foresight & Reshaping Asia & the World
Book Recommendations
Learning from Tomorrow: Using Strategic Foresight to Prepare for the Next Big Disruption, by Bart Édes
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Adding System Awareness to System Design to Your Innovation Stack with Julie Guinn — DT101 E43
A Short Introduction to Design Thinking with Dawan Stanford — DT101 E32
Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19
Jos Harrison is the global head of brand experience and design at Reckitt. We talk about brand experience design and commercial design for good.
Listen to learn about:
- Brand building
- Finding ways for companies to do good in a way that builds brand
- Learning design
- Omnichannel communication and its effect on brand building
- Design’s role in creating a better future
Our Guest
Jos is obsessed with bringing brands closer to people — in all the ways (big and small) that improve lives, making people happier and healthier.
Jos designs experiences for people, communities and societies — never for 'consumers' — and in doing so, he tries to fulfill my responsibility to our planet: protecting and nurturing it in any way I can.
Show Highlights
[01:04] Jos talks about Reckitt, building toolkits and frameworks, and the clients they work with.
[03:01] Jos’ early background as an industrial and product designer.
[03:21] A stint in marketing and commercial interior design.
[03:50] Moving into branding, working at Cadbury Schweppes, and experience marketing.
[05:14] Starting at Reckitt and diving into OTC healthcare and hygiene branding.
[05:40] Finding his place in innovation and brand building.
[06:18] Jos talks about the more challenging moments of his career journey.
[07:00] Blind spots and education gaps that arise when you’re a student.
[10:02] Ways Jos is working to close those gaps in his own team and the teams he works with.
[10:11] How humans learn best.
[11:56] Design doesn’t lend itself well to formal training.
[12:14] Designers learn most when directly involved in solving problems.
[12:28] Jos’ team makeup.
[14:31] Things Jos wishes designers understood better.
[16:48] Mapping is a great way to pinpoint gaps in knowledge and experience.
[17:34] Exploring the concept of purpose with Reckitt’s clients.
[17:56] Clarifying purpose starts with going back to the beginning of the brand.
[18:40] People now expect corporations to make positive effects on the world in some way.
[20:59] Jos offers an example using the Lysol brand.
[24:03] A fascinating look into the many micro-interactions that, over time, build a brand.
[25:32] Easier to build a brand in the past.
[26:06] Jos talks about how the industry is different now.
[25:24] The omnichannel experience and how it’s made brand building more complex.
[27:39] Creating customer cohorts.
[28:26] The experience map tool.
[29:35] Why it’s important to understand your customer’s attitudes and behavior.
[31:08] Why storytelling is so important in design.
[34:22] Designers create for someone else.
[35:16] People are Jos’ greatest resource for learning.
[36:54] Why Jos recommends organizations partner with creatives.
[39:27] Jos’ final thoughts about our need for more empathy, and design’s role in fostering more empathy in society.
Links:
Jos on LinkedIn
Five minutes with Jos Harrison
How to nail your brand's purpose
Get them talking – why designing for advocacy is crucial for FMCG brands
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like:
Learning Design + Designing for How People Learn with Julie Dirksen — DT101 E42
Marc Bolick is the managing partner of the DesignThinkers Group. We're talking about innovation and culture, the future of work and designing value.
Listen to learn about:
- DesignThinkers Group
- Using design thinking in innovation strategy and projects
- The future of work
- Innovative leadership
- International Development
- Change management and “corporate antibodies”
Our Guest
Marc leads DesignThinkers Group, an innovation support firm with consultants across North America and associates in 20 countries. He uses his technical, business and design skills to help organizations ask the right questions and find innovative solutions through human-centered problem solving methodologies. Marc has led projects for a range of multinational brands, non-profits, foundations, NGOs and public sector agencies both in the USA and abroad. He holds an MBA and Master of Business Informatics from Rotterdam School of Management and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University. Marc is an inspiring speaker, a probing strategist, a curious observer of human behavior, and a highly experienced group facilitator.
Show Highlights
[00:59] Marc gives a brief introduction to DesignThinkers Group.
[02:00] His early career in mechanical engineering and working for GE.
[02:34] Seeing design first-hand in a GE research lab.
[03:47] Representing CT service engineers gave him the chance to interact with customers.
[05:08] Shifting into product management.
[05:45] Becoming an “accidental consultant.”
[06:38] Discovering design thinking.
[07:50] Incorporating design thinking into his innovation work.
[08:10] Jeanne Liedtka’s social technology concept.
[11:32] Working with clients and showing what’s possible with design thinking.
[11:58] Learning design thinking isn’t just about taking a class. You have to practice it.
[12:38] Using design thinking to design the project.
[13:07] Creating the guiding star for the project.
[15:48] Working with company cultures.
[17:41] One of Marc’s favorite questions.
[19:10] The future of work.
[19:48] Echoes of the Industrial Revolution.
[20:49] Marc offers thoughts on what makes a strong innovative leader.
[22:53] Exploring the opportunities, offered by design thinking and human-centered design, for improving how we work.
[23:53] Why Marc doesn’t like the term “empathy building.”
[24:30] Better connecting with customers leads to better serving them.
[27:24] Pitfalls of personas.
[28:27] Marc and Dawan talk about using Indi Young’s mental models instead of personas in design work.
[32:01] Working as a designer and innovator means you’re always learning.
[32:45] Books and resources Marc recommends.
[34:41] Being with clients is Marc’s biggest learning space.
[35:04] Marc talks about a co-creation workshop DesignThinkers Group did in Cambodia and using design thinking to solve wicked problems.
[39:15] Some other projects DesignThinkers Group has worked on.
[41:47] Innovation requires putting something of value out into the world.
[43:55] Innovation is all about change, and change management.
[44:19] A project DesignThinkers Group did with a large corporation that wanted to tackle the issue of gender representation in top leadership roles.
[46:21] Corporations and the status quo fight back against change.
[47:47] The responsibility designers have to work on better inclusivity and representation in design.
Links
Marc on Twitter
Marc on LinkedIn
DesignThinkers Group on Twitter
DesignThinkers Group on LinkedIn
Design Talk What is Design Thinking?
Solutions Through Service Design Thinking With Marc Bolick
Take Service to Another Level, interview with Marc
Book Recommendations
The Connected Company, by Dave Gray and Thomas Vander Wahl
Gamestorming, by Dave Gray and Sunni Brown
This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See, by Seth Godin
Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers, by Seth Godin
This is Service Design Thinking: Basics, Tools, Cases, Marc Stickdorn, Jakob Schneider
This Is Service Design Doing: Applying Service Design Thinking in the Real World, by Marc Stickdorn, Markus Hormess, Adam Lawrence, and Jakob Schneider
Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs, by Larry Keeley, Helen Walters, Ryan Pikkel, and Brian Quinn
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Problem Spaces, Understanding How People Think, and Practical Empathy with Indi Young — DT101 E6
Experiencing Design: The Innovator’s Journey with Karen Hold — DT101 E71
Looking for a design job? Maybe you’d like mine!
Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast. This episode continues where episode 89 on crafting transformation stories left off, and focuses on telling your solution’s transformation story.
This episode is based on this article: ALD011 // Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 2 — Telling Well. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer.
In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I’ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:54] What is a transformation story?
[01:15] The magic bridge.
[01:44] Defining a good transformation story.
[02:19] Fluid Hive’s Story Shield checklist.
[02:28] Story.
[03:14] Translating.
[03:49] Shape-shifting.
[04:21] The 360 perspective.
[04:40] Be Bold.
[05:10] Be Natural.
[05:36] Always Ask.
[06:05] Avoid the Spandex.
[06:50] Fluid Hive’s free thinking tool will help you tell your solution’s transformation story.
The Design Thinking 101 Podcast’s Ask Like a Designer series
Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63
There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 — DT101 E65
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67
The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 — DT 101 E69
Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73
The Innovation Saboteur’s Handbook // ALD 007 – DT101 E77
Three Little Words for Better (Business) Relationships // ALD 008 — DT101 E79
The 30-Minute Solution Matrix: How to Think and Solve Under Pressure // ALD 009 — DT101 E87
Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 1 — Crafting Well // ALD 010 — DT101 E89
Raja Schaar is an industrial designer, afrofuturist and doomsday optimist. She is the Director at Drexel University's product design program and co-chair of the Industrial Designers Society of America, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Council.
Listen to learn about:
- Raja’s career in design
- Climate change and design
- How Raja uses science fiction and futurism in her teaching and work
- Black Girls STEAMing Through Dance
- Social Impact Design
- The power of design
- Media resources for designers wanting to explore future-thinking
Our Guest
Raja Schaar, IDSA (she/her) is Director and Associate Professor of the Product Design Program at Drexel University’s Westphal Collage of Media Arts and Design. She co-chairs IDSA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council is the past Education Director for the organization. Raja studies the ethical implications of design and technology through the lenses of speculative design and climate change. Her current projects address biases maternal health through wearable technology and participatory design; community-based co-design for engaging black girls and underrepresented minorities in STEM/STEAM; and generating frameworks and tools to embed Afrofuturism, biomimicry, sustainability, and climate justice into Design praxis.
Show Highlights
[02:09] Raja takes us on a fun trip through her childhood “what do you want to be when you grow up?” dreams.
[05:47] STEM and creativity.
[06:24] How Raja ended up going into industrial design in college.
[09:03] The interdisciplinary design class that changed everything.
[11:37] Diving into materials life cycles and sustainability in her junior year.
[13:31] Why Raja got angry at her major and wanting to change the way we do design.
[16:37] Volunteering at a science museum and discovering a love of exhibition design.
[17:22] Replacing the museum’s carpet tile introduced Raja to Interface, Inc. and their sustainable modular carpet system.
[19:28] Product design can be ethical and sustainable and conscientious of its environmental impact.
[20:38] Creating a conceptual project for the Children’s Museum of Atlanta.
[21:13] Graduate school and studying critical pedagogies and looking at new ways of teaching rooted in social change.
[21:59] How Raja got into teaching.
[23:52] Raja talks about some of the design challenges she’s passionate about right now.
[24:03] Climate change.
[24:34] Economic accessibility and inclusion.
[24:50] Usability.
[25:27] Social impact design.
[26:00] Who has access to the power of design?
[28:00] Raja’s mission to open the doors of design to young black girls.
[28:40] What Raja loves about design.
[30:06] The true power of design.
[31:14] Founding Black Girls STEAMing Through Dance at Drexel.
[32:37] Looking at the effects of climate change on communities of color worldwide.
[35:01] Science fiction and speculative design in Raja’s work.
[35:18] Everybody’s a futurist.
[36:14] Raja’s love of science fiction came from her parents.
[37:08] Reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in an engineering ethics class.
[40:25] There’s a lot to learn from science fiction’s futurist thinking.
[41:41] Using ideas from science fiction in her work on climate change.
[44:54] Raja calls herself a “doomsday optimist.”
[49:35] Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
[53:25] Looking at the world through the eyes of black women.
[58:14] The connection between science fiction and speculative design.
[58:41] Designing the future.
[1:01:10] Speculative design allows us to ask deep questions.
[1:01:46] The Keurig K-Cup example.
[1:04:35] Speculating and futuring has to be part of how we teach and learn.
[1:05:07] The importance of reflecting on our own design decisions and their potential future consequences.
[1:06:36] Books and resources Raja recommends for those wanting to explore...
[1:07:07] Climate change.
[1:15:25] The role of technology in society.
[1:16:19] Netflix’s documentary, Coded Bias.
[1:30:29] Doomsday and the idea of the point of no return.
[1:33:23] The Avengers’ Thanos as a hyper-violet environmentalist.
[1:38:40] Thinking about where we’re at now, and what future we want?
Links
Raja on LinkedIn
Raja on Instagram
Raja on Drexel University
Raja on IDSA
Drink in Design: Raja Schaar & Ann Gerondelis on Bio-Inspired Design
Tulane Taylor Center: March Design Thinking Breakfast with Raja Schaar, IDSA
Coded Bias on Netflix
Book Recommendations
The Green Imperative: Ecology and Ethics in Design and Architecture, by Victor Papanek
Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, by Victor Papanek
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, by Safiya Umoja Noble
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, by Cathy O’Neil
Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need, by Sasha Costanza-Chock
How Long 'til Black Future Month?: Stories, by N. K. Jemison
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams
The Lorax (Classic Seuss), by Dr. Seuss
Movie/TV Recommendations
For designers wanting to think about climate change: Avatar, Fern Gully, Waterworld, Elysium, Snowpiercer, The Expanse
For designers wanting to think about the role of technology in society: Minority Report, Omniscient, Interstellar
Futurist: Matrix, Terminator, Wall-E
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Speculative Design + Designing for Justice + Design Research with Alix Gerber — DT101 E27
A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45
Dr. Jane Hession and Ronan Healy are the founders of How Might We, a service design studio in Ireland. We talk about Lego Serious Play, creating together, and designing for being.
Listen to learn about:
- The importance of giving adults permission to be playful
- The LEGO Serious Play method
- How LEGO Serious Play can unlock creativity and innovation
- The changing view of the workplace and how teams work post-COVID-19
- Design for Being philosophy
Our Guests
Dr. Jane Hession and Ronan Healy are co-founders of How Might We, an Irish Service Design studio that facilitates meaningful conversations to improve employee and customer experiences.
At the very core of their studio’s capability is the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method. They LEGO Serious Play to make service design and systems thinking more accessible to organisations.
Ronan and Jane believe the LEGO Serious Play method has untapped potential in the corporate world and they see great potential for its usage.
Show Highlights
[01:24] Ronan and Jane talk about their very different career paths into service design.
[05:32] Moving home to Ireland after living in Australia and founding their studio.
[07:04] The How Might We studio and its services.
[09:44] An introduction to the LEGO Serious Play method.
[10:37] The role listening plays in How Might We’s workshops.
[10:58] The need for bravery and vulnerability in managers wanting to use Lego Serious Play.
[11:44] The importance of play.
[14:01] LEGO Serious Play encourages marginalized team members to speak up and share ideas.
[15:07] The three-step process Jane and Ronan start their workshops with.
[17:45] How LEGO Serious Play taps into our innate curiosity.
[18:21] Play as a prehistoric survival mechanism.
[19:33] The way in which Legos draw people into the experience.
[20:18] Jane offers thoughts on ways organizations can use LEGO Serious Play.
[20:44] COVID-19 is changing the way teams work and our ideas about the workplace.
[23:33] Using LEGO Serious Play with systems thinking and design.
[27:02] Embodied cognition.
[30:16] LEGO Serious play creates a social environment.
[31:31] Play vs playfulness.
[32:37] LEGO Serious Play as an extension of the mind.
[33:21] Ronan talks about the coherent communication that happens in a LEGO Serious Play session.
[34:27] Prototyping ideas using LEGO Serious Play.
[37:13] Having a physical object to play with can help teams better grasp the system they are working with, and subsequently ask better questions about the problem they are trying to solve.
[39:57] LEGO Serious Play democratizes the design process and levels organizational hierarchies.
[41:30} Jane and Ronan talk about how they work with clients.
[47:31] Designing for being.
[55:29] Complex Responsive Processes Thinking.
[56:12] LEGO Serious Play is open source.
[57:00] Be Brave and Play.
Links
Dr. Jane Hession on LinkedIn
Ronan Healy on LinkedIn
Ronan Healy on Twitter
How Might We website
How Might We on Twitter
How Might We on Instagram
How Might We on LinkedIn
Listen Notes: Dr. Jane Hession and Ronan Healy, The Power of Play
Lego Serious Play applications to enhance creativity in participatory design
Threshhold Concepts, LEGO Serious Play and whole systems thinking: towards a combined methodology
Ralph Stacey on complex responsive processes of relating at the Complexity and Management Conference
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Collaboration + Facilitation + Workshops with Austin Govella — DT101 E83
A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45
Mapping and Service Design + Implementation + Accessibility with Linn Vizard — DT101 E17
Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast.
This episode shows you everything you need to create your solution’s transformation story (and why it’s so important to do so).
This episode is based on this article: ALD010 // Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 1 — Crafting Well. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer.
In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I’ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:56] Why we need stories.
[01:27] What is a transformation story?
[01:33] The magic bridge.
[02:14] Storytelling neglect.
[02:43] We tell stories all through the design process.
[03:51] The transformation story creation pattern.
[04:07] The people.
[04:45] The problem.
[05:19] Influence.
[05:27] Using the COM-B behavior change model.
[06:47] Bridges, the heart of the transformation story.
[07:38] Evidence.
[08:09] Solution outcomes.
[08:45] Destination: a better world.
[09:27] Fluid Hive’s Transformation Story Questions.
[11:08] This Ask Like a Designer Thinking Tool download will help you use the transformation story questions.
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63
There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 — DT101 E65
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67
The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 — DT 101 E69
Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73
The Innovation Saboteur’s Handbook // ALD 007 – DT101 E77
Three Little Words for Better (Business) Relationships // ALD 008 — DT101 E79
The 30-Minute Solution Matrix: How to Think and Solve Under Pressure // ALD 009 — DT101 E87
Michele Ronsen is the founder of Curiosity Tank, a leading user research consultancy and educational institution, helping individuals and organizations learn how to ask better questions, conduct research, and make better decisions around the world.
Listen to learn about:
- The benefits of user research to designers
- User research skills
- Quantitative vs qualitative research
- Curiosity Tank’s six-workshop series, Ask Like a Pro
- Where user research is headed
Our Guest
Michele Ronsen is an executive with 20 years of experience in Fortune 500s, academia, and start-ups. A professionally trained graphic designer, Michele worked at top design firms before moving to Nordstrom where she built two creative teams from the ground up. From there, she built a career helping numerous entities strategically design and grow their businesses.
In 2010, Michele founded Ronsen Consulting, a design and strategy firm specialized in human-centered research and development. In 2020, she founded Curiosity Tank to further expand the team's research consulting and education efforts. Recent clients include Slack, Zillow, Blue Shield of California, Xero, Facebook, Gusto, Invisalign, Microsoft and Kaiser Permanente.
Michele has inspired hundreds of students and professionals at UC Berkeley, the California College of the Arts, the Academy of Art University, and General Assembly teaching design, research and strategy classes and workshops.
Show Highlights
[00:33] Drawing the gear inside the McDonald’s sign and how Michele’s father taught her and her brother to ask how and why instead of what and when.
[02:14] Michele’s first career in graphic design and as a creative and design director.
[02:56] How conducting ethnographies helped Michele fall in love with user research.
[04:47] Michele talks about the user research skillset.
[07:02] Michele reminisces on her design process before she knew more about user research.
[09:18] Advice for organizations that want to do more qualitative research.
[10:37] The value of qualitative research.
[12:09] The Moccasins Project at the California College of the Arts.
[14:20] How Michele starts the process of working with clients.
[16:05] Curiosity Tank’s Ask Like a Pro workshop series helps people level-up their user research skills.
[20:18] Ensuring user research makes it into the product or service starts in the planning phase.
[22:05] Getting stakeholder buy-in right from the beginning.
[23:24] The problem space and the opportunity space.
[26:19] User research trends and the future of user research.
[26:49] The surprising way the pandemic changed the trajectory of user research.
[29:48] Thoughts and advice for those wanting to learn more about user research.
[29:58] Open versus closed questions.
[31:48] Having a curious mindset is key to becoming a great researcher.
Links
Michele on LinkedIn
Michele on General Assembly
Wild Business Growth Podcast: Curiosity Tank, How to Ask Better Questions
Happy Market Research podcast: How the key to Asking Better Questions is Tied to Developing Better Listening Skills and What you can do About it
How to start a UX research project
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Problem Spaces, Understanding How People Think, and Practical Empathy with Indi Young — DT101 E6
Understanding Customers: Research, Insights, and Storytelling with Steve Portigal — DT101 E48
Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast.
This episode is about what to do when you need to solve like a designer FAST.
This episode is based on this article: ALD009 // The 30-Minute Solution Matrix: How to Think and Solve Under Pressure. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer.
In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I’ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:56] Thinking and solving like a designer when in crisis mode.
[01:06] Fluid Hive’s 30-Minute Solution Matrix: nine questions that can help you solve quickly.
[02:19] How to use the 30-Minute Solution Matrix.
[02:41] Learning gaps.
[02:58] Be ready to adjust and change your answers as you learn more.
[03:11] What problem are you trying to solve?
[03:51] Who is the solution for?
[04:26] Who is making the solution?
[04:48] What systems are involved?
[05:27] What evidence do you have?
[05:56] What do you need to learn?
[06:44] What solution might you try right now?
[07:53] How might you build this solution?
[08:35] How will you know it worked?
[08:55] “Cheating” design.
[09:49] Fluid Hive’s 30-Minute Solution Matrix is a free Ask Like a Designer Thinking Tooll you can download.
Design Thinking 101 Learning — Courses and More
Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation. Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.
Please join me in the first course, Design Thinking 101 — Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve.
Each course is structured to help your innovation actions create what you need for the people you serve, your organization and yourself.
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63
There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 — DT101 E65
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67
The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 — DT 101 E69
Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73
The Innovation Saboteur’s Handbook // ALD 007 – DT101 E77
Three Little Words for Better (Business) Relationships // ALD 008 — DT101 E79
Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg is the author of What’s Your Problem and coauthor of Innovation as Usual. We talk about problem reframing, developing innovation skills, and the power of thinking deeply about problems.
Listen to learn about:
- Framing and reframing problems
- Helping teams and companies to change their approach to problem-solving
- Thomas’ books
- Advice for companies and individuals wanting to learn problem reframing
- A shortcoming in design thinking tools
- The future of innovation and problem framing
- Some hints about Thomas’ new book-in-progress
Our Guest
Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg is the author of "What's Your Problem," published by Harvard Business Review Press. He works with companies all over the world to help them solve the right problems. HIs first book was "Innovation as Usual," coauthored with Paddy Miller, focusing on how to drive innovation as part of an everyday job. He was born in Denmark and is now based in New York.
Show Highlights
[01:19] How a failure led Thomas into a collaboration with a professor from his business school.
[01:50] Observing what happened to business innovation advice taught in school and how it played out in the real world.
[02:39] Co-authoring “Innovation as Usual” with Paddy Miller.
[03:54] Thomas talks about what led him to write “What’s Your Problem.”
[07:00] Mistakes people make when framing, and re-framing, problems.
[08:15] The slow elevator problem.
[11:11] The importance of the people’s perspective when looking at the problem space.
[13:28] The mental shift of having the answer to finding the answer.
[15:05] Thomas’ advice to companies wanting to do better when it comes to finding and framing problems.
[16:13] Two critical things a team needs when starting to incorporate reframing in their work.
[19:09] Thomas asks Dawan to talk about his use and emphasis of the question, “What problem are you trying to solve?”
[20:56] Problems that arise when a company starts solving the wrong problem.
[22:09] Solving the right problem and reframing also works for internal problems.
[24:54] Problems change over time.
[27:23] A problem by any other name is still a problem.
[29:27] Thomas shares a story about PayPal.
[31:49] Thomas talks about the future of problem-solving and innovation.
[34:28] One thing Thomas discovered while developing his workshop.
[35:09] The question storming method.
[36:31] Thomas points out a shortcoming of current design thinking tools.
[38:27] Advice for those wanting to develop their problem framing and questioning skills.
[39:33] Books and resources Thomas recommends and that have influenced his work.
[42:15] Thomas gives some hints about the book he’s working on now.
[42:28] Thomas asks Dawan to recommend resources that he really likes and that influenced him.
[44:14] The success of “What’s Your Problem.”
[46:03] Where to find out more about Thomas and his work.
[47:01] Why Thomas says he’s like a truffle-sniffing pig, and how it’s similar to problem reframing.
[47:49] “Thought leadership” is the topic of the book Thomas is writing now.
Links
Thomas on Twitter
Thomas on LinkedIn
Thomas’ website
Reframing: How to Solve the Right Problems
What’s Your Problem? Big Idea Webinar
The Secret to Better Problem Solving, HBR IdeaCast
Are You Solving the Right Problems?
Reframing Problems To Solve Tough Issues
Book Recommendation:
Innovation as Usual: How to Help Your People Bring Great Ideas to Life, by Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
What's Your Problem?: To Solve Your Toughest Problems, Change the Problems You Solve, by Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days, by Jessica Livingston
How We Think, by John Dewey
Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking, by Jennifer Riel and Roger Martin
Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Design Thinking at Work + Three Tensions Designers Navigate with David Dunne — DT101 E23
Josina Vink is a designer and researcher based out of Oslo. They're often working in the spaces of health and care, and focusing on shaping social structures. We talk about systemic service design, design labs in healthcare, and the potential of critical approaches to design practice.
Listen to learn about:
- Service design in the health and care industries
- Changing the focus of service design
- The ideas of coexistence and plurality in design
- The state of design labs in the healthcare industry
Our Guest
Josina Vink is a designer, researcher and facilitator based out of Oslo, Norway. They are an Associate Professor in Service Design at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. They teach and research critical, systemic approaches to service design, with a particular focus on shaping the social structures of health and care. Josina has over 10 years of experience working as a service and systems designer in healthcare internationally, including in Canada, the United States and Sweden.
Show Highlights
[02:00] How the movie Patch Adams and wanting to become a doctor led Josina into design.
[03:28] Practicing design at the Mayo clinic in Minnesota and later in Toronto.
[04:01] Josina talks about their frustrations while working on healthcare systems change.
[04:40] Getting their PhD in Sweden and working with Experio Lab.
[04:57] Moving on to teach service design at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
[05:05] Josina’s current healthcare work in Norway.
[05:47] The state of service design, and the movement towards a more systemic approach and practice.
[06:32] Giga mapping / mega mapping big systems.
[06:56] There needs to be a fundamental rethinking of how service design works.
[08:44] Josina talks about their work in Norway to decentralize and digitize health care to increase accessibility.
[11:17] Looking at the possible negative implications of this work.
[12:58] Repositioning service design away from its focus on new innovation.
[14:06] Advice for service designers who want to bring a wider view to their own work.
[14:19] The challenges of ontological occupation.
[14:39] The potential pitfalls when we create grand system maps.
[16:57] Compossibility and plurality in service design.
[18:43] Josina offers some tips for mapping and understanding systems.
]20:12] How approaching design from a coexistence standpoint could transform the design industry.
[24:53] Josina talks about some great work happening in Toronto in the health and care fields.
[29:15] The state of design labs in the healthcare industry.
[29:43] Josina gives an example of one design lab in Sweden that is having great success.
[35:26] Designers whose work inspires Josina and who are at the forefront of transforming service design.
[37:27] Books Josina recommends.
[38:36] Where to learn more about Josina and their work.
Links
Josina on Twitter
Josina on LinkedIn
Josina on ResearchGate
Josina on Centre for Design Research
Josina’s articles available on Google Scholar
SDGC 19: In/Visible - Shaping Hidden Social Structures Through Service Design
Service Design Show: Designing with the invisible glue that holds us together
Book Recommendation:
A World of Many Worlds, edited by Marisol de la Cadena and Mario Blaser
Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need, by Sasha Costanza-Chock
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Learning Service Design + Leading Service Transformation with Clive Grinyer — DT101 E66
A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45
Design Thinking + Learning Science with Adam Royalty — DT101 E18
Austin Govella is an experience design director at Avanade Digital Studio and author of Collaborative Product Design.
Listen to learn about:
- Product design
- Collaboration in design work
- Some challenges that can arise when collaborating
- Connecting design to the larger world
- Designing within and for systems
- Workshop/training design
- Collaboration facilitation
Our Guest
As an experienced facilitator with over 15 years of experience, Austin leverages a collaborative design approach with clients and specializes in facilitating design thinking, product management, design sprints, and Agile methodologies. As an experience director, he delivers design thinking and workshop facilitation training for Avanade’s Experience Design practice.
Austin is a LUMA Institute Certified Facilitator of Human-Centered Design.
Show Highlights
[01:43] How taking a break from university led Austin into the field of design.
[04:30] Austin’s work at Avanade, and platform-based innovation.
[06:24] Collaboration has been a key aspect of Austin’s work methodology since his university days.
[08:11] How collaboration can help the solo designer and small design teams at a company.
[09:39] Collaboration magnifies the impact of design.
[10:43] Design is more than just making pretty visuals.
[11:43] Design must be created within the context of the business and the “world” in which it will live.
[12:45] Austin’s thoughts on modern design education.
[13:09] Giving your design a “good life.”
[15:15] Why designing that “good life” requires collaboration.
[16:03] Greenfield innovation design vs. wicked problems design.
[18:26] Austin talks about some of the challenges he’s dealt with when leading workshops.
[20:05] How people learning design thinking can be too focused on the mechanics and not on the outcome.
[21:05] When designing a workshop, focus on the outcome.
[23:46] Viewing the workshop as a collaboration.
[26:59] The importance of inclusion and trust when collaborating.
[27:58] Being willing to go in unexpected directions, and the magic that can happen when you do.
[29:33] Austin gives advice for new facilitators.
[31:56] Ways to help and support the person who doesn’t want to participate in a workshop activity.
[33:40] Frame, facilitate, finish.
[34:44] Other personalities you can encounter while facilitating workshops.
[38:06] You can’t auto-pilot a workshop.
[38:54] The importance of the small breakout groups in workshops, especially those that are virtual.
[39:57] Offering participants the chance to think about the topic before the actual workshop or meeting.
[42:47] Trusting the process and the participants as a facilitator, even when it’s challenging.
[46:23] Austin talks about his book, Collaborative Product Design.
[49:19] Work the Room, the book Austin is currently working on, dives into how to manage the people and personalities you’re collaborating and facilitating with.
[53:10] Books and other resources Austin recommends.
Links
Austin on Twitter
Austin on Medium
Austin on LinkedIn
Book Recommendations:
Collaborative Product Design by Austin Govella
The Product & Experience Design Guide
Work the Room, The Book, by Austin Govella
The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, by Priya Parker
Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers, by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo
Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations That Accelerate Change, by Chris Ertel and Lisa Kay Solomon
Rapid Problem Solving With Post-it Notes, by David Straker
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Designing Facilitation: a system for creating and leading exceptional events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73
Teams, Sprints, Prototyping, and Better Meetings with Douglas Ferguson — DT101 E59
Dennis Lenard is the CEO at Creative Navy. We talk about user experience, navigating rough design waters, and design leadership.
Listen in to learn more about:
- User experience (UX) and User interface (UI) design
- UX in the healthcare industry
- The role “people politics” plays in the design process
- Mistakes made when it comes to leading design teams
- A good design team leader’s qualities
- Working through challenging moments in the design process
Our Guest
As the CEO of Creative Navy, a London-based agency that takes an evidence-based approach to UX design and user-interface design, Dennis combines pragmatic vision with a thorough understanding of research practice. He has coordinated more than 500 design projects across the globe. His team has provided design-innovative solutions to worldwide companies such as Jaguar, Ford, and Philips, using a structured process in which decisions are grounded in rational methodology and meticulous data review rather than intuition, blind convention, or whim. Dennis has had a diverse education with degrees in law, psychology, economics, and philosophy.
Show Highlights
[00:58] Dennis’ background in cognitive science and how it led him to UX and UI design.
[01:58] The challenges in creating embedded interfaces.
[03:33] How a company can develop blind spots about its own product.
[05:35] The ways Dennis works with companies to help them see past their blind spots to the value in user research.
[07:09] Dennis offers one example from a large company with 4,000 users of a particular piece of technology.
[09:09] Two reasons design projects can see resistance and pushback: identity and uncertainty.
[12:06] The unique challenges of developing UX for the healthcare industry.
[14:59] Dennis talks about the COVID-19 case tracking project his company worked on.
[16:51] How Dennis’ team worked through resistance from the client.
[19:04] Managing people and relationships is fundamental to design.
[21:05] The responsibility of designers to try and make a better world – physically and digitally.
[23:34] The less-glamorous side of design work.
[25:23] Building a strong team and creating a safe space for working through difficult moments in the design process.
[26:36] Two patterns Dennis has noticed when it comes to leading design teams.
[28:50] How Dennis helps his team members push through challenging moments.
[31:24] Two key qualities of good design team leadership.
[35:46] Dennis gives three pieces of advice for designers.
Links
Dennis on LinkedIn
Creative Navy on Twitter
Creative Navy on Medium
Why Creativity Matters in UX Design
Top Developers’ Interview with Dennis
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Learning Service Design + Leading Service Transformation with Clive Grinyer — DT101 E66
Rachael Dietkus is a clinical social worker and certified trauma professional dedicated to trauma-responsive practices in design. We talk about trauma-informed design, social work, and why design teams need a social worker.
Listen to learn about:
- The intersection of design and social work
- Trauma-informed design
- Resources for designers looking to be more trauma-responsive in their work
- The benefits of including social workers on design teams
- Social Workers Who Design
Our Guest
Rachael Dietkus is a social worker immersed in design. She is a licensed clinical social worker, design researcher, and strategist, with experience in the non-profit space, federal government, and higher education. Rachael is deeply committed to trauma-informed and trauma-responsive design practices and is the founder of Social Workers Who Design.
Show Highlights
[02:21] Rachael’s undergraduate studies in photography and art design.
[02:59] The Sociology 101 course that changed everything.
[03:50] Working on the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois helped Rachael to see the intersection between social justice and the creative world.
[05:14] The hunger for more intersectionality and collaboration between disciplines.
[06:11] Her work with the Champaign-Urbana Design Organization was another chance to experience that creative collaboration.
[07:37] Rachael’s natural gravitation toward social justice projects.
[08:16] Championing the need for social workers on design teams, and for trauma-informed design.
[09:22] What does it mean to be trauma-informed in the context of design?
[10:40] The six guiding principles of trauma-informed care used in the U.S.
[14:02] Defining trauma in the context of design.
[15:31] Rachael shares a personal story of trauma.
[20:30] Rachael talks about Tad Hirsch’s article comparing the design research process and aspects of psychotherapy.
[21:04] The potential darker side of rapport-building during the design process.
[26:19] Ways that designers can practice their way into being more trauma-responsive.
[27:11] Books for learning more about trauma.
[31:58] Getting asked to do workshops and trainings on trauma-informed design.
[36:01] The importance of practice and evolving in one’s design work.
[37:27] Seeing design through a social work lens.
[40:31] What is social work?
[41:57] Becoming an ambassador for social work and social workers.
[43:07] The interesting similarities between human-centered design and social work.
[43:54] The benefits of having a social worker on a design team.
[48:44] Social workers can be the bridge to the people being served.
[49:48] Social workers are often already there in the design problem spaces doing the work.
[50:56] Rachael talks about Social Workers Who Design.
[55:38] Social workers are, by necessity, system designers because they work within complex systems.
