Design Thinking 101: Recent Episodes

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When I first connected with Jason Trew (callsign: TOGA), I knew this conversation would challenge some assumptions about where design thinking belongs. Jason is an Air Force fighter pilot and strategy leader turned professor. What emerged from our conversation wasn't just another story about design thinking adoption, but a deeper exploration of what he sees happening when we distinguish between capital-D Design Thinking and lowercase-d design thinking, and why that distinction matters for everyone trying to create meaningful change.

Jason's journey from F-15 pilot to design educator reveals something crucial about how design thinking transforms not just what we do, but who we become as problem solvers. His work with thousands of Air Force officers, his deployment experiences in classified operations centers, and his current role (*at the time of recording) teaching at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) offer unique insights into how design thinking functions when the stakes are genuinely high.

Listen to Learn About:

• What's the critical difference between capital-D Design Thinking and lowercase-d design thinking, and why does this distinction matter for practitioners?
• How can design thinking principles function effectively in highly structured, high-stakes environments where traditional approaches dominate?
• What role does psychological safety ("feeling safe, supported, and stretched in meaningful ways") play in enabling creative problem-solving?
• How do we balance the need for systematic approaches with the emergent, integrative nature of actual design work?
• When should leaders prioritize conditioning people into a "ready stance" versus teaching specific design methods?

Our Guest

Col Jason "TOGA" Trew (US Air Force, retired) represents a fascinating intersection of military leadership, academic rigor, and design practice. After graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy and flying F-15s, Jason spent his final military decade revolutionizing how the Air Force approaches strategy education and leadership development. He earned a PhD in the history of technology, served as Dean and Vice Commandant of the Air Force Leadership School, and led design teams for Space Force education initiatives. Now a Professor of Design Management at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Jason brings a unique perspective on what happens when design thinking meets organizational realities where failure isn't an option. (At the time of recording.)

Episode Highlights

[02:10] Jason's journey from F-15 fighter pilot to design educator through strategy school and a PhD in technology history

[03:30] Discovery of a book dedicated to Icarus as hero rather than cautionary tale, sparking interest in playfulness complementing practicality

[04:20] How design thinking became curriculum at Air Force Leadership School serving 4,000 students annually

[05:10] Jason's certification in Lego Serious Play for facilitating innovation sprints and strategic thinking workshops

[07:20] The crucial distinction between capital-D Design Thinking and lowercase-d design thinking

[09:00] Capital-D focuses on activities and checklists; lowercase-d develops embodied sensibility for knowing what to do next

[11:40] Design thinking as conditioning people into a ready stance for handling surprise rather than teaching linear processes

[13:00] Why Jason believes design thinking changes the people involved, with problem-solving as bonus rather than primary goal

[14:40] How design thinking shifts perception to see multiple options beyond binary choices

[15:30] Jason's approach to ambiguous assignments that allows students to surprise him with creative solutions

[17:30] Learning design principles that avoid constraining student intelligence for the sake of rigid academic standards

[18:50] Design thinking's spillover effects on leadership and education beyond formal design practice

[22:40] Design thinking as fundamentally human activity connected to living well and building better communities

[25:10] Coffee shop door story illustrating how design changes your eyes to see problems everywhere

[26:40] Design as integrative discipline that's undisciplined in the best academic sense

[28:40] Framework of design as expedient - practical, opportunistic, and contextual rather than optimal

[30:00] Why expedient design requires ethical sensibility to guide this human superpower responsibly

[32:30] Jason's faith that if we designed current systems, we can design something better

[36:40] Deployment story of creating psychological safety in classified military operations center

[38:30] Using Lego as thermoplastic polymer strategic thinking tool to overcome initial skepticism

[39:00] Daily check-ins asking team members if they feel safe, supported, and stretched in meaningful ways

[41:10] Danger of treating organizational roles as reality rather than abstractions of actual people

[43:30] Failed redesign of Air Force Leadership School and lessons about empathy work threading through entire processes

[46:00] Dawan's diagnostic questions about organizational readiness and past innovation attempts

[48:30] Strategy for identifying key voices—influencers, critics, curmudgeons, and creators—in organizations

[49:00] Power of storytelling as diagnostic tool and method for strategic thinking

[50:40] Interest in story casting and narrative intelligence using physical artifacts like Lego Serious Play

[51:00] Connection to UN Principles for Responsible Management Education and sustainable development goals

[52:40] Jason's call for partnership in bringing design skills to local and systemic governance challenges

Questions to Help You Go Deeper

Learning

• What surprised you most about Jason's distinction between capital-D and lowercase-d design thinking, and how does this change your understanding of design thinking's role in organizations?
• Which aspects of Jason's "expedient" framework for design seem most valuable for your context — the practical, opportunistic, or contextual elements?
• How does Jason's experience with ambiguous assignments challenge your current approach to giving direction or defining success criteria?

Leading

• Where in your organization would Jason's "safe, supported, and stretched in meaningful ways" framework create the most value for team performance?
• How might you help your team understand the difference between learning design methods and developing a design sensibility?
• What would success look like if you implemented Jason's approach to activating the full diversity already present in your team?

Applying

• What's one small experiment you could run next week with leaving an assignment or challenge more open-ended?
• Which current organizational challenge could you address by focusing on conditioning people's "ready stance" rather than teaching them specific methods?
• How could you adapt Jason's storytelling diagnostic approach to better understand your team's readiness for change?

Practicing

• How will you build the habit of distinguishing between roles/responsibilities (abstractions) and the full capabilities of people in those roles?
• What support or resources do you need to practice Jason's approach of setting conditions rather than controlling outcomes?
• Who could you partner with to practice the kind of empathy work Jason describes as threading through entire processes?

Resources

Books We Discussed

Experiencing Design - Jason's top recommendation for understanding how activities yield experiences that yield ways of being in the world. Liedtka, Jeanne, Karen Hold, and Jessica Eldridge. Experiencing Design: The Innovator's Journey. Columbia Business School Publishing, 2021.

Creating Wicked Students - About giving students practice with authority and ambiguity in classroom settings. Hanstedt, Paul. Creating Wicked Students: Designing Courses for a Complex World. Stylus Publishing, 2018.

Tools We DiscussedLego Serious Play - Certification and facilitation methods for strategic thinking workshops

The Archipelago of Design - Security professionals using design approaches.

COM-B Behavior Change Model - Capability, Opportunity, Motivation framework for behavior change. Michie, Susan, et al. "The Behaviour Change Wheel: A New Method for Characterising and Designing Behaviour Change Interventions." Implementation Science, vol. 6, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1-12.

Keep LearningResearch Nigel Cross and Bryan Lawson's work on how designers think.

Cross, Nigel. Design Thinking: Understanding How Designers Think and Work. Academic Press, 2011.

Lawson, Bryan. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. 4th ed., Architectural Press, 2005.

Explore participatory design and co-creation methodologies.

Schuler, Douglas, and Aki Namioka, editors. Participatory Design: Principles and Practices. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1993.

Simonsen, Jesper, and Toni Robertson, editors. Routledge International Handbook of Participatory Design. Routledge, 2013.

Investigate narrative intelligence

Mateas, Michael, and Phoebe Sengers, editors. Narrative Intelligence. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2003. (Advances in Consciousness Research, vol. 46)

UN Principles for Responsible Management Education and sustainable development goals. United Nations Global Compact. Principles for Responsible Management Education. UN Global Compact Office, 2007.

Deepen Your Learning

Design Council UK + Systemic Design + Design in Government with Cat Drew — DT101 E78 Complements Jason's insights about bringing design to structured environments

Cognitive Bias + Ethics + Dreaming the Future of Design with David Dylan Thomas — DT101 E112 Works with this episode to understand different approaches to design education

Instructional Design + Adult Learning Experiences with Holly Owens — DT101 E134 Builds on Jason's themes about creating conditions for creative problem-solving

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Jon said that when he first discovered the design operations community at the 2019 Design Ops Summit in Brooklyn, it felt like coming home. Here was this entire tribe of people who cared about the same things he’d been passionate about for years—creating systems that help designers do their best work. In this episode, I'm talking with Jon Fukuda, co-founder of Limina.co, about how design operations has evolved from an unnamed set of practices into a vital discipline that drives organizational excellence.

As organizations continue to face economic pressures, the conversation around design operations has become more critical than ever. How do we demonstrate the strategic value of design teams? How can operational excellence serve not just designers but business outcomes? Jon shares insights from his 20+ year journey—from early days defining UX practice models to his current role as a design ops leader and community builder.

This conversation reveals how the best design operations leaders think beyond tooling and process to focus on team health, cross-functional partnerships, and systems that elevate both human-centered practices and business innovation. Whether you're considering a move into design ops or looking to strengthen your design leadership approach, Jon's practical wisdom offers a roadmap for driving operational excellence in complex organizations.

Questions you'll be able to answer after listening: * How might we structure the first 30-60-90 days in a new design operations role for maximum impact? * What key misconceptions about design operations could undermine your effectiveness as a leader? * When should design ops be positioned under product teams versus operating as a horizontal function? * Why do organizations often view design teams as expendable during economic downturns, and how can we change that perception? * How can design operations leaders demonstrate their impact on both team health and business outcomes?

About Jon Fukuda Jon Fukuda is co-founder of Limina.co with over 20 years of experience as a user experience specialist. With expertise in UX strategy, design thinking, and UI design, Jon has led teams through human-centered requirements gathering, strategy development, interaction design, testing, and evaluation. His career journey started in the late 1990s when "user experience" was just being defined, giving him a unique perspective on how design practices have evolved. Most recently, Jon has dedicated his efforts to research and design operations facilitation for scalable, sustainable human-centered systems. His passion for operational excellence makes him a respected voice in the design ops community.

Episode Highlights [01:30] Jon's journey began when "user experience" was just being defined

[02:10] Early exposure to coordinating UX work alongside business analysts and technologists

[03:40] "I always approached with a continuous improvement mindset - learn from mistakes, get better"

[04:50] The shift from individual excellence to system-level operational thinking

[06:40] Jon's team started defining specialized roles: information architects, interaction designers, visual designers

[08:40] On discovering the term design ops, "This is the work I've been doing for years - I just didn't have a word for it" — Jon

[10:00] The North Pacific Gyre metaphor: design ops managers pick up tasks no one else claims

[11:10] The community focuses on team health and infrastructure that supports practitioners

[12:20] Design ops handles everything from licensing software to managing team dynamics

[14:40] Different maturity levels: from surface-level design to strategic human-centered integration

[16:10] How design ops prevents team burnout and toxic workplace dynamics

[18:30] First steps for new design ops leaders: conduct a listening tour with your design team

[19:40] "Design operations is a servant leader role - you make sure people feel taken care of" — Jon

[21:30] Expand your listening tour to horizontal and vertical stakeholders to identify friction points

[22:40] The necessity of executive sponsorship when conducting large-scale assessments

[24:30] Building a shared vision of success that aligns stakeholders around design operations

[26:40] Design ops spans program management, infrastructure, HR partnerships, and career development

[27:00] Common misconception: reducing design ops to just design systems or program management

[29:40] Challenges of positioning design operations within product-led organizational hierarchies

[31:00] Why siloing design teams under product lines limits cross-organizational learning

[32:00] The Design Ops Assembly Slack community as a primary resource for practitioners

[34:40] Recommended resources: Nielsen Norman article and the Design Conductors book

[36:10] Design Ops Assembly Learning Labs offer stratified professional development programs

[38:40] Economic challenges lead organizations to view designers as expendable despite their value

[41:40] "The future requires better integration - both process and tooling" — Jon

[42:10] Need for better connections between design tools and broader business systems

Questions to Help You Go Deeper Learning * What surprised you most about the spectrum of activities that fall under design operations, and why? * How does the concept of operational excellence in design challenge or enhance your current understanding of design leadership? * Which aspects of the listening tour methodology seem most valuable for your context?

Leading * How might you help your team understand the connection between operational excellence and strategic business outcomes? * Where in your organization would improved design operations create the most immediate value? * What would success look like if you implemented a structured listening tour with your horizontal and vertical stakeholders?

Applying * What's one small experiment you could run next week to improve an operational aspect of your design practice? * Which current friction points in your team's workflow could be addressed using design operations principles? * How could you adapt the first 30-60-90 days framework to fit your specific organizational context?

Practicing * How will you build stakeholder relationship management into your regular practice? * What support or resources do you need to implement better integration between your design tools and broader organizational systems? * Who could you partner with to practice articulating the business value of your design operations initiatives?

Resources Nielsen Norman Group Design Ops 101 - An excellent primer that defines design operations as "the orchestration and optimization of people, processes, and craft in order to amplify design's value and impact at scale."

The Design Conductors - A new comprehensive book by Rachel Posman and John Calhoun from Salesforce, providing guidance on building DesignOps programs.

Patrizia Bertini's Website - Jon recommends her perspective on design ops and business value, with various articles on DesignOps strategy and measuring impact.

Events Rosenfeld Media's Design Ops Summit - The premier annual conference for design operations professionals.

Henry Stewart's Creative Operations + Design Operations Events - These events take place in New York, London, Los Angeles and other cities, often featuring co-located Design Operations Symposiums.

Deepen Your Learning Operations + Human Centered Design + Art with Alvin Schexnider — DT101 E116 - Explores the intersection between operations, human-centered design practices, and artistic approaches to problem-solving, providing additional context for operational excellence in design organizations.

Creating a UX Career with Sarah Doody — DT101 E77 - Offers insights into career development for UX professionals that complements the discussion on design operations leadership and team development.

Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61 - Introduces the six designer voices (Builder, Scout, Tinker, Facilitator, Traveler, and Pro) that can help design operations leaders develop a more comprehensive approach to supporting their teams and driving excellence.

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The tension between doing good research and delivering on tight timelines is something I've experienced throughout my career in design and innovation. This conversation with Sam Zucker unpacks powerful approaches to making research more sustainable and equitable while building systems that support continuous learning and engagement.

What particularly struck me was Sam's practical framework for embedding research into organizational workflows. Her approach transforms research from a periodic, resource-intensive effort into an ongoing capability that shapes decision-making and product development. This represents a crucial evolution in how we think about evidence-based design.

Questions This Episode Helps You Answer

• How can we build sustainable research systems that work within real-world constraints?
• What makes equity-based research different from traditional approaches?
• When should we adapt research methods for regulated environments?
• How might we use prototypes to get better research insights?
• Why do continuous research systems often succeed where one-off studies fail?

I invited Sam to share her expertise because she brings a unique perspective on making research work in complex, regulated environments while maintaining a deep commitment to equity and inclusion. Her experience spans from reimagining college financial aid experiences to transforming employer benefits, always with a focus on serving people who are often overlooked in traditional research.

Episode Highlights

[01:40] Sam describes her journey from an interdisciplinary background at Carnegie Mellon studying conceptual art, communication design, and sociolinguistics to founding Reroute Research, illustrating how diverse educational foundations can lead to innovative research approaches.

[03:00] Shares insights from working on College Abacus, a groundbreaking tool that helped students understand true college costs beyond sticker prices, demonstrating how design research can tackle complex financial decisions.

[05:30] Articulates her core focus: taking complex decisions (like college choice or insurance selection) and making them more understandable and actionable for users, revealing how design research can simplify without oversimplifying.

[08:30] Introduces the innovative "researcher in residence" model where she embeds within companies for 3–4 months, showing how deeper integration leads to better knowledge transfer and organizational impact.

[12:00] Explains her commitment to equity-based design and how it shapes recruiting practices, emphasizing the importance of reaching participants who are typically underrepresented.

[15:30] Details practical strategies for inclusive recruitment, including flexible scheduling, multiple contact attempts, and accommodating cancellations — demonstrating how research processes themselves need to be designed for equity.

[18:30] Shares approach to reciprocity in research, explaining how she ensures participants benefit from the process through information sharing and resource connections.

[22:00] Describes how to build sustainable research systems that organizations can maintain long-term, emphasizing the importance of integrating with existing tools and workflows.

[25:30] Provides a success story of Better Future Forward implementing a continuous research system, showing how research can become embedded in organizational culture.

[31:30] Explains her approach to using low-fidelity prototypes early in research to get more accurate insights about what people actually want versus what they say they want.

[37:30] Shares expertise on conducting research in highly regulated environments, emphasizing the importance of reading and understanding regulations firsthand rather than relying on others' interpretations.

[41:30] Offers valuable advice for researchers working in regulated environments: build relationships with supportive stakeholders who can help drive innovation forward while navigating constraints.

[45:00] Concludes with an important insight about the critical role of language in UX, noting how sometimes the most impactful research finding can be identifying the right word choice for users.

Questions to Help You Go Deeper

Learning

What surprised you about Sam's approach to continuous research systems and why?

How does her equity-based framework challenge or enhance your current research practice?

Which aspects of the researcher-in-residence model seem most valuable for your context?

Leading

How might you help your team understand and apply continuous research approaches?

Where in your organization would more equitable research practices create the most value?

What would success look like if you implemented ongoing research systems with your team?

Applying

What's one small experiment you could run next week with prototype-based research?

Which current challenge could you address using Sam's approach to participant recruiting?

How could you adapt the continuous research system to work in your specific context?

Practicing

How will you build more equitable research practices into your regular work?

What support or resources do you need to implement continuous research systems?

Resources I Recommend

Monteiro, Mike. Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It. MULE BOOKS, 2024.

Sam specifically mentioned finding this essential reading and I agree. This bold update of Monteiro's classic work challenges us to face the ethical implications of our design choices head-on. The 2024 edition feels especially relevant for research practitioners wrestling with AI ethics, privacy concerns, and the increasing impact of our design decisions on society. While provocative, it provides practical frameworks for making better choices about what we create and why.

Monteiro, Mike. Design Is a Job: The Necessary Second Edition. Edited by Lisa Marie Marquis, Mule Books, 2024.

While not mentioned in our conversation, this book expands on many of the ideas in this episode and is essential reading for every designer.

Reece, Erik. Utopia Drive: A Road Trip through America’s Most Radical Idea. First paperback edition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017.