Links
Rachael on LinkedIn
Rachael on Women Talk Design
Social Workers Who Design on Instagram
Trauma-Informed Design with Rachael Dietkus and Sarah Fathallah
Healing Community: Trauma-Informed Design with Rachael Dietkus
Trauma-Informed Design with Glennette Clark and Rachael Dietkus
Design Lab with Bon Ku podcast: Ep 17: Trauma Responsive Design | Rachael Dietkus
Design Thinking for Social Workers: Creating a New Competency: Rachael Dietkus, Lisa Mercer, and Rachel Switzky
Practicing Without a License: Design Research as Psychotherapy
Book Recommendations:
Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others, by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
My Grandmother’s Hands, by Resmaa Menakem
What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, by Oprah Winfrey and Dr Bruce Perry
Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stories and Strategies, By Renee Linklater
Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship, by Laurence Heller and Aline LaPierre
Beyond Sticky Notes: Co-design for Real: Mindsets, methods and movements, by Kelly Ann McKercher
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38
Glennette Clark is a UX researcher and an entrepreneur. We talk about UX research, research teams, and UX Camp DC.
Listen to learn about:
- UX research — What is it?
- The U.S. Digital Service
- Onboarding new team members
- Trauma-informed research and design
- UXCamp DC and the unconference format
Our Guest
Glennette Clark is a design researcher at United States Digital Service. She brings human-centered design practices to federal agencies including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She’s an adjunct professor at MICA in the Design Leadership program.
She founded UXCamps DC & NYC and joined the DC Innovation & Technology Inclusion Council in 2010.
Glennette has a Strategic Design MBA from Philadelphia University and BA in journalism from Howard University. She lives in DC with her husband, two children and a dog.
Show Highlights
[01:05] Glennette’s journey into UX began with a degree in journalism, where she learned the interviewing skills that would serve her later in her research work.
[03:01] The difference between moderated and unmoderated interviews.
[04:37] What is UX research?
[05:08] The importance of interviews in UX research.
[06:48] How Glennette uses interviews to help people understand UX research and how to use it.
[08:18] The different ways Glennette presents research results depending on the audience.
[11:22] Glennette shares one of her favorite research stories.
[13:22] Why interviewing people with lived experience is so important when researching.
[15:18] Glennette’s work with the United States Digital Service.
[17:01] Advice for those about to embark on their own problem space research.
[17:33] The benefit of “How might we” questions.
[19:57] Why the language you use in framing your research matters.
[21:37] Trauma-informed design and how it fits into human-centered design.
[23:04] Glennette talks about a community design project she worked on.
[24:06] Ways to reduce the chance of doing harm when conducting interviews.
[26:35] The importance of team health, and what it means to have a healthy team.
[29:05] How to help a new person get up and running with a team.
[32:09] UXCamp DC’s beginning, and where it is now, twenty years later.
[34:17] How the “unconference” format works.
[35:29] Past presentation topics.
[36:22] Glennette’s desire to combine community-based design and service design to help community organizations achieve their missions.
[39:17] Books and resources Glennette recommends.
[42:16] Tools Glennette likes to use in her work.
Links
Glennette on Twitter
Glennette on LinkedIn
Glennette on MICA
Book Recommendation: Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, by Kat Holmes
Book Recommendation: Thinking in Systems: A Primer, by Donella H. Meadows
Book Recommendation: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, and 100 More Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, by Susan Weinschenk
Book Recommendation: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, by Matthew Frederick
Book Recommendation: Meeting Design: For Managers, Makers, and Everyone, by Kevin M. Hoffman
The Values Deck | A Card Sorting Game to Explore Your Personal Values
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19
Democracy as a Design Problem with Whitney Quesenbery — DT101 E68
Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast.
This episode is about the tremendous power in three little words and a superpower for people who want to think and solve like a designer: listening.
This episode is based on this article: ALD008 // Three Little Words for Better (Business) Relationship. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer.
In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I’ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:56] It is listening, not love, that is at the core of a strong relationship.
[01:16] The three little words: tell me more.
[01:47] Why “tell me more” is so powerful.
[01:56] “Tell me more” is better than “why.”
[02:36] The importance of good listening.
[02:50] There are many ways of using and phrasing “tell me more.”
[02:55] When someone stops talking.
[03:15] Parroting the other’s words.
[03:33] Parrot questions.
[03:51] Long silences can encourage someone to keep talking.
[04:14] Spotlighting the other’s silences.
[04:42] Noticing changes.
[05:07] Listening is different from interviewing, advising, or negotiating.
[05:25] When we listen, we learn.
[05:50] Designing an event means creating an environment for good listening.
[06:06] Listening is not passive
[06:12] Listening is fundamental to design.
[06:35] Free Ask Like a Designer tool to help you practice “tell me more” and in turn, become a better listener.
Design Thinking 101 Learning — Courses and More
Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation. Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.
Please join me in the first course, Design Thinking 101 — Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve.
Each course is structured to help your innovation actions create what you need for the people you serve, your organization and yourself.
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63
There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 — DT101 E65
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67
The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 — DT 101 E69
Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73
Cat Drew is the chief design officer at the Design Council. We talk about the role and work of Design Council, systemic design, and the shifting role of design and government and communities.
Listen in to learn more about:
- Design Council’s work
- The frameworks Design Council has developed
- The Design Economy
- How designers can learn from non-designers who are practicing design out in their local communities
- Asset-based design
- Speculative design
- Amble Harbour, a small fishing village in the UK
Our Guest’s Bio
Cat Drew is the Chief Design Officer at the Design Council where she brings together architecture and the built environment, public sector design and business innovation to support people in living healthier, happier and safer lives. Previously, Cat has held leadership positions at FutureGov and Uscreates, was a co-founder of the UK government’s Policy Lab, and combines 10 years of experience in government with an MA in Graphic Design. She speaks widely about the value of design and co-presents BBC Radio 4 The Fix. She is a member of The Point People.
Show Highlights
[01:04] Cat’s path from civil servant to designer.
[01:38] Her frustration while working for the government.
[02:39] Helping to co-found the Policy Lab and discovering design.
[05:15] Her work at Design Council.
[06:25] The biggest internal development happening at Design Council right now.
[08:29] One example of the collaborative aspect of the Design Council’s work.
[10:28] The Design Council’s double diamond framework.
[11:37] The Framework for Innovation builds on the double diamond and adds in culture change.
[12:21] The complex challenges design is being asked to solve.
[13:00] The new Systemic Design framework the Design Council developed to help with these challenges.
[16:02] Cat talks about Design Council’s role with regard to people using this new framework.
[17:40] Design “translation” as a core role of the Design Council.
[18:09] The ways in which language changes meanings in different communities.
[19:46] Different groups and individuals see and experience a system very differently.
[20:55] The social dreaming concept.
[21:57] Cat talks about some of Design Council’s research and projects.
[22:31] The Design Economy.
[24:31] Design Difference, a project born out of COVID-19 and the pandemic.
[27:10] Learning from non-designers who are out there doing design work in their communities.
[29:35] Asset-based design starts from what’s strong instead of what’s wrong.
[31:22] Cat talks about where design is heading.
[31:50] Designers working to deliberately change and redesign systems.
[33:50] Three themes Design Council is seeing in design now.
[35:52] Encouraging more people to experiment and play with design in the real world.
[38:11] Ways to use and support the work Design Council is doing.
[39:08] The importance of speculative design in supporting creativity.
[39:58] Policy Lab’s The Future of Aging project.
[41:54] Resources Cat recommends for those interested in design.
[43:40] Cat answers the question, “what’s your best story about design?” with a story about Amble Harbour, a fishing village in the UK.
Links
Cat on Twitter
Cat on LinkedIn
Cat on Medium
Interview with Cat at UX Connections
Interview with Cat at Design Week
TEDxWhitehall: Making government better, through data and design
Book Recommendation: Why Materials Matter: Responsible Design for a Better World, by Seetal Solanki and Liz Corbin
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19
Democracy as a Design Problem with Whitney Quesenbery — DT101 E68
This episode is about sabotaging innovation projects. You’ll learn new ways to get in your own way and everyone else’s.
This episode is based on this article: ALD007 // The Innovation Saboteur’s Handbook. Read the article and download a guide to sabotage proofing innovation projects. You don’t want anyone to steal your destructive glory. You’ll find more articles like these on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer
Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast.
In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I’ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:35] Your inner saboteur. Sometimes you just want to break things.
Sabotage Moves
[01:41] Lack of focus.
[02:13] Refusing to adapt your problem as you learn.
[02:28] Lack of research.
[02:59] Lack of teamwork.
[03:32] Not enough data-gathering.
[04:00] Lack of planning.
[04:35] Not testing multiple possible solutions.
[05:17] Not working with the delivery team.
[05:53] Ignoring the systems you’re working within.
[06:25] Lack of process and outcome measurement.
[07:28] Free Ask Like a Designer tool: Stopping Innovation Sabotage.
Design Thinking 101 Learning — Courses and More
Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation. Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.
Please join me in the first course, Design Thinking 101 — Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve.
Each course is structured to help your innovation actions create what you need for the people you serve, your organization and yourself.
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63
There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 — DT101 E65
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67
The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 — DT 101 E69
Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73
Kevin Bethune is the founder and chief creative officer for dreams • design + life, and the board chair of the Design Management Institute. We talk about working and leading at the intersection of engineering, business and design.
Listen in to learn more about:
- The synergy Kevin created between three disciplines: engineering, business, and design
- Kevin’s years at Nike
- How to build an environment that encourages and fuels creativity
- Kevin’s way of onboarding teams
- The importance of evidence collection and world-building in Kevin’s work
- Design’s leadership during the pandemic
- The future of design, and the need for more equity, diversity and inclusion in the industry
Our Guest’s Bio
Kevin Bethune is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of dreams • design + life, a "think tank" that delivers design & innovation services using a human-centered approach. Kevin's background spans engineering, business and design in equal proportion over his 20+ year career, positioning him to help brands deliver meaningful innovations to enrich people's lives.
Kevin began his career as a mechanical engineer in the nuclear power industry. This chapter gave him deep product experience working with high performing teams across 14 nuclear reactor upgrade campaigns. After his MBA, Kevin joined Nike, Inc. in a business capacity, but quickly navigated to the Global Footwear product engine to drive advanced digital product creation capabilities, discovering the world of design in the process. After solidifying his creative foundation through further studies at ArtCenter College of Design, Kevin co-founded distinct design & innovation capabilities at two Tier 1 management consulting firms in Booz & Co. and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). As Vice President of Strategic Design at BCG Digital Ventures, he led a large cohort of designers that would influence and shape every corporate venture spun out from the incubator. Kevin left BCG Digital Ventures to carve his own path under the banner of dreams • design + life, focusing on unlocking human potential through strategic design, industrial design and the building of new ecologies.
Show Highlights
[01:21] The childhood creative itch that started Kevin on the path towards design.
[01:37] How growing up in Detroit influenced him as a child, and led him into engineering.
[02:37] Jumping into the nuclear power industry after finishing his Engineering degree.
[03:29] How engineering gave him an interest in business strategy and going to business school to earn his MBA.
[04:34] Transitioning to a job at Nike, and his introduction to design in a professional capacity.
[06:03] Getting the chance to design shoes at Nike.
[06:44] Being able to accept failure is key to the creative process.
[07:21] The challenges Kevin faced at Nike while trying to create cross-disciplinary connections.
[08:15] Finding people willing to act as mentors, supporters, and advocates.
[09:24] The importance of curiosity and user observation to Kevin’s work.
[12:23] Kevin faces a fork in the road of his work and where he wanted to go.
[13:53] Leaving Nike to go back to graduate school to study design.
[14:45] Kevin talks about his experience going back to school as a mid-career professional.
[18:32] Separating the work from one’s self.
[19:17] Appreciating his wife’s support.
[22:17] Working with Booz and company and founding Booz Digital after finishing his design degree.
[22:54] Moving to work with BCG.
[23:21] Kevin talks about how the team worked with clients.
[24:45] The multi-team, design thinking environment that evolved and how it fueled creativity.
[26:09] Getting executive buy-in and support.
[28:28] The paradigms and techniques that helped the teams navigate through conflict.
[30:11] Creating a culture of safety where people felt it was OK to raise concerns.
[31:14] Onboarding teams and having them talk about roles, norms and culture at the start.
[33:27] Kevin talks about the decision and process of founding his own design organization.
[35:51] The two priorities Kevin focuses on when it comes to choosing projects and clients.
[38:39] The early months of the company, and the surprising way business came to his doorstep.
[39:40] The surprising focus of Kevin’s first conversations with potential clients.
[42:59] How the pandemic has changed Kevin’s work.
[46:18] The ways in which design is taking a leadership role as everyone tries to figure out what work will look like in the future.
[48:29] The topics and issues Kevin feels need to be part of the conversations designers are having as a community.
[49:26] Finding ways to connect and engage with other creative communities.
[50:07] The importance of pushing for more equity, diversity and inclusion in the design industry.
[54:52] Kevin offers advice for what those in leadership roles can do to ensure that they are moving the conversation and industry forward, and not contributing to existing barriers.
[58:45] Resources Kevin recommends for those interested in design.
Links
Kevin on Twitter
Kevin on Instagram
Kevin on LinkedIn
Kevin profile on IDSA’s website
Design is [Dreaming]: Curiosity and innovation
TED Talk: The 4 Superpowers of Design
ArtCenter College of Design podcast: Realizing Dreams Through Design
ArtCenter College of Design Alumni Story: Kevin Bethune: Powerful design that goes the distance
Core77: Building a Brighter Design Future Means Taking a Hard Look at the Industry’s Deepest Flaws
DV Alumni: Human-Centered Design with Kevin Bethune
ALU Podcast: Design Thinking in Business
How to Future-Proof Your Design Career
Book Recommendation: The Laws of Simplicity, by John Maeda
Book Recommendation: Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design, by Kat Holmes
Book Recommendation: Designing Design, by Kenya Hara
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Learning Service Design + Leading Service Transformation with Clive Grinyer — DT101 E66
A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45
Designing Culture at Work + Social Innovation + Necessary Disquiet with Lauren Currie — DT101 E29
Belinda Gannaway is the co-author of Employee Experience by Design and the Director at Fathom XP, an employee experience design agency based in the UK. She’s also a facilitator and a team and systems coach. Today, we discuss her book, and what's possible when we apply design thinking to orchestrating how people perform and produce results in organizations.
Listen to learn about:
- Using design thinking to create better employee experiences
- How our relationship with the work we do has changed
- Helping organizational leadership to understand the why of employee experience design
- The way the COVID-19 pandemic is changing how organizations think about their employees
- The drastic ways experience design and employee experience design have changed due to the pandemic
- How to discover what matters to your employees
- Three key principles of employee experience design
- The future of work and employee experience’s role in that future
Our Guest
Belinda Gannaway is an employee experience design practitioner, facilitator and team coach. She is co-author of Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage, published in 2021 by Kogan Page.
Strategy director of EX design consultancy FathomXP, Belinda has been working in and around organizational culture for many years. Her interest in culture began early when she worked as a journalist in the UK Houses of Parliament – a 1,000-year-old institution.
Belinda's career has covered the worlds of journalism, PR and marketing, digital transformation and culture change. She has worked with some of the world's best-known organizations, including LEGO, Jaguar Land Rover, Diageo and the International Olympic Committee.
Show Highlights
[01:08] Dawan talks about the relevance of Employee Experience by Design in today’s pandemic work world.
[01:58] Belinda talks about what sparked her and her co-author, Emma Bridger, to write the book, and how our relationship with work has been changing, even before the pandemic.
[02:33] Employees have become the consumers of the workplace.
[03:01] The two things Belinda and Emma focused on when writing the book.
[03:52] Democratizing great employee experience.
[05:03] How Belinda’s background as a political journalist helped during the writing process.
[06:09] The two ways design thinking is being used in employee experience design.
[07:11] The similarity of experience Belinda discovered was happening across many companies in different countries.
[09:18] Starting from the desire to create better experiences for our employees.
[10:23] Adding in a third diamond, focused on scoping, to the Double Diamond model.
[10:38] The starting point: what does employee experience mean for this organization?
[11:50] The next step is asking: where are we falling short?
]14:31] The connections and inter-relationships between employee experience, employee performance, and the bottom line.
[14:51] Organizational focus on employee experience is often around talent attraction and retention.
[15:38] How the pandemic has changed this focus.
[16:14] The link between a great employee experience and a great customer experience.
[17:30] Writing the book as the pandemic unfolded.
[17:56] Organizations’ greater focus on the wellbeing of their employees.
[18:22] Empathy as the “word of the year.”
[18:37] Experience design and employee experience design have changed drastically because of the pandemic.
[21:01] Belinda offers advice on how organizations can use the book to start the work of looking at their employee experience and changing it for the better.
[21:20] The book uses design thinking and positive psychology in its approach.
[21:49] Start with a conversation around “tell me about your best experience at work.”
[22:02] The book explains how to set up this conversation in different ways, as needed.
[24:21] The top ideas Belinda hopes people will take from the book and put into practice.
[25:07] Three key principles of employee experience design.
[27:51] Dawan and Belinda talk about the value of having an experimental mindset.
[32:04] Belinda asks Dawan why he doesn’t use the word “coach/ing” when he talks about his work.
[34:16] What’s next for employee experience and the future of work.
[39:17] How employees as consumers of the workplace have the potential to change the ethos of business.
[42:03] Belinda shares her go-to tool when she is working with organizations and their employee experience design.
[44:47] Fluid Hive’s resources for those wanting to learn and practice design thinking.
Links
Belinda on Twitter
Belinda on LinkedIn
Designing a meaningful employee experience: An interview with Belinda Gannaway
How to launch or re-energize your employee experience approach
Book Recommendation: Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage, by Emma Bridger and Belinda Gannaway
Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Building Design Capacity + Measuring Design Value + Designing Studios with Doug Powell — DT101 E16
Resources
Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.
James Howard is a teacher, design historian, industrial designer, and inventor of over 300 products with 18 patents. He's currently the owner-operator of Entrepreneurial U, a specialty private design school. Prior to teaching at the county college of Morris in New Jersey, Professor Howard was the owner-operator of the award-winning Howard Design Agency, an industrial design practice whose clients included Coca-Cola, Colgate Palmolive, and Johnson & Johnson.
James is also the owner of Cozy Cupboard Tearoom of Morristown, New Jersey. The English-style business has been a regional favorite for over 10 years. James serves as the Executive Director of the Black Inventors Hall of Fame, a virtual museum devoted to immortalizing African-Americans whose noteworthy inventions have improved lives, yet gone unnoticed.
Listen in to learn more about:
- James’ journey to become an industrial designer
- The Howard Design Agency
- James’ years teaching design
- Entrepreneurial U
- Growth mindset
- The power of optimism – in work, and in life
Show Highlights
[01:55] James talks about his journey into design, and his big sister Doris.
[03:11] Entering his first drawing contest as a young boy.
[03:16] The disappointment of not getting into the graphic design program – and James’ shift into industrial design as a result.
[05:31] Challenges James faced during his undergraduate and graduate years.
[08:56] Getting into graduate school.
[10:38] James’ struggles with his first mentor in graduate school.
[12:30] How things changed once he had a strong mentor on his side.
[13:15] Winning a design award from RESNA.
[14:01] His first job as an industrial designer.
[15:49] James’ advice for people dealing with bumps in the road.
[16:49] Why James decided to start his own design agency.
[19:51] 15 years at the Howard Design Agency.
[21:10] How running his own agency changed the way James thought about design.
[23:17] James offers advice on how to make a good pitch.
[26:42] The decision to leave his design agency and begin teaching.
[30:59] Founding Entrepreneurial U.
[32:09] James talks about the Bridge program, which helps adults change career pathways.
[32:51] The importance of cultivating a growth mindset.
[33:51] James as the perpetual optimist, and passing that optimism on to his students.
[36:16] Doodling as a second language, to tell stories and convey ideas.
[38:07] Resources James recommends.
[41:18] Where to find out more about James and his work.
[42:30] The Black Inventors’ Hall of Fame.
[46:20] Fluid Hive’s resources for those wanting to learn and practice design thinking.
Links
James on LinkedIn
A Conversation with James Howard, Perpetual Optimist
The History of Black Industrial Designers
Book Recommendation: Marketing for the Small Design Firm, by Jim Morgan
Book Recommendation: Who Moved My Cheese: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life, by Spencer Johnson
Book Recommendation: Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us, by Tom Kelley and David Kelley
Book Recommendation: Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life, by Francesca Gino
Book Recommendation: The Universal Traveler, by James Bagnell and Don Koberg
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Learning Service Design + Leading Service Transformation with Clive Grinyer — DT101 E66
Integrating Engineering, Design and Business with Tony Hu — DT101 E35
Other Resources
Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.
Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast.
This episode is all about facilitation. You’ll meet Fluid Hive’s Event Design Questions and learn new ways to create effective events everyone will love. In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the show, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I’ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
This episode is based on this article: ALD006 // Designing Facilitation: Create events, workshops and meetings that solve problems, save money, and protect your reputation. Download the Thinking Tool for this ALD article, an event creation guide based on Fluid Hive's Event Design Questions.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:58] What do YOU do when you’re tasked with creating and facilitating an event?
[01:51] A better way to create your event: Fluid Hive’s Event Design questions.
[02:15] Fluid Hive’s definition of an event.
[02:34] What is facilitation?
[02:57] Applying Fluid Hive’s See-Solve-Act design process to event design.
[03:20] Seeing the challenge.
[05:34] Seeing the people.
[05:58] Seeing the participants.
[06:38] Seeing the relationships.
[06:55] Seeing the time.
[07:23] Seeing the place.
[07:55] Solving for success.
[08:10] Solving for outcomes.
[08:26] Solving for interaction.
[08:52] Solving for documenting the event.
[09:17] Solving for the guides participants will need.
[09:55] Solving for the breaks participants will need.
[10:15] Solving for the rules and guidelines to keep the event and participants on track.
[10:41] Acting to create the script.
[11:00] Acting to test the script.
[11:25] Acting to plan for contingencies and backups.
[11:54] Acting to take care of the event facilitator, not just the participants.
[12:12] Acting to walk through the delivery dance.
[13:24] Free Ask Like a Designer tool: facilitation design workbook.
[13:55] Design Thinking 101 Learning courses.
[14:07] The Innovation Smart Start webinar.
Design Thinking 101 Learning — Courses and More
Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation. Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.
Please join me in the first course, Design Thinking 101 — Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve.
Each course is structured to help your innovation actions create what you need for the people you serve, your organization and yourself.
Other Design Thinking 101 Ask Like a Designer Episodes You Might Like
Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63
There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 — DT101 E65
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67
The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 — DT 101 E69
Sarah Fathallah is an independent social designer and researcher. Today, we talk about trauma-informed design, participatory design, and research with vulnerable populations.
Listen to learn more about:
- Trauma-informed design
- Virtual facilitation design
- Examining power dynamics in design work
- Participatory design and its connection to trauma-informed design
- The challenges of compensating community members who participate in the design process
Our Guest
Sarah Fathallah is an independent designer, researcher, and educator, who specializes in applying participatory research and design to the social sector. She has worked on projects of all sizes with non-profits, governments, and social enterprises, on topics ranging from civil and human rights, to healthcare, education, and financial inclusion. Her clients have included the International Domestic Workers Federation, the International Rescue Committee, and Open Society Foundations, to name a few. Sarah’s design work has been honored by the Core77 Design Awards, the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), ONE Prize, and the GSMA mWomen Design Challenge. Sarah also co-founded Design Gigs for Good, a free community-driven resource to help more people use the tools of design to create positive social change. Sarah is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris, where she studied International Business and Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Affairs. She also studied design innovation at the Paris Est d.school, user experience design at General Assembly, and participatory design at MIT.
Show Highlights
[01:03] Sarah talks about how she stumbled into design.
[01:50] Her introduction to service design while in grad school.
[02:14] Sarah’s career has been focused on using the tools and methods of design in global development.
[02:47] The diverse range of projects Sarah works on.
[04:29] Sarah talks about how the pandemic changed her facilitation work.
[05:32] Ways of ensuring virtual experiences are as robust as in-person.
[07:30] Sarah explains what self holds are and how to use them.
[08:30] What is trauma-informed design?
[11:35] How Sarah helps bring people into trauma-informed design.
[14:18] Sarah offers advice on how to bring trauma-informed design into your own work.
[15:45] The potential problem with user interviews.
[16:22] Ways to learn about trauma and trauma-informed systems.
[18:14] Designers must always acknowledge and reflect on the imperfections in their work and seek to improve.
[20:31] Ways designers can self-reflect and critique the work that they do as they’re doing it.
[23:45] A framework Sarah uses to examine power dynamics.
[24:08] Examining the power differentials in the identities of the people involved.
[25:09] How to make sure you’re not exploiting the community or population you’re designing with and for.
[25:47] Ensuring the community is actively participating in the design work.
[27:50] The importance of participatory design in trauma-informed design.
[28:02] Defining participatory design.
[29:22] How Sarah applies participatory design to her own work.
[31:47] One question Sarah reflects on when she thinks about design work.
[34:10] The struggle designers often have in finding ways to compensate participants.
[35:53] Non-monetary participant compensation options that Sarah has used in the past.
[36:57] Asking the community what they want and need when it comes to compensation.
[38:08] Things Sarah wishes would be part of teaching design.
[43:10] Designer mindsets.
[46:07] Books and resources Sarah recommends.
[48:25] How to learn more about Sarah and her work.
[50:05] Fluid Hive’s resources for those wanting to learn and practice design thinking.
Links
Sarah on Twitter
Sarah on Medium
Sarah on Instagram
Sarah’s profile on Women Talk Design
Conversations on Design: Design Research with Sarah Fathallah
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk
Companion to Feminist Studies, by Nancy A. Naples
Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need (Information Policy), by Sasha Costanza-Chock
Research as Resistance: Revisiting Critical, Indigenous, and Anti-Oppressive Approaches, by Leslie Brown and Susan Strega
Design in Crisis: New Worlds, Philosophies, and Practices, edited by Tony Fry and Adam Nocek
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Designer's Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21
Other Resources
Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.
This is the first DT101 Books episode. Karen Hold joins us on the show to talk about Experiencing Design: The Innovator’s Journey, a book she co-authored with Jeanne Liedtka and Jessica Eldridge.
In DT101 Books episodes, authors explore why their book exists and what it will help you do. Each book is chosen because it has something that will help you think and solve like a designer as you learn, lead and apply design thinking.
Our Guest and Her Co-Authors
Jeanne Liedtka is a faculty member at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. Her Columbia Business School Publishing books include Designing for Growth: A Manager’s Toolkit (2011) and Design Thinking for the Greater Good: Innovation in the Social Sector (2017).
Karen Hold is the founder of Experience Labs, an innovation consulting firm. She is also the director of DT:DC, a design thinking community in Washington, DC, and a visiting professor at École des Ponts Business School in Paris, France.
Jessica Eldridge is a consultant working at the intersection of educational equity and purposeful innovation. She is a specialist in design thinking, innovation management, and cross-sector collaboration.
About Experiencing Design: The Innovator’s Journey
In daylong hackathons, design thinking seems deceptively easy. On the surface, it involves a set of seemingly simple activities such as gathering data, identifying insights, generating ideas, prototyping, and experimentation. But practiced at a superficial level, even great design tools don’t go deep enough to create the shifts in mindset and skill set that are required to achieve transformational impact.
Going deep with design requires more than changing the activities of innovators; it involves creating the conditions that shape who they become. Individuals become design thinkers by experiencing design.
Drawing on decades of researching and teaching design thinking to people not trained in design, Jeanne Liedtka, Karen Hold, and Jessica Eldridge offer a guide for how to create these deep experiences at each stage of the design thinking journey, whether for an individual, a team, or an organization.
For each experience phase, they specify the mindset shifts and competencies that need to be achieved, describe how different personality types experience different kinds of journeys, and show how to fully leverage the diversity of teams. Experiencing Design explores both the science and practicalities of design and includes two assessment instruments for individual and organizational development.
Ultimately, innovators need to be someone new to create something new. This book shows you how to use design thinking to make this happen.
Show Highlights
[00:56] Dawan muses on trying to come up with a name for the podcast book episodes.
[01:06] Michael Silverblatt as the one and only Bookworm.
[02:07] Karen talks about the ideas and discussions that started the book-writing process.
[02:51] Igniting the design spark (or not!) in the people she works with.
[04:57] The book is for those already familiar with, and using, design thinking.
[06:05] It’s intended to help design thinking users deepen their practice.
[07:25] Different personality types experience design and design thinking differently.
[08:11] Karen, Jeanne, and Jessica developed four Innovator Personalities.
[08:20] You have to become someone new to make something new.
[08:54] Karen gives an example from her time on the brand team at Folgers during the rise of Starbucks.
[10:15] Quantitative versus qualitative research.
[10:48] Biases in decision making.
[13:47] Insights and sensemaking occurs gradually and purposefully.
[15:04] Sensemaking involves learning from perspectives that are not our own.
[18:00] The book provides a set of Minimum Viable Competencies (MVCs) – behaviors and indicators that help designers gauge skill and mindset improvement.
[19:00] Karen discusses some of the MVCs found in the book.
[20:00] Observation versus interpretation.
[21:33] Double-loop learning.
[22:00] Becoming too attached to one point of view and closing off.
[23:16] MVCs are skills that people can improve with time, training, and use.
[24:47] The book offers the reader an entire section on creating a personal development plan
[26:45] A digital tool to help readers develop their plan is in beta-test and will be available soon.
[28:13] The development plan process also works for teams within an organization.
[30:30] Some of the surprises that appeared during the writing journey.
[30:43] The tale of how the title of the book changed at the last minute.
[35:12] Karen talks about working with her co-authors, and her shift from learner to sharer.
[36:58] Missing the daily learning that happened during the writing of the book.
[38:14] The intense focus that happened during, and even because of, the pandemic.
[38:54] The shift to working virtually.
[40:03] The science behind the “A-ha! moment.”
[41:55] Why Karen makes sure that her workshops now have an overnight in between activities.
[42:45] The difference between ordinary and expert intuition.
[44:03] The hope Karen has for those who read the book.
[46:00] Fluid Hive’s resources for those wanting to learn and practice design thinking.
Links
Order your copy of Experiencing Design
Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Designing for the Greater Good, Strategy + Design Thinking, and Measuring Design Thinking with Jeanne Liedtka — DT101 E1 Design Thinking at Work + Three Tensions Designers Navigate with David Dunne — DT101 E23
Fluid Hive Resources
Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn new ways to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.
John B. Johnson is an identity architect and principal of A Small Studio. He works with corporations and scaling startups, using A Small Studio’s identity design framework. John and his team also work with creatives to bring peace to people's lives. Today, John and I talk about corporate and individual identity design, why people are more important than process, and intersectional design leadership.
Listen to learn about:
- Defining identity
- Identity design
- The intersection of brand/identity and authentic design
Our Guest’s Bio
John B. Johnson is a brother, a son, a husband, a friend, and the founder, principal, and Identity Architect of a small studio. a small studio is a collective of creatives who use their design gifts to improve lives through branding and product design. They believe every design project starts with Identity. In less than 3 years, his team has built over 40 brands worldwide. John leverages his Master’s Degrees in Architecture and Business Administration to help people, start-ups, and enterprises benefit from infusing their identity into the work they do and what they offer the people they serve.
Show Highlights
[01:20] John talks about his path into the work he’s doing today in identity design.
[01:39] Design thinking is a core principle of architecture.
[03:06] John’s fascination with the people in the built environment and designing buildings with an eye towards the human interactions occurring there, and how that led him away from architecture.
[03:34] Leaving architecture behind to focus more on community and the human equation.
[04:45] Lessons learned during John’s first startup business.
[05:25] John discovers his passion for branding.
[06:10] John’s co-founding of a small studio, and a move to Seattle.
[07:43] Authentic design and how it feeds into brand and identity design.
[08:39] John defines identity.
[08:49] What happens during the branding process.
[10:39] The importance of frameworks and processes for John’s work.
[12:28] John uses deeply personal stories and moments to help build powerful visual identities for clients.
[12:59] a small studio’s Identity Architecture workshop — for individuals, teams, and corporations.
[15:25] Moving fully into remote work during the pandemic.
[17:24] The challenges of building a business.
[18:46] Time is a key factor when it comes to going virtual.
[19:55] The benefits that have come from folks needing to work remotely.
[21:35] Remote work has sparked creativity and innovation in ways we’ve never experienced before.
[22:36] Working remotely has led to more acceptance of the humanity of one another.
[26:00] John talks about his life and experiences being a Black man and a Black designer.
[28:27] His experiences being the only Black person in his education and work spaces and the unique way of seeing the world that came because of it.
[29:47] How his life has motivated him to be a connector and a bridge between people and communities.
[31:51] Intersectionality is the ethos of design and design thinking.
[33:55] Dawan and John talk about bringing what is unique to us as individuals more deeply into our professional and personal lives, especially as a designer.
[36:11] Bringing your full, whole self to every situation.
[39:10] “Constant becoming,” and intentionally designing a good life.
[41:47] Where to find out more about John and his work.
[42:45] Books and resources John recommends.
Links
John on LinkedIn
John on Twitter
John on Medium
John on Instagram
John’s personal website
Everything Starts Small podcast
Design Thinking Isn’t Just for the Privileged
Brighton Jones Talent for Good Interview Series: John B. Johnson
Book Recommendation: Community: The Structure of Belonging, by Peter Block
Book Recommendation: The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron
Book Recommendation: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle
Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Redesigning a Design School + Designing Higher Ed with Jason Schupbach — DT101 E30
Rethinking Service Design + Student Projects + Community Systems with Amy O’Keefe — DT101 E56
Fluid Hive Resources
Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn new ways to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.
Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast.
This episode is about how to use “How might we …” questions to anchor your innovation projects, align your team, and adjust the problem you are trying to solve as you learn.
This episode is based on this article: ALD 005 // The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer.
In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I’ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:58] The One Question to rule them all: what problem are you trying to solve?
[01:15] Finding the right problem to solve is the key to great innovation work.
[01:32] What do you do with your answer to the question?
[01:47] The purpose of “How might we…” questions.
[02:17] The three required parts of a “How might we…” question.
[02:27] The two optional parts of a “How might we…” question.
[03:48] Ways “How might we…” questions can help a designer or design team.
[04:16] What is reframing, and how does it relate to innovation work?
[05:07] “How might we…” questions also help those who are not on the team, but who are providing knowledge, insights, or assistance in some way.
[05:44] Having clear goals is important when doing innovation work.
[06:27] “How might we…” questions help guide team conversations about the work.
[06:43] “How might we…” questions also act as a guidepost.
[07:30] We want questions that create possibilities for many workable solutions.
[07:59] Free Ask Like a Designer tool to help you create your own “How might we…” questions.
[08:31] Design Thinking 101 Learning courses.
[08:52] The Innovation Smart Start webinar.