Sam highlighted this as one of her favorite books, noting how it connects to design thinking through its exploration of systematic change efforts. The book examines America's history of utopian communities as design experiments. I find it valuable for understanding how ambitious visions for change interact with real-world constraints — a tension researchers regularly navigate.

Hall, Erika. Just Enough Research. 2024 edition, Mule Books, 2024.

While not directly referenced by Sam, this newly updated guide aligns perfectly with her lean, practical approach to research. It provides excellent frameworks for right-sizing research efforts to match organizational constraints while maintaining rigor. The 2024 edition adds valuable perspective on remote research and working within regulated environments.

Gray, Dave, et al. Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers. O’reilly, 2010.

Sam mentioned returning to this book often, seeing it as an intersection of conceptual art and facilitation techniques. I agree. While positioned as a workshop tool, Gamestorming’s techniques for structured exploration and collaborative meaning-making are invaluable for research sessions. The methods can help create the trust and openness Sam emphasized as crucial for good research.

Tools We Discussed

Typeform: For research participant feedback loops

Salesforce: Example of embedding research in existing systems

Asana/Jira/Notion: Options for research operations management

Deepen Your Learning

5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About Hacking Bureaucracy with Marina Nitze — DT101 E106

Language + Design Research + Researcher Self-Care with Abby Bajuniemi — DT101 E96

Trauma-Informed Design + Participatory Design Perils + Research with Vulnerable Populations with Sarah Fathallah — DT101 E72

Remember to join Ask Like a Designer, our learning community at fluidhive.com/podcast for more resources and conversations about design thinking in practice!

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In this episode, I explore how architectural thinking enhances strategic decision-making with Adam Griff.

Our conversation reveals how his architectural background shapes his approach to helping higher education institutions navigate complex decisions and create flexible space solutions.

We dig into the challenges of designing spaces that can adapt to unknown futures and discuss how universities can better integrate with their communities.

I particularly love how Adam frames flexibility in building design as creating platforms for future adaptations rather than just multi-purpose spaces.

We also explore the tension between academic and organizational decision-making and how to create and decide while delivering innovation in higher education.

Questions This Episode Helps You Answer

• How does thinking like an architect help organizations make better strategic decisions?
• What makes flexibility essential in both physical spaces and organizational processes, and how can we intentionally design for it from the beginning?
• What elements create environments where good decisions emerge, and how can we support better decision-making outcomes?
• How do we determine whether physical space is the best solution for achieving our organizational goals, and what questions should we ask before investing in space?
• How can we think about buildings as adaptable platforms that support evolving human needs rather than fixed structures with predetermined uses?
• How might universities and colleges create meaningful connections between campus development and community growth that benefit both?
• What strategies help organizations balance the need for scholarly rigor with efficient administrative decision-making, and how can these different approaches work together effectively?

Episode Highlights

[00:00] Introduction and background on Adam Griff

[01:38] How architectural thinking shapes strategic problem-solving

[04:17] Managing diverse stakeholders in higher education contexts

[05:35] Understanding people’s needs versus asking for solutions

[07:31] Orchestrating organizational decision-making

[09:13] The importance of decision-making culture in institutions

[11:20] Building trust and managing participation in decisions

[14:15] Creating shared understanding of evidence and good decisions

[17:04] Balancing organizational conditions with decision quality

[19:38] Making decisions with incomplete information

[21:36] Academic versus administrative approaches to decisions

[24:40] Rethinking flexibility in organizational strategy

[25:25] Space as a medium for service delivery

[26:51] Designing buildings as platforms for adaptation

[29:14] Lifecycle costs and sustainable building design

[30:48] Integration of campus and community development

[33:31] Responding to demographic changes in higher education

[35:33] Finding what is "uniquely possible" for institutions

[39:12] Moving from master planning to scenario-based "playbooks"

[41:09] Closing thoughts and connecting with Adam

Questions to Help You Go Deeper

Learning

How does architectural thinking about constraints and systems change your approach to organizational challenges?

What surprised you about our discussion of decision-making quality? Why?

Leading

How might you redesign decision-making environments in your organization?

What would change if you approached strategic planning as creating a playbook rather than a rigid strategic plan?

Applying

What's one small experiment you could run next week to improve your team's decision-making space?

Choose a current project or challenge. How might it benefit from thinking about systems and constraints like an architect?

Practicing

How will you incorporate the "Is space the right medium?" question into your solution development process?

What is one idea from the episode that you will apply in the next two two weeks?

Guest Resources

Adam on LinkedIn

Adam on Academia

Gamification: How to Play

Gensler

Gensler Research & Insights

Stewart Brand's "How Buildings Learn"

The High Line, NYC

Higher education demographic/enrollment cliff

Scenario planning methodologies

COM-B behavior change model

Stranded assets

Resources I Recommend

DT101 Episodes

Radical Participatory Design + Relationships in Complex Systems Inclusive Design with Victor Udoewa — DT101 E127

Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change with Julie Dirksen — DT101 E131

Healthcare Design: Evidence-based, Business Fluent, and Change Prepared with Matt Van Der Tuyn — DT101 E140

Books

Brown, Peter C., Henry L. Roediger, and Mark A. McDaniel. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Cambridge, Mass: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014. -- Orchestrating good decisions requires understanding how people learn. Before people can decide about something new they must learn the information they need to know to make a good decision and what constitutes a good decision in this context. Read chapter 8.

Ariely, Dan. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions. Revised and Expanded edition, First Harper Perennial edition published. Harper Business & Economics. New York: Harper Perennial, 2010. -- Ariely walks you through ways we make decisions that conflict with classic economic rationality, like: The Effect of Expectations: Our preconceptions and expectations significantly influence our experiences and decisions. For instance, people report greater pain relief from more expensive placebos, demonstrating how price can affect perceived value. The Cost of Ownership: Once we own something, we tend to overvalue it (the "endowment effect").

Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work. New York: Random House Books, 2014. -- Don’t trust your gut. It hates you. You’ll learn how to slow down and avoid becoming a cautionary tale like the ones in this book.

Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. First paperback edition. Psychology/Economics. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. -- "Thinking, Fast and Slow" reveals how our minds use both quick instincts and careful analysis to make choices, helping innovators design solutions that work with human psychology rather than against it.

Thaler, Richard H., and Cass R. Sunstein. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Money, Health, and the Environment. Final edition. New York: Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2021. -- Nudge "Nudge" reveals how small changes in how choices are presented can dramatically impact decision-making and behavior at scale, while preserving freedom of choice.

I'd love to hear what insights you're taking away from this exploration of architecture, strategy, and organizational design. Share your thoughts and stay updated at https://fluidhive.com/design-thinking-101-podcast/

Stay lucky ~ Dawan

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Sahibzada Mayed is a creative alchemist who uses design and storytelling to cultivate joy and imagination as tools of liberation. Mayed serves as the Co-Lead for Strategy and Research at Pause and Effect, a liberation-focused imagination and design collective based on Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Beyond that, Mayed leads a small-scale startup, Naranji, that focuses on gender justice and decolonization in fashion. Today, we talk about decolonizing design and creative liberation.

Listen to learn about: >> The impact of colonialism and power structures on design >> The need for critical social analysis in design >> Designing for Joy >> Decolonizing design >> The importance of locality and place in design >> Rethinking how we think about and experience systems Our Guest Sahibzada Mayed is a creative alchemist who uses design and storytelling to cultivate joy and imagination as tools of liberation. Mayed serves as the Co-Lead for Strategy and Research at Pause and Effect, a liberation-focused imagination and design collective based on Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Beyond that, Mayed leads a small-scale startup, Naranji, that focuses on gender justice and decolonization in fashion. Their work has been prominently featured during New York and Chicago Fashion Weeks and highlighted in several publications across the United States, Pakistan, Thailand, and Japan. Mayed's identity is shaped by their background as a Muslim immigrant of Persian, Afghan, Indian, and Pakistani heritage, as well as lived experiences of queerness, disability, and neurodivergence. Show Highlights [02:15] Mayed’s unconventional journey into design, combining engineering and social sciences. [04:05] How this background has helped Mayed in their work. [06:01] Mayed’s current work focus is on understanding the impact of colonialism in design. [07:36] The challenge of collaborating when existing power differentials have yet to be addressed. [09:28] What is power? [12:04] Mayed shares thoughts on designing when you’re close to, or a part of, the community you’re designing for, versus being outside that community. [13:53] Dawan talks about how perfection is the enemy of change. [15:57] The fear and discomfort of taking responsibility for causing harm. [16:28] Good intentions do not absolve responsibility. [17:30] Building accountability into what you design. [19:19] Ethics in design and looking for the potential of harm while designing. [22:45] There is an assumption of neutrality and objectivity around design. [24:47] Designing to prevent harm, and also designing for joy and compassion and care. [29:45] Decolonizing design. [35:12] Grounding design in the context of the place and space where it will live. [38:47] Shifting the way we think about design, to move beyond the human. [40:44] Rethinking how we think about and experience systems. [45:13] Last thoughts from Mayed about doing the work and the responsibility that comes with that. LinksMayed on LinkedInMayed on MediumMayed’s websitepause + effect - 5-week intensive, Reimagining ResearchInterview: Fashion Designer Sahibzada MayedCultivating Design Ecologies of Care, Community, and CollaborationI Don’t Want A Seat at Your Table w/ sahibzada mayedDecentralizing Power through Design with Sahibzada Mayed and Lauren Lin Book Recommendations Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, by Adrienne Maree Brown

DT 101 EpisodesDesign Social Change with Lesley-Ann Noel — DT101 E128 Radical Participatory Design + Relationships in Complex Systems Inclusive Design with Victor Udoewa — DT101 E127 Design Ethics with George Aye — DT101 E136

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Matthew Van Der Tuyn is a designer and healthcare innovation strategist. Matt is the Senior Director of Design and Strategy at the Center for Health Care Transformation and Innovation at Penn Medicine. The mission at the Center is to serve as a catalyst and accelerator for initiatives that dramatically improve health outcomes, patient and provider experiences, and decrease the cost of care. Matt has had the unique opportunity to help build the Center’s design, discipline, and elevate design thinking as a key tool in Penn Medicine's organizational toolbox. Matt's design process balances divergent and creative thinking to push beyond incremental solutions with the rigor of an evidence-based approach. We talk about becoming and being a designer in healthcare and Matt's practice.

Listen to learn about: >> The unique challenges of designing and innovating in the healthcare space >> Problem-centric vs solution-centric thinking and action >> The importance of change management in the design process Our Guest Matt is a designer and health care innovation strategist. Matt’s design roots are in information, product, and service design. His design practice began with visual arts, information design, and product design for luxury goods before deciding to pivot into design for social impact. With this new focus on using design to solve societal issues, Matt’s work expanded into the design of services and co-design as a tool for empowering disadvantaged communities. Matt’s guiding principle is that design is a mindset that anyone can leverage, and that the role of the “Designer” is to help others tap into this mindset to imagine new possibilities.

In 2012, Matt made a leap into health care when he joined the newly minted Center for Health Care Transformation and Innovation at Penn Medicine (CHTI). The mission of this new center was to serve as a catalyst and accelerator for initiatives that dramatically improve health outcomes, patient and provider experiences, and decrease the cost of care.

Entering as the first designer on this new team, Matt has had the unique opportunity to help build CHTI’s design discipline and elevate design thinking as a key tool in Penn Medicine’s organizational toolbox. Matt’s design process balances divergent and creative thinking to push beyond incremental solutions with the rigor of an evidence-based approach.

Matt leads with the belief that the foundation of great design, and building a culture of innovation, is empowerment. That the greatest ingredient for innovation in any large service organization is the people on the front lines of service delivery who have the passion, insight, and opportunity to effect change. However, there are not often clear pathways for these staff to gain traction with ideas nor are there efficient ways for leadership to identify and support these frontline champions. Matt believes bridging this gap, through design, between high-level organizational objectives and the frontline staff with the answers, where agency is created for innovation, is the key to unlocking the true potential of an organization.

Matt does not see design as a silver bullet, but rather a binder that can align the many, diverse, voices and skills needed for transformative solutions. In addition to design, Matt will quickly point to the various disciplines and individuals across Penn Medicine that he feels create the secret sauce that makes anything possible. From behavioral economists to data scientists, quality and safety experts to hospitality experts, Matt is a firm believer that everyone has something to contribute, if we center ourselves around a shared set of values that prioritize improving the lives of others. Show Highlights [02:02] Matt’s love of the fine arts, and why he ended up in graphic design. [02:34] Evolving from graphic design into product design of dinnerware. [03:25] The book that helped change Matt’s design path. [04:33] Grad school at the University of Arts in Philadelphia. [05:44] How Matt’s grad school project with Penn Medicine led to the creation of the Center he works at today. [09:30] Being problem-centric instead of solution-centric. [12:45] The unique challenges of innovation work in healthcare. [14:26] One of Matt’s big “a-ha!” moments. [15:29] An exercise Matt uses to help people move past assumptions and think creatively. [18:31] Looking for the people who really wanted the help. [19:34] Storytelling in Matt’s work. [22:28] The need for rigor and evidence when designing for healthcare. [24:42] Matt encourages new designers to find ways to measure the success of their work. [25:44] Getting comfortable with the business and finance side of healthcare. [29:38] The importance of good change management. [30:55] Using behavior design to help people with change. [31:27] Conflict as a natural part of the design process. [35:57] Matt’s advice for those wanting to work in healthcare design. [38:32] Books and resources Matt recommends. Links Matthew on LinkedIn Matthew at UPenn MedicinePenn Medicine: Center for Health Care Transformation and InnovationA Global Pandemic Turned Everything Upside Down. What Has Penn Medicine’s Innovation Team Learned From That?

Book Recommendations Design Revolution: 100 Products The Empower People, by Emily Pilloton The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, by Erving Goffman DT 101 EpisodesHealthcare + Systems + Risk + Design with Rob Lister — DT101 E122 A Designer’s Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45 Designing Health Systems + Creating Effective Design Workshops with Sean Molloy — DT101 E44

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Christina Hanschke's career journey has spanned many diverse roles. She's been a music therapist, nanny, and UX researcher, and she’s currently a Design Lead at Final Mile, where she applies a multidisciplinary approach to address pressing societal changes, drawing from behavioral science, human-centered design, and systems thinking. As an adjunct faculty at DePaul University, Christina extends her passion for leveraging behavioral science in human-centered design to the next generation of innovators fostering a diverse culture of curiosity and continual learning. Christina and I talk about behavioral science, design for global health, and the importance of learning design.

Listen to learn about: >> Behavioral science in healthcare >> Final Mile’s work in the global health space >> Collaboration and co-creation with clients >> Team facilitation Our GuestChristina's career journey, spanning diverse roles as a music therapist, nanny, and UX researcher, lays the groundwork for her current position as a Design Lead at Final Mile. Here, she applies a multidisciplinary approach to address pressing societal challenges, drawing from behavioral science, human-centered design, and systems thinking. She has had the privilege of collaborating with and supporting the efforts of community champions, local partners and ministries to address complex challenges such as HIV and vaccine hesitancy (COVID-19 and HPV).

Additionally, as an adjunct faculty at DePaul University, Christina extends her passion for leveraging behavioral science in human-centered design to the next generation of innovators, fostering a culture of curiosity and continual learning.

When she isn’t reading on the couch with her dogs, Christina finds joy in making music with friends. Show Highlights [02:38] Christina’s career started in music therapy, working with children, before becoming a nanny while going to graduate school at DePaul. [03:44] Moving into UX research in business. [04:01] Christina’s role at Final Mile. [04:44] Working in the global health arena. [05:27] Christina and her team’s work on vaccine hesitancy. [08:38] Working with different countries and cultures. [11:30] Dawan and Christina talk about handling power dynamics in their work. [13:49] How Christina helps the people she’s working with to see value in the work. [14:51] Using social learning and group work to encourage engagement and let them experience the value first-hand. [17:54] Christina offers advice for facilitators. [22:12] Behavioral science is understanding how people make decisions. [22:33] The complicated behavioral challenges in the healthcare space. [23:50] Understanding the “intent to action” gap. [25:13] How starting a new project looks for Christina’s team. [27:28] Co-creating and prototyping behavioral interventions with the people living the health issue. [29:05] Using visualizations to quickly capture ideas and tell stories. [31:36] Giving adults permission to be creative and curious. [32:33] Christina asks Dawan about how he incorporates play into his work. [34:29] Getting people to practice listening early on in an event or project. [36:34] Other ways to get participants to connect and engage. [39:32] Helping people get comfortable with discomfort. [42:09] One thing Christina really enjoyed about working with teams in Kenya. [46:30] There’s no single way to do design thinking. [47:17] Christina’s experiences teaching graduate students about behavioral science and UX. [50:21] Working with clients should be a collaborative relationship. [52:25] Avoiding overcomplication of the process. [56:27] Resources Christina recommends and that have helped her in her work. [57:45] Last words from Christina on the importance of continual learning, and learning outside of your usual sphere.

LinksChristina on LinkedIn Christina on ResearchGateFinalMile ConsultingImproving Vaccine Uptake Book Recommendations Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman Beyond Sticky Notes: Co-design for Real: Mindsets, methods and movements, by Kelly Ann McKercher DT 101 EpisodesTalk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change with Julie Dirksen — DT101 E131 Behavioral Design X Service Design with Anne van Lieren — DT101 E40 Behavioral Science + Behavior Change Design + Social Impact with Dustin DiTommaso — DT101 E28

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Stephanie Gioia is a founder at Future Work Design with a focus on strategic planning and organizational innovation. She also serves as the director of the Either/Org project and teaches human-centered design for organizational innovation at the University of Oregon's Executive MBA program. She’s taught at Stanford’s d.school, University of Michigan, and Pacific Northwest College of Art. She is the founder of deckaholic.com, the world's largest library of card decks for problem solving and creativity. We talk about organizational design and strategy, and helping organizations navigate change.