Design Thinking 101 Learning — Courses and More
Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation. Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.
Please join me in the first course, Design Thinking 101 — Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve.
Each course is structured to help your innovation actions create what you need for the people you serve, your organization and yourself.
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63
There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 — DT101 E65
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67
Other Resources
Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.
Designing Elections? Yes! Whitney Quesenbery and I talk about designing elections, designing in government, and the future of election design. We dive deep into the world of elections, and Whitney’s and the Center for Civic Design’s work to help election officials nationwide design better elections.
Show Summary
Whitney had two careers before she landed in civic design. She had a professional career in theatre for a number of years before a friend asked her to write a product manual. That led to a shift into writing, and she worked for a number of large organizations creating and documenting content. In 2000, Whitney ended up on a federal advisory committee writing voting system standards, which led her into civic design and to what she calls her “last great adventure” founding the Center for Civic Design.
Listen to learn about:
- Using design in elections
- Designing with government and election officials
- The Center for Civic Design’s work
- The evolution of election design
- The 2016 and 2020 elections and how they are shaping the future of election design
- Ways local leaders can get more involved in election design
Our Guest’s Bio
Whitney Quesenbery is the director of the Center for Civic Design, solving democracy as a design problem and improving the voter experience. She combines a fascination with people and an obsession to communicate clearly with her goal of usable accessibility for all. She's written 3 books — A Web for Everyone: Designing accessible user experiences, Storytelling for User Experience, and Global UX — to help practitioners keep users in mind throughout the creative process.
Show Highlights
[01:32] Whitney talks about her three careers.
[04:12] Whitney’s co-founding of the Center for Civic Design.
[05:37] The challenge of applying the methods of design to elections.
[07:00] Government election workers don’t tend to see themselves as designers.
[08:19] How to bring non-designers comfortably into design work.
[08:42] Whitney talks about the Center’s founding project in California designing voter guides.
[11:24] The importance of public review and iteration to the success of the project.
[13:55] How Whitney’s work has evolved over the years.
[14:35] Ways the Center changed its user research to ensure diversity.
[16:14] Collaborating with other organizations.
[17:26] Whitney talks about the 2020 election and the future of the Center’s work.
[18:52] The Center’s work on mail-in voting before and after the election.
[20:53] The importance of street-level bureaucrats in the running of elections.
[22:22] How ordinary Americans showed up and volunteered to help run the 2020 election: registering voters, poll workers, ballot counters, etc.
[23:34] Whitney talks about designing in ways to encourage volunteerism in elections.
[24:45] The “public square” concept in elections.
[25:08] Whitney shares one story as an example of the ways information (and misinformation) can affect elections and how people vote.
[27:48] Opportunities for local leaders to help design elections.
[28:11] The importance of the day-to-day, “everyday” work and effort.
[31:44] Service design and the “gentle disruption” part of Whitney’s work.
[34:58] Whitney offers advice and encouragement for local election officials thinking about working with a designer.
[35:31] The Center’s Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent.
[37:23] More about the Center’s work.
[38:03] The Center’s online Election Design course at the University of Minnesota.
[39:53] The difference between Big D Design and little d design.
[40:14] Whitney talks about a project for the Department of Health and Human Services.
[42:55] How the Center is building a team with the right skills.
[45:03] The future of the Center for Civic Design.
[48:45] Resources for people interested in civic design, civic tech, and election design.
[53:03] Where to find out more about Whitney and the Center for Civic Design.
[53:16] The Center for Civic Design’s Irregulars List
[54:09] Ways you can support the Center for Civic Design’s work.
Links
Whitney on LinkedIn
Whitney on Twitter
Whitney on Women Talk Design
Whitney on UX Matters
Whitney’s personal website
Whitney’s presentations on Slideshare
Center for Civic Design and their 2020 Annual Report
Center for Civic Design on Twitter
Election design course, online, at Election Academy!
Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent from the Center for Civic Design
An invitation to redistricting
Designing ballot cure forms that invite voters to act
Minnesota gets new polling place signage with help from design students
UX Magazine: Book Excerpt: A Web for Everyone, by Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery
Accessible Elections: Are we there yet?
STC Summit Interview with Whitney
Designing our civic life: can paying taxes be delightful?
Design as a Civic Responsibility
Whitney Quesenbery with Tala Schlossberg, NY Times (October 29, 2020): Good design is the secret to better democracy (Ballots are broken. We redesigned them.)
ConveyUX: Writing great persona stories
ConveyUX: Content for Everyone: Making information accessible
18F Blog: Delivering civic technology
Book Recommendation: A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences, by Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery
Book Recommendation: Storytelling for User Experience: Crafting Stories for Better Design, by Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks
Book Recommendation: Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World, by Whitney Quesenbery and Daniel Szuc
Book Recommendation: A Civic Technologist’s Practice Guide, by Cyd Harrell
Center for Civic Design Irregulars List: when we need extra help on a project, from running flash usability tests to collecting data on local election information, we turn to our extended community: Join the list
So you want to serve your country: A (biased) guide to tech jobs in federal government
Support the Center for Civic Design
Donations to support our work are gratefully accepted and are tax deductible. We accept donations:
Through PayPal as
centerforcivicdesign@gmail.com
By mail at
5443 Tates Bank Road
Cambridge, MD 21613
You can also sign up to support us at
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
A Short Introduction to Design Thinking with Dawan Stanford — DT101 E32 Civic Design + Innovation Ops + System Design with Ryann Hoffman — DT101 E62 Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast.
In my coaching conversations, I help people take a more holistic view of life and work. We find experiments that define values, shape goals and establish habits. This episode is about running your own experiments using our system for high performance with living well at its core — Fluid Hive’s Good-Life Operating System.
In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I’ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
This episode is based on this article: ALD 004 // Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:51] You can use design thinking to help you create your system for living well.
[01:03] Living well is the foundation of high performance.
[01:52] What’s your purpose?
[02:13] The three questions we all need to answer to create the Good-Life Operating System.
[02:54] Efficiency procrastination.
[03:22] Researching habit formation.
[04:19] Incorporating the variables of time and change into goal-setting.
[04:54] Binary measurements for goal outcomes tracking.
[06:05] Secular Goals vs. Value Goals.
[07:19] Using “I am someone who…” to establish value goals.
[08:07] Three obstacles to the Good-Life OS.
[09:45] The benefit of regular Life Scans.
[10:40] How to set up your own Life Scan.
[11:17] Bringing it all together to get your Good-Life OS up and running.
[12:21] Free Ask Like a Designer Thinking Tool to help you create your GoodLife OS.
[12:59] Design Thinking 101 Learning courses.
[13:29] The Innovation SmartStart webinar.
Design Thinking 101 Learning — Courses and More
Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation. Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.
Please join me in the first course, Design Thinking 101 — Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve.
Each course is structured to help your innovation actions create what you need for the people you serve, your organization and yourself.
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Episode 61: Ask Like a Designer Episode 001
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Episode 63: Ask Like a Designer Episode 002
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Episode 65: Ask Like a Designer Episode 003
Other Resources
Download the Design-Driven Innovation Project Launch Guide — Guide to launching innovation projects and avoiding common innovation traps Design-Driven Innovation.
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills.
Clive Grinyer is the Head of Service Design at the Royal College of Art in London. Clive's an acknowledged expert in service design, design thinking, and design and technology innovation, who has led award-winning design teams for companies around the globe. He started in design consultancy with IDEO in London and San Francisco before co-founding the design consultancy company Tangerine with Martin Derbyshire and future Apple design chief and RCA chancellor, Jony Ive.
He went on to build and lead design teams for Orange, Samsung, and Cisco, and was Director of Service Design for Barclays. As Director of Design of the UK’s Design Council, he created the Design Demand program, taking design into over one thousand UK companies. As a consultant, he’s worked with the cabinet office policy lab and at Nesta. Clive speaks at national and international conferences, writes articles and blogs, and has published Smart Design, a book on design and technology.
Show Summary
Clive discovered his interest in design at an early age, in part thanks to toys and dresses! His grandmother’s dress shop introduced him to the idea that there were actual people out there whose job was making decisions about what we would like and what would be trendy. That would lead him to art school. A conversation with a career advisor uncovered an affinity for product design, and that’s where Clive’s design path began: designing physical objects.
He worked for several well-known design consultancies, including Moggridge Associates (founded by Bill Moggridge, who would go on to co-found IDEO), and then Clive chose to co-found a design consultancy himself before shifting gears away from consulting altogether and going in-house, taking a position with Samsung, where he helped open the company’s design office in Europe. After Samsung, Clive worked for a number of the world’s leading corporations, culminating in a position with Barclays bank, where he again shifted--this time from digital design to service design--setting up their service design team and working on customer experience.
Clive recently left the corporate world behind, taking the Head of Service Design position at the RCA not long before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Today, we’ll talk about building service design teams, teaching service design and how the RCA service design department adapted its teaching and courses in response to the pandemic, and where Clive believes service design needs to take us in the future.
Listen in to learn more about:
- Clive’s path from product design to service design
- Building a service design team
- Service design at RCA
- The future of service design, post-pandemic
- Service design in Europe and the US
- How the impact of service design is often invisible
- Service design, design thinking, and innovation
Show Highlights
[02:01] Clive talks about his design career path.
[07:50] Moving from consulting to in-house.
[09:54] Leaving the corporate world behind for the RCA.
[10:41] Challenges Clive faced while building the service design team at Barclays.
[13:02] Finding the right people for the team.
[13:34] Design Council’s double diamond.
[14:40] The Barclays team’s first project.
[17:47] Culture change as a vital function of a service designer.
[19:08] Taking people on a journey, and passing on the tools of design to others.
[22:26] Teaching service design at the RCA in the midst of the pandemic.
[23:02] Ramping up the use of digital tools and going online.
[24:20] The success of RCA’s graduate virtual service design show.
[25:54] Taking the lessons from the last year and using them going forward.
[26:38] Clive talks about a successful project conducting user research online via TikTok.
[27:30] Post-pandemic opportunities for service design.
[27:40] Generation Regeneration.
[27:56] “Never waste a crisis.”
[30:23] How service design can help us make decisions to build the future we want.
[31:51] Clive and Dawan talk about the state of service design in the U.S.
[33:49] The focus of design thinking in the U.S.
[34:04] The impact of service design in Europe.
[35:23] Service design is fixing things.
[36:42] The “invisible impact” of service design.
[38:28] The role of service design and design thinking in innovation.
[41:03] Clive offers advice to those wanting to try service design at their organization.
[42:03] Thinking differently.
[45:41] Clive talks about the two-year master’s at RCA.
[48:16] More about RCA’s service design tutors.
[51:41] The importance of storytelling to service design.
[53:18] The big challenge Clive sees for service designers.
[55:06] Where to find out more about Clive and his work.
Links
Clive on LinkedIn
Clive on Twitter
Clive’s profile on the Royal College of Art website
Ageing Well: Designing a world accessible to all
Creative Review’s Top 50 for 2018
Clive Grinyer on Service Design
CLG Podcast: Public services are ahead of business when it comes to service design
Unknown Origins podcast: Clive Grinyer on Service Design
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Integrating Engineering, Design and Business with Tony Hu — DT101 E35
Rethinking Service Design + Student Projects + Community Systems with Amy O’Keefe — DT101 E56
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Ready to learn new ways to think and solve like a designer today? Enroll in Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve — from Fluid Hive’s Design Thinking 101 Learning.
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
This episode is based on this article: ALD 003 // There Are No Problems Worth Solving – Only Questions Worth Asking. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer.
This Ask Like a Designer episode is about a better way to see and choose problems to solve. It includes a simple framework for aligning your choices with the development and goals that matter most to you.
In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I’ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:52] A better approach to closing the gaps between the world we have and the world we want.
[01:07] Questions worth asking.
[01:21] The trouble with solving.
[01:54] Responding instead of solving.
[02:23] Difference between response and reaction.
[02:44] Looking at problems and how questions can create the problem space.
[03:37] Questions worth answering.
[04:28] Wicked problems.
[04:54] Questions worth answering by you.
[05:11] Four considerations when deciding if a question is worth answering by you.
[05:25] Learning.
[05:39] Power-Ups.
[05:58] Seedlings.
[06:18] The Spend.
[07:33] Free Ask Like a Designer Thinking Tool to help you choose your next question worth answering.
[08:21] Design Thinking 101 Learning courses.
[08:47] The Innovation SmartStart webinar.
Design Thinking 101 Learning — Courses and More
Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation. Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.
Please join me in the first course, Design Thinking 101 — Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve.
Each course is structured to help your innovation actions create what you need for the people you serve, your organization and yourself.
Fluid Hive’s Designing Facilitation Course launches soon. Get notified when enrollment opens.
Good events are essential when creating effective solutions while thinking and acting like a designer. Designing Facilitation shows you how to create effective, engaging events that are easy to lead. You’ll learn how to apply the Event Design Questions, use over 20 event creation tools, how to avoid common facilitation traps, and make the most of every second people spend at your events.
Notify me when Designing Facilitation launches!
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Ask Like a Designer 001 — DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63
Other Resources
Download the Design-Driven Innovation Project Launch Guide — Guide to launching innovation projects and avoiding common innovation traps Design-Driven Innovation.
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills.
In this episode, Indi Young joins me to deliver a micro-course on listening sessions. I’m experimenting with new ways to learn on the podcast.
Listeners will learn from Indi as we talk about listening sessions, what they are, how to do them, why they matter, and how to get the most out of them.
Let me know what you think of the micro-course format, and if I should do more of them.
Cheers,
Dawan, Your Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
Listen to learn more about:
- What listening sessions are and why they matter
- How to structure a good listening session
- Getting the most out of listening sessions
- The two questions that are always asked during a listening session
- Do’s and Don’ts of listening sessions
Our Guest’s Bio
Indi Young is a researcher who coaches, writes, and teaches about inclusive product strategy. Her work is rooted in the problem space where the focus is on people, not users. Indi pioneered opportunity, maps, mental model diagrams, and thinking styles. She was one of the founders of Adaptive Path, the pioneering user experience agency. Her way of approaching the problem allows teams to truly pay attention to people without letting cognitive bias and assumptions creep in. She has written two books, Practical Empathy, and Mental Models, and is working on a third, Assumptions Aside, which will cover thinking styles. Indi builds knowledge and community via a series of online advanced courses about design research and the importance of pushing the boundaries of your perspective.
Show Highlights
[02:54] Listening is different from interviewing.
[03:22] Listening is qualitative research.
[04:35] Indi describes the knowledge creation / data collection template she uses.
[05:05] Problem spaces and solution spaces.
[06:57] In the solution space, much of the research is either generative or evaluative.
[08:07] In the problem space, the research is neither generative nor evaluative.
[08:54] The problem space is interested in the person and how they achieve their purpose.
[09:19] A listening session asks the person what they were thinking as they were achieving their purpose.
[11:25] Organizations are often only concerned with solution spaces; problem spaces tend to get ignored.
[12:03] Why study problem spaces?
[12:56] One solution does not fit all – there is no such thing as an “average user.”
[13:50] Thinking styles vs. personas, and designing for archetypes.
[15:03] An example from work Indi did for the University of Buffalo.
[15:33] The benefits of using thinking styles over personas.
[16:25] The bias problem in research.
[17:10] Listening sessions must be framed by a purpose, and must have depth.
[17:39] Surface vs. depth.
[18:59] Depth is how we develop cognitive empathy with people.
[19:34] The good stuff in a listening session is the inner thinking, the emotional reactions.
[21:13] Indi describes the Mental Model Diagram.
[23:27] Listening sessions start with a germinal question.
[24:28] Listening sessions are audio-only.
[26:49] The challenges that can come up in listening sessions.
[28:47] The structure of a listening session.
[30:27] Indi shares snippets of some listening sessions as examples of how to begin a listening session.
[34:37] How Indi works with the results of a listening session.
[35:14] Techniques used during listening sessions.
[36:13] Listening session examples demonstrating techniques Listeners can use to build trust and rapport with the Speaker.
[38:05] The importance of silence.
[41:29] Listening session examples demonstrating how to encourage Speakers to open up and share their inner thoughts and emotions.
[45:38] Indi talks about micro-reflections and shares some examples from listening sessions.
[49:57] Why Indi likes the word “because.”
[50:43] Listening session examples where the Listeners used time and place to help the Speakers dig deeper.
[Note from Indi at 51:44] - “I forgot to explain that the grocery store example was because the Speaker got flustered and forgot her restaurant experiences. The Listener took her back to the grocery store she had mentioned so that the Speaker could be in familiar territory and relax. After that she remembered some more of her restaurant experiences.”
[55:34] Indi talks about ways to simply encourage Speakers to continue talking.
[57:12] Things not to do during listening sessions.
[57:18] Avoid asking leading questions.
[58:37] Avoid asking surface level questions.
[1:01:08] Avoid conjecture.
[1:01:51] Examples of conjecture from Indi’s listening sessions.
[1:08:32] Avoiding complex reflection.
[1:10:33] Indi talks about normal things that can occur during listening sessions.
[1:12:13] Discovering your own verbal habits when reviewing your listening sessions.
[1:13:35] Winding down listening sessions, and some examples of that from Indi.
[1:13:53] The one closing question you should always ask.
[1:16:40] Indi offers advice to those wanting to improve their listening skills and perhaps try using listening sessions.
[1:19:44] Indi talks about some of the courses she offers.
Links
Here are the diagrams and transcripts we discuss in the episode.
Indi on Twitter
Indi on LinkedIn
Indi on Medium
Indi’s website and course listings
99% Invisible podcast episode: On Average
Book Recommendation: Listening Well: The Art of Empathic Understanding, by William Miller
Be sure to check out the links from Indi’s other DT 101 Podcast episode, linked below!
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Problem Spaces, Understanding How People Think, and Practical Empathy with Indi Young — DT101 E6
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I'll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
This episode is about a question behind almost everything people do as they create growth and opportunity by seeing and solving like a designer.
This episode is based on this article: ALD 002 // Design, and One Question to Rule Them All. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:50] The One Question to Rule Them All.
[01:19] Solving the wrong problem.
[01:41] What happens when you solve the wrong problem.
[01:49] Why solving the right problem is actually impossible.
[02:31] Lessons from a yacht crash.
[03:10] What problem am I trying to solve is never “one and done.”
[04:23] How do you find the answer to “what problem am I trying to solve?”
[04:34] How-Might-We questions
[04:45] Free Ask Like a Designer tool to help you choose your next problem to solve.
[05:08] To design is to ask questions.
[05:27] Design Thinking 101 Learning courses.
[05:52] The Innovation Smart Start webinar.
Design Thinking 101 Learning — Courses and More
Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people start seeing and solving like a designer. Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.
Please join me in the first course, Design Thinking 101 — Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve.
Each course is structured to help your innovation actions create what you need for the people you serve, your organization and yourself.
Grab your spot and start seeing and solving like a designer today.
Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Ask Like a Designer 001 — DT101 E61
A Short Introduction to Design Thinking with Dawan Stanford — DT101 E32
Design Research + Tools for Thinking + Using Research Well with Terri Herbert — DT101 E55
Other Resources
Download the Design-Driven Innovation Project Launch Guide — Guide to launching innovation projects and avoiding common innovation traps Design-Driven Innovation.
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills.
Ryann Hoffman is a system designer and design leader specializing in design and complex systems and working with organizations to develop capacity in design thinking and innovation operations.
Show Summary
Ryann’s path into design came from an early love of music, playing classical piano, and music composition. She did freelance design projects for teachers while in high school. By the time she went to college, she had strong design and communication skills, and had learned the power of storytelling. Ryann started out with plans for a degree in English, but switched to Sociology and fell in love with it from her very first introductory course.
After undergrad, she spent several years working in various fields, including nonprofits and a music tech startup, where she brought her digital communications and design skills to bear on projects like promotional videos, visual design for reports and collaterals, and systems design for music distribution.
While in grad school for Public Administration, she took a class called “Coping with Wicked Problems,” where she was introduced to design thinking. After graduation, she moved to Washington, D.C. became a member of Design Thinking DC, and started what would become her career in systems design, leading to her civic design work today with cities across America and international organizations like The World Bank and the Government of Madagascar.
Listen in to learn about:
Design Thinking D.C.
System design at the municipal and federal level
Advice for launching a new design team
The surprising way “tedium” can trip up a design project
Innovation Transformation
Helping design teams that are working with emotional, difficult topics
Power and identity in design
Post-traumatic growth and helping people find a path to it in positive ways
The importance of designers learning facilitation
Our Guest’s Bio
Ryann Hoffman is a systems designer most in flow working in complex problem spaces.
She's built and led design work across industries and at organizations including The World Bank and The Government of Madagascar, Capital One, Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital, and ConsenSys. Through leading and practicing design, Ryann found purpose in developing teams. She watched the most well-intentioned, competent teams struggle to create impact because they lacked the support and curriculum to imbue design beyond densely packed workshops or sprints, and into their daily workflows, collaborations, and mindsets. As a Design Coach and Instructor, Ryann has worked with Harvard University and the Bloomberg Foundation, AmeriCorps, ConsenSys, Sunrun, and other leading institutions leveraging design to make their respective dents in the world's challenges.
Her circuitous route to this calling includes her Masters in Public Administration, a stint in the music industry, and an early foundation in digital media production and visual design. When she's not working, Ryann loves learning about the brain and aspires to be more mindful.
Show Highlights
[02:05] How Ryann’s love of music led her to develop digital design and communications skills.
[03:57] Making the switch from English literature to Sociology.
[05:14] Ryann’s post-undergrad work.
[08:05] The graduate course on dealing with wicked problems that introduced Ryann to design thinking.
[11:38] Moving to Washington, D.C. after graduation.
[13:22] Ryann and Dawan talk about Design Thinking D.C.
[17:44] Ryann talks about her work as a civic designer and facilitator.
[19:48] What Ryann loves about working at the city level of design.
[23:17] How working with cities helps designers build a varied and robust skillset.
[25:30] How Ryann helps design teams learn and apply design thinking tools and methods in their work.
[28:18] Ryann offers advice for getting a new design team off to a good start.
[29:40] The area that is often overlooked by new design teams and organizations looking to innovate.
[32:24] Innovation transformation and the 3 things critical for a design team to learn if they want to succeed.
[34:23] On the need for organizations to not be afraid to try different methods and processes to see what works best.
[36:06] One of the most difficult challenges for leaders when they start working with design thinking.
[37:24] How power and identity can create challenges in design thinking work.
[38:57] Ryann talks about early struggles with perfectionism.
[39:36] Divergent and convergent thinking, and the importance of working with and supporting team members.
[42:13] Why trust is so important for teams and the importance of creative conflict.
[43:29] Ryann’s recent focus on stress on systems and the psychological field of post-traumatic growth.
[46:16] Reframing how we think about the things that cause us harm and stress.
[49:23] Why facilitation is an important skill for designers and anyone working in design thinking.
[56:18] Lessons Ryann learned about remote work.
[57:07] Remote work can make it easier to integrate design into an organization’s workflows.
[58:14] Finding and learning the tools to help create an engaging online experience.
[1:00:06] The difference between remote and in-person interactions.
[1:03:47] Seeing areas of weakness as opportunities.
[1:05:43] Where to find out more about Ryann and her work.
Links
Ryann Hoffman on LinkedIn
Book Recommendation: Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Book Recommendation: Stronger By Stress: Adapt to Beneficial Stressors to Improve Your Health and Strengthen the Body, by Siim Land
Psychology Today, “Why Virtual Communication Can Leave You Worn Out”
Brené Brown, The power of vulnerability
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19
Adding System Awareness to System Design to Your Innovation Stack with Julie Guinn — DT101 E43
More Design Thinking 101 Episodes
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Download the Design-Driven Innovation Project Launch Guide — Guide to launching innovation projects and avoiding common innovation traps Design-Driven Innovation.
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills.
Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast.
In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you’ll find new ways to explore the show’s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I'll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.
This episode is about six people: six designers whose different roles and favorite questions drive how I serve clients, teach, and develop as a designer.
This episode is based on this article: ALD 001 // Ask Like a Designer. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer.
What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.
Cheers ~ Dawan
Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host
President, Fluid Hive
Show Highlights
[00:32] What is the Ask Like a Designer series?
[01:08] The Six Designers and their purpose.
[01:44] Why “ask like a designer?”
[02:43] Designer 1: Builder
[03:06] Designer 2: Scout
[03:39] Designer 3: Tinker
[04:19] Designer 4: Facilitator
[04:52] Designer 5: Traveler
[05:14] Designer 6: Pro
[06:01] How to work with the Six Designers
[06:05] Free Ask Like a Designer thinking tool for download at Fluid Hive to help you work with the six designers.
Design Thinking 101 Learning — Courses and More
Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation. Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.
Please join me in the first course, Design Thinking 101 — Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve.
Each course is structured to help your innovation actions create what you need for the people you serve, your organization and yourself.
Grab your spot in the course early. Use this code FRAMING20 to get 20% off the course if you register by January 22, 2021.
Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
A Short Introduction to Design Thinking with Dawan Stanford — DT101 E32
Learning and Leading Design for Healthcare + Innovation Teams with Paolo Korre — DT101 E20
Other Resources
Download the Design-Driven Innovation Project Launch Guide — Guide to launching innovation projects and avoiding common innovation traps Design-Driven Innovation.
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills.
Denise Ho and Andrew Baker are our guests today. Denise is a design researcher practicing in the design space since the early 2000s and the Director of Design at Hope Lab. Andrew Baker is living and working at the intersection of technology and experience design. He’s the Vice President of Product at Grit Digital Health and teaches Experience Design at the University of Colorado. Denise and Andrew collaborated on a way to combat loneliness in college students. We talk about designing for mental health, Nod, an app that is helping young people avoid negative health outcomes associated with loneliness, and how college students were involved in creating Nod.
Show Summary
Denise and Andrew had very different entry points into design. Denise’s journey began with a love for people and cultures. She started her undergrad as an anthropology student, but she wanted to not just study culture, but to shape it. That led her into design. She studied product design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and landed an internship at IDEO, where she ended up staying for eight years while also teaching design at the California College of Arts. Denise opened her own design practice and started doing design research into younger generations — not just designing products for them, but also working to understand their way of seeing and experiencing the world. Now, she works at Hope Lab, where the focus is on creating digital technologies that help young people live happier, healthier lives.
Andrew’s interests were influenced at an early age by his father, a graphic designer, and his mother, a civic leader focused on social impact. He studied business and English literature at the University of Colorado, but also minored in technology, arts and media, where he studied software development and honed his self-taught graphic design skills. An internship at a Denver agency allowed him to continue developing that skill set, but also gave him the opportunity to dig into user experience and into understanding human behavior and using those insights to guide designing product solutions. He moved into a dual role with Cactus and Grit Digital Health, leading both companies’ creative technology practices before moving into a full-time position at Grit Digital Health, where the focus is on creating digital health solutions for college students designed to help them improve their mental health and wellness.
Denise and Andrew talk about designing for mental health and their collaboration to create Nod, an app for college students. Nod is designed to help students make social connections and relationships in an effort to address the loneliness many students end up feeling when they arrive on campus and begin their higher education journey.
Listen in to learn more about:
- Designing digital health products for younger generations
- The Nod app
- How Nod was designed and developed
- Co-creating with college students
- Hope Lab’s work and projects
- Grit Digital Health’s wellbeing tool and other projects
Our Guests’ Bios
Denise Ho
Denise Ho brings more than 15 years of creative leadership experience as a design thinker, strategist, and qualitative design research with expertise in healthcare, transformative technologies, and industrial design. She spent 8 years at IDEO, and is currently Director of Design at Hopelab. She leads a diverse team of design researchers, industrial designers, and creative strategists to create technologies that are engaging, sustainable, and scaled to impact as many lives as possible. Denise enjoys gardening and spending time with her twin daughters, husband, and puppy.
Andrew Baker
In his role at Grit Digital Health, Andrew inspires and guides the design of user-centered solutions across technology mediums and industry verticals. With a background in experience design and software development, Andrew and his team strive to develop wellbeing products that are rooted in research, behavior design, and business strategy. Outside of his role at Grit, Andrew is an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado, where he teaches user experience design in an MA program for Strategic Communication Design.
Show Highlights
[01:30] How Denise found her way to a career in digital design.
[05:08] Andrew’s journey into digital design.
[10:18] Denise gives an introduction to Nod.
[11:12] Andrew follows up with his “elevator pitch” for Nod.
[12:28] The question that drove Nod’s naissance at Hope Lab in 2017.
[13:25] The connection between loneliness and college students’ mental health.
[14:48] Denise talks about the early research and discovery stage of Nod.
[15:45] Nod’s unique problem space.
[16:58] Collaborating with college students using an early paper prototype of the app.
[18:19] Nod’s next steps forward in development.
[18:52] Andrew talks about reverse engineering health outcomes.
[20:01] The three categories of psychological health outcomes Nod targets.
[21:36] Successfully changing behavior requires small concrete steps.
[24:15] College students continued to play an important role in the development of Nod.
[25:30] The challenges of working on a solution for a very personal and private issue.
[27:16] Co-creating with students on Nod has been an incredible experience.
[27:56] Nod’s pilot phase with the University of Oregon.
[28:20] Service design and delivery is one of the biggest challenges for digital products.
[30:06] Nod’s pilot phase at the University of Colorado Denver focused on service design.
[31:31] COVID-19’s impact on the development of Nod.
[33:20] Hope Lab’s tri-discipline approach to collaboration and co-creation.
[35:19] Denise talks more about the randomized control trial at the University of Oregon and how it proved Nod was working.
[36:31] How people reacted when they heard about Nod’s development.
[37:48] Andrew offers insights into the rise and future of digital-only health and wellbeing design.
[39:15] Why Nod is such a special project and product.
[41:31] Where you can find Nod.
[42:22] Partnership with Snapchat to release Nod in 2021.
[43:31] How universities can participate in Nod’s pilot program.
[44:29] Denise talks about another project Hope Lab is working on, focused on identity affirmation of LGBTQ+ people.
[47:25] Andrew talks about Grit Digital Health’s digital personalized wellbeing tool.
[48:21] Grit Digital Health is hosting a panel at an upcoming Innovation Learning Network conference.
Links
Denise on LinkedIn
Andrew on LinkedIn
Andrew on Instagram
Andrew on Grit Digital Health
Nod’s product overview
Press release on efficacy data for Nod
Hope Lab’s LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health and Resilience Project
University of Colorado Boulder, Master of Arts in Strategic Communication Design
Fast Company’s "Innovation by Design" award (Nod was honored in 2 categories)
Journal of Medical Internet Research Mental Health: Smartphone App to Address Loneliness Among College Students: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Mapping and Service Design + Implementation + Accessibility with Linn Vizard — DT101 E17
Launching and Leading a University-wide Design Thinking Initiative with Danielle Lake — DT101 E31
Designing Health Systems + Creating Effective Design Workshops with Sean Molloy — DT101 E44
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Douglas Ferguson is the founder of Voltage Control, a workshop agency on a mission to rid the world of horrible meetings. We talk about teams, design sprints, prototyping, and creating meetings that matter.
Show Summary
As a coder during the 90s tech bubble, Douglas discovered that he loved working as part cross-functional teams often found in startup companies, and wearing different hats as needed during a project. When the Agile Manifesto came out in early 2001, Douglas realized that a lot of its principles were things he and his teams had already been doing. He began combining Agile and Lean methodologies to find ways teams can work together better.
Douglas’ company, Voltage Control, focuses on helping teams learn how to better collaborate. During our conversation, we talk about the hallmarks of a well-functioning team, Douglas’ work with organizations using design sprints and prototyping, and how Douglas’ new book, Magical Meetings, is helping us all be able to have better, more meaningful and productive meetings.
Listen in to learn more about:
- The traits of a well-functioning team
- How prototyping can help an organization
- The ins and outs of design sprints
- The two questions to ask when designing the test for a prototype
- Douglas’ new book, Magical Meetings
- How to have better meetings, no matter what industry you’re in
- Adapting to the new virtual meeting space
Our Guest’s Bio
Douglas is an entrepreneur and human-centered technologist with over 20 years of experience. He is president of Voltage Control, an Austin-based workshop agency that specializes in Design Sprints and innovation workshops. Prior to Voltage Control, Douglas held CTO positions at numerous Austin startups, where he led product and engineering teams using agile, lean, and human-centered design principles. While CTO at Twyla, Douglas worked directly with Google Ventures running Design Sprints and now brings this experience and process to companies everywhere.
Show Highlights
[01:36] Douglas talks about how he got into design and his focus on teams and teamwork.
[03:57] Launching Voltage Control to help teams work better together.
[04:30] How a well-functioning team evolves.
[05:05] The importance of trust between team members.
[05:36] Douglas connects the Gallup’s Q12 survey to team trust.
[08:06] How Douglas introduces teams to prototyping.
[08:51] Creating a vision document of how the team might use prototyping.
[09:23] Why Douglas needs to understand the shared values of a team.
[11:01] Two tactics Douglas uses to help teams come to a shared understanding.
[14:30] Douglas defines prototyping.
[14:43] Douglas shares one of his favorite examples of prototyping: the five pound weight.
[17:16] Prototypes help teams separate the problem space from the solution space.
[18:50] How Douglas facilitates team prototyping.
[19:41] The two components of a design sprint.
[20:10] The importance of the question “What is the test we need to run?” when designing a prototype.
[20:30] The Riskiest Assumption Test (RAT).
[22:00] The two questions Douglas asks after deciding on the prototype test.
[22:57] Setting expectations for a design sprint and avoiding the “design sprint slump.”
[23:44] A design sprint is only the beginning of the work.
[24:30] Why it’s important for an organization’s leadership to understand what design sprints can and can’t do.
[25:00] Prototyping is intended to give insights and understanding of the problem space to provide direction for the work to come.
[26:55] Leadership must understand there is more work to do after the design sprint.
[28:49] Design sprints as design research.
[29:46] Douglas talks about “branding” the design sprint.
[31:11] How Douglas is gathering facilitation techniques and tools from different industries and applying them to help us all improve our meetings.
[33:22] Douglas’ new book, Magical Meetings.
[34:03] How meeting participants can help the meeting facilitator.
[35:10] Magical Meetings offers action steps and principles anyone can use to improve their meetings.
[36:11] Douglas offers his thoughts on remote work and virtual meetings, and COVID-19 is changing his work.
[37:53] Advice for those holding virtual workshops and meetings.
[38:45] Intentionally designing virtual experiences.
[40:35] Two virtual tools Douglas recommends for those creating online experiences.
[42:21] Where to find out more about Douglas and his work.
Links
Douglas on LinkedIn
Douglas on The Future Shapers
Douglas' posts on Medium
Bringing Design Thinking into Technology
Inside Innovation - Inside Outside podcast with Douglas
Beyond the Prototype - Techblog Writer UK podcast episode with Douglas
Loom screencasting tool
Session Lab workshop planning tool
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer — Monthly articles with design ideas, methods, frameworks, templates, and a question-fueled approach to design-driven innovation. Discover new ways to learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation.
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Yianna Vovides is the Director of Learning Design and Research at the Center for New Designs and Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) at Georgetown University. She’s also a professor for the Master of Arts in Learning, Design, and Technology (LDT) program at Georgetown, and the Curriculum Director for LDT. In her role at CNDLS, she oversees the digital learning efforts, including online programs. We discuss learning, learning design, and designing online learning during the pandemic and beyond.
Show Summary
A passion for discovering how we communicate launched Yianna’s journey into instructional and curriculum design. In her Master’s in development support communication, she studied how we work and communicate in international settings, especially in terms of communication pathways up and down an organization’s hierarchy. During her master’s work, she took an Introduction to instructional design course, and realized that it was the bridge she had been looking for to create those communication pathways.
In this episode, we talk about how people learn and how Yianna teaches learning design to her students. We learn more about the LDT program at Georgetown. Yianna discusses the learning journey, creating “beautiful” learning experiences, and how the current health crisis has accelerated the rise of e-learning and the tools and technologies that make e-learning possible.
Listen in to learn more about:
- Learning design as compared to instructional design
- Georgetown University’s Learning, Design, and Technology program
- The complexity behind how people learn
- The difference between an instructional designer and a learning designer
- “What is learning” as an impossible question to answer
- How the COVID-19 health crisis is re-shaping how we teach and learn
- E-learning spaces and how they are being used now
Our Guest’s Bio
Dr. Yianna Vovides’ work intersects three areas — education, technology, and development. Over the last two decades, she has focused her practice and academic efforts in addressing how people learn within networked learning environments. She has worked on projects that emphasize individual and group learning, institutional programs that enable systemic changes, and research that examines how new technologies support teaching and learning.
Professor Vovides currently serves as Director of Learning Design and Research at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS), Professor for the Master of Arts in Learning, Design, and Technology (LDT) program at Georgetown University, and Curriculum Director for LDT. In her role at CNDLS, she oversees the digital learning efforts including online programs. She has over 15 years of experience in higher education and has been instrumental in establishing programmatic efforts for university-wide services in online learning. As a professor, she serves as faculty in LDT and teaches courses both for the program core and learning design track core — Methods of Learning and Design and Theories, Process Models, and Strategies.
Show Highlights
[01:37] Yianna talks about what learning design and instructional design are in terms of higher education and her work.
[02:52] How Yianna found her way into instructional design.
[04:56] Pairing instructional design with computer-based instruction.
[06:55] Yianna’s coursework is designed to help students find their own best path into learning.
[07:40] Yianna’s dissertation on cognitive flexibility and the need for openness and vulnerability.
[09:23] Wanting students to focus on learning, not process.
[09:43] The LDT program starts by asking students “What is learning?”
[11:08] By studying the outliers and designing for them, Yianna can create a better design for all.
[12:41] Why it can be challenging for a newcomer getting into learning design.
[13:41] The lack of learner agency in current educational environments, and how the LDT program is different.
[14:12] The collaborative nature of the LDT program for students.
[16:36] More about the LDT program and how it’s structured.
[17:12] Why Yianna prefers the term “learning design” over “instructional design.”
[18:57] The LDT program’s four core components.
[19:40] How the LDT design studio incorporates all four of the core components.
[22:20] How constraints and boundaries can fuel creativity and innovation.
[23:12] The importance of the question, “What is the problem you’re trying to solve?” and of encouraging students to keep asking questions.
[26:00] Why collaboration is an integral part of being a learning designer.
[27:20] The key difference between a learning designer and an instructional designer.
[28:50] Yianna believes that more research needs to be done on the driving factors and motivators behind collaboration.
[30:15] Yianna talks about the Medical Education Partnership Initiative.
[30:47] How e-learning is opening the doors of learning to more communities all across the world.
[34:39] COVID-19 and emergency e-learning.
[35:35] Moving from emergency e-learning spaces into designed e-learning spaces.
[37:35] How a particular tool or technology can spark learning design ideas.
[38:04] Yianna encourages teachers and students to play in their virtual classrooms to become comfortable with them.
[39:01] Deciding between synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences in the virtual classroom.
[41:28] Yianna recommends resources for those wanting to learn more about how people learn and learning design.
Links
Yianna on LinkedIn
Yianna’s profile page at Georgetown University
Yianna’s webpage at Georgetown University
Book: Learning from Hypermedia: The Role of Metacognitive Skills
MOOC: Massive Open Online Courses
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
How to Learn Design Thinking + Design Thinking Pedagogy with Julie Schell — DT101 E15
Learning Design + Designing for How People Learn with Julie Dirksen — DT101 E42
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Fluid Hive’s Ask Like a Designer — Monthly articles with design ideas, methods, frameworks, templates, and a question-fueled approach to design-driven innovation. Discover new ways to learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation.
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel is the Associate Director for Design Thinking for Social Impact and a professor of practice at Tulane University, and an Afro-Caribbean designer who focuses on critical emancipatory design thinking. We talk about power issues and design, participatory design, working with community partners, teaching design, thinking in ways that help students reflect on difference, and the Designer's Critical Alphabet.
Show Summary
Lesley’s passion for design started in middle school, and by the time she graduated from high school, she was looking for a place to continue her design studies. She ended up in Brazil, where she spent a year studying graphic design and five years in industrial design before returning to Trinidad, where she worked as a design consultant and taught at the University of the West Indies.
After coming to the U.S. to get her Ph.D. at North Carolina State University, she spent a year teaching at Stanford’s d.School before moving on to her current position at Tulane University.
Lesley talks about the importance of positionality and identity in her work, and how her classes and coursework have changed in response to the events of 2020, including the current COVID-19 health crisis. We learn how and why Lesley created the Designer’s Critical Alphabet, and what she hopes the cards will do for people who use them.
Listen in to learn more about:
- How power and identity influence design
- Making design more inclusive with communities and stakeholders — designing with, not designing for
- How design thinking can be used to give marginalized populations a voice and a seat at the table
- The changes and adaptations Lesley is making to her classes in response to COVID-19
- The Designer’s Critical Alphabet
Our Guest’s Bio
Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel Is Afro-Trinidadian design educator, based in New Orleans. She practices design through emancipatory, critical and anti-hegemonic lenses, focusing on equity, social justice and the experiences of people who are often excluded from design research. She also attempts to promote greater critical awareness among designers and design students by introducing critical theory concepts and vocabulary into the design studio e.g. through The Designer’s Critical Alphabet. Her research also highlights the work of designers outside of Europe and North America as an act of decolonizing design. Her identity is shaped by her ethnic background as an Afro-Trinidadian; her experience as a daughter, sister and mother; and her lived experiences in Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Tanzania, Uganda and the USA.
Show Highlights
[01:28] Lesley shares her path into design.
[02:05] Her time in Brazil.
[02:35] Returning to Trinidad and working as a design consultant and university professor.
[03:27] Coming to the U.S. for her Ph.D.
[04:40] How her life experiences have strongly influenced her work.
[05:11] Her interest in indigenous cultures and looking at different points of view.
[05:57] Her Design Research Society group’s focus on gathering design stories from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
[06:55] Lesley talks about how she teaches design thinking by starting with “who we are” and talking about positionality and identity.
[08:01] How the focus on identity and positionality changes the way Lesley and her students approach design.
[09:33] The importance of getting the stakeholders involved in the process.
[10:43] The way Lesley is using design thinking to amplify and reflect the voices of those often left unheard.
[11:33] Shifting the power from the university to the community, and letting community partners take the lead.
[12:40] Lesley talks more about the experiences and challenges of exploring identity and power in the classroom.
[15:21] Ways Lesley is working to ensure her students are aware of the agency and power of the communities they are working with.
[16:08] Ensuring the learning and information is flowing in both directions.
[17:05] How 2020’s current events are affecting her teaching and classes.
[19:08] The rewards of watching students grow their confidence and skills as designers.
[20:25] Lesley describes her classes and the academic culture shock some students have when they first get started.
[22:57] How Lesley uses unique creative challenges to help students tap into their ability to reflect, think, and design.
[23:31] The “design a game” challenge.
[24:27] The “create a recipe” challenge.
[25:11] Lesley has students redesign a design thinking format and design their own framework.
[27:02] What Lesley is doing to adapt her classes and coursework to the new realities of the COVID-19 crisis.
[29:43] Remote work pushes the need to create activities for relationship building and allocate enough time for them.
[32:16] Being intentional about relationship building.
[33:47] Designer’s Critical Alphabet card deck overview.
[34:23] The Designer’s Critical Alphabet’s purpose is to help designers look at a project with different lenses and perspectives.
[34:43] Lesley discusses a couple of the cards in depth.
[36:33] The Designer’s Critical Alphabet is a way for designers to learn and develop critical theory and vocabulary.
[37:19] Lesley’s students use the cards to learn new vocabulary, theories, and ideas.
[39:00] The Designer’s Critical Alphabets humble beginnings as a small side project.
[40:10] How Lesley’s viral LinkedIn post in June 2020 brought the Designer’s Critical Alphabet deck to a larger audience.
[42:23] Lesley’s one fear about the cards.
[44:26] The two things Lesley hopes the cards will encourage people to do.
[46:04] How to learn more about Lesley and her work.
Links
Dr. Noel on Twitter
Dr. Noel on LinkedIn
Dr. Noel’s website
Dr. Noel on Tulane University’s website
A Designer’s Critical Alphabet Cards
“Teaching and Learning Design Thinking through a Critical Lens at a Primary School in Rural Trinidad and Tobago”
Dr. Noel’s work with emancipatory research and design thinking
CAE research conference call with Dr. Noel as she presents her research/processes in the field of critical design thinking with an emphasis on emancipatory process.
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
How to Learn Design Thinking + Design Thinking Pedagogy with Julie Schell — DT101 E15
Design Thinking + Learning Science with Adam Royalty — DT101 E18
Rethinking Service Design + Student Projects + Community Systems with Amy O’Keefe — DT101 E56
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Amy O'Keefe is the Studio Director of Northwestern university’s Master of Science and Engineering Design Innovation program, where she leads the human-centered service design studio. We talk about how the pandemic and the expanding awareness of systemic racism might change services, design, project partnerships, service design studio courses, and communities of practice in design education. Show Host: Dawan Stanford
Show Summary
Amy was always interested in experience design, but in the early 90s, there wasn’t a specific discipline teaching it, so Amy had to find her own path by way of studying English literature and architecture during her college years. Her senior thesis — an examination of how people experience memorial architecture, with a focus on the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. — was her first real foray into human-centered design and experience design.
Her original intention to continue studying architecture in graduate school changed after taking a job at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she had the opportunity to dig into digital technology. Instead, she pivoted into a fifteen-year career designing digital products and services. Eventually, Amy returned to university for a graduate degree in product design. She began teaching service design while finishing up her graduate work.
Our conversation takes a look at the world today through a service design lens and talks about how service design is changing — and how it needs to continue to change — in response to what’s happening around us right now.
Listen in to learn more about:
- Systemic racism and its effects on service design
- Ways to ensure service design is focused on equity for marginalized populations
- Some of the projects Amy and her students have worked on in healthcare and social impact spaces
- Northwestern’s Student Health Leaders project
- The value of design communities finding ways to connect and converse with one another
- Fluid Hive’s Adapt, Respond, and Evolve experience
- Service Ecosystems and Chicago’s Center on Halsted as a great example
Our Guest’s Bio
Amy O’Keefe is the Studio Director of Northwestern University's Master of Science in Engineering Design Innovation (EDI) program, where she leads the Human-Centered Service Design Studio.
Amy frequently partners with physicians and healthcare organizations to bring a human-centered approach to addressing complex medical issues. Amy has consulted on service, experience, and integrated multi-channel initiatives for Fortune 50 retail and global Am Law 100 clients. Her professional background includes more than a decade leading multi-disciplinary service, product design, and development at a Chicago-based tech startup acquired by Thomson Reuters. Amy received her MS in Product Design and Development Management from Northwestern. As an undergraduate, Amy embraced the Liberal Arts, majoring in English at Davidson College and studying Architecture in Florence, Italy.
A sampling of Amy’s recent studio collaborations includes: a partnership with Procter & Gamble that led to the 2016 launch of the integrated laundry service, Tide Spin; engagement with Northwestern Medicine and Lurie Children’s Hospital resulting in lead findings presented at the 2016 American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting; and engagement with Penn Medicine’s Anesthesiology and Critical Care team informing the best practices for patient awareness and management of postoperative delirium discussed at the 2016 American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Brain Health Summit.
She is a founding member of the Integrated Design Innovation consortium (IDI) and is working with colleagues from peer programs at University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Harvard and several other schools to establish, evolve, and expand the category of Integrated Design Innovation programs in engineering education.
Show Highlights
[01:36] Amy’s “crooked” path to service design.
[03:35] Amy defines intentional design.
[03:51] Her job at the Art Institute of Chicago was her introduction to the idea of digital design and creating digital experiences.
[04:49] Pursuing a graduate degree in product design and teaching service design.
[07:22] Looking at the world and current events through a service design lens.
[08:15] Amy talks about how most of our daily and activity journey maps broke this year.
[09:10] The responsibility of service designers in our current environment.
[11:05] How systemic racism and other world events has affected how service design works and the way Amy teaches service design.
[12:26] Amy’s work on a new framework to encourage a better understanding of all stakeholders and complex adaptive systems in a problem space.
[13:28] The need for service designers to understand the various privileges, power, and identities of potential stakeholders.
[14:39] How many service design tools are problematically designed for an idealized world that doesn’t reflect reality, and how Amy helps students to dig for more accurate insights.
[15:22] Service design, acknowledging risk, and running design prototypes to test the impact on marginalized populations.
[16:45] Putting ethics first as a service designer.
[17:25] Amy talks about how she chooses projects for her classes.
[18:35] Amy offers examples of some of her students’ projects.
[19:30] The Student Health Leaders project at Northwestern.
[23:58] Solving versus responding when it comes to problem spaces.
[26:46] Ways in which the various design practice communities are starting to come together to share ideas and have conversations about the work.
[32:06] Amy asks Dawan to talk about Fluid Hive’s Adapt, Respond, and Evolve experience.
[34:03] The value of bringing leaders from many different schools together to talk about the current challenges and to share lessons learned.
[35:38] The definition of a service ecosystem.
[36:30] Amy talks about Chicago’s Center on Halsted’s LGBTQ service ecosystem.
[38:42] Amy recommends looking up the Fogo Island Inn and Zita Cobbs’ Service Design Network conference presentation.
[40:47] Books and other resources Amy recommends for learning more about service design.
[42:27] Where to find out more about Amy and her work.
Links
Amy at Northwestern University
Amy on LinkedIn
Engineering Design Innovation at Northwestern University
Zita Cobbs and the Crisis of Belonging
Book Recommendation: Service Design: From Insight to Implementation, by Andy Polaine, Lavrans Løvlie, and Ben Reason
Book Recommendation: Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, by Eric Klinenberg
Book Recommendation: Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, by E. F. Schumacher
Book Recommendation: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Mapping and Service Design + Implementation + Accessibility with Linn Vizard — DT101 E17
Designing Culture at Work + Social Innovation + Necessary Disquiet with Laurie Currie — DT101 E29
Adding System Awareness to System Design to Your Innovation Stack with Julie Guinn — DT101 E43
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Terri Herbert is a design researcher and experienced research manager at Asana. She's fascinated by the complexity of the world of work and interested in researching and modeling complex systems involving people and technology. We talk about doing good design research, ways to ensure design research outputs are used effectively, and how a design researcher supports a team throughout the design process. Show Host: Dawan Stanford
Show Summary
Terri’s journey into design research began in the business world of marketing and communications strategy, where she often worked with survey results and collected data. It was there she first came into contact with the concept of user experience and began to use some design thinking ideas in the iterative process of finding solutions. This led her into UX design and she went back to university for a Master’s degree in human-computer interaction. During this time, she discovered her love of research and modeling systems, which has been a part of her work ever since.
At Asana, Terri’s focus is on understanding how people work together as a team, and on providing ways for teams to work better together. As part of this, she studies team dynamics and team behavior, and looks at individual team member’s skills and abilities. She uses what she learns to motivate team behaviors that foster and maintain a high-functioning work environment.
We’ll hear more about design research and how Terri uses it to discover insights about how we work, and how she and her team strive to make their research accessible and easy to understand for those who need its insights, and the importance of seeing research itself as dynamic and never-ending.
Listen in to learn more about:
- What design research is
- How team dynamics affects a team’s ability to perform and succeed
- Tools Terri uses to help people connect with and understand her research
- Ways design and design research are changing as a result of the current health crisis
- The importance of revisiting and refreshing design research as conditions evolve and change
Our Guest’s Bio
Terri is a design researcher and systems thinker fascinated by the complexity of the world of work. At Asana, a leading work management platform for teams, she heads up research focused on helping teams adopt better work practices. Her background in group and system dynamics, collaboration, and interaction design enables her to apply theory for impact in the real world. Terri holds an MSc in Human-Computer Interaction and has worked with organizations across e-commerce, culture and tourism, transportation services, agriculture, and more.
Show Highlights
[01:07] Terri talks about how she got into design research as a career.
[02:57] A high-level look at the work Terri does at Asana.
[04:40] How Terri structures her research when she’s studying team dynamics.
[05:20] Secondary research sources that are part of Terri’s work.
[06:01] Understanding a team’s dynamics is the key to improving how a team can work together better.
[07:10] Ways Terri and her team ensure the outputs of their research are understood and used effectively by stakeholders.
[08:05] Question mapping as a way to find the key questions and concerns the stakeholders have about the problem space.
[10:09] Terri talks more about how design research gets applied in real contexts.
[10:15] How Terri uses the discovery debrief to provide a team with tools for thinking and action as they move forward in the problem space.
[10:43] Helping the team narrow the scope and bring the problem space into focus.
[12:27] The benefits of role-blending in work environments when it comes to working as a team in the design problem space.
[12:56] How Terri works through situations where she meets resistance to her findings and insights.
[13:09] Using the opportunity tree tool to ensure the team’s work is actually going to address the identified problem.
[14:48] Methods and tools Terri uses to help teams understand and connect with the research.
[15:25] The value in revisiting earlier research on a regular basis to spot trends and long-term insights.
[16:35] Research is not a static, permanent object; it is dynamic, always needing refreshing in response to change.
[18:16] How Terri’s research team has been impacted during the COVID-19 health crisis.
[20:00] The virtual tools and frameworks Terri’s using in her work now.
[20:56] The opportunities and insights occurring in design research as a result of the health crisis.
[23:52] Terri talks about wanting easier ways to help people get past their biases to allow them to go deeper into their own motivations and behaviors.
[26:01] Resources Terri recommends for those interested in design research and design thinking.
[29:29] How to find out more about Terri and her work.
Links
Her Twitter
Her LinkedIn
Terri on Medium
Getting Emotional: Our first steps with affective interaction
Book Recommendation: The Social Life of Information, by John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid, and David Weinberger
Book Recommendation: The Service Innovation Handbook: Action-oriented Creative Thinking Toolkit for Service Organizations, by Lucy Kimbell
Book Recommendation: Thinking in Systems: A Primer, by Donella H. Meadows and Diana Wright
Book Recommendation: The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence, by Dacher Keltner
Book Recommendation: Collaborating with the Enemy: How to Work with People You Don’t Agree with or Like or Trust, by Adam Kahane
Book Recommendation: Turning People into Teams: Rituals and Routines That Redesign How We Work, by Mary and David Sherwin
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Problem Spaces, Understanding How People Think, and Practical Empathy with Indi Young — DT101 E6
Design Thinking + Learning Science with Adam Royalty — DT101 E18
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Steve Wendel is the author of Designing for Behavior Change, Founder of the Action Design Network, and head of Behavioral Science at Morningstar. We talk about behavioral problem solving, his new book, ethics and behavior design, and his toolkit for anyone who wants to apply behavioral science now. Show Host: Dawan Stanford
Show Summary
Stephen began working with behavioral science during his years at HelloWallet. He was seeking to create products that were more attuned to the mindset of, and challenges experienced by, its customers. Stephen believes that behavioral science needs to be used not just to better understand our limitations and challenges, but also to help us discover and build the tools and solutions we need to overcome those limitations.
One of Stephen’s goals has been to simplify aspects of behavioral science so that more people can use it in their work. His new book, Designing for Behavior Change, and companion workbook offers readers tools and processes that are accessible, practical, and easy to use.
Stephen also offers his thoughts and advice on how behavioral science can help us rethink how we live, work, and succeed in the current COVID-19 health crisis environment, and how this time is one of tremendous opportunity when it comes to forming new life habits, not just on an individual scale, but on a societal one as well.
Listen in to learn more about:
- How behavioral science is used in the creation of products and services
- Ethical questions and challenges that arise in the behavioral science and behavior design fields
- The synergy between behavioral science and design
- The new edition of Stephen’s book, Designing for Behavior Change
- Stephen’s new tool, the Decide Framework
- Action versus outcome and defining the problem space
Our Guest’s Bio
Dr. Wendel is a behavioral scientist who studies financial behavior and how digital products can help individuals manage their money more effectively. He serves as Head of Behavioral Science at Morningstar, where he leads a team of behavioral scientists and practitioners to conduct original research on saving and investment behavior. Stephen has authored three books on applied behavioral science (Designing for Behavior Change, Improving Employee Benefits, and Spiritual Design) and he founded the non-profit Action Design Network: educating the public on how to apply behavioral research to product development with monthly events in fifteen cities. He has two wonderful kids, who don’t care about behavioral science at all.
Show Highlights
[02:27] Stephen’s introduction to behavioral science and behavior design.
[03:35] How Stephen helps others understand behavioral design and how to apply it.
[04:42] Stephen’s book is a synthesis of what’s being done and the tools being used across the behavioral science and design communities.
[05:47] Stephen discusses his writing process for Designing for Behavior Change.
[06:17] A new section of the book offers real-world examples of behavioral science teams and work.
[06:50] The book offers a guide for those wanting to enter the field.
[06:56] Stephen talks about expanding the book’s ethics section.
[07:49] Stephen built the Decide Framework for the book, synthesizing best practices from behavioral science teams around the world.
[08:36] The way behavioral science ethics have evolved, and how Stephen approaches the ethical challenges inherent in the work.
[09:56] A few real-world examples of abuses of behavioral science and behavior design.
[10:50] Behavioral science can be manipulative.
[12:27] Using behavioral science to better ourselves and to set the ethical tone in our work.
[14:01] Stephen discusses purposefully writing about the ethical challenges in order to give them more visibility in the behavioral science field.
[15:16] How Milton Glaser’s Road to Hell is applicable to behavioral science.
[16:40] More about the Decide Framework and how to use it.
[20:13] The importance of clearly defining the problem before beginning to look for solutions.
[21:20] The difference between focusing on the action versus the outcome.
[22:41] The need to explore all of the potential implications and consequences of what it is you want to accomplish.
[24:55] How to use the companion workbook/toolkit for Designing for Behavior Change.
[27:01] Stephen’s advice to higher education educators wanting to use this toolkit in the current health crisis.
[30:02] Stephen talks about how the Decide Framework can help those who work in the fields of healthcare and public health.
[32:15] Where to find out more about Stephen’s work.
[33:33] Resources Stephen recommends for those wanting to learn more about behavioral science.
[35:29] How thoughtful design and behavioral science complement one another.
Links
Behavioral Technology – get your copy of the workbook (it’s free!)
Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics, by Stephen Wendel
Think Better with Steve Wendel
Milton Glaser’s Road to Hell in 12 Steps
Book Recommendation: Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Books Recommendation: Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick, by Wendy Wood
Book Recommendation: More Than Good Intentions: Improving the Ways the World's Poor Borrow, Save, Farm, Learn, and Stay Healthy, by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel
Book Recommendation: The Last Mile: Creating Social and Economic Value from Behavioral Insights, by Dilip Soman
Book Recommendation: Seductive Interaction Design: Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective User Experiences by Stephen P. Anderson
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Design for Good + Gut Checks + Seeing Power with George Aye — DT101 E50
Behavioral Design X Service Design with Anne van Lieren — DT101 E40
Behavioral Science + Behavior Change Design + Social Impact with Dustin DiTommaso — DT101 E28
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Amy Heymans is Mad*Pow’s Chief Experience Officer and one its foundersof. We talk about how the practice of design is evolving, the emerging role of behavior design, purpose-driven design, and making sure the problems designers are asked to solve connect to business outcomes. Show Host: Dawan Stanford
Show Summary
A love of art led Amy into a career as a designer. She started in web design during the dot-com bubble where she became passionate about user research, usability, and user experience. After the bubble burst, she began to freelance, working in partnership with a former colleague. One project led to another, and the two continued to work together until, eventually, they founded Mad*Pow, fueled by Amy’s vision of design being used to improve the human condition.
Their passion for creating positive change transformed them into healthcare innovation pioneers. Since its inception, Mad*Pow has been at the forefront of helping businesses across multiple industries create human-centered and purpose-driven solutions using design thinking, strategic design, and behavioral change design.
Amy offers listeners her insight into the way design is currently evolving, what the future of design will look like, and how behavior change design is an integral part of that evolution.
Listen in to learn more about:
- The evolution of design thinking and purpose-driven design
- Innovation in healthcare
- How designers are shaping business model design
- The business environment necessary for long-term innovation success
- Behavior change design — what it is, and how it’s changing design
Our Guest’s Bio
Amy believes that design can help improve the human condition. It was with that mission and vision that she founded Mad*Pow in 2000. Amy plays an essential role in Mad*Pow’s visualization of a changed healthcare system in the United States. Her work with companies like Aetna, CVS, McKesson, and Fidelity has helped them improve the experiences their patients and customers have with them, leverage design to drive change, and facilitate human-centric innovation. As the chief instigator behind Mad*Pow’sHealthcare Experience Design Conference—now in its fifth year and expanded and rebranded as HxRefactored—Amy has successfully connected and networked disparate parts of a challenging and siloed system.
As a speaker, Amy shares her vision and methodology at influential events such as Design Management Institute, UXPA, IA Summit, Partners Center for Connected Health Symposium, Stanford MedicineX, Health 2.0, and HIMSS.
With her partners Will Powley and Bradley Honeyman, Amy’s grown Mad*Pow’s presence, client base, and revenue, leading to Mad*Pow’s 2009 recognition as one of Inc. 500’s fastest growing privately held companies. Mass High Tech, which named her one of its 2009 Women to Watch, has recognized Amy’s passion, energy, and commitment, and she’s been acknowledged as one of Boston’s “40 Under 40” by the Boston Business Journal for 2014. She supports the vision and mission of An Orphan’s Dream, a nonprofit organization offering an oasis for AIDS-orphaned children in Gachoka, Kenya.
Show Highlights
[02:02] Amy’s love of art led her to a career in design.
[03:19] Freelancing and co-founding Mad*Pow.
[04:30] How design work has changed and evolved over the years.
[04:55] Big brands can be thanked for putting design front and center.
[06:04] Behavior change design is becoming more prominent in design now.
[06:30] Purpose-driven design: finding the balance between what a business wants to achieve and what their customers or clients want to achieve.
[07:16] The ways Amy approaches the topic of purpose-driven design with potential clients.
[08:12] Banks are now recognizing the need for purpose-driven design in their industry.
[09:53] The pre-pandemic state of health systems and behavioral design.
[10:24] Health systems had begun moving towards value-based care.
[11:40] There is no “silver bullet” tech innovation that will fix our healthcare systems.
[12:55] Amy talks about the gaps between the wants and goals of health insurance companies, healthcare systems, and their patients.
[13:20] Amy sees collaboration between groups of companies as the next frontier in healthcare innovation.
[14:32] Focus of design has shifted to working directly with a business to tailor solutions.
[15:13] How design is helping to innovate business models and strategies.
[15:49] Business design is a blend of design thinking and business strategy.
[17:24] The environment that’s needed in an organization for a project to succeed and thrive long-term.
[19:48] Amy’s advice to business leaders considering working with a design firm.
[20:10] The importance of understanding the problem space before jumping to a solution.
[21:53] Why Amy believes the future of design is behavior change design.
[23:23] How behavioral science and behavioral design is changing the field of design.
[24:20] Designing today means using both creative right-brain and analytical left-brain.
[26:56] The state of healthcare design during today’s COVID-19 crisis.
[27:50] How digital health and home healthcare are evolving.
[29:00] COVID-19 has shone a light on healthcare inequity and the social determinants of health.
[30:26] Amy talks about her interest in the ethos-logos-pathos concept.
[31:03] Amy recommends designers study philosophy, communication and speech-writing.
[33:17] Information about Mad*Pow’s two conferences.
Links
Amy’s page on MassArt
Transforming our Empathy into A Future of Connectedness
Designing an Eco-system of Care, from Stanford MedicineX 2013
Our Calling: Improve Health, from HXRefactored 2015
Design for Change: Empathy as our Guide
The Case for Purpose-Driven Design TEDx Talk by Amy
Design for Change: Empathy and Purpose, HXR 2016
Purpose Driven Design Can Change The World
Designing for Systemic Change Fireside Chat
Design Museum interview with Amy
Edison Profile of Amy (video)
The Three Pillars of Persuasion: Ethos, Logos, Pathos
Book Recommendation: Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business, by John Mackey and Rajendra Sisodia
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Designing for Healthcare vs Sick Care + The Emergency Design Collective — DT101 E52
Designing Health Systems + Creating Effective Design Workshops with Sean Molloy — DT101 E44
Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Nick Dawson is the co-organizer of the Emergency Design Collective. In today’s episode, we talk about healthcare innovation labs, how to think about opportunities in healthcare, healthcare versus sick care, and launching the EDC to support the COVID-19 response. Show Host: Dawan Stanford
Show Summary
Nick Dawson grew up with a father who worked in healthcare and hospitals. As he entered college, he was convinced that he absolutely didn’t want to work in the same field. But the technology used in the local hospital intrigued and interested him enough to accept an internship in the IT department there. While immersed in how hospitals work, Nick discovered his interest in complex systems and their challenges. His internship turned into a lifelong career that led him into design and innovation for healthcare.
While working as a healthcare performance improvement consultant for a large healthcare conglomerate, Nick needed to travel frequently by air. During his business travel, he witnessed a failing airline’s poor treatment of its employees; this was the nascence of his interest in the idea of re-designing healthcare’s patient and staff experiences. He realized that experience is something people and organizations must always create with intention and thought, and something that must be centered on those who are living and working in the experience.
Experience design, healthcare and the ability to wrestle with complexity drives his work. Examples include designing the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub, and his recent co-founding of the Emergency Design Collective, which focuses on re-thinking how we approach healthcare, helping businesses and organizations design their work spaces to support the health and wellbeing of their employees, and on creating a “public health design” core curriculum.
Listen in to learn more about:
- The challenges of designing for innovation in hospital environments
- Designing the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub
- The unique collaborative aspects of clinical hospital teams
- Creating a flexible work environment and power dynamic in teams
- The “product” of healthcare
- How everything in our life is connected to, and has an influence on, our health
- The social determinants of health
- The Emergency Design Collective and its work
- Ways to rethink how we work and function in order to design for good health
Our Guest’s Bio
Nick Dawson has been at the forefront of bringing design innovation to healthcare. He started and led the design innovation program at Johns Hopkins before joining Kaiser Permanente to lead innovation nationally. Nick chaired the Medicine X program in the Stanford school of Medicine until 2019 and worked with the Obama White House to bring patient-centered design to policy making and healthcare priorities. In April 2020, Nick left KP to co-found the Emergency Design Collective — a group of doctors, designers and public health experts using design to respond to urgent public health crises.
Show Highlights
[03:00] Nick’s start in healthcare and design.
[04:19] Nick discovers his interest in complex systems problems.
[04:28] How a hospital is like a miniature city.
[05:23] Nick’s witnessing of an airline’s financial failure leads to a revelation about experience.
[09:00] Learning from and listening to patients about what they need and want from their healthcare.
[10:57] Why it can be challenging to innovate in healthcare.
[11:29] Why healthcare is a risk-averse industry.
[12:05] Nick’s focus on re-centering the work from the hospital to the communities, patients, and staff it serves.
[12:51] Advice for overcoming people’s resistance to change.
[13:31] The dilemma of how to help people embrace change and innovation instead of resisting it.
[15:00] How hospital staff reacted to the launching of the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub.
[17:15] Nick talks about building the Sibley Innovation Hub team and working to create a welcoming space.
[18:27] The unique characteristics of teams and teamwork in the clinical hospital environment versus the management side of healthcare.
[19:39] How Nick disseminated power among his team members.
[21:59] Nick’s thoughts on the “product” of healthcare.
[22:50] The concept of a social needs emergency room existing upstream of clinical emergency rooms.
[23:05] The interconnectedness of every part of our life with our health.
[23:20] The social determinants of health.
[24:18] What it means to design “upstream” of healthcare.
[27:23] Some opportunities for people who want to act and serve not just in response to the current COVID-19 crisis, but also in the future as systems begin to change.
[28:07] The Emergency Design Collective and the “new normal.”
[28:27] Nick’s thought on education and how it might change.
[29:15] What might happen if every corporation started to think of itself as an H corp and prioritizing health?
[29:30] How the current global pandemic is potentially re-shaping the way we think about health.
[31:15] Ways the EDC supports purposeful business and space design with a focus on good health and wellbeing.
[33:40] Resources Nick recommends on design, innovation, and healthcare.
Links
Nick on LinkedIn
Nick on Twitter
Innovation as a requirement for success in healthcare
An Everyone Included Design Story
TEDMED Interview with Nick from 2014
Book Recommendation: The Experience Economy, by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore
Book Recommendation: The Cluetrain Manifesto, by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger, and Jake McKee
Book Recommendation: Org Design for Design Orgs, by Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner
Book Recommendation: 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization, by Vijay Kumar
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Adding System Awareness to System Design to Your Innovation Stack with Julie Guinn — DT101 E43
Designing Health Systems + Creating Effective Design Workshops with Sean Molloy — DT101 E44
A Designer’s Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Today’s guest is Holly O'Driscoll, the founder and CEO of Ampersand Innovation, a boutique consultancy focusing on bringing more human-centered design, innovation, strategy, and leadership development to the world. During the conversation, you'll learn about intersections between innovation and leadership, designing and facilitating innovation teams, and insights into shaping organizational innovation. Host: Dawan Stanford.