Listen to learn about:>> Organizational design >> Either/Org’s Inspiration Library for organizations >> Prototyping organizational changes >> Navigating and de-risking change Our GuestStephanie Gioia (she/her) is a founding partner at Future Work Design with a focus on strategic planning and organizational innovation. Stephanie was one of the earliest strategists to use the power of Human Centered Design to solve organizational design challenges. Stephanie also serves as director of The Either/Org Project, an organizational design inspiration lab. This project vibrates all her interests: organization design, practical tool-making, learning and inspiration, and a firm belief that we can change the whole world by changing the world of work.

Stephanie teaches Human Centered Design for Organizational Innovation at University of Oregon’s Executive MBA program. In the past she has taught programs at Stanford’s d.school, University of Michigan, and Pacific Northwest College of Art. She is the founder of www.deckaholic.com, the world's largest library of card decks for problem solving and creativity.

Stephanie holds an MBA from the University of Michigan in Strategy and Organizational Sensemaking and earned her B.A. in History and Government from Georgetown University. She lives in beautiful Klickitat country (White Salmon, WA) with her partner Dave and is a mom to two fantastic kids. Show Highlights [01:59] Stephanie’s interest in organizational life led her to taking jobs in large organizations to see how they functioned. [02:40] How can we make organizations operate better and be a better experience for employees? [03:16] Getting an MBA in strategy and organizational sense making. [03:52] Deciding to use design thinking to prototype and design better workplaces. [04:55] Her time at IDEO. [05:25] Co-founding Future Work Design. [06:22] Working with clients at Future Work Design. [07:54] Using Future Work Design’s Wayfinder card deck to help a team align and start working together. [11:05] Helping clients get comfortable with ambiguity. [11:23] Stephanie offers an example of a client project focused on reimagining how the client might make decisions better aligned with their core values. [16:23] Reclaiming the “design” part of organizational design. [20:18] The Either/Org’s inspiration library for organizations looking to innovate. [22:57] Visualizing an organization beyond the org chart. [23:57] Organizational prototyping. [29:25] Helping organizations navigate and de-risk change. [32:11] A project for an international NGP that entailed changing their entire operating model. [34:07] Managing the expectations of change.

Links Stephanie on LinkedIn Stephanie on Medium Stephanie on Instagram Stephanie on YouTube Stephanie on UX Magazine Future Work Design either/org Deckaholic DT 101 Episodes

Civic Design + Innovation Ops + System Design with Ryann Hoffman — DT101 E62

Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage with Belinda Gannaway — DT101 E75

UX + Into, Through, and (Almost) Out of Design with Kara DeFrias — DT101 E103

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Sarah Doody is a user research experience designer and researcher. She's also the founder of Career Strategy Lab, a UX career coaching program. In 2011, she co-created the curriculum and taught for General Assembly's first 11-week UX intensive program in New York City. She has extensive experience doing experience design, product strategy, and user research for companies including Fatherly, Sling, Citi Bike, We Work, Domino Magazine, Tictail, the Muse, Dow Jones and more. She speaks at conferences and teaches workshops worldwide. Today, we talk about designing your career and user experience for small businesses.

Listen to learn about: >> Creating a career roadmap >> Career marketing materials and messaging >> The importance of stories and storytelling when interviewing Our GuestSarah Doody is the founder of Career Strategy Lab™, a program that helps UX and product professionals at all career stages navigate their job search and articulate their skills and experience through individualized and group coaching. She is also the host of the Career Strategy Lab podcast.

Since 2021, professionals who have worked with Sarah have increased their salaries by 40% on average and have been hired at prestigious brands such as Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, Nordstrom, Spotify, Blue Origin on average in 3.5 months. She has been featured as an expert in Forbes, Fast Company, Insider, Fox Business, and more.

Show Highlights [01:43] Sarah originally planned to have a career in neuroscience. [02:19] During a gap year, she ended up in graphic and web design instead, which led to a focus on information architecture. [2:50] From there, Sarah turned to product and user experience design and user research. [3:43] Launching her own consulting company. [04:40] How creating and teaching a workshop about building a design portfolio launched Sarah’s new career coaching business. [06:07] One mistake many make when it comes to their careers. [07:57] Sarah’s company helps people do research on themselves to help them find jobs and careers that fulfill them professionally and personally. [09:04] Being more intentional when thinking about your career. [10:47] Creating a career roadmap. [15:08] Sarah’s advice for those who are trying to figure out their next career moves. [15:30] The importance of business relationships. [18:01] The three core career marketing materials. [19:41] Focus on outcomes. [21:31] Tailoring messaging for the job you want next. [26:26] As a job candidate, you’re a product and companies hiring are your customers. [27:35] Researching companies before the interview. [29:16] Anders Ericsson and the 10,000 hour rule. [30:30] Using stories in interviews. [34:09] Think like a lawyer when interviewing. [39:16] How Sarah and her team work on projects. [42:02] Where to find out more about Sarah and her work. [43:27] Sarah’s last advice about career planning. Links Sarah on LinkedIn Sarah’s website Sarah on YouTube Sarah on Instagram Sarah on Medium Sarah on Forbes Sarah on Inside Design Sarah on UX Magazine Career Strategy Lab Career Strategy Podcast Sarah Doody on the democratization of UX and thinking like a designer 3 Signs Your Team Isn’t Doing Enough User Research The NN/g UX Podcast: Designing a UX Career The UX Growth Podcast, Season 2 Episode 12 People of Product: How to Finally Land a Job in UX DT 101 EpisodesUX + Design Teams with Nick Finck — DT101 E117 UX + Into, Through, and (Almost) Out of Design with Kara DeFrias — DT101 E103 UX Research + Research Teams + UX Camp DC with Glenette Clark — DT101 E80

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This is the inaugural DT101 Live!, with guest George Aye. 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. 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. Today, we are talking live about ethics in design in the design industry.

Listen to learn about: >> What is ethical design? >> The current state of ethics in the design industry >> Project “gut checks” and saying no to projects >> How power can warp ethics Show Highlights [01:33] Audience welcome + breakfast fun + mochi doughnuts! [05:20] Dawan shares the event agenda. [07:42] Dawan introduces George. [09:06] George starts off by talking about human-centered design. [09:41] The story of the invention of e-cigarettes on the Stanford campus and how it relates to human-centered design. [11:13] What George found most shocking about the story. [11:24] It’s not just about can we do something, it’s about should we do it? [12:38] Looking at the roots of the design industry. [13:13] The weakness of Dieter Rams’ ten principles of good design. [14:20] What we need is an ethical framework for good design. [15:12] How Greater Good Studio approaches ethics in design. [15:58] Lived experience is expertise. [16:21] Design is transformative. [17:04] The design industry and education has trained designers to always say yes to projects, but not to know when to say no. [18:01] George’s Ten Provocative Questions. [19:10] Losing one’s inner conscience and voice. [20:47] A succinct definition of power. [21:24] Power asymmetry. [23:59] The risk of working on projects that potentially cause harm. [26:00] Greater Good Studio’s weekly gut checks and breakup emails. [27:38] Some patterns and a framework when writing your own breakup emails. [29:12] Design is an accelerant. [31:08] We must call out the ways in which design can be harmful. [31:24] George’s ideas around a possible standard design code of ethics and standards for practice. [32:05] Accountability, not gatekeeping. [37:21] Leadership needs to constantly practice being receptive to hard feedback from the team. [38:19] The gut check is a deliberate tripping hazard. [40:28] Ethics for people who don’t normally handle ethics. [42:48] Approaching the potential for harm in a trained-to-be-optimistic design industry. [47:58] How do we approach C-suite and other leaders to have conversations around ethics? [51:49] What the next ten years looks like for ethics in design. Links George on LinkedInGeorge at SAICGreater Good StudioGreater Good Studio on MediumArticles by George Why designers write on the walls (and why you should, too)Design Education’s Big Gap: Understanding the Role of PowerIt’s Time to Define What “Good” Means in Our IndustryThe Gut Check, by Sara Cantor Aye DT 101 EpisodesDesign for Good + Gut Checks + Seeing Power with George Aye — DT101 E50 Design for Good + Ethics + Social Impact with Sara Cantor — DT101 E100 Trauma-informed Design + Social Work + Design Teams with Rachael Dietkus — DT101 E81

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Kareem Collie is an accomplished designer and educator with a rich background in both the corporate and academic worlds. Leading design teams for organizations like Nickelodeon, Coca-Cola, and USA Network, he has driven transformation and engagement through his expertise in visual and user-experience design. As Design Lead at IBM, he was instrumental in innovating user experiences. Currently, as the Design Director and Manager for NASA JPL's DesignLab, he applies design thinking to communicating and educating about space exploration, bringing a unique intersection of design, science, and technology to the forefront. His thought leadership includes co-editing "The Black Experience in Design" and serving on the AIGA’s national educators steering committee. Today, we talk about how curiosity fuels design thinking, communication, and leadership. Listen to learn about:>> A deep dive into the why’s of design thinking >> Embracing curiosity and seeing where it leads you >> What it means to truly communicate >> Kareem’s wonderful, meandering path through design and design thinking Our GuestKareem Collie is an accomplished designer and educator with a rich background in both the corporate and academic worlds. Leading design teams for organizations like Nickelodeon, Coca-Cola, and USA Network, he has driven transformation and engagement through his expertise in visual and user-experience design. As Design Lead at IBM, he was instrumental in innovating user experiences. Currently, as the Design Director and Manager for NASA JPL's DesignLab, he applies design thinking to communicating and educating about space exploration, bringing a unique intersection of design, science, and technology to the forefront.

Before IBM, Kareem was the Director of Design at The Hive, where he merged design thinking with liberal arts and encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration. He has also lectured at prestigious institutions like Stanford University and Pratt Institute.

His thought leadership includes co-editing "The Black Experience in Design" and serving on the AIGA’s national educators steering committee. He is a frequent speaker, exhibitor, and podcast guest, solidifying his status in the design community. Kareem holds advanced degrees from NYU and Pratt Institute.

With a focus on user-experience and visual design, and a commitment to critical explorations of culture, Kareem Collie continually seeks impactful opportunities through design. Show Highlights [02:19] Kareem’s path to working at NASA. [03:27] Being a creative child. [04:14] Attending Brooklyn Technical High School and studying architecture. [05:22] Discovering new media/digital art while at Howard University.[05:57] Transferring to the Pratt Institute to study graphic design and art direction, and falling in love with design. [07:06] Kareem’s early years in the design industry. [07:55] Co-founding a design studio and teaching at the Pratt Institute. [09:02] Getting to design his own graduate degree curriculum at Gallatin at NYU. [10:18] Going to Stanford’s d.school. [11:02] Becoming the Associate Director and the Rick and Susan Sontag Center for Collaborative Creativity aka “The Hive” at Claremont College. [12:03] Passing through IBM before becoming the Head of Design at NASA’s JPL Lab. [15:07] Dawan and Kareem share memories of travel and exploration and sharing a curiosity about the world. [20:30] Communication and being vulnerable. [22:33] Communication is collaboration. [23:40] Dawan talks about needing to be willing to change during the experience of communicating with someone. [27:05] One of the things Kareem loves most is being part of a learning journey with others. [30:28] What it means to be a leader and how Kareem developed his own sense of leadership. [33:20] The importance of embracing and being OK with ambiguity. [39:15] Design thinking has helped Kareem better understand his own thought processes. [40:00] Kareem hops onto his soapbox about why he loves design thinking and wants others to understand it better. [42:40] Developing the Critical Design Studio course at Claremont. [46:11] Design changes how we see and move through the world. [49:28] Design thinking gives students an alternative way of looking at a thing, whatever that thing might be. Links Kareem on LinkedIn Kareem’s website Kareem on Undefined by Design Hello from the Pluriverse: Season 1 Ep 28 with Kareem Collie The Black Experience in Design Book RecommendationsThe Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection, edited by Anne Berry, Kareem Collie, Penina Acayo Laker, Lesley-Ann Noel, Jennifer Rittner, and Kelly Walters DT 101 EpisodesBuilding Design Capacity + Measuring Design Value + Designing Studios with Doug Powell — DT101 E16

A Designer’s Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45

Working and Leading at the Intersection of Engineering, Business and Design with Kevin Bethune — DT101 E76

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Holly Owens is an Adjunct Professor at the Touro College Graduate School of Technology, where she teaches in the Instructional Technology program, and works full time as an Instructional Designer with PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy. She has over 15 years of experience in education in various roles, including high school educator, instructional technologist, and podcast host. Today, we talk about instructional design and designing learning experiences for adults. Listen to learn about: >> What is instructional design? >> Adaptive, individualized learning >> Andragogy and designing learning experiences for adults >> Incorporating strategic plans and goals into the learning experience Our GuestAs a Corporate Instructional Designer at Amazon Pharmacy, Holly brings over 17 years of diverse experience in education, specializing in instructional technology, design, and teaching. Since 2012, she has been actively involved in online education, currently serving as an educator at Touro University's Graduate School of Technology in their Instructional Design/Technology program.

With two master's degrees from the University of Maryland, Global Campus—one in Instructional Technology and another in Distance Education—Holly also holds a certificate in Distance Education Leadership and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Organizational Leadership.

Holly’s dedication lies in promoting online learning and its vast potential to empower students worldwide. As the host of the EdUp EdTech podcast, she offers a leading resource to stay updated on the latest and most impactful Ed Tech tools revolutionizing education. The podcast features guests from the EdTech industry, sharing personal and professional growth stories while exploring how technology is reshaping the education landscape. Show Highlights[01:49] Holly discovered a love of EdTech while teaching high school, her first career. [02:12] Moving into higher education and instructional design. [03:44] Getting a job with Amazon Pharmacy. [05:09] Dawan explains why we talk about instructional design on the podcast. [07:06] What is instructional design? [08:59] Holly’s thoughts on remote/distance learning. [11:36] Adult vs young learners. [13:33] Designing learning experiences for adult learners. [15:07] Holly discusses how she designs learning experiences. [18:00] Adult learners want to know the destination and the what and how of getting there. [20:10] Fitting the strategic plan and business goals into the learning experience. [22:32] The differences between the corporate and education spaces when it comes to innovation. [27:18] Holly’s thoughts and advice for those thinking about getting into instructional design. [31:23] Books and resources Holly recommends. [34:24] Where to find out more about Holly and her work. Links Holly on LinkedIn Holly at Touro University EdUp EdTech Holly Owens—Making the Leap from Educator to Instructional Designer An Insider's Perspective: The Journey from Educator to Instructional Designer w/ Holly Owens Holly Owens with Host Toddi Norum: The Changing World of Online Ed & the Future of the Instructional Designer Holly Owens - The Secret is in the Sauce: 5 Key Ingredients to Use When Designing an Online Course from Scratch 5 Ways to Help Students Succeed in Online Courses with Holly Owens Book Recommendations Map It: The hands-on guide to strategic training design, by Cathy Moore

Design for How People Learn, by Julie Dirksen

Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change, by Julie Dirksen

What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Instructional Designer, by Luke Hobson

The eLearning Designer's Handbook: A Practical Guide to the eLearning Development Process for New eLearning Designers, by Tim Slade DT 101 EpisodesTalk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change with Julie Dirksen — DT101 E131

5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: The Future of Higher Education with Bryan Alexander — DT101 E97

Learning Design with Yianna Vovides — DT101 E58

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David Staley is an associate professor in the Department of History at Ohio State University. He teaches courses in digital history and historical methods. He also holds courtesy appointments in two departments, the Department of Design, where he has taught courses in digital history and design futures, and the Department of Educational Studies, where he has led the forum on the university. We talk about the future of higher education and learning, remote learning, and explore some of the ideas in David’s latest book, Knowledge Towns. Listen to learn about:>> AI and its potential impact on education >> How will we define a “university” in the future? >> Remote learning >> David’s book, Knowledge Towns Our Guest David Staley is an academic, writer, designer, futurist and journalist. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and (by courtesy) the Departments of Design and Educational Studies at The Ohio State University. He is the author of "Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education", the co-author of "Knowledge Towns: Colleges and Universities as Talent Magnets" and author of "Visionary Histories", a collection of futures essays. He is an Honorary Faculty Fellow at the Center for Higher Education Leadership and Innovative Practice (CHELIP) at Bay Path University, and a fellow at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University. In 2022 he was awarded "Best Freelance Writer" by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists for his "Next" futures column with Columbus Underground. Show Highlights[04:32] David starts off the conversation by talking about how AI will impact and change the future of higher education. [05:12] The Interface. [06:10] One of the top design problems for the remainder of the 21st century. [09:11] What our relationship with AI might look like. [09:40] David gives a few hints on a book idea he’s working on. [10:19] The importance of knowing the level of dialogue a learner needs at any given moment. [11:26] David believes that AI will become a pretty important part of the classroom system. [14:01] New forms of knowledge. [14:46] Preparing students for a world of dynamic change. [18:01] David asks Dawan if he thinks students will come to university to solve problems rather than to learn a discipline. [21:26] A Miro Moment. [23:28] David discusses the epistemic culling phenomenon happening in higher education.[27:40] Will we be redefining what a university is? What might that look like? [32:41] Dawan asks, What is higher learning, and how does it serve us? [33:39] David takes us back to the early pandemic years, and the remote class experience. [34:39] Using the experience as a teaching opportunity. [34:53] The generic feeling of taking classes remotely. [35:32] The idea of Place. [36:43] The value of learning together. [37:20] Where will the location of teaching and learning be in the future? [38:07] Will the numbers of remote students continue to increase? [38:41] The emergency nature of online learning during the pandemic, as opposed to designed online learning. [42:26] How does a university bring what is unique about them into the online learning experience? [43:30] David contemplates future online learning looking like tutorials and one-on-one learning. [47:51] David believes that the best teaching and learning happens one-on-one. [49:35] Colleges and universities are talent magnets. [51:29] Place does matter when it comes to universities, but mostly from an economic development standpoint. [53:37] When remote working and learning can happen anywhere, workers and learners will have the choice in where they live, learn, and work. [56:04] Universities and colleges need to rethink their relationship with the place they are located. [57:32] Moving beyond survival to thriving. [59:18] Graceful endings in higher education spaces. LinksDavid on LinkedIn David’s articles on Educause David on ResearchGate Associate Professor David Staley Discusses Digital History and the Future Voices of Excellence from Arts and Sciences Creative Mornings Columbus Books by DavidHistorical Imagination Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education Knowledge Towns: Colleges and Universities as Talent Magnets Computers, Visualization, and History: How New Technology Will Transform Our Understanding of the Past History and Future: Using Historical Thinking to Imagine the Future Brain, Mind and Internet: A Deep History and Future Book RecommendationsThe Next Rules of Work: The Mindset, Skillset and Toolset to Lead Your Organization through Uncertainty, by Gary Bolles The Future of Cities, edited by Joel Kotkin and Ryan Streeter DT 101 Episodes

A Design Thinking Practitioner’s Shift into Higher Education and the Potential for Design Thinking in Higher Education with Fred Leichter — DT101 E4

Learning Design + Designing for How People Learn with Julie Dirksen — DT101 E42

5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: The Future of Higher Education with Bryan Alexander — DT101 E97

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This is a Design Thinking 101 episode in the Ask Like a Designer series. Ask Like a Designer helps people explore creating services and solutions by 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: ALD014 // 5 Ways Nobody Cares About You and How They Make You a Better 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 HostPresident, Fluid Hive Show Highlights [00:51] Your tiny narcissist. [00:55] The five ways nobody cares about you. [01:52] Nobody cares what you create. [02:13] Nobody cares about the problems you solve. [02:35] Nobody cares what you know. [02:56] Nobody cares about your experience. [03:19] Nobody cares if you win. [03:51] Fluid Hive’s free thinking tool has all of the questions you need to answer to keep your inner narcissist in check.

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

Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 2 — Telling Well // ALD 011 — DT101 E92

Want Better Outcomes? Find Better Problems. // ALD 012 — DT101 E99

Designing a Learning System for the Good Life // ALD 013 — DT101 E108

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Julie Dirksen is the author of the books Design for How People Learn and Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change. She is a learning strategy consultant with a focus on incorporating behavioral science into learning interventions. Julie was my guest for episode 42 of the show. In this episode, we talk about her latest book, ways to motivate learners and workshop participants, designing learning experiences for skill development, and more. Listen to learn about:>> Julie’s latest book, Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change >> Behavior change challenges >> The biggest challenge when creating virtual learning experiences >> Motivating and engaging learners >> AI in education

Our Guest

Julie Dirksen is the author of the books Design For How People Learn and Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change. She is a learning strategy consultant with a focus on incorporating behavioral science into learning interventions. Her MS degree is in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University. She’s been an adjunct faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and is a Learning Guild Guildmaster.

She is happiest when she gets to learn something new, and you can find her at usablelearning.com.

Show Highlights[02:02] Julie gives a quick summary of her first book and how Talk to the Elephant is its natural sequel. [02:42] The new book tackles the challenges in actually changing behavior. [04:26] On learning experiences. [05:21] Julie is starting to organize a third book, which will be on skill acquisition. [05:34] The evolution of behavioral design. [06:21] The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest behavior change experiment in the history of the world. [07:06] The book’s audience are those in the learning and development field — people who design learning experiences. [08:00] The Change Ladder. [08:54] Julie offers one case study she uses in the book to demonstrate the challenges around behavior change. [14:17] The importance of communicating and working with the people you serve when it comes to changing behaviors. [14:58] Julie tells a story illustrating the importance of talking to and understanding the people you serve and their needs. [17:57] It’s important for people to participate in their own behavioral design. [20:15] Creating the conditions for learners to motivate themselves. [21:22] Making things as easy as possible for someone to do. [22:42] A Miro Moment. [25:27] Creating learning experiences that engage learners. [26:14] The biggest challenge in designing virtual workshops. [27:55] Why Julie is interested in Virtual Reality. [29:34] The top two challenges Julie sees in almost every behavior change. [34:55] Immediate impact and immediate rewards help learners stay motivated. [37:21] Helping learners see what they will be able to do with this new skill or new knowledge. [42:53] Julie shows appreciation for how video games onboard players as a great example of guiding people along the learning curve. [45:11] Designing learning experiences to make your learner feel smart and capable as they acquire new skills and knowledge. [48:42] Julie talks about research on self-directed learning by Catherine Lombardozzi. [49:20] Julie and Catherine will be doing a webinar on the key behaviors seen in good self-directed learners. [52:05] Julie ponders how systems thinking and design fits into behavior change. [52:54] Dawan and Julie talk about AI and its role in education. LinksJulie on LinkedIn Usable Learning Designing for how people learn

Book RecommendationsDesign for How People Learn, by Julie Dirksen Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change, by Julie Dirksen Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman Nudge: The Final Edition, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein How Change Happens, by Cass Sunstein Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things, by Dan Ariely Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely DT 101 EpisodesLearning Design + Designing for How People Learn with Julie Dirksen — DT101 E42 Learning Design with Yianna Vovides — DT101 E58 Adding System Awareness to System Design to Your Innovation Stack with Julie Guinn — DT101 E43

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David Lemus is an independent design strategist with engineering roots working with organizations to empower teams to be customer obsessed and have a culture of iterative learning. He has designed and facilitated dozens of design thinking workshops across Fortune 500 companies, non-profit and government organizations. David is also currently an adjunct professor at the University of Portland's Pamplin School of Business and leads the Portland Design Thinking Meetup community.

Listen to learn about:

Team facilitation >> Human centered-design: mindsets over methods >> [Re]Building human connection

Our Guest

David Lemus is an independent design strategist with engineering roots working with organizations to empower teams to be customer obsessed and have a culture of iterative learning. He has designed and facilitated dozens of design thinking workshops across Fortune 500 companies, non-profit and government organizations.

David was in-house at Capital One on the Design Thinking and Strategy team. That team focused on changing the way the enterprise worked by empowering all employees with the mindsets and tools of design thinking. His team scaled practitioner and senior leadership programs throughout the risk-averse organization.

Prior to Capital One, David was a senior consultant at Peer Insight, a service design and innovation firm where he led service design projects with Fortune 500 and non-profit clients. David is also currently an adjunct professor at the University of Portland's Pamplin School of Business and leads the Portland Design Thinking Meetup community. David has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland.

Show Highlights [02:10] How David went from engineer to design strategist. [02:59] The two experiences as an engineer that led David into design thinking. [04:46] Experimenting to find the right career path. [06:54] The challenges of experimentation and risk-taking in the workplace. [09:07] Teaching human-centered design and creativity at Capital One. [11:16] David’s focus is on mindsets, not methods, when it comes to teaching design thinking to others. [14:08] Helping non-designers to understand and use human-centered design in their work.[17:04] A Miro Moment. [18:53] Breaking down silos. [20:29] The lack of skilled facilitators for collaboration at work. [21:20] Finding ways to make meetings productive and fun. [22:40] Do you really need a meeting? [24:47] Designing meetings. [26:09] Practicing active listening during meetings. [27:26] Cultivating the right energy in the team and creating the right environment in the room for the work you’re doing. [27:26] Designing the right activities for your meeting in order to achieve the meeting’s goals. [30:46] David and Dawan talk about why people’s design thinking expectations are often not met in reality. [33:23] What David is working on now: Connection. [38:37] Where to learn more about David’s work.

LinksDavid on LinkedIn lemus&co David’s website

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Public Sector Design + Outcome Chains + Prototyping for Impact with Boris Divjak — DT101 E26 Designing for Healthcare vs Sick Care + The Emergency Design Collective — DT101 E52 The Experimentation Field Book with Natalie Foley — DT101 E123

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Liz Chen is Design Thinking Lead at Innovate Carolina, the unit dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Liz is also a co-author of The Experimentation Field Book, a practical how-to guide on rigorously testing assumptions and concepts. We talk about teaching and applying design thinking in higher education, and learn more about The Experimentation Field Book.

Listen to learn about: >> Innovate Carolina >> The Experimentation Field Book >> Design thinking and public health >> Design thinking in strategic planning

Our Guest

Liz is Design Thinking Lead at Innovate Carolina, the unit dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She leads the interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Innovation for the Public Good and launched her team’s recharge center that allows grad student Design Thinking and Innovation Fellows to work on staff as part-time employees to support design and innovation projects with clients inside and outside of the university. Liz is also a co-author of The Experimentation Field Book, a practical how-to guide on rigorously testing assumptions and concepts. Liz is a former high school science teacher, tech nonprofit co-founder, and public health researcher.

Show Highlights

[02:50] Getting accepted into Innovation Next as a grad student, a national innovation acceleration program. [03:30] Completing her Ph.D. and becoming the Design Thinking Lead at Innovate Carolina. [04:16] The changes Liz has seen in how design thinking is being used in research. [04:54] Liz talks about a project funded by the EPA that she and her student team are working on, to reduce food waste. [06:34] UNC’s graduate certificate program in Innovation for the Public Good. [07:24] Divergent vs. convergent thinking. [08:41] The challenges in using design thinking when many funding organizations ask you to pitch a “single solution.” [11:15] Sharing what didn’t work is as important as sharing what did work. [12:24] Innovate Carolina has consulting services, where grad students and fellows get to work on client projects. [15:43] Liz talks about how Innovate Carolina’s infrastructure works within the infrastructure of the university. [19:15] The Experimentation Field Book provides resources for readers to self-teach the process of testing ideas and assumptions. [20:59] A Miro Moment. [23:35] Some of Liz’s favorite tools from the book. [25:45] The book’s five-step testing process. [28:17] Using design thinking in public health. [33:56] Three things Liz wishes people knew about teaching science at the high school level. [39:29] The Experimentation Field Book is for anyone who is problem-solving or innovating. [42:11] Liz and her team are helping with the work on UNC’s Carolina Next strategic plan. 45:51] Dawan shares a little about his strategy design experiences at Ohio State University.

Links Liz on LinkedIn Liz on UNC’s website Liz on ResearchGate Liz on GoogleScholar Innovate Carolina Carolina Graduate Certificate in Innovation for the Public Good MyHealthEd

Want 20% off of The Experimentation Field Book? Click here and use promo code CUP20

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

The Experimentation Field Book with Natalie Foley — DT101 E123

Experiencing Design: The Innovator’s Journey with Karen Hold — DT101 E71

Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73

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Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel is an Afro-Trinidadian design educator and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Design Studies at North Carolina State University. Lesley promotes greater critical awareness among designers and design students by introducing critical theory concepts and vocabulary into the design studio. We talk about questioning design practice, dreaming and prototyping, and her book, Designing Social Change.

Listen to learn about:>> Design studies >> Designing with non-designers and “design out in the wild”>> Lesley’s new book, Design Social Change >> Designing dreams together across our differences

Our GuestDr. Lesley-Ann Noel is an Afro-Trinidadian design educator. She is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Design Studies at North Carolina State University. 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. Lesley also attempts to promote greater critical awareness among designers and design students by introducing critical theory concepts and vocabulary into the design studio, for example, 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 [02:50] Catching up with Lesley and what she’s working on now. [03:56] Lesley’s latest book comes out November 28, 2023 [04:50] What is design studies? [05:13] Design studies has two foci: inward on the practitioner, and outwards towards society.[06:01] A lot of Lesley’s work focuses on who designs, and who gets to define design. [06:12] Lesley is excited by what design looks like when it’s outside of the design sphere. [11:10] Working with non-designers has allowed Lesley to see design processes more clearly. [12:18] Collaborating with designers globally. [14:05] Grappling with complexity and vagueness in the design space. [18:32] Lesley’s new book shows readers how they can change the world around them for the better. [19:33] People need to be active citizens of the world. [20:25] A Miro Moment [22:34] Design Social Change is written for everyone, not just designers. [23:38] The world is always changing and we have the power to change it for the better. [25:48] The three big ideas of the book. [26:07] Ask questions. Work to understand the world around you. [26:47] Emotional intelligence, and moving beyond raw emotion into “what next?” [27:56] Envisioning a better world, and finding a path to get there. [28:51] Prototyping a better world. [30:30] The challenge is: how do we dream together across our differences? [33:53] People can dream different paths towards the same goal. [34:57] Why Dawan loves difficult questions.

Links Dr. Noel on LinkedIn Dr. Noel’s website Dr. Noel on NC State University website A Designer’s Critical Alphabet Cards Link to her dissertation “Teaching and Learning Design Thinking through a Critical Lens at a Primary School in Rural Trinidad and Tobago” Article from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Dr. Noel’s work with emancipatory research and design thinking

AIA recording of the CAE research conference call (does include images as part of the recording) with Dr. Noel where she presented her research/processes in the field of critical design thinking with an emphasis on emancipatory process.

Book Recommendations

Design Social Change: Take Action, Work toward Equity, and Challenge the Status Quo by Lesley-Ann Noel

The Little Book of Designer's Existential Crises, by Emmanuel Tsekleves and Lesley-Ann Noel

The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection, by Anne H. Berry (Editor), Kareem Collie (Editor), Penina Acayo Laker (Editor), Lesley-Ann Noel (Editor), Jennifer Rittner (Editor), Kelly Walters (Editor)

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Critical and Emancipatory Design Thinking with Lesley-Ann Noel — DT101 E57

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Victor Udoewa works in the Office of Public Health Data Surveillance and Technology at the CDC. Previously, he worked at the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs at NASA, as well as at 18F and Google. We talk about his journey into design and leadership, the role of design in the civic space, radical participatory design, and orchestrating relationships in complex systems.

Listen to learn about: >> Civic design and social impact design >> Radical participatory design and working with the people and communities you’re serving >> The effect of relationships on systems >> The fallacy of problem solving

Our Guest

Victor Udoewa works in the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology (OPHDST) at the CDC. He previously served as CTO, CXO, and Service Design Lead of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs at NASA. He was the Director of Strategy at 18F, a civic consultancy for the federal government inside the federal government. He led the digital strategy practice and served as a designer and strategist on projects. Previously, as a Global Education Instructional Designer and Training Development Specialist at Google, he designed learning products and services for people in low-to-middle-income countries around the world.

Show Highlights

[01:07] Victor started out in aerospace engineering, building computer models. [03:44] How one summer in El Salvador working on composting latrines changed everything. [06:05] Wanting his work to make a positive difference. [06:22] Becoming a science and technology policy advisor for the government. [06:38] Moving to the UK and designing educational products and services focused around literacy. [06:57] Coming back to government work as a civic designer and innovator. [08:39] Civic design and designing for social impact. [09:19] Much of the work of the U.S. government is done by contractors. [10:11] Civic work has numerous challenges. You must be prepared for that struggle. [12:30] Victor talks about finding and working with good people. [15:02] Why Victor uses the term radical participatory design to describe what he does. [16:19] The three main characteristics of the projects Victor works on. [17:08] Why the choice of facilitator is so important. [17:48] Professional designers can underestimate the skills and expertise of the community they are working with. [18:57] The process Victor uses to help community members feel comfortable with leading and facilitating. [21:45] Shifting from problem- and need-based methodologies to asset- and place-based methodologies. [23:30] Victor talks about a community he’s working with to create a socially-equitable and racially-just Parent-Teacher Association. [23:42] The Sustained Dialogue methodology. [26:53] The correlation between poverty and the absence of healthy relationships. [27:50] How Victor defines poverty. [28:56] A Miro Moment. [32:18] The effect of relationships on the design space and beyond. [36:41] Viewing school as a service. [40:16] Going beyond human needs. [42:17] How might we create environments that facilitate learning well? [44:39] Making a shift from student-centered to student-led. [45:29] Building innovation and flexibility into institutions. [47:24] “The end of solutions.” [49:44] Solving is not “one and done,” especially when working with complex systems. [52:50] Books and resources Victor recommends. [58:01] Dawan talks about Victor’s article, Radical Participatory Design (link is below).

Links Victor on LinkedIn Victor on the Federation of American Scientists Victor on ResearchGate Victor on the Service Design Network Control the Room: Victor Udoewa: Giving Up Power In Your Space Guest Lecture - Dr Victor Udoewa - Participatory Design: A Digital Literacy Case Study | UMD iSchool Relating Systems Thinking and Design Association for Community Design – Chicago conference Life Centered Design School Radical Participatory Design: Awareness of Participation, by Victor Udoewa

Book Recommendations

Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, by Linda Tuhiwai Smith

Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods, by Shawn Wilson

Thinking in Systems: A Primer, by Donella H. Meadows and Diana Wright

The Non-Human Persona Guide: How to create and use personas for nature and invisible humans to respect their needs during design, by Damien Lutz

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem

Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds, by Arturo Escobar

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Facilitation + Remote Teams + Miro with Shipra Kayan — DT101 E121

Collaboration + Facilitation + Workshops with Austin Govella — DT101 E83

Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73

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Pinar Guvenc is a partner at the award-winning global design studio SOUR, where she leads design innovation strategy. Pinar is also a member of the faculty at Parsons School of Design, and she serves on the Board of Directors at Open Style Lab, a National Design Award-winning nonprofit organization initiated at MIT, with the purpose of making style accessible to people with disabilities. Today on the show, we talk about inclusive design, and making collaboration and co-creation meaningful. Listen to learn about:>> What it really means to collaborate >> Inclusive design and designing for inclusivity >> Teaching the next generation of designers Our GuestPinar Guvenc is a Partner at SOUR — an award-winning global design studio with the mission to address social and urban problems — where she leads design innovation strategy. Prior to SOUR, Pinar co-founded various ventures where she helped set up and grow them through incubation, achieving international recognition and funding from innovation centers and accelerators such as Plug and Play and Climate KIC. Pinar is a member of the faculty at Parsons School of Design, MS in Strategic Design and Management program, author and instructor of the "Inclusive Design" course at School of Visual Arts, and the author and facilitator of the workshop series "Strategic Collaborations" at Pratt Center for Community Development. She serves on the Board of Directors at Open Style Lab, a National Design Award-winning nonprofit organization initiated at MIT, with the purpose of making style accessible to people with disabilities.