Show Summary
Holly believes her journey into design began when she was kicked out of kindergarten after only two weeks (only to be promoted to first grade) for her precocious behavior. Later, in middle school, she started her own business, renting out pens and pencils to her fellow classmates. She’s continued pushing boundaries, asking difficult questions, and challenging assumptions.
Her undergraduate degree was in Chemistry, with her future plans aimed at going to medical school, but a chance interview with Proctor & Gamble on her college campus changed her career trajectory. She ended up getting an MBA and working at P&G for 22 years, traveling all around the world servicing plants, before moving into the corporate design organization in the company, which was still in its early stages. Holly’s introduction to design thinking would also come during her time at P&G, when she returned to work after maternity leave – and it changed her life. After that first training, Holly entered a rigorous design thinking training program co-developed by Stanford d.school. She would eventually take over P&G’s North American design thinking role, and two years later, she became the head of the company’s Global design thinking.
In 2018, Holly left P&G to start her own consultancy after numerous requests from business colleagues asking her to come and do the same team training and work she was doing for P&G. Now, she’s in the process of finding ways to transition her work into the virtual space while still maintaining the same thoughtful, meaningful experience that comes from an in-person event.
Listen in to learn more about:
- The intersection between innovation and leadership
- How our “on demand” culture can create challenges when it comes to time expectations and design thinking
- Our society’s obsession with perfection and getting things right
- The two things Holly believes prevents innovation teams from achieving their goals
- How learning design thinking is like learning a new language
- The importance of the right mindset in an organization wanting to use design thinking
- The HIPPO concept
- What Holly considers when building teams
- The facilitation exercise Holly uses to build rapport and connection in a team
- When an organization really needs someone outside the org to facilitate a team
Our Guest’s Bio
Holly O’Driscoll is an industry expert in the field of Design Thinking and human centered innovation. Throughout her 20+ year career, Holly has built a reputation as a master human centered innovation strategist, trainer and facilitator having led programs in more than 20 countries. She is the former Global Design Thinking Leader at Procter & Gamble, where she led more than 250 workshops, often at the request of C-suite executives. She is the founder and CEO of Ampersand Innovation, LLC; a Design Thinking and human centered innovation strategy consultancy.
Show Highlights
[02:20] Holly’s very early start into pushing boundaries and challenging assumptions.
[05:05] The chance interview with Proctor & Gamble during college that changed Holly’s career plans.
[07:43] Her introduction to design thinking.
[09:00] Holly’s transition from P&G to starting her own consultancy and teaching at Rutgers.
[11:50] The early challenges Holly faced while facilitating design thinking
[13:00] Holly talks about some of today’s challenges for design thinking because of the “on demand” business culture.
[14:50] Making design thinking part of a business’s everyday mindset.
[17:37] Holly’s advice for building and leading a strong team.
[19:04] The two things that can keep an innovation team from being able to solve tough problems.
[20:50] How learning design thinking is a little like learning a language.
[21:55] The importance of leaders providing opportunities, support, and space for people to practice their design thinking skills.
[25:46] Holly talks about how mindset is a key to successful, sustainable design thinking in an organization.
[28:00] Choosing curiosity and the sense of being on a learning journey over being right.
[30:18] The HIPPO concept and how it can affect a team.
[31:09] Key leadership qualities needed to create a safe space for innovators.
[31:31] The correlation between inter-team relationships, social capital, and a team’s success.
[32:49] The importance of thinking about mindset and social capital when building a team.
[33:01] The things Holly considers when assembling a team.
[34:00] Holly’s facilitation exercise at the first meeting of any team that helps teams build personal connections and relationships.
[37:03] The signs and signals of a team that has started to come together.
[40:02] Books and resources Holly recommends.
Links
Holly on Twitter
Holly on LinkedIn
Holly on Design Thinking Ireland
Holly on Rutgers University’s Center for Innovation Education
Interview with Holly on Irish Tech News
Podcast Interview with Holly on TechCentral.ie
Book: Why Design Thinking is Good Business Thinking, by Holly O’Driscoll
Books Holly has contributed to:
The Future of Making, by Tom Wujec, editor
Design Thinking at Work: How Innovative Organizations are Embracing Design, by David Dunne
Innovation by Design: How Any Organization Can Leverage Design Thinking to Produce Change, Drive New Ideas, and Deliver Meaningful Solutions, by Thomas Lockwood and Edgar Papke
Book Recommendation: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck
Book Recommendation: Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Book Recommendation: The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
Book Recommendation: Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes, by Margaret Heffernan
Book Recommendation: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move The World, by Adam Grant
Book recommendation: The End of Average: Unlocking Our Potential by Embracing What Makes Us Different, by Todd Rose
TED Speaker Margaret Heffernan
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Building Design Capacity + Measuring Design Value + Designing Studios with Doug Powell — DT101 E16
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Today’s guest is George Aye, the co-founder of Greater Good Studio and an Adjunct Full Professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. We talk about creating a design studio driven by social impact, how to make facing the hard, ethical questions part of how a team functions, and what it means to design and lead with a deep awareness of power and its absence. Dawan Stanford, is your podcast host.
Show Summary
George’s path to design began in England, where he studied mechanical engineering at university before being fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to work with IDEO in their Chicago office. It meant packing up and moving overseas. For George, his time with IDEO was pivotal, both to his understanding of what design was, but also for what it felt like to work as part of a world-class team.
During his time at IDEO, George was already noticing questions about the work, why we do it, and why certain projects — those with a clear social mission — engendered very different feelings in him than those without that mission. He wondered how he might focus this work on the social mission projects. Seven years on, he would leave IDEO to work at the Chicago Transit Authority, where he designed a bus and researched bus ridership.
When the political environment shifted and he was let go from the CTA, George started teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was here that his idea for a design studio focused solely on the social sector began to take shape.
Since co-founding Greater Good Studio, George has continued to ask the hard questions, and encourages his team and his students to do the same. George talks about why these questions are important, the dynamics of power and how it can offer insight into people’s motivations and behaviors, and how to incorporate these discussions into the daily functioning of your design team.
Listen in to learn:
- Some of the ethical questions George and his team tackle when approaching a potential project with a client
- Why it’s a good thing to always be asking “What are we doing, and why?”
- How questioning assumptions is essential for good decision-making
- The importance of creating a “psychologically safe” workplace
- George’s thoughts about power and understanding how it shapes behavior and outcomes
- Ways to bring learned expertise and lived experience together in teaching design
- Why the idea of “saving people” is problematic
Our Guest’s Bio
George co-founded Greater Good Studio with the belief that design can help advance equity. Previously, he spent seven years at global innovation firm IDEO before being hired as the first human-centered designer at the Chicago Transit Authority. Since founding Greater Good, he has worked across complex social issues such as criminal justice, civic engagement, public education, public health and youth development. He speaks frequently across the US and internationally. George holds the position of Adjunct Full Professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Show Highlights
[02:16] George talks about how he got into design via engineering.
[02:54] His move from London to Chicago to work at IDEO.
[03:38] George discovers a preference for projects with a clear social mission and impact.
[04:50] Leaving IDEO to work for the Chicago Transit Authority.
[05:13] George realizes he wanted to work at a place with a clearly stated public mission, something larger than himself.
[05:52] How George got into teaching.
[06:13] The ideas that drove the founding of Greater Good Studio.
[07:37] Greater Good’s commitment to designing for the social sector.
[07:55] George talks about Greater Good’s project vetting process and determining whether they have the right to do a project or not.
[10:08] George recounts a time he and his team wrestled with whether they had a right to take on a project, and the process the team goes through during those discussions.
[11:35] The ways the team interrogates a project, and how they share power.
[13:14] The ethical questions George had around a project for automated vehicles.
[14:27] Rigorous questioning as a normal part of Greater Good’s process.
[16:37] How George handles onboarding someone new to the team and Greater Good.
[18:57] Breaking through ingrained assumptions and making constant efforts to create a workplace of psychological safety.
[20:20] The idea of “hosting” with regards to a team member’s career.
[21:40] The impact of endings, and how they can color your entire experience.
[24:44] George talks about power and powerlessness, and continuing to learn what they mean to him and how they affect the work.
[26:16] Using power as a lens through which to view the world, to better understand how people operate.
[27:46] The desire to understand behavior is a core component of the work Greater Good does.
[28:04] Power as a framework to understand motivations and diagnose behaviors.
[28:47] George gives an example from his time at CTA of viewing a situation through a power lens.
[32:25] The devaluation of lived experience when compared to learned expertise.
[35:30] How George is changing the way he teaches and works with students.
[38:04] Teaching students the problems associated with the idea surrounding “saving” people.
[38:46] Ways in which George guides students in choosing their design projects.
[40:00] Examples of the interesting projects George’s students have done.
[41:50] Some of the difficulties surrounding charity, altruism, and lasting social change.
[45:47] The dangers of neocolonialism in design.
[47:37] Books and resources George recommends.
[51:07] Where to find out more about George and Greater Good Studio.
Links
George on Twitter
George on LinkedIn
George at SAIC
Greater Good Studio on Medium
Articles by George:
Why designers write on the walls (and why you should, too)
Design Education’s Big Gap: Understanding the Role of Power
It’s Time to Define What “Good” Means in Our Industry
The Gut Check, by Sara Cantor Aye
The Reductive Seduction of Other People’s Problems by Courtney Martin
The Perils of Using Technology to Solve Other People's Problems by Ethan Zuckerman
Book Recommendation: White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Book Recommendation: Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Design for America: Students + Design Thinking + Community Impact, Part 1 — DT101 E36
Design for America: Founding + Present + Future, Part 2 — DT101 E37
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
David and Mary Sherwin work with design teams in for-profit and nonprofit organizations via their consulting business, Ask The Sherwins, LLC. They’re also professors at the Pacific College of Art in the Design and Collaboration Program. In this episode, we go deep into designing teams, consider more effective ways to teach design and teams, and ways to make teams work when working remotely with Dawan Stanford, your podcast host.
Show Summary
David's background is in engineering and liberal arts. He graduated with an English degree, but had a side hustle doing graphic design. That’s where he discovered an interest in design. Much of his early design learning and education was accomplished by apprenticing at various design studios Then, he shifted into product and service design, and he worked in product development for some large software organizations.
Mary started in organizational development and content strategy, and then moved into teaching within the design discipline. Much of Mary's experience had been working with designers. Most of David's experience was from a designer's standpoint, working with people like Mary.
Mary and David realized that the work they were doing on their respective paths had a lot of synergy and that they each held half of the solution. They started teaching together seven years ago. Three years after that, they founded their company after students in a special graduate-level teamwork class told them they should start their own business, because this was something companies wanted their employees to learn.
Since starting Ask The Sherwins, Mary and David have discovered and developed the nuances of developing strong, well-functioning teams. From facilitating your new team at the start of the design process, to what to do when your team feels like it's falling apart, to working through cultural differences, Mary and David have robust processes for all of these team challenges. They discuss their management style, team-building exercises, and team maintenance practices on team design.
Listen in to learn
- Why Mary and David’s ability to “professionally disagree” gives them an advantage when working with design clients
- Why their two different career paths gives two different perspectives on the design process
- About cultural biases, assumptions, and their role in design solutions
- Why Mary and David encourage students and professors to teach and learn from each other
- Advice on how to start your team
- Mary and David’s team facilitation process during their first meeting
- Team word tools to use when the team situation gets difficult
- When you should use behavioral questioning
Our Guests’ Bio
David and Mary Sherwin are co-founders of Ask The Sherwins, LLC, a consulting and training firm that helps design organizations develop the capabilities they need for better product design and stronger cross-functional teamwork. They have recently coached product and service design teams and provided training around innovation best practices for organizations such as Philips Oral Healthcare, Tipping Point Community, The Purpose Project, Google UX Community and Culture, and Eventbrite. The Sherwins are also active in the design education space. They lead workshops in the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design’s Summer School and currently teach in the MFA in Collaborative Design program at PNCA. In their spare time, David and Mary have collaborated on three books, including their most recent, Turning People Into Teams.
Show Highlights
[02:15] Mary and David talk about their origin story and how they arrived where they are now in design.
[04:26] How Mary’s experience in teaching played out in her design experience.
[07:48] Components of a team from Mary and David’s perspective.
[10:08] Prototyping for norms, teams and individual thinking.
[11:08] Advice for starting a team off well.
[11:46] The importance of having team members discuss their values and the behaviors they want to see in the team.
[12:50] The Why’s and How’s of the Team Words card deck created by Mary and David.
[16:55] How talking through values and behaviors at the beginning helps teams save time and deal with challenges and misunderstandings.
[19:43] Ways a team’s “status quo” can create invisible walls and obstacles for new team members.
[22: 35] What to do when everything that can go wrong with a team has gone wrong.
[24:49] Habits to bring to your team to encourage connection and mutual support.
[27:39] Why you should have a clear “etiquette” for your team.
[28:53] How their consulting work influences what they teach.
[30:38] Lessons they teach students when they deliberately break up a team.
[33:56] Advice from Mary and David on how and who to hire or choose for a team.
[35:35] When a design challenge as part of the interview process can be helpful.
[36:18] The two go-to “silver bullet” questions Mary likes — one for the interviewer and the interviewee.
[40:57] A look at how David and Mary “ride along” on a project, and how they tailor their coaching strategy to the client.
[43:18] Ways of working with remote team members and teams.
[46:34] Technology, remote work, and working within human time limitations.
[50:00] Advice to teams on how to make improvements and changes.
[52:03] Mary and David talk about books they’ve read, their own books, and their ephemeral advice column.
Links
Books by David and Mary Sherwin:
Book Recommendation: The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business, by Erin Meyer
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
The Evolution of Teaching and Learning Design with Bruce Hanington — DT101 E39________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
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Steve Portigal is the Principal of Portigal Consulting and an experienced user researcher who helps companies harness the strategic power of insights. He is the author of Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights. He also wrote Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries: User Research War Stories. We talk about interviewing people, customer research, and storytelling with Dawan Stanford, your podcast host.
Show Summary
Steve started out in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), in the days before the World Wide Web and before the formal idea of user experience (UX) existed. He had a brief exposure to design as a profession through an article about industrial product design, and to the idea of bringing together people from many different disciplines to collaborate and create solutions to problems via another article about a project trying to determine how best to find a way to demarcate dangerous locations, like nuclear waste sites. These ideas planted seeds leading to his interest in design. Steve graduated with his Masters in HCI, had a summer internship in Silicon Valley, and eventually found a job in an industrial design consultancy to work on what was essentially proto-UX design with their software.
At the same time, this company was exploring ideas surrounding ethnographic research and the idea of uncovering product opportunities, and Steve managed to apprentice himself with the team, where he learned about organizing and finding connections within data. He also had the opportunity to develop his initial interviewing skills, which he continued to hone as he started his own consultancy focused on user research. Steve was one of the first people in the early 90’s to develop design processes for user experience and research.
We talk about Steve’s excitement for and interest in spending more time with stakeholders within a client’s organization. He has learned why a stakeholder’s perspective is essential in relation to the success of a project. He talks about creating “learning-ready” moments, how he helps people have these moments, and how learning and sharing the journey of learning affect learning retention.
Listen in to learn:
- How Steve and others developed the design processes in the early stages of user experience and research
- How Steve’s skills, interests, and the work he does for his clients has evolved over the years
- When Steve knows he’s found a great client
- Why he believes that learning together is when change can happen
- Why understanding stakeholders gives better results with clients
- Being able to embrace realistic expectations of what you can accomplish
Our Guest’s Bio
Steve Portigal is an experienced user researcher who helps companies to think and act strategically when innovating with user insights. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, he is principal of Portigal Consulting and the author of two books: the classic Interviewing Users: How To Uncover Compelling Insights and, Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries: User Research War Stories.
He's also the host of the Dollars to Donuts podcast, where he interviews people who lead user research in their organizations. Steve is an accomplished presenter who speaks about culture, innovation, and design at companies and conferences across the globe.
Show Highlights
[02:09] Steve talks about his origin story and his introduction to the ideas of design and user experience.
[06:15] Steve’s first job at an industrial design consultancy.
[08:15] Steve’s apprenticeship with the team exploring a nascent practice in what was basically user experience.
[09:58] Many companies were exploring and experimenting with these new ideas around user research in the 90s, and how that led to the development of best practices and processes around the work.
[13:05] Steve’s litmus test for a new client.
[13:37] How Steve’s role and work started to shift and change.
[15:40] The way in which Steve sets up expectations with new clients and spending time with the stakeholders in a client’s organization.
[16:20] The value in spending as much time with stakeholders as with users to gain a deep understanding of their motivations and perceptions.
[19:03] Repetitive patterns and questions Steve sees with clients.
[22:28] Using storytelling to help explain concepts and share information, and to help move clients through shared experiences and discussions.
[24:04] Separating the value of the research from any action that may take place.
[28:15] The importance of the “Why” of user research.
[30:39] How Steve’s practice has evolved and the scope of his work today, now that many companies have in-house user research and design teams.
[35:05] Steve’s specialized “master classes” for design teams.
[38:52] What Steve wishes everyone knew about user research and what you can do with it, both personally and organizationally.
[41:24] Steve’s reflections on a few of his learning experiences.
[44:55] His experience with one of the experts he used in his consulting work.
[48:35] What Steve might add to a new book about interviewing users and UX, should he decide to write one.
[54:00] Where you can find out more about Steve and his work.
Links
Find Out More About Steve’s Books
Dollars to Donuts Episode 30: Laith Ulaby of Udemy
Dollars to Donuts Episode 27: Colin MacArthur of the Canadian Digital Service
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Problem Spaces, Understanding How People Think, and Practical Empathy with Indi Young — DT101 E6
Public Sector Design + Outcome Chains + Prototyping for Impact with Boris Divjak — DT101 E26 The Evolution of Teaching and Learning Design with Bruce Hanington — DT101 E39
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Tracey Williams, a Service Design Director for Absa Bank in South Africa, discusses learning service design on the job, growing design skills on her team, and building organizational service design standards with Dawan Stanford, your podcast host.
Show Summary
Tracey’s career didn’t begin in design; she started in financial services, and went through a graduate program focused on business targets and goals. She’d always had an interest in problem-solving, and while working at Absa, she got involved in numerous projects that she found new and exciting outside of her specific role. She had studied marketing, and found that much of the old-school marketing thinking aligned with some of the thinking in design spaces.
She submitted an idea to a social entrepreneurship course and was accepted. Tracey then proceeded to learn service design and design thinking as she led her team through development of the idea. Her biggest challenge during the project was using the tools of design, which were still new to her; she had to learn through doing, and through failure and then trying again. She learned that design is about looking at a problem from a different perspective.
Tracey hosted the first Absa Women Forum at the Wentworth Angels headquarters to celebrate the role of single mothers and women.
Listen in to learn:
- How Tracey developed her design skills
- What service design skills she has learned on her job
- Why she was called a design “Padawan”
- Who Tracey is bringing onto her team for service design
- How Tracey is developing new designers at Absa
- What she wishes more people understood about her work
- How she protects her work from being devoured by the larger system
- Books Tracey used to learn service design on the job
Our Guest’s Bio
Tracey is a designer with seven years of experience in financial services. She is currently a Service Design Director for the Absa Bank Design Office, where she has played a key role in establishing and demonstrating the value of Service Design. Her teams have worked across different areas of the business and engaged with several stakeholders along the way, including those in Relationship Banking, Business Banking, Card, and most recently, Home Loans.
She enjoys working with cross-functional teams to solve complex, wicked problems with solutions that address both customers' needs and meet the business objectives. Beyond the delivery of design work, she has a passion for developing young talent and worked with a colleague to start the first design graduate program at the bank focused on transforming and growing its future design leaders.
Show Highlights
[02:33] How Tracey became involved in banking projects early on in her career.
[03:43] Tracey’s experiences in a social entrepreneurship course.
[06:24] Tracey talks about her early challenges in working with service design.
[10:30] Tracey talks about a design graduate program she co-founded with a colleague.
[12:30] Her leadership team’s work to create a skills matrix for designers.
[14:21] How Tracey is developing new designers to fit the strategic objectives of the bank.
[16:20] Her work to create solid service design standards for the bank.
[19:10] What she wishes others understood about service design.
[20:39] The concept of “go slow to go fast” and making sure pacing is comfortable and sustainable.
[23:13] How Tracey is able to prevent her project being devoured by the larger system.
[25:46] The short term and long term views and value of service design.
[30:09] How Tracey is working to better tell service design success stories to other staff at the bank, and also to the bank’s customers.
[32:25] Ways other banks can use service design.
[36:27] Maintaining quality within a larger team and keeping up with service design standards.
[42:29] Books and resources that have helped Tracey during her journey.
Links
Book Recommendation: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely
Book Recommendation: Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
Book Recommendation: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely
Book Recommendation: Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, by Eric Ries
Book Recommendation: Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope, by Mark Manson
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Public Sector Design + Outcome Chains + Prototyping for Impact with Boris Divjak — DT101 E26 The Evolution of Teaching and Learning Design with Bruce Hanington — DT101 E39
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Carlye Lauff is an independent contractor specializing in innovation strategy and design research. We’ll talk about her path into design and how she obtained her Ph.D. in Design Theory and Methodology, and then hear about her global work with organization innovation using human-centered design. Carlye talks about prototyping barriers, how to overcome these barriers, and her tool, Prototyping Canvas, with Dawan Stanford, your podcast host.
Show Summary
Carlye was exposed to the power of human-centered design thinking with her coursework during her undergrad at Penn State University. One project brought her to Kenya, where she was on a team initiating a telemed health initiative. Through this project, she saw the power of applying design thinking to a real-world problem. As a result, she pursued her Master’s and Ph.D. around design thinking — including founding the Design for America studio at Colorado University Boulder campus — with an emphasis on prototyping, and helping companies and organizations find ways to prototype more effectively. She has continued to work on design thinking-based projects around the world.
She is currently consulting in the U.S. in the field of innovation strategy, partnering with organizations and training their teams in the use of design thinking and human-centered design. She also works with teams to co-create solutions to actual projects and challenges in their organizations, including leading a project with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help children enhance their social-emotional learning.
Learn how Carlye teaches and trains professionals to make human-centric products, the challenges organizations and people have when prototyping, how to use analogies and case study examples, and how Carlye creates lasting organizational change long after her work with the company is done.
Listen in to learn:
- How Carlye co-created an educational children’s toy at Robert Wood Johnson to help preschoolers identify their emotions
- Her experience with prototyping and how she overcame obstacles with prototyping
- The two strategies Carlye finds helpful when explaining prototyping
- Methods you can use for low-fidelity early prototyping
- How Carlye worked with the International Design Center in Singapore, focused on helping companies create lasting organizational change
- Two research-validated design tools Carlye collaborated on
- Carlye’s recipe for how to create great design
- Why she takes failure out of her language and replaces it with iterating and evolving
Our Guest’s Bio
Carlye is an innovation strategist, design researcher, and enthusiastic instructor who blends human-centered design practice with systems thinking approaches. She has helped more than 25 global organizations re-think their design processes and strategies, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies to universities.
Carlye is an independent consultant that empowers people and organizations to innovate using human-centered design methods and strategies. During 2018-2019, Carlye served as a Design Innovation Fellow at the SUTD-MIT International Design Centre (IDC) in Singapore, where she trained companies in design innovation strategies, led an in-depth consulting project for the Land Transport Authority, and researched design methods like the Prototyping Canvas. Carlye received her Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. Carlye’s research is within the field of Design Theory and Methodology, and she develops tools and methods to support designers and engineers. Carlye also founded the Design for America studio at CU Boulder in 2015 as a way to give students experiences working on interdisciplinary teams applying human-centered design to solve real problems in the community.
Show Highlights
[02:05] Carlye’s origin story and how she came into design as a career.
[04:08] Her current work in the field of innovation strategy.
[05:23] Her experience with Robert Wood Johnson co-creating a children’s learning project.
[07:44] The challenges of prototyping.
[10:10] Two strategies she uses to explain prototyping: analogies and case studies.
[12:48] Examples and applications Carlye uses when explaining prototyping.
[14:40] Hands-on activities Carlye uses to help people get a feel for prototyping: games, storyboarding, and roleplaying.
[19:10] Her work in Singapore with the SUTD-MIT International Design Center and its Design Innovation Team.
[21:05] Carlye checks in with the leadership of organizations to find out how they will support and continue her work when she is finished with her workshop or consulting.
[22:18] Carlye talks more about the innovation hubs she worked with in Australia and Singapore.
[25:50] Her excitement about design methods, and two research-validated design tools she has collaborated on.
[26:26] The Prototyping Canvas.
[28:20] The Design Innovation with Additive Manufacturing (DIwAM) methodology.
[29:21] Carlye’s recipe for designing well - Wizard of Oz prototyping + Think Aloud testing + Affinity Clustering.
[32:24] The benefits of Beginner’s Mindset.
[36:14] Learning, growing, and iterating is the backbone of productivity in work.
[39:30] The importance of Growth Mindset and space for reflection.
[39:45] Learning is enhanced when you give learning the time and space to be reflective.
[40:35] Design resources and references Carlye has used.
[45:25:] Where to learn more about Carlye and her work.
Links
You Want to Learn Prototyping, First Bake a Cake by Carlye Lauff
Prototyping Canvas: Design Tool for Planning Purposeful Prototypes by Carlye Lauff, Kristin Lee Wood, and Jessica Menold
Design Innovation with Additive Manufacturing: A Methodology by K. Blake Perez, Carlye A. Lauff, Bradley A. Camburn, and Kristin L. Wood
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Mockups: a fast-paced game for people who build to think
Luma Institute and Luma Workplace
A Taxonomy of Innovation: 36 human-centered design methods
IDEO’s Design Kit
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Public Sector Design + Outcome Chains + Prototyping for Impact with Boris Divjak — DT101 E26 The Evolution of Teaching and Learning Design with Bruce Hanington — DT101 E39________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Lorna Ross, the Chief Innovation Officer at VHI Health and Well-Being, discusses her career and work at DARPA, Motorola, MIT Media Lab, the Rhode Island School of Design, Mayo Clinic, and Accenture. You’ll learn about how her stellar design career unfolded, ways to get into designing for health, and system design in healthcare. Show Host: Dawan Stanford.
Show Summary
Lorna grew up in Dublin, Ireland, and attended the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, where she studied textiles and fashion design, with the intention to have a career in the clothing industry. In the course of continuing her career in fashion, she approached her local bank for a loan and was told the bank didn’t give loans to designers. Realizing that she had few business skills, she returned to school, this time in London, where she entered an industrial design program with a focus on computers and technology. She had her first foray into wearable tech with a project where she designed a glove that was also a phone.
As she was finishing up her degree, Lorna was picked up by a research lab in Palo Alto led by Paul Allen, who eventually became a co-founder of Microsoft. This first job set the benchmark for the quality of the work environments she has looked for during her entire career.
At her first wearable tech conference in the early 1990s, Lorna was introduced to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) via a presentation by Dick Urban. Their work felt like science fiction to her and seemed radical and experimental, and she found it fascinating. At that same conference, Lorna gave a presentation and afterwards, was immediately offered a job at DARPA, which she accepted. Lorna worked with many of the big names in military manufacturing, where she reviewed programs, critiquing them from a user perspective.
After DARPA, she took a break before continuing her design work and her work in wearable tech at Motorola. She moved on to MIT Media Lab a couple of years later. By this time, Lorna had been working in wearables for ten years, and was wanting a new challenge. By chance, she attended a meeting about the healthcare crisis, and a light bulb went off and she knew she wanted to turn her focus and work to healthcare. Her attempts to push for innovation in healthcare led to her being asked to run the design studio at the Mayo Clinic. She has been a driving force of healthcare innovation for more than two decades now.
Learn how Lorna has been at the forefront of creating healthcare design and reforming the healthcare industry, and her predictions on opportunities for designers in healthcare. Find out why she believes that medicine will change before the healthcare system changes, her take on virtual healthcare and the need for immediate healthcare, and her thoughts on the melding of AI and human healthcare.
Listen in to learn:
- How Lorna landed her first job in design at DARPA
- Lorna’s view on why user-centric is one of the most important facets of design
- What Lorna found out about the unpredictability of people’s behaviors
- How she fell into her job at Motorola and why she left
- Julian Vincent and his role as Lorna’s mentor at Media Lab
- How Lorna became the “Florence Nightingale” of healthcare design
- The future of AI and what role Lorna thinks machines will play in healthcare
- Why our healthcare system needs to be more meticulous about, and value, documentation in the healthcare system
- The role of system design in our healthcare system today
Our Guest’s Bio
Lorna Ross has thirty years of professional experience working on strategic design research activity, particularly in innovation lab environments. Over the past two decades, she's held creative leadership positions in five innovation groups that span a range of industry sectors from technology to healthcare. Her career has thrived at the intersection of design, science, technology, and industry, and she's an expert in planning, managing, and executing speculative research activity. She's effective at building and managing creative teams within corporate and institutional cultures, with an in-depth knowledge of experience, service, and systems design methodology. She enjoys international recognition as a subject expert in this arena. Lorna has worked in both industry and academic environments and is proficient in the cultures, language, protocol, and conventions of both.
Show Highlights
[02:21] Lorna talks about her pathway to a career in design.
[06:18] Her journey from fashion design to working with Paul Allen.
[07:58] Lorna tells the story of the first wearable tech conference she attended in the early 90’s.
[09:45] How Lorna secured a job with Dick Urban at DARPA.
[11:39] Her experience working and living with Navy SEALS for six months.
[14:00] How she established credibility in an organization that didn’t see her as important.
[17:07] Lorna’s move to LA after she left DARPA.
[19:55] Her work at Media Lab.
[24:00] Lorna’s experience in a meeting for the Royal Academy for Health and her design “Aha” moment.
[27:58] Her experience teaching in India at the National Design Institute.
[31:13] The offer from Accenture that offered Lorna the chance to return to Dublin.
[33:28] The use of design and opportunities for designers in the healthcare space.
[38:27] Lorna’s predictions about changes in healthcare based on her experiences.
[40:00] Her thoughts on telemedicine, technology, and home-based care in healthcare.
[43:00] The future of AI and what role she thinks machines and digital spaces will play in healthcare.
[46:40] How we might interact with healthcare machines and AI in the future.
[49:53] The value of the Service Design Network, and in talking with other like-minded people working on similar problems.
[50:34] The problem in design of not sharing and exchanging information and insight.
[51:15] Comparing the design community and scientific community with regards to documentation of work and a collective intelligence.
[55:15] System design in healthcare today and what role system design should have in the current healthcare system.
Links
Fjord Kitchen Talks: Service Design in Health and Healthcare
SDGC14: Design as an Agent for Change in Complex Systems
Amplify Innovation: Re-designing healthcare
Inspirefest 2016: Making the invisible visible as a designer in healthcare
SDGC18: How technology is reshaping design and rewiring designers
RTÉ Ireland interview with Lorna Ross: Meet the inventors building tools for Ireland's vulnerable people
Why Design Ireland interview with Lorna Ross: Innovation Leader
Design Thinking Ireland Profile
Inspirefest 2016: Innovation is not about good ideas, but timing
Irish Tech News: Lorna Ross Explains Future Trends in Design and Ways to Design for Positive Change
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Designer's Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38
Healthcare Design Teams + Wellness + ScienceXDesign with Chris McCarthy — DT101 E24________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Sean works in the healthcare industry as a Director of Patient Quality Experience at North York General Hospital in Toronto, Canada. We talk about Sean’s evolution into design thinking, how he dug deep and studied design, and how he felt that moving into this way of thinking was natural for him. Sean speaks of his career movement at North York General Hospital, how he integrates design into every aspect of the hospital, and Sean’s dream of creating a healthcare system that feels right to everyone. Show host: Dawan Stanford.
Show Summary
Sean has been working in healthcare for 25 years, and currently works at a large community hospital. The element he enjoys the most is the ability to positively impact people’s lives every day. He made his way into quality improvement and continued to move up the ladder to his current position.
His journey into design started with listening to a presentation from the Vice President of Innovation at Kaiser, who came to Sean’s hospital to give a talk about leveraging design and design thinking. Sean shifted his process to design thinking and started to integrate design thinking into his position with cancer research. In his Master’s program, he learned how to think about innovation and how to map out an innovation plan, then seeing where design fits into the project.
We’ll talk about how to create a design thinking workshop, why people-centered innovation is now popular in healthcare, and how Sean believes healthcare can create a better future. Show Host: Dawan Stanford
Listen in to learn:
- How to move towards human-centered care and the tools and methods to create design-centered solutions
- Why Sean found power in designing with people who weren’t in the healthcare field
- The foundational elements of healthcare and design
- Reasons why change and change management is complex in healthcare
- How design and design thinking have come to a critical mass in healthcare
Our Guest’s Bio
Sean is the Director of Quality, Patient- and Family-Centered Care and Patient Flow at North York General Hospital in Toronto, Canada. He holds a Master’s of Design degree from OCAD University in Toronto, with a research interest in how health systems are using design for innovation and improvement.
He also teaches in the Design for Health program at OCAD and mentors many students through internships and studio courses at the hospital, advancing the organization's academic mandate while offering students real-life opportunities to hone their design skills and build their careers.
Sean is passionate about the potential of people-centered innovation in healthcare, and he has led multiple design engagements over the last 10 years, spanning from the individual level to systems-level innovation. He is committed to advancing patient and community voices into health system transformation, and leveraging design as a critical enabler of building a brighter future for those living in our communities.
Show Highlights
[02:00] Sean explains his transition from multiple healthcare roles to his current role of quality control.
[04:37] He remembers the VP from Kaiser coming to speak at his workplace and how it sparked his interest in design.
[05:48] Sean decides to pursue his Master’s in Design in Toronto, Canada.
[08:03] He describes how coursework for his Master’s in Design shaped how he thinks about healthcare and design
[10:13] How innovation is playing out in Sean’s current work.
[15:06] Co-creating, co-designing, and co-exploring design solutions.
[24:12] Advice Sean gives to designers who are about to apply service design inside a healthcare system.
[26:15] The heart of the designer’s role in a healthcare system.
[28:21] How to make the most out of making systems visible.
[32:27] The importance of revealing causal loops inside a system.
[34:23] What Sean learned from studying over 30 design labs inside healthcare organizations. Why these labs often fail.
[40:45] How to contact Sean and his social media platforms.
Links
A Review of Design Labs as a Model for Healthcare Innovation by Sean Molloy
Book Recommendation: Design for Care: Innovating Healthcare Experience by Peter Jones
Book Recommendation: Thinking in Services: Encoding and Expressing Strategy through Design by Majid Iqbal
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Designer's Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21
Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38
Healthcare Design Teams + Wellness + ScienceXDesign with Chris McCarthy — DT101 E24
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Julie Guinn combines design, research, strategy, and systems thinking to help teams build innovation capabilities, solve complex business challenges and deliver delightful, intuitive product experiences. We discuss systems awareness, leading design work inside complex systems, and ways to pull system awareness and system design into your innovation efforts. Show host: Dawan Stanford.