Pinar is a frequent public speaker and host of the podcast "What's Wrong With": a series of discussions with progress makers and experts to diagnose problems in industries, ideate solutions, and raise awareness among the general public. Show Highlights[02:25] Pinar’s design career began in industrial engineering and finance. [02:57] Becoming an “accidental entrepreneur” and discovering design along the way. [04:10] Pinar’s frustration with the word “collaboration.” [05:43] Designing collaborations. [06:50] What is collaboration? [07:07] Start with the people, then move to process. [10:17] Processes help us stay focused when things are rushed. [11:02] Recognizing our biases and sharing power when collaborating. [11:37] Fully integrating design into an organization. [12:44] Storytelling is part of the design process. [14:51] Our work leadership style needs a fundamental change. [15:37] Adults need to create and learn, just like children. [16:16] A Miro Moment. [18:06] Knowing what you don’t know is an asset. [20:49] How SOUR works inclusivity into the design team and project. [22:12] Pinar gives a shout-out to David Dylan Thomas (DT101 Ep 112). [22:19] Thomas’ Red Team-Blue Team exercise. [22:41] SOUR’s Co-Creation Panel. [23:51] “Design spies!” and just doing the work of co-creation. [24:55] How Pinar brings inclusivity into her teaching. [25:07] Guest lecturers and keeping it real. [27:11] Inclusivity begins during the research stage. [27:52] Generative AI is great for showing us our prejudices and biases. [31:13] The importance of being better, active listeners. [32:28] As designers, we always need to be mindful of our responsibility for what we’re putting out in the world. LinksPinar on LinkedIn Pinar on The New School Parsons SOUR Open Style Lab What’s Wrong With podcast A SOUR Perspective on design Bringing Design Closer: Understanding Architecture's role in designing inclusive spaces Book RecommendationsDesign for Cognitive Bias, by David Dylan Thomas

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Cognitive Bias + Ethics + Dreaming the Future of Design with David Dylan Thomas — DT101 E112

Designing Your Team + Teams in Design Education + Coaching Design Teams with Mary Sherwin and David Sherwin — DT101 E49

Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73

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Justin is an internationally-renowned design leader, author and speaker from Chicago. You'll often find him at AIGA's speaking events, he’s been interviewed in Forbes magazine and Medium's "Forge" publication, and he writes articles for Aquent, CEO World Magazine, and A List Apart. He speaks internationally on culture and design, and today on the show, we talk about values, aligned design, nurturing teams, and design leadership.

Listen to learn about:>> Discovering and leveraging our core values >> Why humility is the most important trait for a designer>> Building and nurturing teams >> Justin’s latest book, In Fulfillment: The Designer’s Journey

Our Guest Justin is an internationally renowned design leader, author, and speaker from Chicago. You'll find him often engaging with the AIGA's speaking events, interviewed in Forbes magazine and Medium's "Forge" publication, and penning articles for Aquent, CEO World Magazine, and A List Apart. He speaks internationally on culture and design, including keynotes at the UXPA International conference, Midwest UX, and St. Louis Design Week. Justin is also the writer of the celebrated book "Creative Culture," a former VP of Design at bswift (a CVS Health company), and the founder of design leadership consultancy Anomali.

Show Highlights[02:11] Justin’s design “Eureka!” moment in high school. [03:12] The Art Institute of Chicago and teaching himself how to code. [05:24] The most important part of being a designer. [05:50] From Me to We. [07:10] Justin talks about the writing of his latest book, In Fulfillment. [08:02] Transitioning from hands-on fulfillment toward mentorship and leadership. [09:46] Identifying the core set of values that lead us to feeling fulfilled. [10:29] Humility and design. [11:39] How Justin helps people find their core set of values. [12:03] Using the Make Meaningful Work platform. [12:55] What drives us to do what we want to be doing? [14:04] Knowing our core values helps create a healthier work environment. [14:55] Our core values are portable, no matter where we may work throughout our career and in any field. [15:50] Why humility is the most important trait for a designer. [17:25] Our energy pool is a finite resource. [19:06] How an organization’s website implicitly shines a light on what they value. [23:11] The best teams are diverse, inclusive teams. [23:52] Dawan talks about empathy theater and taking the next steps beyond empathy. [26:15] A Miro Moment. [27:44] Justin talks about nurturing teams. [28:15] Allowing for time to pause and connect within the workspace. [29:06] Dawan talks about the benefits of not being 100% occupied 100% of the time. [30:43] Supporting “real life” in our work environments. [33:26] We need to adjust how we work and our expectations about the “right” way to work. [34:57] Justin offers thoughts on how to make the hiring and onboarding process better. [40:05] How to design and nurture a better work culture. [42:22] Justine talks about some of the work being done by his company, Anomali by Design.[46:43] Justin offers some last words of advice for all of us about taking time to pause with intent.

LinksJustin on Twitter Justin on LinkedIn Justin on Medium Justin on Instagram Anomali By Design Anomali on Twitter Practical Design Leadership podcast The Essential Fusion of Culture & Design with Justin Dauer Make Meaningful Work

Book Recommendations

In Fulfillment: The Designer’s Journey, by Justin Dauer Cultivating a Creative Culture, by Justin Dauer

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Designing Your Team + Teams in Design Education + Coaching Design Teams with Mary Sherwin and David Sherwin — DT101 E49 Healthcare Design Teams + Wellness + ScienceXDesign with Chris McCarthy — DT101 E24

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Scott Shigeoka is an internationally-recognized curiosity expert, speaker, and the author of SEEK: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World. He is known for translating research into strategies that promote wellbeing and connected relationships around the globe, including at the University of California Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and through his groundbreaking courses at the University of Texas at Austin. Today on the show, we’ll talk about Scott’s book and the power of curiosity. Listen to learn about

Why curiosity matters >> Shallow vs. deep curiosity >> Scott’s book, SEEK >> Ways to cultivate and practice using your curiosity >> The power of “I don’t know” and “Tell me more” Our Guest

Scott Shigeoka is an internationally-recognized curiosity expert, speaker, and the author of SEEK: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World. He is known for translating research into strategies that promote positive well-being and connected relationships around the globe, including at the UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and through his groundbreaking courses at the University of Texas at Austin. Scott implements his curiosity practices in the public sector, Fortune 500 companies, Hollywood, media organizations, education institutions, and small businesses. Show Highlights

[01:59] How Scott’s love of stories and storytelling brought him to where he is today. [02:50] Majoring in journalism and psychology, and working in Iceland. [04:20] Designing and storytelling at IDEO and in Hollywood. [05:00] Scott’s response to the 2016 election and the polarization of America was a 13-month road trip around the country. [07:29] What is curiosity? [08:20] Shallow vs. deep curiosity. [11:22] How Scott approached talking with people at Trump political rallies. [13:44] The big lesson Scott learned during the road trip. [15:42] Curiosity is listening. [18:01] People want to feel that their stories, their lives, matter. [18:52] Scott talks about predatory curiosity. [21:36] What readers will find in Scott’s book, SEEK. [22:16] Curiosity can help us bridge our differences. [23:15] SEEK offers practical exercises and advice on how to exercise your curiosity. [25:07] The world needs more curiosity. [25:40] The four core “muscles” of deep curiosity. [31:20] Working with the three cardinal directions of curiosity. [34:40] A Miro Moment. [36:45] Scott offers up one way we can all practice more curiosity. [40:33] Challenge your assumptions. [43:42] Practice intellectual humility. Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know the answer. [44:36] Effective leaders practice curiosity. [45:29] Use “Tell me more…” [48:15] Creating boundaries when it comes to practicing curiosity. [52:08] Embracing discomfort. [53:00] Curiosity is about understanding.[55:12] Where to find out more about Scott and his work. Links

Scott on Twitter Scott on LinkedIn Scott on Instagram Seek the Book Perspectives in Design Scott Shigeoka Rural Assembly: Drawing Resilience: Scott Shigeoka Hachette Interview with Scott Audium: Scott Shigeoka – Bridging Divides Book Recommendations

Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World, by Scott Shigeoka The Karma of Success: Spiritual Strategies to Free Your Inner Genius, by Liz Tran

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Natalie Foley has over 20 years of experience leading teams in designing and launching new products, programs, and strategies across the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. Recently, she joined Opportunity at Work, where she builds, tests, and launches new services to help rewire the labor market for the 71 million workers in America whose skills were acquired through alternative routes instead of a four-year degree. Today on the show, we catch up with Natalie, who was one of our first guests on the podcast, and talk about The Experimentation Field Book, which she co-authored with Jeanne Liedtka, Elizabeth Chen, and David Kester.

Listen to Learn About

Experimentation and iterative learning >> The Experimentation Field Book >> Why experiment? The benefits of experimentation >> Opportunity@Work’s mission

Our Guest

Natalie has 20+ years of experience leading teams in designing & launching new products, programs and strategies across the private, public & not-for-profit sectors. Recently, she has joined Opportunity@Work, where she builds, tests & launches new services for employers and employer networks to help rewire the labor market for the 71M workers in America who are STARs* (Skilled Through Alternative Routes, instead of a four-year degree). At Peer Insight, she served as CEO & led partnerships that contributed to dozens of new business ventures with clients like Nike, Kimberly-Clark, AARP, Canon, the Good Samaritan Society and ArcBest, several of which have become multi-million dollar revenue streams. Natalie began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM, where she supported clients such as Allstate, the World Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Afghanistan program in technology & strategy initiatives. She is the co-author of a forthcoming book (available soon for pre-order), The Experimentation Field Book: A Step-by-Step Project Guide.

Show Highlights

[03:02] Natalie offers gratitude for the DT101 podcast and the learning community it has fostered. [03:42] Natalie catches us up since her 2018 podcast episode. [04:03] Moving on from Peer Insight. [05:05] Taking a role at Opportunity@Work. [05:26] More than 50% of the American workforce are STARs. [08:12] Running experiments in one’s personal and professional life. [09:13] How design thinking frees the learner. [10:25] Why Natalie wrote The Experimentation Field Book. [12:49] Natalie offers thoughts on moving out of one’s comfort zone and trying something new. [16:59] The Experimentation Field Book will be available at booksellers November 24th. [17:12] How Natalie met Jeanne Liedtka. [17:50] Jeanne approached Natalie about Peer Insight’s “secret sauce.” [18:31] Design thinking’s superpower. [18:48] What’s missing from the design thinking methodology and how the book fills that gap. [20:36] The book gives the reader step-by-step ways to run their own experiments. [21:40] The baggage that can come along with the word experimentation. [24:16] The first step is to frame a testable idea. [28:23] Build like you’re right, and test like you’re wrong. [31:20] A Miro Moment. [33:32] Opportunity@Work is creating services to help broaden the hiring mindset from only equating degrees with skillsets to looking at other ways of determining someone’s ability to do the job. [34:17] Four things intriguing Natalie about her current nonprofit work. [34:48] We’re designing for a world that doesn’t exist yet. [36:11] Looking at how non-profits receive funding. [37:12] The ambiguity and attachment struggle in a non-profit world where people are very passionate about their mission. [37:49] Dealing with the feelings associated with the word experimentation. [38:44] The Experimentation Field Book is made for everyone, not just designers. [40:56] The process in the book helps people to not become too attached to one idea. [43:24] The book empowers anyone to put together and run an experiment on themselves or within their organization.

Links

Natalie on LinkedIn Natalie on Twitter Opportunity at Work Using Design Thinking to Empower the ‘Human’ in HR 6 steps to knowing how to know | Natalie Foley | TEDxCharlottesville Design Thinking: Four Steps for Innovation Peer Insight

Book Recommendation

The Experimentation Field Book: A Step-by-Step Project Guide, by Jeanne Liedtka, Elizabeth Chen, Natalie Foley, and David Kester

Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Designing for the Greater Good, Strategy + Design Thinking, and Measuring Design Thinking with Jeanne Liedtka — DT101 E1 Leading a Design Thinking Consultancy, Betting Small to Win Big, and Driving Business Growth with Design Thinking with Natalie Foley — DT101 E5 Experiencing Design: The Innovator’s Journey with Karen Hold — DT101 E71

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Rob Lister is a designer in healthcare, creating meaningful experiences in many arenas, including medical device design, care delivery, service design, and population health strategy. His experience as a design leader at IDEO and AT&T, and his background as a mechanical engineer, inform a strategic and operationally focused approach to innovation in healthcare. We talk about service design in healthcare and using design thinking to innovate in the healthcare industry.

Listen to learn about:

The power of design thinking to rethink and reshape healthcare >> Designing in complex systems >> The unique challenges of designing within healthcare systems >> Future Medical Systems’ work

Our Guest

Rob Lister is a designer in health care, creating meaningful experiences in many arenas, including medical device design, care delivery service design, and population health strategy. His experience as a design leader at IDEO and AT&T — and his background as a mechanical engineer — inform a strategic and operationally-focused approach to innovation in health care. He has collaborated with organizations ranging from pharma/tech giants (Eli Lilly and 3M Health Care), care providers (Stanford Health Care and SCAN Health) to early-stage medtech startups (Tusker Medical and Arrinex).

Show Highlights

[02:17] Rob offers appreciation for the DT 101 podcast. [02:44] Rob’s design Genesis story. [03:42] Starting as a mechanical engineer. [04:08] Getting to work at IDEO. [04:56] Rob’s passion for the healthcare industry. [05:32] Leading IDEO’s medical products team. [06:51] Rob’s brief interlude as the Director of Design at AT&T. [07:01] Co-founding Future Medical Systems. [07:44] Using design thinking in the healthcare industry. [09:04] Working with the nurses on medication safety practices at Lucile Packard Hospitals. [10:36] Medication injury is a massive, systemic issue in healthcare. [13:40] The role of communication in systems’ breakdowns. [17:08] The designer’s blessing. [18:35] The evolution of service design from product design. [22:24] Design thinking’s effect on risk mitigation design. [22:50] The importance of co-designing in service design. [23:43] Prototyping in real time at the point of care. [24:03] Rob’s three pillars of design thinking. [24:56] Future Medical Systems’ “micro pilots.” [25:53] Finding less risky ways of creating change within a system. [27:24] Rob talks about one of his healthcare dream projects: what happens after discharge when patients go home? [31:42] A Miro Moment. [33:00] Dawan asks Rob to talk about some of his other dream projects. [33:32] How do we find ways of better involving family members in a patient’s care? [34:32] Creating better frameworks around patient informed consent. [34:59] Involving nurses more in decision making. [36:44] Rob offers gratitude for nurses. [38:05] Where to learn more about Rob and his work, and advice from Rob for those who might want to get into designing for healthcare.

Links

Rob on LinkedIn Rob on Medium Future Medical Systems

Book Recommendations

Discovery Design: Design Thinking for Healthcare Improvement, by Future Medical Systems and The Risk Authority

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Healthcare Innovation + Nursing + Opportunities for Designers — DT101 E109 A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45 Designing Health Systems + Creating Effective Design Workshops with Sean Molloy — DT101 E44

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Shipra Kayan is a product evangelist at Miro, a designer, and a facilitator. She has built inclusive, engaged, and effective distributed teams at companies like Upwork and Miro. Armed with two decades of experience teaching design teams to collaborate across time zones, cultures, and knowledge silos, Shipra is a leading advocate for adopting visual collaboration within distributed teams. We talk about facilitation, Miro, and remote teams.

Listen to learn about:

How to help remote teams be successful >> The importance of facilitation >> The many ways Miro can help teams, remote or in-person, to collaborate and achieve better outcomes

Our Guest

Shipra Kayan is an entrepreneur and designer dedicated to transforming the way we work together as a global community. Based on her core belief that every human is inherently valuable and capable, Shipra’s vision is to create a world where two people of any cultural or geographic origin can come together to collaborate and build.

Show Highlights

[02:04] Starting out as a designer in Silicon Valley and discovering Miro.[05:27] Being one of Miro’s first customers.[05:40] Proving the belief that design can only be done in person wrong.[06:26] Miro is a collaborative canvas.[06:49] Figuring out what remote teams needed to succeed.[08:33] How Shipra plans meetings and workshops using Miro.[09:24] Tips from Shipra to help participants stay focused on the work.[13:14] Asking participants: how might we fail?[15:00] Getting teams to be playful and take risks.[16:25] One game Shipra likes to use to get a team’s creative juices flowing.[18:26] The challenge of virtual environments compared to physical ones.[19:50] Ways Shipra is bringing more physicality to the virtual environment.[23:25] Dawan and Shipra discuss how they are always finding new ways to use Miro.[28:34] A Miro Moment.[30:09] Shipra has seen a movement within the design community of designers wanting to improve their facilitation skills.[32:36] Dawan would like to see tools like Miro in greater use throughout higher education.[34:19] Miro is just as useful for face-to-face work as well.[37:19] Dawan and Shipra talk about designing an event from the outcome you want at the end.[40:28] Shipra’s advice to other designers.

Links

Shipra on LinkedInShipra on TwitterShipra on Medium Shipra’s Appreciation Circle in Miro What I've learned from facilitating over 100 remote collaborative workshops Drawing Session in Miro Bridging the Talent Gap Between Silicon Valley and East Africa Through UX3 strategies any leader can use to spot and move past groupthink Interview with Shipra on Rosenfeld MediaDesign Hires Interviews Shipra Kayan

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Teams, Sprints, Prototyping, and Better Meetings with Douglas Ferguson — DT101 E59Collaboration + Facilitation + Workshops with Austin Govella — DT101 E83Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 — DT101 E73

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Sheryl Cababa drives a human-centered design practice focusing on systems thinking and evidence-based design, working on everything from robotic surgery experience design to reimagining K-12 education through service design. In her work with consultancies such as Substantial, Frog, and Adaptive Path, she has worked with a diverse base of clients including the Gates Foundation, Microsoft, IHME, and IKEA. Sheryl is an international speaker and workshop facilitator. When not in the office, she can be found at the University of Washington, helping educate the next generation of human centered design and engineering students.

Listen to learn about:

• Equity-centered design
• Systems thinking and designing in complex systems
• Co-creation and working with lived experts
• Sheryl’s book, Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers

Our Guest

Sheryl Cababa is the Chief Design Officer at the Insights Design + Development Studio, Substantial, and a multi-disciplinary design strategist with more than two decades of experience. She is focused on reinventing the approaches of learning and collaboration in today’s educational environment to help equity-centered research affirm and advance relationships between institutions, educators, and students.

Sheryl has worked extensively in human-centered design within the social impact space. She specializes in developing tools and methods for designers to expand their mindsets beyond user-centered design, anticipate unintended consequences, and engage in systems thinking.

Her recent work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation includes leading student voice research to inform the K-12 Balance The Equation Grand Challenge. Sheryl works with their teams to provide equity-centered technical assistance to their grantees, designing the Use Case Guide for demand-side thinking programs, and conducting extensive design research with both U.S. Programs and Global Health teams. Her book, Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers, was released in early 2023.

Show Highlights

[02:36] Sheryl’s degrees are in political science and journalism, not design.

[02:46] Getting into design by creating infographics and websites.

[03:20] Turning an intern job at the Seattle Times into a job at Microsoft.

[03:54] Sheryl’s official entry into design was as a product designer.

[04:56] Becoming a design consultant while living in the Netherlands.

[05:33] Shifting more into design strategy over design execution.

[06:03] Why Sheryl started integrating systems thinking methods into her work.

[07:19] Sheryl’s current work in equity-centered design.

[08:52] What is equity-centered design?

[09:58] Design is an act of power.

[10:51] Equity-centered design is about designing with, not for.

[12:03] The problem with personas.

[14:28] Going beyond personas.

[17:50] “When I was in college…” and the biases we tend to start from.

[18:54] Co-creation, and letting people speak for themselves during the design process.

[20:43] Thinking about legacy systems and designing in complex systems.

[23:12] There aren’t really any “broken” systems.

[24:10] You can’t sit down and just design a system.

[24:38] When we “design” for a system, we are intervening in order to shift outcomes in a different direction.

[26:25] Thinking about potential harm and harm reduction during the design process.

[27:18] There is no silver bullet solution.

[30:34] Re-examining solutions to see if they are still working as time goes on.

[31:23] Looking at generative AI from a systems perspective.

[34:24] A Miro Moment.

[36:39] Sheryl’s book, Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers gives designers tools and frameworks to better understand systems.

[37:49] Encouraging designers to think intentionally about how things interconnect.

[38:15] Viewing the system as a whole ecosystem that surrounds your design.

[41:28] Sheryl talks about one of her favorite frameworks from the book.

[45:28] Sheryl introduces the concept of “lived experts.”

[46:25] Shifting mindsets leads to different outcomes.

[49:35] Dawan’s post-interview thoughts about systems.

Links

Sheryl on LinkedIn

Sheryl on Twitter

Sheryl on Medium

Sheryl on UW Human Centered Design & Engineering

Sheryl on Women Talk Design

This is Design School: Ep 33 – Sheryl Cababa on Unintended Consequences

The Product Design Podcast: Sheryl Cababa – Systems Thinking for Designers

Content Strategy Insights: Closing the Loop - Systems Thinking for Designers | Episode 141

UX Podcast: #308 Systems thinking with Sheryl Cababa

Substantial

Substantial on Instagram

National Equity Project: Liberatory Design

The Donella Meadows Project

Book Recommendations

Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers, by Sheryl Cababa

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter Senge

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Adding System Awareness to System Design to Your Innovation Stack with Julie Guinn — DT101 E43

Design Council UK + Systemic Design + Design in Government with Cat Drew — DT101 E78 5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About Hacking Bureaucracy with Marina Nitze — DT101 E106

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Kip Lee is a designer and healthcare executive at University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, OH. As Vice President of UH Ventures, he manages an innovation portfolio that supports University Hospitals’ strategic initiatives and partnerships through product innovation and human-centered design. Outside of work, Kip serves on the editorial board of Design Issues, a design and innovation journal published by MIT Press. He also serves on several nonprofit boards. We talk about systems and design in healthcare.

Listen to learn about:

• Complex systems
• Design in healthcare
• What is the role of management?
• The COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on healthcare innovation
• The interplay between design and management

Our Guest

Kipum (Kip) Lee, PhD is a designer and healthcare executive at University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, OH. As Vice President of UH Ventures, he manages an innovation portfolio that supports University Hospitals’ strategic initiatives and partnerships through product innovation and human-centered design. Outside of work, he serves as an editor of Design Issues, the premier journal on design history, theory, criticism, and practice published by MIT Press, and on several non-profit boards. In addition to playing with his two kids, Kip loves used hardcover books, freshly ground coffee, low-humidity weather, and a good conversation.

Show Highlights

[01:26] Kip’s journey into design began with a love of drawing and visualization at a very early age.

[02:36] Experiencing the New Jersey Governor’s School of the Arts during high school.

[04:11] Kip talks about cultural expectations and how that affected his choices as he entered university.

[05:09] Why Kip chose bioengineering as an undergrad.

[06:20] A brief time in architecture as a graduate student.

[07:47] Carnegie Mellon’s interaction design program.

[08:27] Kip’s revelation while attending the U.S.’s first ever service design conference.

[09:40] The course that made Kip fall in love with learning again.

[10:41] How Kip’s studies in architecture and bioengineering have come full circle in his current work in healthcare.

[13:51] Designing in complex systems.

[14:00] Kip uses the military and warfare as another example of a complex system.

[15:38] Looking at healthcare as a complex system.

[16:54] Kip offers a pre-pandemic example of the challenges that arose in implementing a new technology.

[18:26] Difficulties that can arise with terminology and in how language is used.

[19:21] Vaccine hesitancy vs. vaccine readiness.

[21:48] Complex systems are multidimensional, and aesthetics is often just as important as the technical.

[23:02] Kip offers an example using PPE/masks during the pandemic to show why aesthetics matters.

[26:06] The complexities involved in shaping and influencing people’s behaviors and choices.

[31:16] Dawan brings up the idea of shifting management more into performance facilitation rather than control.

[32:43] A Miro Moment.

[34:01] Kip likes Henry Mintzberg’s idea of management as “controlled chaos,” maintaining the balance between exploration, freedom, and a sense of order.

[35:43] The need for c-suite execs to stay grounded in the actual front line work of the organization.

[36:46] Designers as rebels.

[37:05] Kip talks about parallel developments in both design and management.

[38:43] What can designers learn from management?

[41:33] How the pandemic helped healthcare innovation.

[42:55] Good designers and good managers both work to create the environment where healthy and exciting interactions and projects can take place.

[44:46] Service design’s uniqueness as a discipline.

[47:09] The desire to serve is an essential aspect of what it means to be a designer.

[47:39] Bruno Latour’s benefits of design.

[49:03] Many things that are aspects of design are also aspects of management.

[51:10] Designers and managers are often doing the same work.

[51:37] Dawan talks about shifting from “solutions” to “responses.”

[54:28] Systems have histories and memories.

[57:14] Kip offers thoughts and advice for others who want to apply their design skills in the healthcare industry.

[01:04:15] Kip’s last words about the design field as a whole.

Links

Kip on Twitter

Kip on LinkedIn

Kip on Google Scholar

Kip on University Hospitals Ventures

Kip on ResearchGate

TEDx CLE, Master Builders for the 21st Century

Critique of Design Thinking in Organizations: Strongholds and Shortcomings of the Making Paradigm

Hack from Home | Discovering Problems in Our Dwelling Place: A Design Thinking Approach

Architekton

Designing for Value in Specialty Referrals: A New Framework for Eliminating Defects and Wicked Problems, by Patrick Runnels, Heather Wobbe, Kipum Lee, Randy Jernejcic, and Peter Pronovost

Book Recommendations

Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell

The Systems Approach and Its Enemies, by C. West Churchman

The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action, by Donald Schön

A Cautious Prometheus? A Few Steps Toward a Philosophy of Design (with Special Attention to Peter Sloterdijk), keynote lecture from Bruno Latour

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Healthcare Innovation + Nursing + Opportunities for Designers — DT101 E109

A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45

Service Design in Healthcare Inside Multiple Business Contexts with Jessica Dugan — DT101 E22

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Nahal Tavangar is a self-professed generalist who has worked in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors across two continents. These roles and experiences have given her valuable insights into design thinking in various industries, work environments, business models, and workplace cultures. Today, we talk about research workshops, metaphors, and designing feedback.

Listen to learn about:

• Designing feedback systems
• The three categories of feedback methods
• How Nahal uses LEGO Serious Play in her work
• Ways of working with visualizations and metaphor in design work

Our Guest

Nahal is passionate about creating ways to improve existing systems and processes to fit human needs, for the people they serve or may serve. Even before she learned about human-centered design, she was expressing and cultivating this passion in her work.

After diving head-first into the Design Thinking community in Washington, D.C. and meeting her German boyfriend-now-husband, she decided to uproot her life in the U.S. in 2014 and move to Germany to pursue her M.A. in Integrated Design, with a focus on Service Design. Her thesis was on the topic of how we might capture more ‘holistic feedback’ in the design process.

Nahal is a self-professed ‘generalist’ and has worked in the public, private and non-profit sectors across two continents. These roles seem unrelated at a glance, but the experiences have given her valuable insights into design thinking in various industries, work environments, business models, and workplace cultures.

Show Highlights

[03:02] Nahal’s journey into design thinking is thanks to a friend’s suggestion.

[04:30] Getting involved with the Design Thinking DC community, and starting to apply design thinking to her work in PR.

[05:00] Using a “question of the day” to get people in her office to think creatively.

[06:23] Moving to Germany to get her master’s degree in service design.

[09:00] Nahal’s struggle to call herself a designer.

[10:23] Adapting terminology to fit the audience.

[11:26] Dawan offers a story about asking workshop participants to sketch.

[13:14] Nahal also likes getting people to work with visualizations instead of just talking.

[13:37] Nahal talks about creating a customer journey map in her work for a German energy company.

[19:09] Another initiative for the company involved diving into customer feedback channels.

[20:31] Discovering a passion for learning from customer feedback in order to create a learning culture at an organization.

[21:46] The need to build connections between research and feedback systems.

[22:12] The problem with only using surveys as a feedback mechanism.

[22:53] The need for a better feedback system that ensures its insights are used by the organization.

[24:47] Dawan talks about the limitations of surveys.

[27:15] Nahal’s three categories of feedback methods.

[28:23] Nahal gives an example of creating a robust feedback system.

[29:33] Feedback systems need to be designed.

[30:33] Getting trained in LEGO Serious Play, and how Nahal uses it in her work.

[31:41] Nahal talks about the first time she used LEGO Serious Play in a workshop.

[33:18] Dawan mentions the power of asking questions.

[35:07] Using Image Cards to help people tap into metaphors.

[36:09] The power of metaphor.

[38:36] A Miro Moment.

[40:22] Dealing with imposter syndrome.

[41:38] Trust the process – and trust the people.

[44:14] Nahal has words of encouragement for those trying to bring design thinking tools into their day-to-day.

[46:36] Find ways to discover the needs of your customers.

Links

Nahal on Twitter

Nahal on LinkedIn

Nahal on Creative Mornings

Nahal’s MA Thesis: Designing Holistic Feedback: A Typology of Methods and Proposed Framework for Soliciting More Comprehensive, Qualitative User Input

Pega

Book Recommendations

How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market, by Gerald Zaltman

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All, by Tom Kelley and David Kelley

The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Trust the Process: An Artist's Guide to Letting Go, by Shaun McNiff

The Mom Test: How to talk to customers and learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you, by Rob Fitzpatrick

Good Services: How to Design Services that Work, by Louise Downe

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14

Experiencing Design: The Innovator’s Journey with Karen Hold — DT101 E71

Designing a Learning System for the Good Life // ALD 013 — DT101 E108

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Nick Fink is a design and research leader with over two decades of experience in the industry. Nick currently consults and advises businesses on design and research in Seattle through his company, Craft & Rigor.

Listen to learn about:

• Core disciplines of UX design
• What is interaction design?
• What does it mean to be a UX designer today?
• The challenges UX and design face in today’s business environment

Our Guest

Nick Finck is a design and research leader with over two decades of experience in the industry. He strives to improve people’s lives through crafting well-designed experiences that matter. Nick currently consults and advises businesses on design and research through Craft & Rigor in Seattle. Before this, he was in design and research leadership roles at Amazon Web Services, Facebook, Ubermind, Deloitte Digital, projekt202, and his own agency Blue Flavor.

Nick's contributions to the UX community go far and wide. He is an experienced public speaker and has given over 102 talks in 10 countries. He has helped countless industry professionals and career transitioners as a design coach and mentor. Earlier in his career, he was the publisher of Digital Web Magazine, an online magazine for web professionals

Show Highlights

[02:44] Nick takes us in the wayback machine, back to dialup days and his start in web development.

[03:53] Moving from web development into web design, and following that thread into interaction design and UX.

[05:53] Nick talks about creating his model highlighting the core disciplines of UX.

[07:27] Starting off with user research and understanding your users.

[07:53] Communicating through content.

[08:12] Adding structure and organization.

[08:41] Designing user interactions based on user behavior.

[09:38] Evaluating the work.

[11:29] Changes Nick would make to his model today.

[13:41] What’s happening in UX design today.

[15:39] What does it mean to be a UX designer today?

[16:02] People are often confused as to what UX design actually is.

[16:50] How the confusion has fractured the UX community.

[20:45] UX and design teams.

[21:12] The concept of design maturity.

[23:04] There is a lack of resources and transitional roles for a designer’s career path into management.

[24:56] Nick’s “Big Wheel” analogy for design in organizations.

[26:00] You probably don’t have enough designers.

[27:02] There is more to UX than UI design.

[27:46] The disappointment of companies not giving UX design the time and space it needs to really shine.

[28:34] You cannot do effective UX design without user research.

[30:41] Form ever follows function.

[31:55] UX is about helping users solve problems.

[32:40] Dawan talks about how Indi Young approaches user research.

[33:07] Understanding someone’s purpose as the starting point for design.

[34:10] Nick shares an example from his work on the importance of understanding someone’s story and journey.

[38:23] A Miro Moment.

[40:51] Things Nick wishes companies knew about UX.

[41:08] UX is not just about the product.

[42:54] Rethinking how your company operates and taking the time to examine legacy tech and processes.

[44:45] Bill Buxton’s talk about technology and innovation in technology.

[47:06] Nick’s advice for company executives when it comes to design.

[48:49] Where to learn more about Nick and his work.

[49:31] What Nick does in his business advisory consulting work.

[52:34] Sharing what a “yes” would look like to plant the seed for future change.

Links

Nick on Twitter

Nick on LinkedIn

Nick’s website

Craft and Rigor on Twitter

Design Career Network, How to build a well-rounded, effective design team

User Defenders Podcast: 036: No Designer Left Behind with Nick Finck

Bill Buxton at TechFest 2013: Designing for Ubiquitous Computing

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

UX + Into, Through, and (Almost) Out of Design with Kara DeFrias — DT101 E103 UX + Navigating Rough Design Waters + Design Leadership with Dennis Lenard — DT101 E82 UX Research + Research Teams + UX Camp DC with Glennette Clark — DT101 E80

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Alvin Schexnider is an emancipatory designer and a business operations strategist who helps institutions become more effective, just, citizen-centered, and innovative. He has 15 years of experience in leadership across design, strategy, equity, and business operations in the government, nonprofit and for-profit spaces. Currently he is a part of Capital One's Equity and Design team as a senior equity design strategist. Outside his day-to-day work, he runs GraffitiVersal, an organization that makes resources to inspire, elevate, and catalyze change. GraffitiVersal’s latest release is called A Continuum of Freeing Design and Vigorous Futures, a card deck detailing an approach for designing for both equitable and just outcomes in the present, and for thriving worlds in the future. We talk about bringing human-centered design to operations and human resources.

Listen to learn about:

• Alvin’s roundabout road into design
• Alvin’s experiences at the Greater Good Studio
• Using design at the Illinois Department of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Alvin’s role as Senior Equity Design Strategist at Capital One

Our Guest

Alvin (he/him) is a designer, futurist, strategist, and illustrator. He's a right brain / left brained DesignOps leader, with 10 + years of tri-sector people management, who uses foresight and equity to build and vitalize impactful organizations. He leverages his 15 years of experience and leadership across strategy & business operations, multidisciplinary design (service design, human-centered design, equity design), and org change to drive concepting, adoption, and implementation of major initiatives.

At present, he is a Manager, Design Practice & Equity Design on Capital One's Experience Strategy & Operations Team; previously, he was Sr. Equity Design Strategist in its Equity by Design Program. Before this role, he was Chief People Officer of the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS - agency budget of $9 Billion), focused on improving the experience of 14,000 staff while leading a department of 130 people, and before that, he was also Senior Operations Lead for IDHS focusing on strategy, bizops, and service design projects. Alvin began to build capacity in human-centered design as the first Director of Design Operations at Greater Good Studio, a human-centered design firm that works with global foundations, government agencies, and national NGOs.

Outside of his day job, Alvin is also Founder & Organizer of GraffitiVersal — an emancipatory lab using design, art, foresight, & Afrofuturism for change. GraffitiVersal's Racial DeckEquity Cardset & Continuum of Freeing Design & Vigorous Futures CardDeck have been used at organizations such as: Meta, LAB at OPM, Univ. of Chicago, and Slalom Consulting. He's also the author of A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming (via A Kids Co.) and is currently writing & illustrating his first Afrofuturist graphic novel for middle schoolers through the Sequential Artists Workshop's Graphic Novel Intensive.

Besides hanging with his partner and 2 kids, you’ll find him reading N.K. Jemisin or a Black Panther comic book.

Show Highlights

[00:39] Alvin’s love of art and storytelling started early, as a kid creating his own comics.

[05:06] Starting college as a PolySci major with plans to be a lawyer.

[07:18] The moment Alvin realized he didn’t want to pursue law as a career.

[07:56] Moving on to business management studies, and his time in Beijing.

[09:02] Starting his business career at Abbott Laboratories and returning to China.