Show Summary
Julie defines the differences between systems and complex adaptive systems, and how the many elements that are highly interconnected in complex adaptive systems create complexity and how that impacts the way you approach the design process. She talks about her first foray into designing for healthcare, and how she quickly discovered that none of the typical tools in a design thinker’s toolkit were working. Her discovering Designing for Care by Peter Jones started her on the path of learning about systems and system-centered design, which led to a whole new skillset and toolbox of methods specifically geared towards designing systems and designing inside systems.
She discusses the unique challenges of designing for systems and how multiple phases and iterations are key when implementing change in complex adaptive systems. She also talks about some clients that were more challenging when it came to design implementation, and how some companies weren’t ready for design, and what she did to overcome these challenges.
Julie talks about how to be intentional when building a plan for convening and facilitating systems design experiences, and why you should think differently when you plan projects, especially when considering how much time each step will take.
Listen in to learn:
- Differences between systems and complex adaptive systems
- Critical parts of complex adaptive systems and the elements they encompass
- Mapping systems and how you can use mapping systems in design
- Types of considerations to think about when designing for healthcare systems
- When you need a system-centered practice as opposed to a design-centered practice
- Ways to address obstacles in client work
- Timescale and system change with placing new interventions in place
- Why you should break optimized systems around your target outcomes
- What can you do if you find yourself in a much more complicated system than you anticipated?
Our Guest’s Bio
Julie Guinn is a User Experience Research Principal at Dell Boomi, where she focuses on understanding complex enterprise data ecosystems. She has 20 years of experience leading human-centered design and research in technology and healthcare organizations, including Microsoft, Intuit, the University of Pennsylvania Medical System, and Elsevier. Her collaborative, human-centered approach is founded on a passion for understanding human behavior and a deep belief in the transformative power of design.
Julie’s first experience with design came from watching a PBS Nova episode on the development of new snack foods when she was a teenager. Watching the research team ask consumers questions about snacks hooked her interest. She holds a Master's degree in Human-Centered Design from the Illinois Institute of Design and a Bachelor's degree in Human Factors from Tufts University.
Show Highlights
[03:30] Julie talks about her path to a career in user experience and enrolling at Tufts University.
[04:56] Defining Systems Design and the multiple fields of study which are encompassed in this career.
[05:56] Julie defines the differences between systems and complex adaptive systems.
[08:18] Systems and mapping systems commonly found in design projects today.
[10:14] Considerations when designing healthcare using mapping systems.
[14:20] The “invisible furniture” that can get in the way when designing healthcare systems.
[16:07] Aspects to build into your design program for healthcare design.
[19:45] The importance of understanding incentive structures that influence behavior in systems..
[23:05] Creating space to work inside complex adaptive systems.
[26:06] How setting boundaries on where you will work inside complex adaptive systems improves your success chances..
[27:37] What works well in the realm of collaboration for people and teams.
[31:40] How can you make the system visible to everyone using it?
[34:44] Changes and impacts that happen when people see the systems they inhabit.
[38:38] Advice for those who are finding themselves in a much more complicated system than they expected.
Links
TISDD stakeholder mapping method
Book Recommendation: Designing for Care
Book Recommendation: Thinking in Systems
Book Recommendation: Systems Thinking for Social Change
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Designer's Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21
Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38
Healthcare Design Teams + Wellness + ScienceXDesign with Chris McCarthy — DT101 E24
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Julie Dirksen is a learning strategist with more than 15 years of experience creating highly interactive e-learning experiences for clients, from Fortune 500 companies and technology startups to grant-funded research initiatives. Our conversation today is about learning design and learning in design, as well as her book, Design For How People Learn. We also talk about behavior change, practicing complex skills, and persuasive technology. Show host: Dawan Stanford.
Show Summary
Starting her career as an English as a Foreign Language instructor, Julie quickly became interested in finding out how technology could be used for learning. As an instructional designer for over a decade, Julie’s niche interest is in the area of behavior change. She has found that many experts have a deep body of knowledge, but lack the skills on how to teach others. Julie’s experience is that when people who do not have a teaching background try to create a curriculum or teach a class, they are merely mimicking teachers they’ve experienced, and not truly understanding the student’s learning process. What’s missing are learning strategies that a great instructor uses to help their students learn and grow.
As a result, instructors are not putting essential learning elements into their learning experiences. She felt that there needed to be a good book for instructors to learn from in order to add more effective teaching strategies to their toolbox. Her goal with the book was to provide information on the components that need to be considered before a teacher designs a learning experience so instructors start with a solid foundation.
Listen in to find out how :
- Instructor knowledge gaps that can lead to an unsuccessful curriculum
- Habits, motivation, and other behavior changes Julie addresses in her book
- Julie breaks down learning into categories, and how each affects learning
- Avoidable mistakes instructional designers make when designing courses
- Pattern recognition’s role in student learning, and how long students need to see patterns before they become experts in their field
- Opportunities and emerging practices for design behavior change and learning design
- The components of persuasive technology
Our Guest
Julie Dirksen is an independent consultant and instructional designer who focuses on the science of sustainable behavior change. She has helped create learning curriculum for large companies, nonprofits and foundations, and higher education institutions. She's the author of Design For How People Learn, and she's happiest whenever she gets to learn something new. You can find her online at usablelearning.com.
Show Highlights
[02:32] Julie introduces herself and gives a synopsis of her background.
[03:40] How Julie’s book happened and why.
[05:25] Underlying principles of what makes a class a good class for learning.
[07:58] The level at which Julie starts instructors out in her book and where she takes her content from that point.
[09:07] Julie’s suggestions for new instructors on where they should start when designing a curriculum and curriculum creation gaps she’s found in instructors.
[13:23] Avoidable mistakes people make when creating courses.
[16:56] Factors determining how many repetitions students need to learn their material.
[20:45] How should a student know when to look for a hypothesis, a correct answer, or to come to the conclusion there is no answer to their problem?
[22:50] Opportunities and emerging practices for designing behavior change and learning design.
[26:28] Behavior change design opportunities for learning designers.
[28:29] What is persuasive technology?
[33:15] How can professionals in the design field take on the challenge of technology change?
[36:28] Effective and non-effective strategies for teaching.
[38:32] How to structure learning experiences. The design recipe myth.
[42:58] Books that have influenced Julie’s career.
Links
Design for How People Learn on Facebook
Design Better Learning Online Course
Book Recommendation: Design for How People Learn
Book Recommendation: The Headfirst Books
Book Recommendation: Badass: Making Users Awesome
Other Episodes You Might Like
Behavioral Science + Behavior Change Design + Social Impact with Dustin DiTommaso — DT101 E28
The Evolution of Teaching and Learning Design with Bruce Hanington — DT101 E39
Behavioral Design X Service Design with Anne van Lieren — DT101 E40
________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Marion Leary is the Director of Innovation at the Pennsylvania School of Nursing. We discuss innovation and nursing education, University of Pennsylvania’s free online Design Thinking for Health platform, nurses as innovation leaders, and why storytelling matters. Show host: Dawan Stanford.
Show Summary
Design thinking was not Marion’s first focus. She was a researcher for 13 years before taking the role of Director of Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She has a dual degree, with a Master’s in Nursing and Public Health. Marion is currently pursuing her Ph.D., focusing on innovation and design thinking around cardiac arrest and bystander response. She is interested in using design thinking to solve problems in nursing and healthcare.
Marion enjoys the empathetic, human-centered approach of creatively solving problems in health and healthcare, which connects with nursing. She is a leader in design thinking and created the course Innovation and Health Foundations of Design Thinking using a flipped-classroom, active-learning approach. This interdisciplinary course at Penn can be taken by upper-level undergraduate or graduate students, regardless of their major.
Learn how Marion collaborates with other departments to create a successful design thinking cohort, how she coordinated the first Penn Nursing Innovation Accelerator Program, and how Marion is integrating design thinking into her curriculum.
Listen in to find out:
- How nursing and design thinking are similar iterative processes
- More about the Innovation and Health Foundations of Design Thinking course
- How this design thinking course attracts students from many majors
- Marion’s experience on campus leading design thinking students
- Marion’s prediction for long-term trends in nursing and innovative design
Our Guest’s Bio
Marion Leary is the Director of Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing. As the Director of Innovation at Penn Nursing, she works to amplify and educate nurses as leaders in health and healthcare innovation, recently launching a free, online, open access platform called Design Thinking for Health. Ms. Leary is a member of the American Nurses Association's Innovation Advisory Committee, a Founding member of the Society of Nurse Scientists, Innovators, Entrepreneurs and Leaders (SONSIEL), and a member of the American Heart Association's Emergency Cardiovascular Care Innovation Subcommittee. This past August 2019, she was named as an Influencer of Healthcare winner in the category of Excellence in Innovation by the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2017, she was named Geek of the Year for her outstanding achievements in Philadelphia's vibrant geek community in the areas of innovation, technology, and activism.
Show Highlights
[02:22] Marion walks us through her journey to her current position today.
[04:30] How nursing and design thinking are similar processes.
[06:11] Marion describes the design thinking course.
[09:12] Student experience in the design thinking classroom at University of Pennsylvania.
[11:10] Marion’s experience leading design thinking on campus at University of Pennsylvania
[12:30] The first Penn Nursing Innovation Accelerator Program.
[14:05] Her prediction for long-term trends in nursing and innovative design.
[17:14] How do others outside of nursing use Marion’s design thinking resources?
[21:45] Focusing on storytelling as an integral part of design thinking.
[24:49] How healthcare leaders and designers can support nurses in their role.
[27:28] The type of listening that comes with nursing training.
[31:44] Scope of practice and human-centered design.
[35:45] How Marion is integrating design thinking into her curriculum.
[39:14] Resources to use for learning first-aid and first response techniques.
Links
Health Design Thinking by Bon Ku and Ellen Lupton
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Designer's Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38
Healthcare Design Teams + Wellness + ScienceXDesign with Chris McCarthy — DT101 E24________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Anne van Lieren is a service designer and behavior design enthusiast. We talk about her path to joining Livework in the Netherlands as a service designer, where service design and behavioral design are converging, examples from her work, and what happens when you add behavioral design to journey mapping.
Anne discusses her path to Livework with Dawan Stanford, your podcast host. She started working part-time through Livework through the University of the Netherlands and eventually started working at Livework Design full time. Anne worked on numerous projects, including helping organizations to adopt design principles and practices, and innovation projects optimizing current client services or building new service pathways.
Show Summary
With her bachelor’s degree in design from the University of the Netherlands, Anne moved on to Strategic Project Design, which was mostly focused on Service Design. While working on many user research projects, she developed an interest in psychology and behavior, and in understanding why people behave in specific ways. So, she decided to start looking into behavioral science and how this applied to service design.
Find out how Anne bridges the understanding gap for clients within the context of mindset, why she believes experiences are the key to training her client’s mental mindset, and why she focuses on the human-centered mindset. Learn how Anne teaches her clients to be more collaborative, think across departments and stakeholders, and encourages companies to be more experimental.
Learn how Anne:
- Uses situation-specific prototypes for solutions in the workplace
- Teaches companies how to use new and existing tools for design
- Works with creative agility and the positive design that results from working the creative mental muscle
- Specifies the types of mindsets she focuses on in the context of experimental experiences with her clients
- Deals with the expectations of clients looking for solid answers
- Frames the dynamics involved in the design thinking process
- Incorporates behavioral design in the design thinking process to influence others in their behavior
- Builds and designs co-design workshops
Our Guest’s Bio
Anne is a service designer and behavioral expert at Livework Studio. She leverages insights from behavioral science and Livework’s expertise in service design to create environments that make customers aware, active, and able to make better decisions. By fundamentally understanding behavior and designing behavioral interventions, she helps organizations to create a durable impact on behavior change. Her research into nudging was published at a major international conference on design research.
Show Highlights
[02:27] Anne’s path to becoming a service designer.
[03:30] How Anne’s journey took her to working with Livework Design.
[05:01] What process does Anne implement to assist clients in understanding mindset?
[06:38] Anne speaks about creative agility — the creative mental muscle.
[12:12] The source for Anne’s enthusiasm for design based on working with her students on design projects.
[13:52] How incorporating behavioral science basics is beneficial for design thinking.
[16:51] An emotional hot state example and how to design more thoughtful interaction with nudges..
[19:55] Nudges and rational overrides in the context of behavioral science.
[22:31] Negotiations on the delivery side and how Anne handles this conversation.
[24:17] Building and designing co-design workshops.
[27:00] Advice Anne gives for others building co-design workshops.
[29:52] How Anne started using journey maps during her thesis.
[33:31] Anne’s prediction for service design’s future and role.
[36:32] Working on difficult social issues.
Links
The Behavioural Insights Team Annual Update Report 2017–18
Recommended Books: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Cass Sunstein & Richard Thaler
SDGC19 | Anne van Lieren: Customer Behaviour by Design - Influencing Behaviour Beyond Nudging
Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like
Service Design in Healthcare Inside Multiple Business Contexts with Jessica Dugan — DT101 E22
Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38
Behavioral Science + Behavior Change Design + Social Impact with Dustin DiTommaso — DT101 E28________________
Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan
Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps
Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. In today's episode I am joined by Bruce Hanington. He remembers being introduced to design as a small child with his father being a Commercial Designer. Initially headed for a career in architecture, his journey took a detour as an undergrad when he ended up graduating with a degree in Applied Psychology. But Bruce realized he wanted to get into design, and that he wanted to be on the creative side instead of just studying design. During his graduate work in industrial design, he continued his interest in dealing with the more human factors of design, primarily, how design affects everyday encounters and life.
After emerging with an Industrial Design education coupled with Applied Psychology, he landed in academia in the School of Design as a part of the Industrial Design core, able to teach in all the aspects of teaching he loves best, including form giving, human factors, and understanding the interpretation of objects with meaning and significance. His recent promotions included an appointment to the Head of Design at Carnegie Mellon six months ago.
Bruce believes technology, and the products which are a part of our life now as a direct result of technology, are the biggest game-changers for design thinking. The orientation of work toward social causes, and designing for social good, has become an established part of design thinking.
On disciplinary boundaries, “I think you see a broadening of boundaries so regardless of what form of design you may have a particular passion for and how you might study it, ultimately I think that designers have a more broad-based understanding of design and problem solving in general, and design methods, approaches and practices can be applied to almost any design.”
Bruce has seen a shift in design methods over time, especially in the surge of information via books and online courses. He recently authored his own book on design thinking, “Universal Methods of Design.” There’s been a shift in design thinking to design responsibly for everyday living to enhance people’s lives.
Listen in to find out the new hurdles of design thinking, what new companies are looking for concerning the design thinking process, and why design thinking is more of a philosophical approach. Find out Bruce’s opinion on which methods or approaches to design have changed the most in the past decade.
Bio
Bruce Hanington is a professor and head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Prior to this, he was director of graduate studies, and program chair of industrial design. Bruce has dedicated his teaching and research to methods and practices for human-centered design, with an emphasis on design ethnography, participatory design, and the meaning of form in context.
In addition to working with industry partners through collaborative projects and executive education, his work has been published in Design Issues, The Design Journal, and Interactions, with chapters in Affective Sciences in Human Factors and Human-Computer Interaction, and The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design. Bruce is co-author of the book Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions.
In This Episode
[01:06] How Bruce arrived to where he is today.
[05:32] Bruce’s recent promotions in the design field.
[06:35] Factors which Bruce believes are having a significant impact on design in the classroom.
[08:45] Components which are a factor of design maturing in the United States.
[10:21] How Bruce has seen design research methods shift over time.
[13:34] Wrestling with the “rush to artifact.”
[16:48] Companies are looking for ways to design more creatively, flexibly, and collaboratively.
[18:45] Challenges brought to the design thinking table, and responses that work well.
[23:11] Changes and updates that Bruce has recognized in the newest edition of his book.
[28:20] Where students are headed in the future, and what will they need to be equipped with to succeed in design thinking.
[35:38] What needs to happen at the personal level for students and professors.
[38:52] How you can contact Bruce and learn more about his work.
Links and Resources
Bruce Hanington on LinkedIn
Bruce Hanington's articles on Academia.edu
Design Research Methods: a Repository of Research Methods for Design
An interview with Bruce Hanington on Medium
Elon By Design at Elon University
Center for Design Thinking at Elon University
Books Recommended
Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems,
Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions by Hanington, Bruce & Martin, Bella
The Pocket Universal Methods of Design by Hanington, Bruce & Martin, Bella
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today's
Guest is Brittany Merkle. Her design path started at the University of Virginia in the College of Arts and Sciences. During her first semester, her grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. On weekend trips home, Brittany witnessed the incredible service Hospice offered. When she returned for her second year at college, she immediately changed majors and enrolled in nursing. Brittany shadowed nursing students and learned what nursing looked like as a career.
She jumped into qualitative research and realized she wanted her career to combine two things: 1. Creativity, and 2. Make a difference. "These two seemed very siloed in my mind," Brittany remarked. She hadn’t yet considered fusing these two aspects into one career.
Brittany wasn't sure where she wanted to go for graduate school, when she came across the Savannah College of Art and Design. She started with Hospice Case Management, but continued to think of service design in relation to her profession. Brittany enrolled in the SCAD Master's program and started to unlearn her previous content she learned from her Bachelor’s degree, which was her biggest challenge. She was one of the first nurses to graduate from the SCAD program.
She was looking for a new approach to bring to the healthcare system, which she found as a lead innovation strategist with the University's healthcare team. Brittany wanted to make her mark in the system and to challenge herself with the design skills she has learned.
Bio
Brittany Merkle, RN, BSN, supports the innovation and design thinking efforts in UH Ventures. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing with distinction, and is graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with a Master of Fine Arts in Service Design.
She is one of the first nurses to graduate from SCAD, and the first in the country with this specific degree combination. She has experience in Hospice Case Management, and in acute and urgent care services as a practicing Registered Nurse before she began pursuing her Master's. Her thesis focused on service design as a lens for nursing innovation.
Brittany is passionate about the demystification of innovation and catalyzing innovative behavior amongst healthcare providers and caregivers. Her work is focused on enhancing patient and provider experiences through innovative care models and digital tools.
In This Episode
[01:13] Brittany’s background and path to design thinking.
[03:40] Her realization of what she wanted to do with her career.
[06:39] The turning point for Brittany, where her learning became her unlearning.
[08:44] How SCAD spoke to Brittany’s imposter syndrome.
[10:45] Brittany’s design internship.
[12:14] UH’s prototypical healthcare system.
[16:27] New design language Brittany is adapting to her new position.
[17:18] Unique superpowers when she is performing her fieldwork.
[19:33] Advice Brittany would give to other healthcare professionals who do not have a design background.
[27:49] Suggestions for faculty on the innovation side of healthcare.
[30:27] Resources that have helped Brittany along the way.
Links and Resources
SCAD | Savannah College of Art & Design Service Design Program
Dustin DiTommaso’s podcast episode Episode 28, Behavior Change Design
Books Recommended
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today's episode is part two of a two-part series on Design for America. Design for America is a nationwide network that supports design innovation for social impact. DFA was founded at Northwestern University, and is helping to shape the next generation of social innovators and student-led design-led studios on over 40 college campuses. Today, we'll speak to two guests about what Design for America is, why DFA exists, how DFA works, and what the future may look like at Design for America.
We start our episode talking to Kelly Wisneski about her DFA experience, which began at Washington University in St. Louis during her undergraduate education. She knew she wanted to talk to people who were involved in Design For America in the Washington University chapter. She was working on a project related to food insecurity in St. Louis when she realized DFA would be her entry point into St. Louis. Kelly joined DFA during her first semester at university, and found herself on the leadership board in her second semester.
She enjoyed being part of the leadership board and having a hand in growing DFA from a small studio into a more extensive workshop. Kelly assisted others in getting their projects off the ground in her early stages of leadership. In 2019, Kelly has contributed to the building of nine new DFA studios. "DFA is not just design thinking projects, they are projects that are here to make an impact on the people that it matters to the most."
Our second conversation is with Liz Gerber. We first chatted with Liz about how DFA was launched. She worked in the research sector of the toy industry with kids, asking them how they would build their own toys. As a new professor at her university, Liz was not satisfied with just research and publishing. She wanted to launch a new idea that she had brewing. Liz yearned to create a unique educational and impact structure in which students were working directly with community members. She broke down the boundary between the classroom and campus and the “real world,” giving students the ability to tackle and solve real-world community problems.
Bios
Kelly Wisneski is a Program Coordinator at Design for America, supporting DFA studios across the country and working to improve DFA's data systems. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, where she studied Architecture and Computer Science and led her local DFA chapter for 4 years.
Liz Gerber is the Faculty Director and Co-Founder at Design for America. The question that drives her is, "What can I do for others," and she continues to create communities that innovate collectively to tackle messy and meaningful problems. She is a design professor with a passion for understanding social interactions and practical applications for the technology.
In This Episode
[01:34] Kelly talks about her early DFA experiences.
[04:25] Advice Kelly gives for studios that are getting off the ground.
[07:27] What Kelly has learned and what her students have learned when they are a part of the project experience.
[10:57] Kelly highlights some DFA project components she enjoyed learning.
[11:57] How Kelly is working with mentors and guiding them through the process.
[15:08] Kelly’s advice if you want to start a DFA studio.
[16:37] Liz tells the DFA launch backstory.
[20:30] The students’ first challenge: helping children with diabetes.
[22:15] Ten years later: Liz reflects on the work of DFA.
[23:40] Anniversary party for DFA and the DFA chapter’s ripple effects.
[29:13] Open questions about the future for DFA.
Links and Resources:
Liz Gerber at Northwestern University
Contact UC San Diego Design Lab
Elon By Design at Elon University
Center for Design Thinking at Elon University
Design for America Washington University
DFA Receives Cooper Hewitt Design Award in 2018
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today's episode is part one of a two-part series on Design for America. Design for America is a nationwide network that supports innovation for social impact. DFA was founded at Northwestern University, and is helping to shape the next generation of social innovators and design-led studios on over 40 college campuses. Today, we’ll speak to three guests about what Design for America is and what does the experience look like when a member participates in a Design for America studio.
We start our episode with Eric Richards explaining how he founded Design for America on the UC San Diego campus. Eric was interested in human-led design and, coupled with his interest in social impact, Eric started to search Facebook for others who had a similar desire in utilizing both fields interchangeably. He found a Good Design Lab founded by Don Mormont at UC San Diego. Many of the UC San Diego students who were interested in human-led design had worked at this lab. Eric liked the concept, applied to the university, and was accepted to the program.
Through this lab and Don's involvement, many design classes were available to students. Eric joined Good Design Lab as a sophomore - the year after the lab was founded - and took the introductory design class. During his journey with Good Design Lab, Eric became part of a very tight-knit community. He was grateful to have found a community that, like Eric, valued using their skill set for social impact.
Andrew Demas discovered DFA by accident while he was a student. He had a friend who was involved in DFA, and one day Andrew visited the Good Design Lab. He fell in love with the process and how the process affects social impact. DFA taught Andrew how to find out who your user is, gaining empathy for the user, and developing a solution for someone else. His new perspective not only changed the way he solved problems in real-world applications, it also changed his view of how he thinks about his curriculum at school, and changed the way he works towards coming up with solutions.
Throughout this time, Andrew was connected to many other students who had a passion for design and for giving back to their community in a sustainable way. He was able to put his newfound skills to use when he and his classmates rebuilt a community center that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Andrew felt that DFA gave him his best college and learning experience in university, and he’s passionate about his alumni board and networking for future leaders of design thinking and to get more corporations involved with DFA.
William Moner is a faculty member who sponsors a DFA Studio at Elon University. Dawan Stanford approached William to mentor and encourage students to engage in the design process. William talks about the process of creating a DFA Studio, using DFA guides, and bringing together the efforts of everyone involved to make DFA happen on campus. He also discusses the challenges of mentoring and recruiting students for DFA.
Bio
Eric Richards is starting his last year at UC San Diego, where he's studying Human-Computer Interaction and Design for Social Innovation. His interest is in design that empowers communities and advances equity and sustainability. He currently leads Design for America at UCSD, and advises undergraduate humanitarian engineering projects on campus.
Andrew Demas is a Senior Managing Consultant in IBM's Digital Strategy & IX practice and is also the digital account partner for one of IBM's top telecommunications clients. As an IBM Design Thinking Leader, he runs the New York Design Thinking Chapter. His passion for design started with DFA; he served as President of the Barnard-Columbia Design for America Studio for three years, and he currently sits on the DFA Alumni Board.
William Moner is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Elon University and is the faculty mentor for the Elon Design for America studio. He holds a Ph.D. in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas, and his research focuses on emerging methods of storytelling and interactive media production through open software platforms and systems.
In This Episode
[01:28] Eric tells his story of how he founded Design for America at UCSD.
[02:54] Eric’s early experience with DFA chapter on campus.
[05:15] How Eric foresees using his skills in his work in the future.
[06:31] How Eric came into and is currently developing his need-finding skills.
[09:09] The value Eric finds in DFA and his DFA experience.
[13:40] Andrew’s transformative experience with DFA on his university campus.
[15:43] Andrew’s most memorable project to date, and the skills Andrew and his classmates employed to this project, and what he learned from DFA.
[20:03] Andrew and his passion project with DFA.
[26:44] Students start to bring DFA to Elon University.
[32:30] Wicked problems in the DFA Studio at Elon University.
[34:28] William’s advice on how to mentor at a DFA Studio.
[38:58] The work of DFA and who William is grateful for at DFA.
Links and Resources
Contact UC San Diego Design Lab
Elon By Design at Elon University
Center for Design Thinking at Elon University
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I'll be interviewing Tony Hu, who is the academic director at MIT’s Integrated Design and Management Master’s program. We’ll be talking about how Tony discovered design, human-centered design’s impact on students, and MIT’s unique program combining design and engineering management.
We start our episode during Tony’s high school career, with his passion for writing. He started on the journalism team and edited the school newspaper. Additionally, he was interested in gadgets - this was during the Sony Walkman era. Tony was interested in working on a similar technology at the time. His father was an engineer and was a big influence on Tony’s career. He heard MIT was the route to take if he was serious about engineering, so he applied and was accepted, to the dismay of his journalism teacher.
While at MIT, Tony studied transistors and Maxwell’s equations, which was not an enjoyable experience for him. He stuck through the course and found an interesting opportunity with an internship from the media lab working with the “newspaper of the future.” He graduated with an electrical engineering degree; however, he wasn’t actually interested in the field. Tony wanted to learn about other aspects of products and interviewed with IBM in Boston as a Systems Engineer. When he started getting bored selling computers, he decided to look into a career in advertising. He was pursuing a bookstore for advertising books when just a few shelves down he discovered books on industrial design and product design. He found out about night classes at a local college and was hooked! After talking with several people, he found out about the Stanford program and fell in love with Stanford.
Tony talks about the challenges he faced in the early 1980s in the industrial design career. He realizes that students today are challenged with finding multiple solutions instead of just one engineering solution. Students are having to change their mindset and thinking, to offer numerous solutions. Another challenge is interviewing others, especially when they themselves are an introvert.
During his journey, Tony has designed toys and been a consultant to numerous companies. He was the first designer and product developer at a small company that sold baby products. At this first position, he learned the value of testing products. He then went through a succession of companies, exploring his passion for working with toys. His primary interest was to see a product all the way through from design to marketing, and he still wanted to stay in the toy field.
He started his own company creating toys and licensing them out to companies. One of his crazier designs was a bodysuit with casters which you could use to roll down a road! Another design he created was breathable, more comfortable protective gear for rollerblading.
Throughout this time, Tony taught Visual Design at Stanford. He met his wife, and 13 years later when she was expecting her first child and needed to find a teacher for her classes, she suggested her husband for the position. He ended up teaching several of her classes. Through his wife and teaching, he met Matt Kressy, who is an industrial designer from the Rhode Island School of Design. Matt went on to start a design program at MIT and invited Tony to check it out. A few years later, Matt asked him to join the program.
Bio
Tony Hu is the Academic Director of MIT's Integrated Design & Management Master's Program. As an entrepreneurial leader with 20+ years of experience as head of product development at both startups and large corporations, he has brought over 200 consumer products to market globally, including electronics, appliances, toys, and sporting goods, and is a champion of design, creativity, and innovation. He’s also an inventor, with 18 patents and 22 products he designed and licensed himself.
For the past 13 years, Tony has taught design thinking as a lecturer at MIT and Stanford. He earned his Masters in Product Design at Stanford and his bachelor in Electrical Engineering at MIT, where he conducted research at the Media Lab. As a teacher, he is a rarity: an engineer with a background in both design and business. Tony loves sharing his holistic approach to product design with students.
In This Episode
[01:05] Tony talks about his origin story in design and how he started on the path to design.
[05:07] How he landed a job at IBM and his experience at IBM in sales.
[07:01] Tony’s introduction into industrial and product design.
[08:30] Challenges Tony encountered in the early years of working in design.
[11:58] Tony talks about his first product development position and his takeaways from product development.
[16:04] Tony’s steps further down his design journey, focusing mainly on toys.
[20:18] Before the .com boom - more history and working with different companies.
[25:05] Tony talks about meeting Matt and how working with Matt influenced Tony’s path in design.
[27:28] How this unique program is attracting diverse learners.
[30:02] The process of design thinking on product development.
[35:33] Tony’s role in the transformation of teaching design thinking.
[39:08] Find out about Tony’s newest endeavor: Brainy Yak Labs
Links and Resources
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I'll be interviewing Maurício Manhães and talking about his design position at Savannah College of Art and Design, his work at the Service Design Network and as the group leader at the Design Academic Task Force.
In this episode, we talk about the crisis that caused Maurício to shift into service design, how service designers are learning their craft, and his work to create service design curriculum for non-designers.
We’ll explore Maurício's 15-year background in IT and marketing, and his reaction to having a failed project. He couldn't figure out why his project was received poorly by his client until he discovered that he didn't understand the people he was designing for. This was when he found design thinking.
Maurício was intrigued by how service design was based on a complex and systemic approach to social technical design. Through this revelation, he understood his approach to design and problem-solving was flawed. At this point, he decided to return to school. He received a Master's Degree in Knowledge Management, and then a Ph.D, and he then started teaching service design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).
Since Maurício joined SCAD, their program has gained over two dozen students, making their program one of the largest in the world. Students come with curious minds, wanting to know how they can involve stakeholders in the design process and have a better perspective on the social technical design context.
Maurício talks about how he and his department at SCAD are adding new courses pertaining to design to enhance the degree, including how innovation is understood in an adaptive system. The program is very demanding, resulting in two-thirds of the program's students being hired one year before they graduate.
This episode also offers a look at providing the perspective of the complex and active systems of design thinking to non-designers. Maurício explains how he conveys this complex concept to creators without a design background. He also delves into the ethics of service design, the illusion of being able to change a person’s behavior, and common issues first year designers have when they start their career.
Bio
Maurício Manhães is a Professor of Service Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design and an Associate Design Researcher at Livework and the group leader of the Service Design Network Academic Task Force. In 2015, he obtained a Doctoral degree in Knowledge Management with a focus on service innovation at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil in partnership with the Koeln International School of Design in Germany with the thesis "Innovativeness and Prejudice: Designing a Landscape of Diversity for Knowledge Creation." In addition to his professorship, he works on consultancy projects and conducts workshops, courses, and lectures on design, design research, and service innovation worldwide.
In This Episode
[01:10] Maurício’s journey from IT project management into design thinking.
[04:50] He gives background on SCAD department and his role in this department.
[06:54] SCAD department and how their cohort has grown.
[11:16] Curriculum changes to the complexity of the design program at SCAD.
[12:34] Maurício talks about why they are adding complex adaptive systems to the curriculum at SCAD.
[14:09] Two-thirds of students are hired one year before graduation.
[16:06] How service design theory and service design logic prepares students for design at high levels.
[17:53] How Maurício is bridging the gap between learning service design and the perspective of the complex and active systems of design thinking.
[22:24] Teaching service design to non-designers.
[27:02] Ethics of service design and how they play out among non-designers.
[38:13] Common threads on challenges that are faced by first year designers.
[40:41] The early days of design thinking.
Links and Resources
Savannah College of Art and Design
Maurício on the Service Design Network
Maurício’s presentation on the Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design at SDGC18, and the presentation slide deck: Three Overarching Perspectives for Service Design
Interview with Mauricio on the Design Decode website
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I'll be giving you a brief introduction to design thinking. It starts with a story about Doug Dietz. In 2012, Doug was a principal designer at GE Healthcare.
Doug designed a new MRI machine. One day, observing the new model in action at a hospital, Doug encountered a distraught child who had to undergo an MRI. He found out that over 80% of children had to be sedated to receive an MRI. As an MRI machine designer, he felt some responsibility for this. He also saw an opportunity do better for children. So, he spoke with teachers and other professionals who interact with children on a day-to-day basis, asking them how he could make their experience in an MRI machine less traumatic. As a result of those conversations, Doug and his team found a way to modify an MRI machine for children. They added stickers to the floor with water and rock on them. Covered the MRI with stickers that looked like wood planks and sails. Now, instead of a scary piece of hospital equipment, the MRI looked a lot like a pirate ship.. They even created a storybook that accompanied the themed MRI. Parents could read to their child the pirate ship adventure story ahead of their child’s scheduled appointment. These changes resulted in a decrease in the need for sedation from 80% to 27%.
Today, we explore how seeing the problem is an integral part of design thinking, and we’ll break down design thinking into process, methods, and mindset. The process is your step by step "rough" guide. With the methods, we have a bit more cohesion; design methods help us explore problems in specific ways, and guide us to ask questions in new ways in order to discover the right problems to solve. The mindset is something you have to practice your way into, in order to learn how to change your mindset.
At its most basic, design thinking is the discipline of finding human problems worth solving, and creating viable new options in response. In many ways, it's the discipline of helping people ask the right questions at the right time.
This episode also offers a definition design thinking that replaces creativity myths with truths about discipline and action. I break down the design process into Seeing, Solving, and Acting, and talk about why we should think about design from the perspective of the people we serve.
In This Episode
[01:26] Doug’s background in MRI science and his experience with a child getting an MRI.
[03:04] Over 80% of children need to be sedated to have an MRI or a CAT scan.
[06:15] Design thinking can be broken down into process, methods and mindset.
[07:07] What has design thinking given students, and how design thinking can shape curriculum and projects inside the classroom.
[08:02] The definition of design thinking.
[09:57] Creating viable new offerings and what is defined as “new”?
[12:11] Breaking down the design process into its three main components: seeing, solving and acting.
[15:09] Responses generated from a fixed mindset in opposition to the responses from a growth mindset.
[16:51] Everything is a prototype and designers are open to questioning how things work.
[20:17] What Doug was Seeing as he redesigned the children’s MRI experience.
[22:54] Delivering solutions based on what you are seeing.
Links and Resources
Elon By Design and The Center for Design Thinking, Elon University
Design Thinking 101 Podcast on iTunes, and on The Podcast App
Transforming healthcare for children and their families: Doug Dietz at TEDxSanJoseCA 2012
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I'm interviewing Danielle Lake. She is the Director of Design Thinking and Associate Professor at Elon University. As a feminist pragmatist, her scholarship explores the connections and tensions between wicked problems and the movement towards public engagement within higher education. Her current projects focus on exploring the long-term impact of collaborative, place- and project-based learning, design thinking practices, and pedagogies of resilience. Lake is co-editor of the book series, Higher Education and Civic Democratic Engagement: Exploring Impact, with Peter Lang Publishing.
Danielle started her journey by designing her own major; she called "designing life" her philosophy, relating to who we are and what we want to do. In her Ph.D. program, she uncovered "The Field of Wicked Problems," while working with her Ph.D. advisors Kyle White and Paul Thompson, looking at large-scale systemic crises needing a different approach. She had learned from many experts before discovering design thinking, and she asked herself how she could take her teaching, research, and service, and weave them together.
Today, we explore how design thinking has played out in Danielle's teaching, such as redesigning student outcomes so that a final product is a practical solution to a current issue. This way of teaching has flipped the classroom for Danielle, and she talks about how this methodology on student learning has been very impactful in her classrooms. Project-based, relational, and on-going learning experiences are critical ingredients for long-term learning. Early on, she faced some challenges: opening up to students, starting small, and finding ways to invite other experts in and allow them to lead with their expertise. Danielle is looking to continue to design courses to give students the time to delve into the work they value.
We'll also dig into the relationship between design and philosophy, and how they work together to give us a place to start in learning about our environment, being collaborative, and solving societal issues. Danielle also talks about what she hopes to accomplish in her professional relationships moving forward, and we’ll hear a little about Dawan's own journey in discovering design thinking and the creation of Fluid Hive and The Education Design Lab. Dawan also talks about how he was introduced to Elon by Design, and his process of discovering design thinking was part of the Elon culture, and the importance of having the space to learn with others who are practicing design thinking.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
Danielle Lake, Elon University
In This Episode
[02:26] Danielle’s journey into design thinking.
[04:06] Working with her advisors in her PhD program.
[05:25] Discovering design thinking and applying this to new curriculum at Grand Valley State University.
[07:07] What has design thinking given students and how design thinking can shape curriculum and projects inside the classroom.
[09:17] Danielle’s study of the long-term impact on student learning.
[13:32] Danielle speaks about her early challenges when implementing design thinking in the classroom.
[17:20] Where Danielle is now with her new role at Elon.
[19:32] How Danielle helps her students to launch their work forward and apply their work in the community.
[21:05] Students carving out relationships in society, applying their work from university.
[22:11] Danielle’s perspective on the relationship between design and philosophy.
[25:44] She asks, “How are we going to step in and learn from our mistakes?”
[26:39] What is Danielle hoping to achieve with her professional relationships?
[28:16] Dawan talks about where we want to take design thinking in the Elon University Program.
[30:45] Fluid Hive’s launch in 2008 with design work in higher education.
[32:55] Meeting Lambert and realizing Elon was serious about design thinking.
[39:00] The early days for Dawan at Elon.
[41:45] Placemaking and where is the Center going from here?
[44:58] Danielle reimagining how Elon can play a role in design thinking and building relationships to make institutions more fluid and dynamic.
[47:18] Benefits of partnering with other universities and public sectors to bring value and richness to the learning experience and community.
[50:34] Where you can learn more about Elon and Danielle.
Links and Resources
Elon By Design, Elon University’s Design Thinking Program
Recent publications by Danielle at Bepress
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I'm interviewing Jason Schupbach, who is the Director of the Design School at Arizona State University. Prior to this position he was Director of Design and Creative Placemaking Programs for the National Endowment for the Arts, where he oversaw all design and creative placemaking grantmaking and partnerships, including Our Town and Design Art Works grants, the Mayor's Institute on City Design, the Citizens' Institute on Rural Design, and the NEA's Federal agency collaborations. Previously, Jason served Governor Patrick of Massachusetts as the Creative Economy Director, tasked with growing creative and tech businesses in the state. He was formerly the Director of ArtistLink, a Ford Foundation funded initiative to stabilize and revitalize communities through the creation of affordable space and innovative environments for creatives. He has also worked for the Mayor of Chicago and New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs. He has written extensively on the role of arts and design in making better communities, and his writing has been featured as a Best Idea of the Day by the Aspen Institute.
Jason has always been interested in people who harness creative talent and is interested in systems which support creative artists and designers in cities. He wanted to know how he could create spaces for creatives to collaborate and have the ability to solve problems.
Today, we explore how Arizona State University is applying design thinking. ASU is the largest university and is engaged in social justice by creating educational opportunities with Starbucks and Uber. Challenges for design schools and how we need to teach soft skills and power skill sets knowledge.
We'll also dig into how businesses are looking for students who can work collaboratively with soft skills as well as working knowledge of a field. How we can use goals and objectives to build online degrees integrating design thinking and why this must be done collaboratively and without one person delegating the entire process. How privilege plays a role in student preparedness to step into a designer role. Jason's role in providing local schools with how design thinking can be learned and applied inside the classroom. He is passionate about us all being in the boat together, tackling world problems with his programs.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
Jason Schupbach on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonschupbach/
In This Episode
[01:38] Jason’s background and how he arrived as a design thinking leader.
[05:55] Design Thinking applied in Arizona State University.
[06:55] Making the world a better place using research which is valuable.
[08:17] Jason’s pitch to ASU to become a relevant, equitable and collaborative university.
[09:18] The poison in our society with a single leader and no collaboration.
[12:11] Why multiple skill sets are needed to solve today’s complicated problems.
[14:55] Engineering and business school at ASU incorporates design thinking.
[17:15] Assets we can use to build out and harness the power of design thinking.
[19:07] Jason asks, “How do we create and build using architectural mindset?”
[21:41] How students are presenting what they have learned and how privilege plays a role in student preparedness to step into a designer role.
[22:02] Support systems ASU puts in place for students in need.
[27:45] The NASA space map and how students designed future spaceships which they projected into the space model.
[30:35] Changes in US policy which are affecting student’s financial ability and quality of life.
[33:45] The change is coming and why it’s higher education’s job to implement change.
[37:47] Design a good human as well as a good student.
Links and Resources
Arizona State University https://www.asu.edu/
Research and Innovation at ASU https://www.asu.edu/about/research
Next City https://nextcity.org/
Redesign School http://redesign.school/
NEA Grantee https://www.arts.gov/video/new-nea-grantee-orientation
National Endowment for the Arts https://www.arts.gov/
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I'm interviewing Jason Schupbach, who is the Director of the Design School at Arizona State University. Prior to this position, he was Director of Design and Creative Placemaking Programs for the National Endowment for the Arts, where he oversaw all the design and creative placemaking grantmaking and partnerships, including Our Town and Design Art Works grants, the Mayor's Institute on City Design, the Citizens' Institute on Rural Design, and the NEA's Federal agency collaborations. Previously, Jason served Governor Patrick of Massachusetts as the Creative Economy Director, tasked with growing creative and tech businesses in the state. He was formerly the Director of ArtistLink, a Ford Foundation-funded initiative to stabilize and revitalize communities through the creation of affordable space and innovative environments for creatives. He has also worked for the Mayor of Chicago and New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs. He has written extensively on the role of arts and design in making better communities, and his writing has been featured as a Best Idea of the Day by the Aspen Institute.
Jason has always been interested in people who harness creative talent, and he is interested in systems which support creative artists and designers in cities. He wanted to know how he could create spaces for creatives to collaborate and have the ability to solve problems.
Today, we explore how Arizona State University is applying design thinking, and its engagement in social justice by creating educational opportunities with Starbucks and Uber. We also talk about the challenges for design schools, and how we need to teach soft skills and power skill sets’ knowledge.
We'll also dig into how businesses are looking for students who can work collaboratively with soft skills as well as a working knowledge of their field. We’ll talk about how we can use goals and objectives to build online degrees that integrate design thinking, and why this must be done collaboratively and without one person in charge of the entire process. We’ll discuss how privilege plays a role in students’ preparedness and ability to step into a designer role, and Jason's role in providing local schools with how design thinking can be learned and applied inside the classroom. He is passionate about us all being in the boat together, tackling world problems.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
Jason Schupbach on LinkedIn
In This Episode
[01:38] Jason’s background and how he became a design thinking leader.
[05:55] Design Thinking applied in Arizona State University.
[06:55] Making the world a better place using research.
[08:17] Jason’s pitch to ASU to become a relevant, equitable, and collaborative university.
[09:18] The poison in our society with a single leader and no collaboration.
[12:11] Why multiple skill sets are needed to solve today’s complicated problems.
[14:55] Engineering and business school at ASU incorporates design thinking.
[17:15] Assets we can use to build out and harness the power of design thinking.
[19:07] Jason asks, “How do we create and build using an architectural mindset?”
[21:41] How students are presenting what they have learned and how privilege plays a role in student preparedness to step into a designer role.
[22:02] Support systems ASU puts in place for students in need.
[27:45] The NASA space map and how students designed future spaceships which they projected into the space model.
[30:35] Changes in US policy that are affecting students' financial ability and quality of life.
[33:45] The change is coming and why it’s higher education’s job to implement change.
[37:47] Design a good human as well as a good student.
Links and Resources
Arizona State University https://www.asu.edu/
Research and Innovation at ASU https://www.asu.edu/about/research
Jason's ASU Profile
Design School at Arizona State University
National Endowment for the Arts: Our Town, Art Works
Mayors' Institute on City Design
Citizens' Institute on Rural Design
Aspen Institute 5 Best Ideas of the Day
Putting the Artist to Work for City Resilience; Creative Placemaking: 100 Resilient Cities
Curry Stone Foundation's Social Design Insights, "Who Designs the Designers?"
Welcome to the Design Thinking podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I’m interviewing Dustin DiTommaso. Dustin is a designer and researcher who works to integrate the study and application of behavioral science and human-centered design to develop digital interventions that change real-world behaviors. In 2009, he founded the Behavior Change Design practice at Mad*Pow, where he and his team have designed effective interventions for improving health, financial well-being, and life-long learning.
When he’s not working on client challenges and creating new real-world interventions, Dustin teaches “Design for Behavior Change and Social Impact” at the Rhode Island School of Design. He also collaborates on grant work with colleagues from University College London’s Centre for Behaviour Change and other academic affiliations.
Today, we travel down the path that Dustin took to get to where he is today. From his work at Botticelli Interactive, through the advertising world, and then back home to design, Dustin chats about his need to impact society in a meaningful way, and why behavior change design has resonated the most with him.
Dustin shares information on how he and his team approach their design projects and the methods they use to quantify and qualify third-party research. He also delves into their use of the COM-B model in creating, applying, and implementing their designs. They even use this framework when explaining the product to their clients!
Dustin shares several fantastic resources that he has written and used to inspire his design mind. He also provides some insights on how gamification in behavioral design has been used inappropriately and how it could be better.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
Dustin on LinkedIn
Dustin on Twitter: @DU5TB1N
In This Episode
[01:28] Welcome to the show Dustin DiTommaso! He shares how he moved into designing for behavior change.
[03:20] How self-determination theory and motivation helped shape Dustin’s design practice.
[04:39] After realizing advertising was not for him, Dustin met Amy Cueva, the founder of Mad*Pow, and moved into using design to change lives.
[06:13] How do projects flow in behavioral design?
[11:15] When there are conflicts in the evidence, how do they compare and use that information?
[15:15] What kinds of methods do they use and how do they adapt them in the design stage?
[16:16] The COM-B model and how it applies to behavioral change design.
[22:19] COM-B is used to address all kinds of questions and tailor approaches for all involved.
[23:30] How do new designers react to the model?
[27:00] When walking clients through the details of the model and application, how do they break everything down?
[28:47] Do their client workshops help their team as well?
[32:38] Dustin shares more about his work in gainful design as applied to different contexts.
[38:15] What approaches to teaching about gainful design have been working?
[42:53] Learn what resources Dustin recommends to those looking to get into behavioral design.
[45:59] What is most impactful from a design perspective for those in public health?
[48:31] Some final resources… and how to find Dustin!
Links and Resources
The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schon
Innovation with Information Technologies in Healthcare
Botticelli Interactive
Why We Do What We Do by Edward L. Deci
Self-Determination Theory in Practice by Jennifer LaGuardia
Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen
AR & VR for Behavior Change by Julie Dirksen, Dustin DiTommaso, and Cindy Plunkett
The Art & Science of Engagement by Dustin DiTommaso
Health Experience Design Conference (HXD 2018): Dustin DiTommaso - Keynote
Welcome to the Design Thinking podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I’m interviewing Alix Gerber. She’s currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and has been developing and teaching courses there, such as Radical Design, where undergraduate students imagine alternatives to civic experiences like policing, capitalism, or voting. During our conversation, we talk about speculative design, designing for justice in Ferguson, Missouri, teaching radical design, and how her practice and teaching have influenced her as a design researcher.
Alix is a design researcher who works with people to visualize and enact the futures we imagine, provoking discussion around how our society could be more equitable and meaningful. Alix has worked with residents of Harlem, New York, and Ferguson, Missouri, to explore alternatives to our current policing and court systems by making artifacts from divergent futures.
She grew up in a family of designers; both of her parents as well as her brother have all chosen careers in design. She enjoys learning from her students when teaching her Designing Creativity: Innovation Across Disciplines class at Washington University. Alix is always learning and restructuring her teaching method to create a better learning experience for the students in her class, and working to design real life experiences for her students to learn from at the university.
Today, we explore Alix’s design career path from her start while attending Cornell University, and then following her design experience and growth through several different design types and projects during the last eight years of her career. Alix explains the different types of design she has used, when each type of design worked well in a project, and how the design tools she uses are applied in design thinking.
We’ll also dig into her teaching assignment, where Alix instructs undergraduate students on social design issues, and on understanding the impacts of different design perspectives on society.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:26] How Alix started her career with taking human-centered design at Cornell.
[03:00] Her shift to design with social problems, her shift to graduate schools and why she wanted this shift.
[03:57] Alix’s time at Parsons and studying transdisciplinary design.
[05:25] Types of projects she participated in when studying transdisciplinary design.
[07:25] Speculative design and how this differs from problem-focused design.
[09:01] How she assists clients with a speculative design project.
[11:45] Framing alternative problems in a design project.
[14:53] Alix’s work in Ferguson - how her work started and developed.
[19:18] Speculative design tools Alix uses in everyday work on her projects.
[21:14] How Alix defines radical design within design thinking and what she is teaching at Washington University.
[27:44] Light bulb moments for students in context to understanding the user experience.
[29:44] What Alix does to assist her students when they are struggling with ideas in class.
[29:44] Using radical and speculative design and her work projects in relation to how they influence Alix as a design researcher.
[39:45] What Alix would like to be practicing over the next few years based on her cumulative experiences in design.
Links and Resources
Email Alix at designradicalfutures@gmail.com
Washington University in St. Louis
The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schon
Innovation with Information Technologies in Healthcare
Introduction to Speculative Design Practice
Elliot Montgomery, Assistant Professor of Strategic Design and Management
Extrapolation Factory Operator's Manual
Neighborhood Policing Steering Committee (NPSC) Ferguson, MO
Alix learned about non-reformist reform from Shana Agid, Assistant Professor of Art, Media and Communication, Mariame Kaba (Prison Culture), and Critical Resistance.
Kees Dorst, Professor, Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation
Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming, by Dunne & Raby
Convivial Toolbox by Liz Sanders & Pieter Jan Stappers
Discursive Design by Bruce and Stephanie Tharp
Welcome to the Design Thinking podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I’m interviewing Boris Divjak. He is a service designer and strategist based in the U.K., with 13 years of experience in creating digital services. He leads and advises teams on digital innovation projects in complex environments, such as local authorities and healthcare organizations, as well as commercial enterprises. Boris collaborates closely with clients in all stages of the innovation process, from initial customer research and co-design workshops through to developing a live service. He works best in an agile environment, where iterative improvements and open communication help guide the team towards a shared goal. Boris has been working in the public sector for the last few years; his current focus is on creating better public services outcomes and using service design and design thinking to deliver solutions to social problems.
Today we explore Boris’s path from his career start in visual design, which led him into web design and from there, finding his way to service design. Boris explains his perspective on service design, and what types of models and prototypes he uses when he is designing. He also talks about how companies can take a look at a series of changes to understand how their products have an impact on the public sector, and how companies can connect their work to specific outcomes to be more confident in their product output.
From his beginnings in a small startup in technology to his current position as a service designer, Boris talks about his experiences with service design, from client engagement to the characteristics he believes the ideal project advocate should have.
We’ll also dig into his project, Prototyping for Impact, which offers a toolkit that anyone involved in innovation - in both the public and private sectors - can use to guide their innovation process. Boris tells us more about the project’s purpose and what he hopes the project will accomplish.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
NESTA Levels of Evidence Report
In This Episode
[01:32] How Boris got started and how his career trajectory played out.
[03:23] Challenges in moving from visual design to a service design career.
[06:20] Boris’s unique perspective of service design, and his design process.
[09:30] The relationship between work and outcomes.
[11:03] How outcomes chain together to make change.
[14:45] The need for having evidence to support your outcomes, and what assumptions can be made from outcomes.
[20:02] How Boris encourages client interest and client participation in service design.
[24:38] The characteristics of the ideal project advocate.
[26:45] How to work with clients who have deep institutional knowledge, and thus have the ability to shift the energy of the group.
[27:14] Boris gives details on his Prototyping for Impact project.
[31:49] Boris talks about experiences, books, and information that assisted him in service design.
[34:40] How you can contact Boris and get more information about his current work and projects.
Links and Resources
Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 Podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I’m interviewing Steve Reay. Steve is currently director of Good Health Design, a collaborative design studio at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. He is affiliated with the Designers Institute of New Zealand. Steve's research focuses on how the design of products and services may have a positive impact on people's health and well-being.
Today we explore Steve’s path from scientist to his role as the director of Good Health Design. Good Health Design enables designers to engage with clinical experts, healthcare professionals as well as researchers from other disciplines, to share and test ideas and develop unique solutions. We dive deep into team creation, what factors are important in team creation and which details are important particularly in the healthcare industry.
SSteve and I talk about the reality of design thinking in healthcare, what makes the most successful projects successful, and how one of the factors to a successful project is how people work together. The type of time it takes in order to build a successful team.
We’ll also dig into his project, Initiate.Collaborate: a new collaborative project can often feel like stepping into the unknown with an ongoing learning curve, a clash of worlds and perspectives within constraining systems and structures. Initiate.collaborate is a card game that is fun and enables responsive and responsible collaborations.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
Design for Health & Wellbeing Lab
In This Episode
[01:43] We hear about Steve’s background, and his experiences which led to where he is today.
[02:58] What Steve carried over from his career as a scientist to his career as a designer.
[04:21] Steve’s first projects in the healthcare space.
[07:42] How Steve finds the right people for his project teams.
[09:26] Relationships and how they make successful projects.
[12:07] Steve’s advice on what to look for when creating a design team in the healthcare organization team.
[14:35] What different qualities design teams should have to be successful.
[18:37] Bringing community work into the healthcare field and working in community projects.
[22:38] Steve’s thoughts on design thinking in relationship to design thinking and discipline formation.
[29:29] What Steve is exploring with design thinking.
[33:12] Steve’s relationship with his students and how he views the learning journey.
[37:02] An example of how Steve’s team worked on design thinking with a client and using a co-design process.
[45:54] The excitement which comes along with the initial phase of design thinking.
[49:16] Resources Steve uses with his design thinking lab.
Links and Resources
The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schon
Welcome to the Design Thinking podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I’m interviewing Chris McCarthy. He is the Vice President of Strategy & Design at Hopelab where he is excited to deepen its impact on the health and wellness of young people through design and systems thinking. He is also the Executive Director and Founder of the Innovation Learning Network.
Today we explore the different pathways of healthcare and the effect of design thinking on the healthcare industry, the beginnings of design thinking in the healthcare industry and why design thinking is so challenging to implement in the field of healthcare.
One of the most important factors for Chris was to not put the Innovation and Design team out front first. Putting the Innovation and design team out first “triggers the immune system of the organization” as the team is so different from the other sections of the company. He explains why he had the innovation and design team behind the scenes when working with staff members.
Chris and I talk about the subtle dance of support and help, along with people being able to tell their story with their voice for the staff to have a say and a stake in the process of development in the design innovation realm.
We’ll also dig into his projet, Hopelab which is a social innovation lab focused on designing science-based technologies to improve the health and well-being of teens and young adults.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:58] We hear about Chris’s background, and how his experience in business and marketing helped to lead him to where he is today.
[03:14] The precursor to human centered design.
[04:54] Iconic IDO Shopping Cart video in 1999.
[06:30] Chris and Christi Zuber start running design projects and the company grows.
[09:21] The list of what “not to-do” when running a business inside of healthcare.
[16:58] Humility is a large factor in design thinking.
[18:48] Different types of designers and their success in implementing new design thinking models.
[20:44] The convergence in the field of design thinking and the importance of being mission driven.
[21:14] We hear Chris’s response to the setting of new, young hires in design thinking
[26:20] Chris lists the necessary, mandated rules of sharing information within the medical field.
[28:09] Chris talks about the procedures within the team of Kaiser Permanente during the early years.
[30:12] Working within co-opting the different constraints of healthcare.
[38:53] Dawan and Chris talk about working with students at Hopelab and furthering health. and mental well-being for students.
[46:58] Good, better and best research methods for design thinking.
[51:22] Starting up and running the Innovation Learning Network.
[56:42] The challenges different industries are facing.
[61:03] Where can people learn more about Chris and his work.
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schon
Innovation with Information Technologies in Healthcare
The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation.
Accelerating Innovation Through Coopetition https://journals.lww.com/naqjournal/Fulltext/2018/01000/Accelerating_Innovation_Through_Coopetition__The.5.aspx?WT.mc_id=HPxADx20100319xMP
Kaiser Permanente’s Innovation on the Front Lines https://hbr.org/2010/09/kaiser-permanentes-innovation-on-the-front-lines
Welcome to the Design Thinking podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. David Dunne, Professor and Director of MBA Programs at the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, joins me today. David and I were introduced by Paolo Korre, who you may remember from an earlier episode of the show! We’ll chat today about a range of subjects, including the use of design thinking in redesigning an MBA program.
As you’ll learn today, David’s background in experience and marketing helped to lead him to design thinking. When he returned to school intending to become a professor, he found himself deeply interested in student-centered methods of teaching. He worked in design on the side, taking sabbaticals to spend time with designers and in design schools.
Design thinking is a practitioner’s art, and it takes experience with it to really make the methods your own. This applies both to my own journey and David’s, and we’ll explore the concept today in our conversation. We’ll also talk about the struggle to help students to make methods their own, rather than only learning the methods.
David and I talk about helping people to achieve the ability to think about how they’re thinking. He recommends meditation as a powerful tool to reach this space of metacognition, and suggests the book Why Buddhism Is True. David also teaches students about cognitive biases and runs exercises to help them discover which biases are most prevalent in their teams.
We’ll also dig into his book, and what designers or people on design pathways can learn from it. He’ll explain the three tensions that he sees in a design thinking process: inclusion, disruption, and perspective. We’ll also hear about the four models for how designers can respond to these tensions. Don’t miss this deeply informative episode with a wonderful guest!
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:18] — We hear about David’s background, and how his experience in business and marketing helped to lead him to where he is today.
[07:13] — What was the learning curve like for David during his early projects?
[09:55] — Dawan thinks of design thinking as a practitioner’s art, he explains, and you develop your strengths and see your weaknesses through its practice and interaction.
[12:35] — How often does Dawan succeed in getting his students to make methods their own, rather than simply learn the methods?
[15:31] — An important aspect of design thinking is that the process brings you face-to-face with your own limitations, David points out.
[18:17] — David responds to Dawan’s perspective on having a “provisional mindset.”
[18:41] — What other aspects of mindset has David been exploring in his work?
[24:21] — David talks about the feedback loop that can result when you don’t do basic sketches to begin with.
[28:46] — We hear David’s response to what Dawan has been saying about the challenges involved in working with teams.
[31:01] — Is there anything that David has seen really help people move into the space of thinking about how they’re thinking?
[36:35] — David talks about the three tensions that exist in a design thinking process, and what they suggest for designers or people on design pathways.
[40:14] — The second and third tensions are disruption and perspective, David explains.
[45:17] — David talks about the four different models of ways of acting in relation to the tensions that he covers in his book.
[51:10] — One of the conversations that Dawan often has early is that these methods aren’t appropriate in all contexts, he points out.
[52:25] — David explains something that he has found universal.
[57:40] — We hear about an experience that David had early in his journey as a designer, and he points out that design becomes instinctive over time.
[61:42] — David mentions that he’s co-writing a book with Paolo Korre.
[62:07] — Where can people learn more about David and his work?
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
David Dunne’s bio at the Gustavson Brand Trust Index team leaders page
The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schon
Why Buddhism Is True by Robert Wright
The Total Economic Impact™ Of IBM's Design Thinking Practice
Design Thinking and How It Will Change Management Education: An Interview and Discussion
Welcome to the Design Thinking podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. I’m excited to welcome Jessica Dugan to today’s episode. Jessica is a Design Principal on the Healthcare Design team at 3M Design. She has worked in the healthcare industry for over five years. In our chat today, you’ll learn about her journey as a designer into her current role, her experience as a service designer in healthcare, and the lessons she’s learned that might serve others.
As Jess will explain today, she also comes from a non-traditional background. Her undergraduate degree is in writing and journalism, but she soon realized that wasn’t her path. She began getting into design, and realized that the part of writing that resonated with her was the ability to connect with people. She went back to graduate school for design, and joined a service design consulting firm.
Because Jess has worked in various significantly different environments, it’s fascinating to hear her perspective on how they differ, as well as what the transitions were like. She’ll also explore her experience in the healthcare industry in general, and share some of the key lessons she took away from her experience at United Health.
In addition to exploring these topics, Jess will also dive into the potential value in service design, using service design from a Scrum perspective, and what she has had to deal with in healthcare that might be invisible to people in other design fields. She’ll recommend several powerful resources that have been invaluable for her, and share some insight into topics that she recommends for future episodes.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[00:32] — Dawan introduces today’s guest, Jessica Dugan.
[01:55] — Jess starts things off by describing her journey as a designer. Like many of the guests on this show, her journey has been full of fascinating twists and turns. She also talks about her role at 3M Design now.
[10:38] — We hear more about Jess’ transitions between the various environments that she has worked in.
[16:18] — As a designer, what are some of the key lessons that Jess took away from her experience at United Health?
[18:42] — Jess shares a piece of advice that she would give to someone having their first experience doing service design inside a large healthcare organization.
[21:30] — Jess talks more about the role of language and its nuances across different roles, and as an indicator of experience.
[22:35] — We hear more about Jess’ transition into 3M.
[25:44] — How has Jess noticed her approach as a designer shift with the shift in the group of people she’s designing for?
[28:24] — Jess explains how she explains what’s possible and the potential value in service design.
[30:59] — Dawan expands on what Jess has been saying about connecting the aspirational to the operational.
[34:23] — We hear more about the early days of taking service design into a Scrum process as is used at 3M.
[37:54] — From a healthcare perspective, what kinds of things has Jess dealt with that might be invisible to designers working in other fields?
[41:42] — Jess talks about how she has seen prototyping play out differently.
[43:23] — What are some of the books and resources that have helped Jess along the way?
[48:10] — Jess talks about whether there are any open questions she’s wrestling with, or other topics that she would like to see on the show.
[52:12] — Where can listeners learn more about Jess and her work?
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
Communicating the New by Kim Erwin
101 Design Methods by Vijay Kumar
Welcome to the Design Thinking podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. Jess Roberts joins me today for a conversation about the designer’s role in healthcare, problem-finding with healthcare experts, the importance of the design studio in his work, and design thinking in public health. Jess leads the Culture of Health By Design initiative of the Minnesota Design Center at the University of Minnesota. He also holds faculty appointments at the University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing and School of Public Health.
After receiving a master’s in architecture, Jess found that the practice was incredibly technical and had very little to do with his education in the field. He also found that he had very little space to practice problem solving, because what he did was just responding to decisions that had already been made. He realized how much more useful what the did would be if it occurred at the beginning of the decision-making process than at the end.
Jess realized that he didn’t want to be an architecture at all, but wanted to put his valuable training to good use. He stumbled across design thinking, which put a language to what he had been doing. After landing an appointment that involved human-centered design, Jess found himself surrounded by naturally skeptical epidemiologists. Tune into the episode to learn about how this worked out for him!
In this compelling conversation, you’ll learn about the importance of using design at the right stage of the process. Jess will also explore one of the greatest fallacies of innovation: that great ideas just suddenly pop up. We’ll talk about the process of design (and why it is a process rather than a toolkit), what he’s most excited about working on right now, and much more.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:44] — Jess kicks things off by talking about his journey into his design practice, and explaining his struggles with architecture.
[06:38] — About two months into Jess’ appointment at his position, the only person who knew what human-centered design is left.
[08:36] — We hear more about how Jess made what he does more relevant to his audience in this position.
[15:48] — You should always start with what is known, Jess points out, and explains that design opens the question of “what could be?”
[18:29] — Jess digs more into his experience of learning to think about design as more than just building.
[22:09] — We hear about having moved into an interconnected, virtual realm of mass customization. Jess also talks about the importance of figuring out what people want or need, and three key insights into parents.
[30:28] — At the end of the short engagement that Jess has been describing, the project was terminated.
[31:30] — Dawan takes a minute to talk about the outcome and unpack some of what Jess has been saying.
[32:09] — What was it about the new evidence that allowed for a shift and reframing of what needed to happen?
[34:51] — Jess points out that too often, design is used to sell or convince stakeholders that an approach or product is necessary.
[36:25] — Dawan chats about the problem space and the solution space. Jess then talks about one of the greatest fallacies of innovation.
[41:08] — We hear about the three key spaces that people operate in within Jess’ line of work.
[46:14] — Jess talks about the process of design.
[50:46] — Dawan brings up the topic of the role of the designer, and how that role adapts itself to the context.
[55:06] — We hear more about Jess’ thoughts on sharing the role of designer with the community.
[58:01] — In the work that Jess is currently doing in public health, what is he most excited about?
[60:22] — Where can listeners learn more? Are there any resources that Jess would recommend?
[63:44] — Jess shares some closing words of wisdom for listeners.
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
Rethinking Design Thinking on Huffington Post by Thomas Fisher and Jess Roberts
Welcome to the Design Thinking podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. My guest today is Paolo Korre, Director of Service Design and User Insight for SE Health, a not-for-profit healthcare company in Ontario, Canada. We’ll chat today about Paolo’s transition from industrial design to design thinking in the healthcare space, challenges he faces as a designer working in healthcare, and his experience with being the lone designer on an innovation team.
Paolo reached industrial design through a love of fine arts, drawing, painting, and crafts. He did his undergraduate degree in industrial and product design. He assumed he would be working on making furniture or other “stuff,” but soon realized that this isn’t what the world really needs. As he evolved beyond traditional design, he went back to school for further education. Eventually, he was able to bring design thinking back home.
In our conversation today, he’ll dig into how his skills in design relate to his work in healthcare (and how he convinced people to give it a shot!). For example, he explains that he worked on a project around improving the experience of patients receiving private care. As a result, they ended up launching Elizz, a whole brand dedicated to supporting family caregivers.
Paolo has experienced being a lone designer as well as being part of a team of designers and part of an innovation team. It’s all part of a learning journey, he explains, and speaks of trying to figure out how much design method he can apply in these various roles. Whether you’re a solo designer, part of a team, or not sure yet where your design path will take you, don’t miss this informative and insightful episode.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:50] — Paolo talks about his journey into design, and how he got started.
[07:35] — When Paolo went to design school, what were some of the shifts and transitions in his skillset or or approach that happened as a result?
[09:25] — Dawan shares his perspective on discipline being a gateway to creativity.
[11:46] — Paolo shares some of the experiences that helped him internalize the process as he was studying and training.
[13:57] — When Paolo moved into healthcare, what were some of the methods or skills that he had to adjust or learn?
[16:55] — What helped Paolo persuade people to give design in healthcare a shot?
[22:17] — Dawan draws out one of Paolo’s points around how the stakeholder map changes as we age.
[26:08] — Paolo mentions a trend involving being patient-centered, and the problem with this concept.
[28:07] — How has Paolo explored the different modes of (being a lone designer, part of a team of designers, or being part of an innovation team)?
[32:04] — Dawan mentions the benefits of having a futurist on a team, and his own introduction to being a futurist.
[34:49] — We hear more of Paolo’s thoughts on the “MAYA” (most advanced yet acceptable) option, and how far he can push things.
[38:07] — Paolo responds to Dawan’s point about wishing for a team to bounce ideas off of.
[42:15] — When Paolo thinks about the opportunities to connect with peers, what are his hopes?
[47:31] — Paolo recommends other resources that have been useful for him.
[50:10] — We learn that Paolo has been redefining the boundaries of his practice because he’s constantly encountering new sources of understanding.
[53:07] — How much does Dawan focus on design mindsets?
[54:53] — Paolo talks about where listeners can find him, get in touch, and learn more about his work.
[56:10] — Does Paolo have any insider scoops on Service Design Global Conference Toronto 2019?
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
Ten Types of Innovation by Larry Keeley et al.
101 Design Methods by Vijay Kumar
The Better Government Movement, Amy explains today, is built for public servants. She realized that the baton (in terms of innovation and transformation in building 21st-century government) isn’t adequately being passed on. She collaborated on research on creating change and transformation in government, and the best ways to create something that is useful and scalable across government.
When Amy was getting started with the initial conversations around innovation and design in this realm, she started with the people who were leaning into the conversation. These early adopters, she explains, are the people who will help you unlock what the culture or organization should turn into. In addition to this powerful insight into getting through to the right people, Amy will dig into how to pass the torch and help to ensure that processes are passed on.
Amy will also share tips and insights into how to teach and support innovators, including focusing on learning to relieve pressure, and to get comfortable with ambiguity. She’ll dig into how and why she created her own innovation toolkit, and how it stemmed from her work at the Better Government Movement. She’ll explore her personal journey (and the tendencies that lead her toward burnout), list some resources and references that might interest listeners, and offer powerful insights that I hope will help you along your own design thinking journey!