[13:21] Sidestepping away from for-profit into mission-driven and non-profit spaces.

[15:14] Realizing he had a knack for business operations and systems thinking.

[16:47] How his time as Director of Operations at Greater Good Studio transformed his thinking and started him on his own path into design.

[21:07] Immersing himself in design spaces and in learning design.

[21:57] Taking all he’d learned about human-centered design into his next job — COO of Erie Neighborhood House Services.

[23:52] Getting recruited to work for the Illinois Department of Human Services.

[27:10] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Alvin used design to help shape the department’s response.

[29:19] Redesigning policies and spaces to keep staff healthy as essential workers.

[35:27] Taking over as the head of HR for the department, and working on improving employee experience.

[38:33] Alvin’s current role as the Senior Equity Design Strategist for Capital One’s Equity by Design team.

[43:06] You don’t have to be an official designer to use design in your work.

Links

Alvin Schexnider on Twitter

Alvin Schexnider on LinkedIn

Alvin Schexnider on Medium

Alvin on Texas State University website

Graffitiversal

Graffitiversal on Instagram

Racial DeckEquity

Designing for: equity with Alvin Schexnider

Alvin Schexnider and Equity by Design

Either / Org - The Organizational Design Inspiration Lab

A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming (A Kids Co Publishing) - recently released!

“Medium Post: “A Continuum of Freeing Design & Vigorous Futures” — A Journey from Racial Bullying to Time Warps

Wakanda Forever - A Film Review - Human Futures Magazine

AIGA Chicago Podcast - Designing For: Equity

Interview with Slalom Consulting

Books Recommendations

Kindred, by Octavia Butler

We Do This Til We Free Us, by Mariame Kaba

Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, by Ta Nehisi Coates

Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need, by Sasha Costanza-Chock

This is Service Design Doing, by Marc Stickdorn, Markus Hormess, and Adam Lawrence

Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture, by Ytasha Womack

Far Sector, by N.K. Jemisin

Employee Experience: Develop a Happy, Productive and Supported Workforce for Exceptional Individual and Business Performance, by Ben Whittier

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, by Adrienne Maree Brown

Good Services: How to Design Services that Work, by Louise Downe

Drawn Together, by Minh Lê and Dan Santat

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Designing for the Greater Good, Strategy + Design Thinking, and Measuring Design Thinking with Jeanne Liedtka — DT101 E1

Critical and Emancipatory Design Thinking with Lesley-Ann Noel — DT101 E57

5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: The Opioid Overdose Epidemic (Part 1) with Stacy Stanford — DT101 E102

View Details

Allen Higgins joins me as we share host and guest roles to talk about design practice systems and creating for and with the people we serve. Alan is a research associate and lecturer in the Center for Innovation Technology and Organization in the School of Business at University College Dublin.

Listen to learn about:

• Design and design thinking process
• Design thinking mindset
• How to introduce design thinking to teams and organizations
• What is innovation?
• Design Justice and ethical design

Our Guest

Allen Higgins is a researcher/lecturer in the Management Information Systems subject area in the UCD College of Business—University College Dublin, Ireland. He is a member of the UCD Centre for Innovation, Technology and Organization (CITO) and the UCD Centre for Business and Society.

Show Highlights

[00:39] Script is flipped! Dawan talks about how he got into design thinking.

[02:14] Launching Fluid Hive in 2008.

[02:38] Allen’s interest came while developing a course for university.

[04:48] Allen and Dawan compare how they approach design thinking

[06:46] The big question: What problem are we trying to solve?

[08:30] Finding the problem is the real problem.

[09:30] IDEO as people’s first introduction to design thinking.

[10:05] There is no single recipe for innovation.

[10:40] Experienced designers are comfortable with ambiguity.

[11:32] It’s hard to change our view of the world.

[12:09] Designers can see the world in multiple ways.

[14:08] The difference between reaction and response.

[15:55] The answer to the question should take you from the world you have to the world you want.

[17:57] Failure is part of the process. Failure is actually learning.

[20:56] A design thinking culture values continual learning.

[22:06] Part of bringing design thinking to organizations is speaking the language of that organization.

[23:53] Dawan and Allen talk about making design thinking part of organizational culture.

[25:27] Inviting people into learning and using design thinking.

[27:04] Allen talks about innovation, and the hospitality metaphor.

[29:42] Allen offers an example of a case study where an organization was introducing large-scale change to its systems.

[31:42] Designing with the people who will implement and support the solution in mind.

[32:40] Dawan’s preferred definition of innovation.

[35:47] The world we have, and the world we want.

[37:05] Best intentions, and the need for design justice.

[37:47] The racism (and sexism) in AI image generators.

[38:47] The systems we design often reinforce societal bias.

[44:11] Doug Dietz’s MRI story TED Talk.

[45:50] Ethical design.

[46:31] The concept of the “user” in design.

[47:01] The difficulty with personas.

[48:25] Indi Young’s mental models for user behavior.

[49:24] Focusing on why and how people decide instead of empathy.

[50:32] “Nothing about us without us”: co-creating with the people you’re designing for.

[52:27] You are not your user.

[54:01] Giving everyone access to the tools of design and design thinking.

[56:26] Designing for accessibility.

[1:02:19] Allen and Dawan end the conversation by talking about empathy vs. sympathy.

Links

Allen on LinkedIn

Allen on Google Scholar

Allen on University College Dublin

Allen on ResearchGate

The Design Talk podcast

Transforming healthcare for children and their families: Doug Dietz at TEDxSanJoseCA

Book Recommendations

Ten Types of Innovation: The Discipline of Building Breakthroughs, by Larry Keeley, Helen Walters, Ryan Pikkel, and Brian Quinn

Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior, by Indi Young

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

How to Learn Design Thinking + Design Thinking Pedagogy with Julie Schell — DT101 E15

Launching and Leading a University-wide Design Thinking Initiative with Danielle Lake — DT101 E31

Systemic Service Design + a Critical Lens on Design Practice with Josina Vink — DT101 E85

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Mike Montero is a designer and the author of Ruined By Design, You're My Favorite Client, The Collected Angers, and the newly-revised Design is a Job.

Listen to learn about:

• Mike’s book, Design is a Job
• Ethics in design
• Designing society so that ethical behavior becomes the norm

Our Guest

Mike Monteiro is the co-founder and design director of Mule Design. He mostly writes these days. His latest book is the second edition of Design Is a Job.

Show Highlights

[00:39] How Mike got into design during graduate school.

[03:54] His first job in desktop publishing and printing taught him to measure work in 30-minute increments.

[06:04] Moving into writing books.

[07:32] Mike’s book, Design is a Job, was written to help designers with the ins and outs of being a professional designer.

[10:57] Why Mike felt it was time to revise the book.

[13:23] The “revised” edition changed so much, it’s basically a different book.

[14:33] Mike talks about some of the new ideas in the revised edition.

[15:12] Designers moving from contractors to employees.

[18:02] The importance of ethical behavior and ethical decisions.

[18:15] Mike’s butcher metaphor.

[24:35] What companies and society can do to create an environment that encourages ethical behavior.

[26:52] The first steps on the path to a more ethical world.

[30:58] Finding his place in the semi post-pandemic world.

[34:13] Knowing when it’s time to get off the stage.

[35:48] Speaking only if you can improve the silence.

[37:05] Getting older and realizing the value of listening.

[38:34] How do we redesign power so that it can inoculate itself against power’s darker aspects?

[42:14] The messiness of the world today, and how should designers work within that world to make it a better place?

[45:07] There is always a cost to the ethical choice.

Links

Mike on Twitter

Mike on Medium

Mule Design

Mule Design on Twitter

Ruined By Design

Creative Mornings Podcast, F*ck You, Pay Me with Mike

Monteiro

Creative Mornings HQ: Let's Make Mistakes

Intercom: Mule Design’s Mike Monteiro

on responsibility in experience design

Invision: Mike Monteiro: Design is

Political

Creative Bloq: Why designers need to stick

to their guns

Webstock ‘13: Mike Monteiro - How Designers Destroyed the

World

Interview with Mike by Clearleft

Books By Mike Monteiro

Design is a Job

You’re My Favorite Client

Ruined By Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It

The Collected Angers

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Designing Culture at Work + Social Innovation + Necessary Disquiet with Lauren Currie — DT101 E29

Design for Good + Gut Checks + Seeing Power with George Aye — DT101 E50

Cognitive Bias + Ethics + Dreaming the Future of Design with David Dylan Thomas — DT101 E112

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Hazel White is a designer and a visualizer. She creates simple visuals to help communicate complex ideas. We talk about how design and visualization combine to facilitate thinking, fuel solving, and create transformative change.

Listen to learn about:

• How visualizations can help us communicate ideas
• Examples of what you can use visualizations for
• Hazel’s visualization projects and their impact
• Advice for those wanting to try creating their own visualizations
• Some tools and resources for those who want to create visualizations

Our Guest

Hazel White is a designer and educator who specializes in creating visuals that simplify complex information.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, she collaborated with healthcare experts to rapidly distill complex information into simple and memorable visuals for frontline staff in hospitals and care homes.

Currently, she is working on visuals of palliative care guidelines for health and care staff, visually recording a sports governing body’s transformation program, and developing internal documentation for a prominent cultural organization.

Previously, Hazel was Founding Director of Open Change - a company which supported organizations to navigate change using Design Thinking. Clients included government, healthcare and national cultural organizations in the UK and Europe.

Hazel spent two decades teaching design in Universities in the UK and South Korea.She is an Associate of the UK Design Council.

Show Highlights

[00:53] Dawan thanks Hazel for the incredible visualization she created for podcast conversation (download it here).

[01:46] Hazel’s path from design thinking to visualization.

[02:13] Discovering that drawing helped her remember things, such as lectures, better.

[03:33] Visualizations are helpful for everyone’s memory recall.

[04:49] Hazel gives one example from the healthcare industry of the powerful impact using visualizations has had on those she’s worked with.

[08:15] How the pandemic increased the need for getting important information out quickly while also ensuring people understood it.

[09:12] Hazel’s work on a series of COVID-19 related visualizations for hospital staff.

[12:51] The value of using visualizations in a work environment.

[13:40] Working on the Scottish Government’s Framework for Care for Adults in Care Homes.

[16:22] Visualizations can be used to capture ideas and themes during live workshops and meetings.

[17:22] Using visualizations to map out how things interrelate and to see things changing over time.

[18:01] Visualizations can help make complex information more accessible.

[19:03] Visuals are something that people will remember.

[21:04] How working with visualizations has changed how Hazel thinks and works.

[23:50] Creating your own visuals, and when to hire a professional.

[26:04] Advice for people who want to give creating visualizations a try, but who aren’t “good” at drawing.

[27:50] The importance of feedback and collaboration during the creation process.

[29:49] The positive feedback Hazel has gotten about her work.

[32:37] Dawan gives listeners a visualization challenge.

[33:29] Hazel offers tools and resources listeners can use while doing their challenge.

[34:51] Drawing visualizations on Magic Whiteboard.

[37:35] Thinking about visualizations and accessibility.

Links

Hazel on Twitter

Hazel on LinkedIn

Hazel White Design

Ole Qvist-Sørensen: Draw More, together

Magic Whiteboard

Scriberia

Eva-Lotta Lamm, Sketchnoting: Communicate with Visual Notes

Book Recommendations

Visual Collaboration: A Powerful Toolkit for Improving Meetings, Projects, and Processes, by Loa Baastrup and Ole Qvist-Sørensen

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

A Designer’s Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45

Designing for Healthcare vs Sick Care + The Emergency Design Collective — DT101 E52

Civic Design + Innovation Ops + System Design with Ryann Hoffman — DT101 E62

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David Dylan Thomas is the author of Design for Cognitive Bias and the creator and host of the Cognitive Bias podcast. Dave has consulted with major clients in entertainment, healthcare, publishing, finance, and retail. As the founder and CEO of David Dylan Thomas, LLC, he offers workshops and presentations on inclusive design and the role of bias in making decisions. We talk about cognitive bias, ethics, and dreaming the future of design.

Listen to learn about:

• How cognitive biases affect the way we think and design
• Inclusive design
• David’s Assumption Audit
• How participatory design shifts power
• Why businesses can struggle with ethics
• Where should we go in the future of design?

Our Guest

David Dylan Thomas, author of Design for Cognitive Bias, creator and host of The Cognitive Bias Podcast, and a twenty-year practitioner of content strategy and UX, has consulted major clients in entertainment, healthcare, publishing, finance, and retail. As the founder and CEO of David Dylan Thomas, LLC he offers workshops and presentations on inclusive design and the role of bias in making decisions. He has presented at TEDNYC, SXSW Interactive, Confab, Button, An Event Apart, UX Copenhagen, UX Days Tokyo, and more on topics at the intersection of bias, design, and social justice.

Show Highlights

[01:51] How Iris Bohnet’s talk, What Works: Gender Equality By Design helped David connect his work in UX/content strategy with cognitive bias.

[02:28] The role of pattern recognition in racial and gender discrimination.

[03:20] How David started learning about cognitive biases and starting the Cognitive Bias podcast.

[03:59] Writing a book, and shifting his consulting into inclusive design and designing for cognitive bias.

[05:37] Why it’s important for designers to slow down and take time to think about how cognitive biases may be affecting the design decisions they are making.

[07:29] David’s advice for those wanting to start to learn about cognitive bias and inclusive design.

[07:47] Using what you value most as a north star when designing.

[08:40] David’s “assumption audit” five-question exercise to do before starting a project.

[10:56] Two places where a lot of people struggle when it comes to inclusive design.

[13:18] Giving a voice and power to the people you are designing for.

[15:17] Dawan mentions the fear of starting, and the need for discomfort training.

[15:42] David mentions Mike Monteiro, who talks about needing to be able to wrestle with your discomfort.

[18:33] A look at the problems with, and ethics of, collecting personal data.

[19:33] It’s always best to think about inclusivity and cognitive biases as early as possible in a project, but at least before you take an expensive step.

[21:21] David offers a great question for an applicant to ask in a job interview.

[23:26] Facebook’s natural engagement graph, and why businesses can struggle with ethics.

[28:29] How people approach design research and ethics is changing.

[28:44] Participatory design’s power map.

[29:43] Looking at the city of Philadelphia’s work with the Office of Homeless Services.

[31:46] Connecting the locus of power to the locus of insight.

[32:35] David talks about how to get leadership buy-in to what you’re designing.

[36:14] How much of what we’re using today should we take into the future of design?

[38:26] Envisioning a world outside of ownership.

[39:34] Designing for sharing.

[41:22] Resources David recommends for people wanting to learn more.

[41:57] We can design something better for the future.

Links

David on Twitter

David on LinkedIn

David’s website

Design for cognitive bias: Using mental shortcuts for good instead of evil, presentation for UX New Zealand 2020

The Cognitive Bias podcast

Design x David Dylan Thomas interview on DxU

The Content Strategy Podcast Ep 48: David Dylan Thomas - Understanding design, content and bias

Iris Bohnet | What Works: Gender Equality by Design | SXSW Interactive 2016

Project Inkblot

Weekly Fluctuations in Risk Tolerance and Voting Behaviour, by J.G. Sanders and Rob Jenkins

Báyò Akómoláfé

Book Recommendations

Design for Cognitive Bias, by David Dylan Thomas

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Half Has Never Been Told, by Edward E. Baptist

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Designing with Government Partners + Hidden Design Phases with Chelsea Mauldin — DT101 E98

Design for Good + Gut Checks + Seeing Power with George Aye — DT101 E50

Designing for Behavior Change + Gameful Design with Dustin DiTommaso — DT101 E28

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This episode of the Design Thinking 101 podcast is 5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: Appreciative Inquiry. Joan McArthur-Blair and Jeanie Cockell are co-presidents of Cockell McArthur-Blair Consulting.

Listen to learn about:

• Appreciative inquiry’s ability to generate hope and help people be creative
• Using generative questions to unlock people’s imaginations and focus on the positive
• How appreciative inquiry can help teams in trouble work through conflict
• Ways we can all start to use appreciative inquiry

Our Guests

Joan McArthur-Blair and Jeanie Cockell are Co-Presidents of Cockell McArthur-Blair Consulting. They profoundly believe that education is the most powerful force for social and economic good in the world. Together they have more than 50 years of experience in higher education and have taken that experience to build a consulting practice. They specialize in collaboratively designing strategies to surface the wisdom of individuals, groups and organizations in order for them to build positive futures and to respond effectively to change. They have co-authored many articles on resilience, leadership, appreciative inquiry and published two books, Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education: A Transformative Force and Building Resilience with Appreciative Inquiry: A Leadership Journey through Hope, Despair, and Forgiveness.

Show Highlights

[02:42] An introduction to appreciative inquiry.

[04:30] The power of appreciative inquiry.

[05:36] Building bridges from the strengths we have to the better futures we want.

[06:08] The emotional strength appreciative inquiry can help us nurture.

[06:51] Asking good questions and focusing on strengths.

[08:22] How appreciative inquiry helps us better examine our complex world.

[09:48] The origin of appreciative inquiry.

[10:43] You get more of what you focus on.

[13:18] Problems are yearnings.

[14:10] Design is a critical component of appreciative inquiry.

[14:29] The simultaneity effect.

[15:44] Putting design into action.

[17:14] “Don’t create anything without me.”

[18:53] Using appreciative inquiry to help groups and teams work through conflict.

[19:08] Creating the appreciative climate.

[19:23] One of Jeanie’s and Joan’s favorite exercises.

[20:11] Creating the agreement by which the team will work together.

[21:42] Generative questions unlock imagination and possibility.

[25:01] Using questions to help organizations find their strengths and chart their own path.

[26:40] The power of a compelling vision.

[29:50] Making sure everyone can see themselves and their place inside the vision.

[32:34] Taking a look at the “do it phase,” the “destiny” of appreciative inquiry.

[34:24] An organization’s strategy doesn’t sit on a shelf, it lives and changes all the time.

[35:54] Codifying the plan.

[37:28] Carrying appreciative inquiry out into the larger world.

[38:42] Appreciative inquiry creates hope.

[39:58] How Joan and Jeanie define hope.

[42:14] Joan talks about why she became involved in appreciative inquiry.

[44:05] Jeanie and Joan offer advice and ways everyone can start using appreciative inquiry in their work and their lives.

Links

Joan on Twitter

Jeanie Cockell on Twitter

Joan on LinkedIn

Jeanie on LinkedIn

Joan on The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Campus

Jeanie on The Taos Institute

Joan on The Taos Institute

Jeanie on The Appreciative Inquiry Commons

Joan on The Appreciative Inquiry Commons

Cockell McArthur-Blair Consulting

The Taos Institute: Dialogue with Joan McArthur-Blair and Jeanie Cockell

UBC Education Alumni: Joan McArthur-Blair

A Brief Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry by Dr. Jeanie Cockell

Appreciative Resilience Facilitator Training – register for April 2023 course

Book Recommendations

Building Resilience with Appreciative Inquiry: A Leadership Journey Through Hope, Despair, and Forgiveness, by Joan McArthur-Blair and Jeanie Cockell

Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education: A Transformative Force, by Jeanie Cockell and Joan McArthur-Blair

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: The Opioid Overdose Epidemic (Part 1) with Stacy Stanford — DT101 E102

5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About Hacking Bureaucracy with Marina Nitze — DT101 E106

5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About Positive Childhood Experiences with Robert Sege — DT101 E110

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This episode of the Design Thinking 101 podcast is 5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: Positive Childhood Experiences. Dr. Robert Sege, MD PhD is a pediatrician at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, and a professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, where he directs the Center for Community Engaged Medicine. Dr. Sege is nationally known for his research on effective health systems approaches that directly address the social determinants of health. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy in Washington, and serves on the boards of the Massachusetts Children's Trust and Prevent Child Abuse America. He has served on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, and on its committee on injury violence and poisoning prevention.

Listen to learn about:

• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs)
• Designing for children
• Helping kids navigate childhood in a positive way
• The importance of creating safe environments for children
• Ways we can give kids positive experiences that allow them to thrive

Our Guest

Robert Sege, MD, PhD is a Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, where he directs the Center for Community-Engaged Medicine and is a core faculty member of the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He has served on national committees for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), been lead author on several important AAP policies, and has received national awards for his work, including the prestigious 2019 Ray E. Helfer award from the Alliance of Children’s Trusts and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

He has led teams that developed new models for pediatric primary care and a new framework for working with children and families (HOPE). His extensive speaking and publication list include contributions to the prevention and treatment of child maltreatment and youth violence.

He is a graduate of Yale College, received his PhD in Biology from MIT and his MD from Harvard Medical School, and did his pediatric residency at Boston Children’s Hospital. Bob lives in the Boston area, where he and his wife Karen have raised three young adult children.

Show Highlights

[03:35] Bob starts the conversation talking about how all of the things we experience as children – good and bad – have a lasting impact on who we are as adults.

[05:47] Parents: trust yourselves and your ability to raise your children.

[06:33] Dawan and Bob talk about the often-contradictory advice that exists for parents.

[07:34] Positive modeling for kids.

[09:07] Children need safe, stable, nurturing relationships.

[10:03] Defining family.

[10:19] Designing housing and the spaces where families and communities gather.

[14:15] Children need to have safe and equitable environments to live, learn, and play in.

[14:29] Looking at the physical environment kids need.

[15:23] Children also need a safe emotional environment.

[16:49] Bob offers ideas for modern school design.

[17:32] The need for arts programs in school.

[18:01] HOPE’s website logo was designed by Boston Public High School students.

[19:18] Children need to be actively engaged.

[20:49] Dawan mentions how many services are designed more for parents than for the child.

[21:21] Giving kids a sense of ownership in the family and in the world.

[22:13] Designing and building community and finding ways children can be involved.

[24:09] Children need opportunities for emotional growth.

[24:31] Emotional growth on the playground.

[26:06] Children need time in nature.

[27:52] PCEs help us humanize one another and help us look past our biases about someone.

[31:13] Dawan comments that it’s just as important to know the good stories as it is the bad stories if we really want to understand.

[31:52] Bob talks about parent cafés and other places where parents can meet to talk about parenting.

[33:37] Where to learn more about HOPE and the work Bob is doing.

Links

Robert on Twitter

Robert at Tufts Medical Center

Robert at the Center for the Study of Social Policy

Effective Discipline to Raise Healthy Children

Evidence-Based Health Care for Children: What Are We Missing?

Positive Childhood Experiences offset ACEs: Q & A with Dr. Robert Sege about HOPE

HOPE: Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences

HOPE on LinkedIn

HOPE on Twitter

Register for HOPE Summit 2023

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: The Opioid Overdose Epidemic (Part 1) with Stacy Stanford — DT101 E102

A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45

Healthcare Design Teams + Wellness + ScienceXDesign with Chris McCarthy — DT101 E24

View Details

Michael Ackerman is currently the director of the Master in Healthcare Innovation Program and Professor of Clinical Nursing and the director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Leadership at the Ohio State University College of Nursing. He also maintains a clinical practice as an acute care nurse practitioner at St. Joseph's Neighborhood Hospital in Rochester, New York. Today, we talk about nursing, healthcare innovation, and opportunities for designers in the healthcare industry.

Listen to learn about:

• The role of nurses in nursing/healthcare innovation
• The unique challenges of innovation in healthcare
• Improving the healthcare innovation cycle
• OSU’s Center for Healthcare Innovation and Leadership

Our Guest

Michael Ackerman is currently the Director of the Master in Healthcare Innovation Program and Professor of Clinical Nursing, and the Director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Leadership at the Ohio State University College of Nursing. He also maintains a clinical practice as an acute care nurse practitioner at St Joseph’s Neighborhood in Rochester, NY. He is also the Owner of Ackerman Consultants.

Dr. Ackerman has held just about every position a nurse could hold in academia and clinical practice from candy striper to senior director. His entire career has been dedicated to critical care with numerous publications as well as invitations to speak nationally and internationally. His research and writing has focused on a variety of clinical topics including sepsis, airway management, hemodynamics, innovation and leadership. His innovation work has led to many disruptions in clinical practice and health system change. He has been recognized for his various contributions with various fellowships including; Fellow in Critical Care Medicine, Fellow in the National Academy of Practice, and Fellow in American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Dr. Ackerman completed his BSN from Niagara University, his MSN and DNS from The State University of New York at Buffalo, a post-masters certificate as an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner from the University of Rochester and is currently enrolled in a Design Thinking certificate program at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Show Highlights

[01:18] Michael talks about his love of nursing, and starting his career in the ICU.

[01:46] Finding his way into the healthcare innovation space.

[03:27] What people, and especially designers, should understand about bedside nursing.

[04:33] The three “P’s” of nursing and design.

[07:22] Co-creating with nurses via the Center for Healthcare.

[09:52] Nurses are moving into the innovation space.

[11:59] Michael’s wishlist of things designers should do when working in the healthcare innovation space.

[12:37] The healthcare industry is risk-averse.

[14:46] A look at the different viewpoints of healthcare executives.

[16:41] Michael talks about one project – a new feeding tube device.

[19:07] The healthcare innovation cycle is often slow.

[20:20} How the COVID-19 pandemic sped up the innovation cycle.

[22:18] How designers and healthcare leadership can help improve the healthcare innovation cycle.

[23:27] Democratizing innovation and inviting healthcare staff to the table.

[26:00] Ohio State’s innovation studios for healthcare and nursing.

[27:42] Working with the architecture school on creating healthier work environments.

[28:48] OSU’s Masters in Healthcare Innovation program.

[30:12] OSU’s Center for Healthcare Innovation and Leadership.

[32:42] The importance of creativity, and logic-brain versus creative-brain.

[34:21] Designers need to help people find ways to turn off their logic-brain to allow their creative-brain to turn on.

[35:43] Giving people permission to experiment and create.

[38:37] The patient harm threshold for rapid healthcare innovation.

[39:49] The need for innovation leadership roles in hospitals and healthcare.

[43:01] All leaders would benefit from being familiar with design thinking and being able to lead teams using a design mindset and methods.

[44:51] A culture of innovation and creativity starts at the top.

[47:22] Hospitals and healthcare are complex adaptive systems.

[49:59] Michael’s and Dawan’s advice for innovators.

Links

Michael on LinkedIn

Michael on Twitter

Ackerman Consulting

Michael on ResearchGate

The Handoff: Nurse Burnout with Michael Ackerman

Google Scholar list of articles where Michael is an author/co-author

The #HCBIZ Show: The Novation Dynamic: 3 Pillars for Healthcare Innovation Success with Michael Ackerman

SONSEIL

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Healthcare Design Teams + Wellness + ScienceXDesign with Chris McCarthy — DT101 E24

Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38

Seeing, Reframing, and Pursuing Problems with Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg — DT101 E86

View Details

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: ALD013 // Designing a Learning System for the Good Life. 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

[00:47] What is learning?

[00:55] The hope-mode learning system.

[01:40] Good life learning.

[01:40] Fluid Hive’s Good Life Learning System.

[02:47] What problems are you able to solve?

[03:05] What new problems do you want to be able to solve?

[03:24] What will learning to solve these problems do for your life?

[03:45] What will solving these problems do for your life?

[04:12] What must you experience to learn to solve these problems?

[04:38] What challenges can you expect along the way?

[05:07] How will you judge how the learning journey is contributing to your life?

[05:36] How will you evaluate your learning?

[06:13] How will you practice what you’ve learned?

[06:34] How will you judge how solving problems based on your learning is contributing to your life?

[07:14] The benefits of having a learning system for life.

[07:34] Fluid Hive’s free thinking tool will help you design your own learning system to create your best life.

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

Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 2 — Telling Well // ALD 011 — DT101 E92

Want Better Outcomes? Find Better Problems. // ALD 012 — DT101 E99

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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

Humanity-centered design

AI ♥ Design

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:

The rise of the Demigod designer. God created the world with a word, by Ruth Kikin-Gil | UX Collective (uxdesign.cc)

Humanity-Centered Design. How ethics will change the conversation… | by Ruth Kikin-Gil | Microsoft Design | Medium

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

Design Ethics in Augmented and Virtual Reality + Building a Design Career Path with Aaron Faucher — DT101 E11

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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’s website

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

View Details

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

Racism Untaught

Lesley-Ann Noel

Terresa Moses

Creative Reaction Lab

Design Justice Network

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

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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

GenZ Innovate

Grant Wiggins on ACSD

60 Minutes David Kelley interview

Project Breaker

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

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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

Cancer Moonshot

Chicago Camps conference

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

View Details

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

Chicago Recovery Alliance

National Harm Reduction Coalition

CDC Drug Overdose information website

Drug Policy Alliance

Shatterproof

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: The Future of Higher Education with Bryan Alexander — DT101 E97

5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About Strategic Foresight with Bart Édes — DT101 E95

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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

Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14

Civic Design + Innovation Ops + System Design with Ryann Hoffman — DT101 E62

Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage with Belinda Gannaway — DT101 E75

View Details

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

Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14

Civic Design + Innovation Ops + System Design with Ryann Hoffman — DT101 E62

Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage with Belinda Gannaway — DT101 E75

View Details

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

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

View Details

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

Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61

View Details

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

Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61

View Details

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

The Public Policy Lab on Twitter

Innovating Gotham: Interview with Chelsea Mauldin of Public Policy Lab

An Evening with Chelsea

Mauldin

How the Public Policy Lab

uses design thinking to create better policies

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14

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

View Details

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

The Public Policy Lab on Twitter

Innovating Gotham: Interview with Chelsea Mauldin of Public Policy Lab

An Evening with Chelsea

Mauldin

How the Public Policy Lab

uses design thinking to create better policies

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14

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

View Details

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

The Future Trends Forum

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

View Details

Dr. Abby Bajuniemi holds a PhD in applied linguistics from Minnesota University 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

18F

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

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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

Learning from Tomorrow with

Bart W. Édes On Strategic Foresight & Reshaping Asia & the World

Global Trends Report

The Futures Wheel

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

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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

Reckitt

Five minutes with Jos Harrison

Q&A with Jos Harrison of RB

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:

Humble Design Leadership + Design Agency and Experience Design Evolution with Aleksandra Melnikova — DT101 E33

Learning Design + Designing for How People Learn with Julie Dirksen — DT101 E42

Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage with Belinda Gannaway — DT101 E75

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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

DesignThinkers Group on Twitter

DesignThinkers Group on LinkedIn

Design Talk What is Design Thinking?

Delivering Innovative

Solutions Through Service Design Thinking With Marc Bolick

How Design Thinking Can

Take Service to Another Level, interview with Marc

Seth Godin

Dave Gray

Wednesday Web Jam

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

Designing for the Greater Good, Strategy + Design Thinking, and Measuring Design Thinking with Jeanne Liedtka — DT101 E1

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!

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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

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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

Working and Leading at the Intersection of Engineering, Business and Design with Kevin Bethune — DT101 E76

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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

An Introduction to Complex Responsive Process: Theory and Implications for Organizational Change Initiatives

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

View Details

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

View Details

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

Ronsen Consulting LLC

Curiosity Tank

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

Breaking into User Research

How to start a UX research project

Breaking into UX Research

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

Trauma-Informed Design + Participatory Design Perils + Research with Vulnerable Populations with Sarah Fathallah — DT101 E72

View Details

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

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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

How to Reframe

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

Jeanne Liedtka

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

Designing for the Greater Good, Strategy + Design Thinking, and Measuring Design Thinking with Jeanne Liedtka — DT101 E1

From Branding to Design + Teaching Design Teams + Leading Summer of Design with Karen Hold — DT101E13

Design Thinking at Work + Three Tensions Designers Navigate with David Dunne — DT101 E23

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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

Experio Lab

Kelly Ann McKercher

Ahmed Ansari

Yoko Akama

Design Justice Network

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

View Details

https://fluidhive.com/dt101-84/

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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

Austin’s website and blog

Avanade

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

Designing Your Team + Teams in Design Education + Coaching Design Teams with Mary Sherwin and David Sherwin — DT101 E49

Teams, Sprints, Prototyping, and Better Meetings with Douglas Ferguson — DT101 E59

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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

Creative Navy on Twitter

Creative Navy on Medium

Why Creativity Matters in UX Design

Top Developers’ Interview with Dennis

Interface Design UK

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Humble Design Leadership + Design Agency and Experience Design Evolution with Aleksandra Melnikova — DT101 E33

Learning Service Design + Leading Service Transformation with Clive Grinyer — DT101 E66

Working and Leading at the Intersection of Engineering, Business and Design with Kevin Bethune — DT101 E76

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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

Social Workers Who Design on Instagram

Trauma-Informed Design with Rachael Dietkus and Sarah Fathallah

Siebel Center for Design

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

Trauma-Informed Design + Participatory Design Perils + Research with Vulnerable Populations with Sarah Fathallah — DT101 E72

Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38

Design for Mental Health: Creating an Effective Response to Student Loneliness with Denise Ho and Andrew Baker — DT101 E60

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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

Designing with Empathy

U.S. Digital Service

UXCamp DC

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

Creative Whack Pack

Innovative Whack Pack

IDEO Method Cards

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14

Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19

Democracy as a Design Problem with Whitney Quesenbery — DT101 E68

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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

The Innovation Saboteur’s Handbook // ALD 007 – DT101 E77

View Details

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

Design Council UK

BBC Radio 4: The Fix

Interview with Cat at UX Connections

Interview with Cat at Design Week

Speculative Design

Design: Into the Ether

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

Rooted By Design

Natasha Trotman

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14

Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19

Democracy as a Design Problem with Whitney Quesenbery — DT101 E68

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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

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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

dreams • design + life

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

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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

FathomXP

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

Humble Design Leadership + Design Agency and Experience Design Evolution with Aleksandra Melnikova — DT101 E33

Designing Your Team + Teams in Design Education + Coaching Design Teams with Mary Sherwin and David Sherwin — DT101 E49

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.

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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

Entrepreneurial U

Black Inventors’ Hall of Fame

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

Leading a Design Thinking Consultancy, Betting Small to Win Big, and Driving Business Growth with Design Thinking with Natalie Foley — DT101 E5

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.

View Details

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

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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’s Website

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

Modernity + Coloniality

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14

Designer's Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21

Design for Mental Health: Creating an Effective Response to Student Loneliness with Denise Ho and Andrew Baker — DT101 E60

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.

View Details

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

From Branding to Design + Teaching Design Teams + Leading Summer of Design with Karen Hold — DT101E13

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.

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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

A Small Studio

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

From Branding to Design + Teaching Design Teams + Leading Summer of Design with Karen Hold — DT101E13

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.

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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.

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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

ElectionTools.org

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

Amazon Smile

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!

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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.

View Details

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’s website

Clive on LinkedIn

Clive on Twitter

Clive’s profile on the Royal College of Art website

RCA Service Design

Ageing Well: Designing a world accessible to all

Creative Review’s Top 50 for 2018

Designing Our Futures

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

Teaching and Learning Service Design for Designers and Non-designers with Maurício Manhães — DT101 E34

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!

View Details

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.

View Details

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

View Details

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.

View Details

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

Staircase Strategy

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

Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14

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.

View Details

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

Humble Design Leadership + Design Agency and Experience Design Evolution with Aleksandra Melnikova — DT101 E33

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.

View Details

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

Nod’s product overview

Press release on efficacy data for Nod

Hope Lab

Hope Lab Milk

Hope Lab’s LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health and Resilience Project

Grit Digital Health

YOU at College

University of Colorado Boulder, Master of Arts in Strategic Communication Design

Elon By 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!

View Details

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

What is design thinking?

Bringing Design Thinking into Technology

Voltage Control

Beyond the Prototype

Inside Innovation - Inside Outside podcast with Douglas

Beyond the Prototype - Techblog Writer UK podcast episode with Douglas

Gallup’s Q12 Survey

Loom screencasting tool

Session Lab workshop planning tool

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Stakeholder-Centered