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:17] — We hear about Amy’s innovation and design journey, from where she got started to how she arrived where she is today.
[06:48] — Dawan takes a moment to talk about the pathway into design thinking.
[08:24] — Amy talks about the history of the Better Government movement, where it is now, and how she’s applying her skills there.
[11:48] — We learn about the plan Amy came up with to translate the information she had found into something that many people could access.
[15:33] — How did Amy navigate the initial conversations around design and innovation to get people active?
[17:50] — Dawan talks about the sweet spot in the double diamond, and Amy discusses ways that she provided value.
[22:22] — How does Amy’s work live on today in terms of the terms and processes she used, or the impact she had?
[27:12] — Amy talks about what she learned from her first cohort about what works when supporting innovators.
[31:13] — We hear more about staying in the problem space, and a specific risk that comes along with it.
[33:10] — Amy talks about an innovation toolkit that came out of her Better Government work.
[39:32] — What are some of Amy’s recommendations for people trying to communicate around innovation with people working in government?
[42:29] — We learn about some of the things that Amy has pulled from her journey in terms of change and transformation.
[48:26] — Dawan invites listeners to close their eyes, imagine standing on a platform and not wanting to jump, but feeling the heat of the platform burning behind you. That, he points out, is the kind of urgency to go for.
[52:12] — Amy has been on her own personal journey associated with what Dawan has been talking about, she explains.
[55:58] — Dawan talks about one of the joys of prototyping.
[57:04] — Are there any resources or references that have been really useful for Amy?
[59:50] — How can people learn more about Amy and her work?
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
Amy’s toolkit and playbook publication on her website
Compendium of design thinking resources compiled by Amy’s friend
Adam Royalty, founder of the Columbia Entrepreneurship Design Studio and long-time lecturer at the Stanford d.school, joins me today. We’ll dig into topics including reflective practices in design education, designing for learning, and connecting design thinking to change management and change leadership.
Every time I’ve had a chance to talk with Adam, I’ve come away with all sorts of thoughts and ideas. I’m excited to have him as a guest on the podcast, and hope he can spark similar inspiration for you!
One important point that Adam makes is the need for reflection. He’s been doubling down on having students reflect, and supporting that reflection in very intentional ways. In our conversation, you’ll hear how students respond to this, and how Adam uses it as a powerful tool to encourage and support creativity. Often when he’s teaching design, it’s to help teach students a creative process so that they can solve problems and become more innovative.
I’ve been wrestling lately with the mashup between design thinking and learning design, in terms of how to help learners approach creating learning experiences and learning environments in a “designerly” manner. Adam points out that the process depends on your goal, which isn’t necessarily the same in different learning environments.
In addition to all of this, Adam and I will talk about where he sees practices involving design thinking and design service going in the next several years, the ways we’ve been working with narratives and storytelling in design practice, why it’s so vital that we focus on discipline in addition to creativity, his reading recommendations for further information, and much more.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:38] — What are some of the themes that Adam is wrestling with in his work right now?
[04:10] — Adam talks about how he’s seen reflection play out in the classroom, in terms of how students respond.
[07:02] — Has Adam used similar practices outside the classroom, such as with teams or organizations?
[09:16] — We hear about what Adam is learning about what transfers outside the classroom into other domains.
[14:00] — Adam shares his perspective on the broader conversation of design thinking pedagogy and service design pedagogy.
[17:23] — Dawan has been wrestling with how to help learners approach creating learning experiences. Adam shares his thoughts on the subject.
[23:31] — How does designing for learning affect Adam’s thinking and approach for synthesis?
[28:22] — Adam talks about where he sees the practices involving design thinking going in the next couple of years.
[35:52] — Dawan is seeing more openness to using the designer’s lens in his work, he points out.
[37:22] — Adam responds to the points that Dawan has been making, then the two of them talk more about narratives.
[43:06] — We hear Dawan’s thoughts on what Adam has been saying about working with other disciplines.
[48:40] — Dawan talks about the role of discipline, not just creativity, in design.
[53:11] — Has anything else come to mind for Adam that hasn’t come up yet in the conversation?
[55:51] — What are some references, papers, or books that Adam has found to be particularly influential or meaningful to him or students he’s worked with?
[58:58] — Adam talks about where listeners can learn more about him or read his writing.
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
Columbia Entrepreneurship Design Studio
Today’s guest is the remarkable Linn Vizard, currently an independent service designer based in Toronto. Linn writes and speaks frequently on service design, and has taught on the topic around the world. In today’s conversation, we’ll talk about creating customer journey maps (and other maps), implementation challenges with service design, and accessibility in service design.
Linn shares her journey today, including mentioning that she found herself more interested in people than things as she was studying design. When she started bringing together the service design community in Toronto, she encountered some confusion, and she’s enjoyed the process of illuminating the topic for people and creating connections with those interested in service design.
Maps, Linn points out, have become a ubiquitous tool and have become a compelling entry point for people. They’re also a powerful tool for getting people excited, and to visually create a shared understanding of the space you’re working in and where the opportunities might be. Linn will also share some powerful words of wisdom about why you should go ahead and create a map as a tool to reveal what we don’t know.
In our conversation, we’ll talk about diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in the realm of design. In Linn’s previous work in UX, more time and attention was paid to accessibility, she explains. This exposed her to ways of thinking about how people might be using assistive technology, for example, which has influenced her more recent work. As she transitioned into doing more service and customer experience work, Linn noticed that the conversation about accessibility was almost completely absent.
Tune in to hear all about these topics, as well as the idea of double delivery, how designers can position themselves as part of a bigger team in delivering services, how to think about paying attention to soft metrics or less-tangible changes, what it means to be a leader or facilitator of a design process, which references and resources have particularly impacted Linn, and more!
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:18] — Linn talks about her journey as a design practitioner, and how she arrived where she is today. She also discusses how she has continued to develop and expand as a practitioner.
[04:04] — What has it been like to bring together the service design community in Toronto?
[05:22] — We hear about some of the common threads that Linn has seen in the Toronto service design community.
[07:40] — What Linn has mentioned is one of the threads that flows into Dawan’s work at a very practical level, he points out.
[09:04] — Linn talks about how maps relate to the opportunities in the service design space.
[12:39] — Does Linn have any other stories of when mapping has worked particularly well in her practice?
[16:33] — We learn how Linn has helped people she’s working with to make the best use of the artefacts.
[21:37] — Linn talks about the question of how you’re enabling and inviting people to contribute. She and Dawan then talk about double delivery.
[24:21] — We hear about a huge challenge that the design practice is facing now, and the ways it’s showing up.
[27:40] — Linn discusses Paul Adams’ talk “The End of Navel Gazing.”
[29:13] — We hear more about taking measurement beyond the usual suspects as part of the role of a service designer.
[34:43] — This conversation goes back to what it means to be a leader or facilitator of a design process, Linn points out.
[38:25] — Dawan talks about the use of silence in workshops.
[40:43] — We hear about the questions and terrain that Linn is playing with in her work when it comes to the topics of diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
[45:37] — Linn talks about going to a workshop run by Rebecca Benson, and she and Dawan talk about the daily decision about which piece of the learning mountain to attempt to climb.
[46:40] — What are some resources or references that have been particularly meaningful or useful for Linn?
[49:29] — Where can people learn more about Linn’s work or connect with her and support what she’s doing?
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
We Are Here: Designer as Mapmaker by Linnea Vizard in Touchpoint (Vol. 8 No. 3 — February 2017)
Visual Thinking and NeuroLeadership by Dave Gray
“The End of Navel Gazing” talk by Paul Adams at UX London 2018
#a11yTOConf (accessibility conference in Toronto)
On Women and “Good” Places to Work by Nora Jenkins Townson
Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
Interviewing Users by Steve Portigal
Service Design by Andy Polaine, Ben Reason, and Lavrans Løvlie
The Service Experience Conference
“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Give Service Design Away” talk by Jamin Hegeman
Today I’m joined by the remarkable Doug Powell, a Distinguished Designer at IBM who directs the global tech company’s program to scale design and design thinking. Doug is also an award-winning designer, a thought leader, and a lecturer and commentator on design issues.
In our conversation today, Doug and I will cover some tactics and strategies for growing a design practice inside your organization, thoughts on how to measure the value of design thinking and communicate that value, and talk about building design thinking capacity in design thinking studios.
When he joined IBM, Doug explains, the company’s design aspect had dwindled from its heyday when it was led by Thomas J. Watson and Eliot Noyes. For a couple decades after this design heyday, design was de-emphasized in the company. In 2012-2013, the company reinvested in and recommitted to design thinking. In our conversation, you’ll learn about some of the challenges that Doug faced during the process of reviving design thinking and creating a new class of workspaces where design could thrive.
Doug points out that design thinking has a branding problem, since the word “design” can be confusing for people outside of the industry. People think of visual design, product design, fashion design, or interior design. He then defines design thinking as, “a way of solving complex problems in a collaborative, multidisciplinary way, with a focus on the user.” It’s about collaboration and cross-disciplinary work, not making anything pretty. This, he explains, is how he would describe the value of design thinking to someone not familiar with the concept.
In addition to all of this, Doug will talk about trying to help people get the essence of design thinking in an online learning environment when design usually relies on being so hands-on. He’ll also dig into the value and impact of design thinking at IBM, including some of the less-obvious results. You’ll hear about whether Doug’s process is right for everyone, what a design studio is and why it’s valuable, how his bootcamp is structured, and much more!
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:33] — We hear about Doug’s design career, and how he arrived at the point where he is now.
[08:00] — Doug talks about the state of design and design thinking at IBM when he arrived, and touches on the history of design thinking at the company.
[10:31] — What were some of the initial challenges that Doug and his team faced at IBM?
[15:08] — We learn more about the non-designer connection challenge that Doug mentioned a moment earlier.
[19:33] — Doug shares some thoughts on how his strategies, and the ways that he has pursued them, have developed over time.
[25:33] — What are the keys to making the online learning environment, content, and approach effective in Doug’s program?
[27:11] — We hear about Phase 4 of Doug’s process, which they’re just getting into now. He also talks about the interest being fueled by recent work around measuring the value and impact of design thinking at IBM.
[32:09] — How does Doug talk to potential clients about whether they’re ready to implement design thinking at their company in the way he’s done it at IBM?
[34:51] — Doug offers advice for how to answer the question of what design thinking is.
[36:48] — What is a design studio? And how does Doug help people find their own magic people?
[40:56] — We hear about how Doug sees the future, in terms of challenges on the horizon and how he might tackle them.
[43:17] — Doug talks about where the designers at IBM came from, and the choice to invest in emerging designers.
[46:30] — How is the boot camp experience that Doug has been describing structured?
[49:51] — We hear Doug’s thoughts on university learning experiences.
[54:00] — Dawan shares one of the reasons that he was excited about doing work at Elon University.
[55:55] — Where can listeners learn more about Doug’s work and what’s happening at IBM with design thinking?
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
Julie Schell is the Executive Director of Learning Design, Effectiveness and Innovation at the University of Texas at Austin, and an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Design and the College of Education at UT Austin. Julie and I met a while back, and we did some work together at a fantastic convening at the University of Texas at Austin. I’m thrilled to have her on the show, especially given her focus on teaching and learning design thinking and human-centered design.
Design thinking has hit a peak this year based on Google searches, Julie explains, which demonstrates that there’s a lot of interest in the field. Most of the people who are making these searches are unlikely to be formally trained designers, but instead are probably individuals outside the field who are looking for opportunities to innovate.
Julie is enthusiastic about these people being able to learn design thinking, and digs into how to go about that in the right way. For example, she points out that when you’re working with someone who doesn’t have a prior knowledge basis for what they’re trying to learn, you can’t expect long-term, sustained, deep learning to occur after learning in an accelerated model. She also emphasizes the importance of humans (and human contact) in learning human-based design.
Julie also believes that we have a responsibility to democratize education and strip the elitism from design, and sees part of her role at UT Austin as being exactly that. She talks in our conversation about how she does this and her practice with self-regulated learners who don’t have the privilege of enrolling in graduate programs at the university.
Tune in to learn more about all of these topics, as well as what a self-regulated learner is (and why that matters), some ways to facilitate self-regulated design thinking, the importance and four key sources of self-efficacy, and some great resources related to all of these ideas.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
Julie Schell at the School of Design and Creative Technologies at the University of Texas at Austin
In This Episode
[02:09] — What’s happening in Julie’s world in terms of teaching design to non-designers and human-centered design pedagogy?
[04:00] — Julie addresses some of the responses she’s seen and how they’re working (or falling short), as well as some ways that non-designers can learn about design thinking.
[10:36] — We hear about Julie’s thoughts on the forms that deceleration can take in learning design thinking and human-centered design.
[16:25] — What are some things we can do to satisfy the demand for a boot-camp experience but help with the problem of experiences that set people up to implement poorly?
[21:22] — Julie shares her thoughts on how we can set people up to have a deeper learning pathway and talks about self-efficacy, including its four sources.
[30:42] — What would Julie’s advice be for a faculty colleague who will be teaching in this space for the first time?
[32:35] — Dawan talks about one of the things that he stresses with new learners: the emotional moments that he’s seen, and the normalcy of those feelings.
[36:59] — Julie points out how making the struggle visible can be refreshing for students.
[37:38] — Julie shares her recommendations for someone looking to make a career shit and build skills in this area.
[40:26] — We hear about the importance of finding what the self-interested and self-transcendent purposes for learning are.
[43:53] — What are some books, links, or references that Julie recommends to learn more about design thinking pedagogy or self-regulated learning?
[46:45] — Where can people go to find out more about Julie and her work?
[47:36] — In closing, Julie points out that all design has an element of learning to it.
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
Julie Schell at the School of Design and Creative Technologies at the University of Texas at Austin
Design Thinking Has a Pedagogy Problem at SXSW EDU
Design Thinking Has a Pedagogy Problem… And a Way Forward by Julie Schell, EdD
Julie’s Design Thinking Pedagogy Reading List
Why Don’t Students Like School? by Daniel T. Willingham
Make It Stick by Peter C. Brown and Henry L. Roediger III
Desirable Difficulties to Create Learning by Veronica Yan
Creative Confidence by Tom Kelley and David Kelley
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
Hidden in Plain Sight by Jan Chipchase
The School of Design and Creative Technologies at the University of Texas at Austin
Stephanie Wade, my guest today, leads the Innovation Teams program at Bloomberg Philanthropies. She helps cities around the world develop and implement innovative approaches by using design, data analytics, and behavioral economics to deeply understand complex problems. She has applied design thinking at the federal, state, and local levels.
Stephanie is an artist in multiple mediums. She got to where she is as many designers do: via a meandering and non-traditional path. Now, she’s at a point where she sees a clear thread running through all the work that she’s done to lead her to exactly where she is now. She believes that strong designers put their whole selves into their work, and that’s what makes them good in so many ways
As a “design activist,” Stephanie believes in the power of design to be transformative. As a result, she explains, she’s also protective of design, thanks to having seen the pitfalls and consequences of doing design wrong. If you screw up design at an organization, the people there who aren’t interested in change will look for ways to fault this new thing, meaning you don’t have a lot of leeway to keep trying if you don’t do well from the beginning.
As a first step toward succeeding rather than messing up, it’s important to have a strong team. Stephanie believes that a good team should have diverse people from different backgrounds, even beyond design. At least one of the people on the ideal team should come from inside of the organization in question. In our conversation, Stephanie will also dig into what she sees as the traits of an effective team leader in the field.
Other topics we focus on in today’s episode include training design teams for projects, building design thinking capacity inside organizations, and some of the unique leadership challenges that both of these activities present. Stephanie will also talk about where she sees her work heading in the future, lessons and insights that she’s learned during her time in design, and much more.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[02:03] — Stephanie starts things off by talking about her trajectory, how she got started and learned, and what’s been fueling her passion.
[12:46] — What are some of the lessons that Stephanie has picked up along the way as she has worked in capacity-building?
[15:32] — We hear about some of the characteristics of what it looks like when capacity-building and design is done well.
[18:22] — Stephanie talks more about the kind of team she would like to see to really make things work.
[21:21] — What are some of the characteristics of a more mature successful team?
[23:43] — Stephanie talks about some of the challenges that she has faced in leading design teams in various contexts.
[27:45] — We hear more about the work that Stephanie is doing now, and how the various teams at Innovation Teams come together.
[33:32] — What are some of the things that are consistent across the different teams that Stephanie directs?
[36:32] — Stephanie talks about how she’s helping people get their heads around combining design thinking and system-level thinking.
[38:33] — Where does Stephanie see the work that she’s doing now heading in the future?
[43:48] — We hear about whether there are areas in which Stephanie would welcome ideas or support.
[45:31] — Are there any other resources that Stephanie has found particularly useful?
[47:38] — Is there anything else that Stephanie has on her mind or wants to talk about?
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
La 27e Région (LINK NOT WORKING)
Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko
Tune into today’s episode to hear my conversation with my friend and colleague Karen Hold, an innovation strategist who helps individuals and organizations build cultures of creativity and collaboration using the language of design thinking. Our conversation today will cover her path from brand management at Procter & Gamble into design thinking, her leadership at Summer of Design and Design Thinking DC, how she works with individuals and teams as they learn and practice design thinking, and much more.
Karen is the daughter of a lawyer, and points out that she grew up in a home that used auditory language to communicate. She married into a family of visual communicators, and discovered that she’s more of a visual communicator than an auditory communicator. This opened up a learning journey for her about how people communicate, and how some learners can be lost in conversations because they don’t communicate in the language that is being used.
Design thinking gave Karen a framework to find an intersection where various learning styles can be optimized. She became a voracious reader on the subject, digging into books such as Designing for Growth and The Experience Economy. She has since focused her career on equipping others with the tools to do this kind of work using alternate communication styles.
In our conversation, Karen digs into the process of leading people through their first encounters with design thinking. She points out that communication and helping people to organize their thoughts clearly is a big part of the process, and explores the importance of collaboration and the role of a leader in helping to develop it.
Tune in to hear more about all of these topics, as well as the warning signs of a struggling team (and some strategies for getting them back on track), the trend toward virtual collaboration with teams, the relationship between community partners and the design teams at Design Thinking DC, the role of peer coaches, and other fascinating and valuable topics.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
Karen Hold at the Design Gym
Karen Hold on LinkedIn
In This Episode
[01:42] — We hear about Karen’s learning journey, and how design thinking has been involved in her career.
[07:31] — What were some of Karen’s aha moments in the early reading and learning that she did?
[09:27] — Karen talks about what Design Thinking DC is, and what she’s doing there.
[12:42] — Dawan takes a moment to unpack some of what Karen has been saying about design leadership. Karen then talks more about leading people and teams through their first encounter with design thinking.
[16:36] — We hear about warning signs for team dysfunctions, and ways that Karen has helped teams to get back on track.
[20:39] — Karen talks about virtual collaboration, and what you lose when you sacrifice the face-to-face experience.
[23:37] — We hear about how Karen has evolved her practice of aligning people’s expectations with what’s possible in Summer of Design.
[26:26] — What are some of the things that Karen has done to keep the relationship with community partners healthy?
[31:34] — Karen goes into more depth about what’s attractive about Summer of Design to sponsors and partners.
[34:56] — We learn more about Karen’s work for her own clients, which she explains is the same as what she offers through DT:DC.
[38:04] — What are some simplifications that Karen has done to ease the introduction to design thinking?
[41:21] — Karen talks about her workarounds when she encounters resistance with students or clients.
[45:20] — How can peers become peer coaches?
[46:29] — We hear about patterns that Karen has seen across her work that give insights into where design thinking is headed.
[50:36] — Are there any big questions that Karen is wrestling with, or challenges or ideas she wants to share with the community of listeners?
[53:18] — Karen recommends that people follow her on Twitter, or email her at dckarenhold@gmail.com.
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
Karen Hold at the Design Gym
Karen Hold on LinkedIn
Designing for Growth by Jeanne Liedtka
The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore
The Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland
I’m joined by Martin Dominguez Ball, a graphic designer who teaches design thinking at Fordham University. He’s also the cofounder at WOMB Service Design Lab. We’ll talk about what works for students in the design thinking classroom, how Martin has helped people wrestle through working visually, and the connections between design thinking, art, and making, as a teacher and practitioner.
Martin, who hails from Uruguay, had a long path into design thinking. As an entrepreneur, he owned a business for over a decade, and mentions that he applied design thinking to this business without really knowing what it was. His passion, though, was being an artist. He eventually decided to close the company and pursue the things important to him: education and art. Tune in to the episode to learn how this process evolved into him teaching his design thinking course.
In the process of getting his degrees, Martin developed a love for academia. Design thinking gave a framework to what he had been doing intuitively, and he fell in love with the methodology and method. You’ll hear him explain how this methodology gave him a different perspective on business and allowed him to get ahead of the curve by listening to what people were saying.
Martin explains that he has observed that people often have strong assumptions of what the problem is, and getting rid of those assumptions can be a challenge and a point of frustration. He finds that teaching design thinking involves guiding students to think beyond the first or fastest idea or solution, and bringing them back to the drawing board over and over.
Tune in to hear more about all these topics, as well as the excitement of seeing students understand the reason for certain methodologies, why design thinking isn’t the ideal answer for every problem that comes up, the value in prototyping (even if students are skeptical at the beginning), and the powerful effect that Martin’s eclectic background has on his approach to teaching design thinking.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
Martin Dominguez Ball on LinkedIn
Martin Dominguez Ball on Facebook
In This Episode
[01:17] — Martin introduces himself, and talks about his background and pathway to where he is now in design.
[03:58] — We hear more about Martin’s experience of falling in love with design thinking.
[07:15] — How has Martin’s approach and understanding evolved since the first moment of connection with design thinking? Martin answers, and talks about where people struggle with problem-finding.
[11:14] — Martin talks about how people react to coming back to the original or needing to reassess their original assumptions.
[14:24] — We hear about students’ “ah-hah” moments that Martin has seen, and feedback that students have given on how the class has changed things for them.
[17:16] — How did Martin’s design thinking course come about? He answers, then elaborates on his “where does it fit?” question.
[20:10] — Martin talks about whether the conflict between service-dominant logic and goods-dominant logic is involved in the conflict that he has just described.
[23:23] — We hear about some things that have helped Martin to teach and lead people through a design process, and how the rest of the faculty has reacted to his course.
[25:22] — Martin provides more information about the design lab that he and his wife run.
[28:15] — What would Martin’s advice be to an entrepreneur who is interested in developing a new service or improving an existing service?
[30:11] — We hear about where Martin sees design thinking going in the next few years.
[33:38] — Dawan shares some of his own thoughts about explaining how design thinking works as a way of moving from problem-situation to solution-situation.
[36:42] — Martin talks about the value of prototyping.
[39:13] — We hear more about how Martin helps people work more visually and see the value in doing so.
[43:37] — What are Martin’s thoughts on how his mix of influences affects the way he approaches design thinking?
[46:54] — Martin shares some resources that he has found particularly useful.
[49:04] — Martin points out that he is constantly learning from his students, and relates this to his experience teaching guitar.
[51:39] — Where can people learn more about Martin, his work, and his practice?
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
Martin Dominguez Ball on LinkedIn
Martin Dominguez Ball on Facebook
IBM Design Thinking Field Guide
Tune into this episode for a fascinating conversation with Aaron Faucher, a product designer focused on design ethics and augmented reality. You’ll hear about lessons from his path into design for augmented reality and virtual reality with clients such as High Fidelity, Alpha Computing, and Designation Labs. We’ll also dig into how being a Master’s student at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University builds on that experience, and where he sees his design practice going as he explores the intersection of UX design and emerging technologies.
As Aaron shares, he’s early in his design career, and has been working professionally in the field for a bit over two years. His first exposure to design thinking was when he was an undergrad, when his focus was on social impact. He became obsessed with the question of where the logical end point of emerging technologies is, and started looking at technology as a social issue. Since then, Aaron has been trying to situate himself in the design world around augmented reality.
At one point, Aaron learned about the concept of affordance, and the idea that we live in a state of action-potential in a digital world. This felt groundbreaking to him and helped him to rationalize the hyper-connected state that many people feel themselves in. He also explores the power of getting outside of the box of his own ideas.
Aaron moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in August 2016 to try to find a job there, since that’s where a lot of AR and VR developments are happening. He worked on hustling and networking there, and describes the experience as a “trial by fire” that put him in his place as a designer. The process led to a couple of freelance opportunities. One thing led to another, and he has been able to work on some VR creation tools.
Tune in to learn more about all these topics, as well as where Aaron sees his design career going in the future, questions that he wrestles with, the advice he would give to an undergraduate who is interested in his field, what resources he recommends to people who want to learn more, and much more!
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[02:01] — We hear a bit about Aaron’s background and what brought him to where he is now.
[05:16] — When Aaron made a connection between his design thinking experience and UI/UX, what in particular helped him recognize the connection?
[06:39] — Aaron talks about how he has built the skills and connections to make the leap into his design career.
[08:52] — Was there a moment or experience when Aaron’s thinking about design changed?
[11:12] — We learn more about Aaron’s road into designing for AR and VR.
[15:10] — Aaron talks about some opportunities and projects that came from his networking in the San Francisco Bay Area.
[17:03] — What are some of the challenges and workarounds that Aaron faced in the projects he has been talking about?
[20:14] — We hear more about Aaron’s thoughts on healthy versus unhealthy interactions.
[23:43] — Where does Aaron think that things will go from here for him as a designer? What are some of the questions he’s wrestling with on his design journey?
[27:03] — Aaron shares the recommendations he would give to an undergraduate who wants to enter into design in the AR/VR space.
[29:59] — Are there any online references or books that have been exceptionally helpful in Aaron’s journey so far?
Links and Resources
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University
I’m joined by Eugene Korsunskiy. Eugene is a design thinking consultant and the Senior Coordinator of Design Initiatives at the University of Vermont. Both there and at Stanford, Eugene has taught classes like “Design Thinking” and “Designing Your Life.” In our conversation today, we’ll talk about how and why he became a designer, his insights from teaching “Designing Your Life” to Stanford students, and aspects of creating good design thinking learning experiences and design teams.
When he was in college, Eugene thought he wanted to be an architect. As he studied architecture and interned in the field, he learned that it’s a lot more about fire codes and occupancy permits than he had hoped, and his romantic notions of the field faded away. He still knew, though, that he wanted to be in an occupation that involved creating something for people while using both halves of his brain. Eventually, design replaced architecture, and Eugene went to grad school for design instead.
The most interesting part of a designer’s job, Eugene points out in an interesting case study he shares today, isn’t necessarily finding the information you were looking for; instead, it can be finding a weird discrepancy in the human condition. In another example, he explores the effect that a course on design thinking has on undergraduate students’ beliefs, especially the common belief that one’s major absolutely determines one’s career.
Eugene and I will cover a wide range of other specific topics, including concerns that students (and parents) may have about and during his courses, how to “sneak up on your future” so your future doesn’t sneak up on you, what Eugene has gotten out of teaching his classes, the traits that makes the best leaders for design projects, and much more.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:26] — We hear a bit about Eugene’s background and how he arrived where he is now.
[05:45] — What were some of the early experiences in Eugene’s program that helped him make the conceptual shift from the solution side to the side of finding and solving problems for humans?
[09:25] — Eugene shares his early experiences with design in his life.
[13:36] — How did Eugene see students change from the beginning to the end of the course he has been talking about?
[18:02] — Eugene talks about how he would convince a skeptical parent of a student that a course on design thinking is a valuable activity.
[19:19] — What are some patterns where students struggle with Eugene’s courses?
[22:19] — Students often have a hard time shifting away from the idea that there is one correct path, Eugene points out.
[24:41] — What are the experiences and exercises that students go through to understand the key practices of designing your life?
[29:58] — Eugene talks about how he would help a student who’s struggling with the multiple possible pathways by focusing on only one.
[31:33] — What has teaching the class done for Eugene, and how has it affected him?
[33:58] — We learn about a class that Eugene has been teaching for the last several months.
[40:47] — Eugene talks more about design leadership, and the distinct set of skills, experiences, and methods involved in that.
[48:23] — What if Eugene’s brief was to create an experience where everyone who goes through it emerges with the basics of design leadership?
[50:59] — Eugene shares what’s going on with him and where he’s headed, including his upcoming plans to teach at Dartmouth.
[53:21] — Where can people find out more about Eugene and his work?
Links and Resources
Design Thinking (course at the University of Vermont)
Designing Your Life (course at Stanford)
Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
I’m happy to announce that today’s guest is Nathan Ritter, a design researcher at IA Collaborative. We’ll talk about how his path to being a third-generation mechanical engineer turned into a design research career. We’ll also talk about transforming clients into design evangelists, before closing with a project that Nathan and his colleagues are working on to bring a design icon back to life.
As you may have guessed, Nathan came to design from an engineering perspective. Going through a project to assist a woman with rheumatoid arthritis helped Nathan discover that, for him, human-centered design is more interesting than doing mechanical analysis on a computer screen. He changed his major, and continued his studies through a masters program. He points out that he’s not departing from the work of his forefathers so much as emphasizing a different part of the same process.
In our conversation, you’ll hear about a time that Nathan was in grad school. He, along with a team of all men, were working on a project about feminine care products. He points out that having all men on the team was surprisingly not entirely a bad thing; it eliminated the often-present risk of designing for yourself. He’ll also talk about other challenges he’s faced, including the transition from academic project work to client services.
If you’re curious about the basic skills that go into Nathan’s work, you’ll love this episode, in which he digs into some of the surprising skills he uses every day. He finds himself turning into a human thesaurus, for example, and comes back to writing (and verbal communication more broadly) over and over. He also emphasizes the importance of empathy, and the associated abilities to listen closely, reinterpret, and respond to what participants tell him.
Nathan will also talk listeners through his multifaceted new client education process, the importance of having people understand who their customers are and what their customers are doing, how he moves from exploratory research into evaluative research, and more. Excitingly, you’ll also hear about his fascinating project to bring the incredible Humanscale tool back to life.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
Reissue of Humanscale on Kickstarter
In This Episode
[01:40] — What brought Nathan to design, and how did his journey take place?
[04:15] — We hear about how Nathan’s family of engineers took his career change from engineering into design.
[07:25] — Nathan talks about a time when he was pulled into a leadership role during an opportunity for design research in grad school.
[09:48] — What other kinds of leadership challenges has Nathan faced?
[13:05] — We learn more about where Nathan usually starts with new client education and the multifaceted approach that he takes.
[17:22] — How does Nathan know when the transformation that he has been talking about has occurred in someone? And how does he keep people fired up and on board, even though projects can take a while?
[20:13] — Nathan takes a moment to explain the difference between two terms he has been using: “exploratory” and “evaluative.”
[23:06] — We hear about how the relationship with a client can evolve, as well as some of the constraints and why it’s so important to engage the client in the design process.
[24:56] — As a practitioner, what are some of the basic skills that Nathan uses on a day-to-day or regular basis?
[27:42] — Nathan describes what it feels like when the design team (on his side) is humming along and functioning well.
[30:16] — Dawan pivots into another topic: Humanscale. Nathan describes what this fascinating tool is, both in terms of its historic value and its efficacy as a tool.
[35:45] — The problem with Humanscale is that it’s incredibly hard to find a set, and copies have sold on eBay for over $1,000 each, Nathan explains. He then reveals his solution: recreating the set thanks to funding from Kickstarter.
[37:27] — Nathan talks about what sparked all of this for him.
[42:52] — Where can people go to learn more about Nathan and his work?
Links and Resources
Reissue of Humanscale on Kickstarter
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
I’m excited to speak with Rebecca Horton, a designer, coach, and long-time colleague and friend. In our conversation, we’ll talk about how to coach and lead design teams, some design thinking methods she has found valuable, and how design thinking and coaching converge.
Rebecca has always been interested in design, but believed as she grew up that you had to pick a discipline within design (such as being an interior designer, graphic designer, or fashion designer). In her early teenage years, she was fascinated by fashion design, and was captivated by runway shows on TV. She later went to college for political science and public policy because it was practical and pragmatic, and picking a specific design discipline didn’t appeal to her.
After college, she discovered the design thinking field, which had the language to explain what she had been craving, and doesn’t force you to choose between disciplines. She returned to school, started her own practice, and worked in the corporate design world.
In our conversation, Rebecca will dig into a specific example of an instance in which things didn’t go according to plan, which ended up being exactly the turning point that made her work so successful. She’ll also explain how she was able to maneuver and adjust to create this positive outcome from unexpected circumstances, and explore the controversy surrounding customer personas.
As you listen, you’ll also hear powerful advice that you can apply to your own work and methods. For example, Rebecca advises clients to “welcome the stranger,” meaning that instead of telling someone unexpected to leave, invite them in and use the opportunity to understand why they might be there. Tune in to hear more about all of this, as well as Rebecca’s thoughts on blueprints, customer journey maps, and much more.
Learn More About Today’s Guest
In This Episode
[01:11] — Rebecca digs into how she got into design, what her early training was like, and how she got to where she is now.
[03:27] — What have been some of the challenges or “aha!” moments that Rebecca has faced along her path so far?
[07:59] — Rebecca talks about what ended up happening in the situation she has been describing, in which things didn’t end up going according to plan.
[11:22] — What ended up happening as a result of what Rebecca has described is that the process became much more collaborative, she explains.
[15:25] — We hear about the experiences that helped Rebecca get to a point where she was able to do the maneuvering, adjusting, and listening she has been describing?
[16:48] — In co-creating with a student team or client team, what are some of the things that help them get past the initial hurdles with working with the design process?
[18:33] — How would Rebecca describe how she approaches pulling together a set of tools that leads to solutions that stick or results that last in her work?
[24:23] — Rebecca talks about some of the adaptations she’s had to make to using tools she learned as a student as she brings them into the world.
[27:38] — We learn about Rebecca’s thoughts on customer personas.
[30:58] — How would Rebecca differentiate her in-house experiences in using those tools from the experiences she’s had in her own consultancy?
[34:21] — Rebecca discusses the resources and suggestions that she gives people who want to learn more about design thinking or how to bring it into their work.
[37:40] — What are a couple of books that Rebecca would recommend? Her suggestions include The Design of Business, Moments of Impact, and The Power of TED*.
[40:19] — Rebecca talks about how her experiences as a designer influence her as a coach.
[42:20] — Where is Rebecca headed on her design journey?
[44:58] — Rebecca talks about where people can find her to learn more about her and what she does.
Links and Resources
rebecca@thetrestles.com (Rebecca Horton)
Service Design Global Conference
The Design of Business by Roger Martin
Moments of Impact by Chris Ertel and Lisa Kay Solomon
The Power of TED* by David Emerald
yes@designthinking101.com (Dawan Stanford)
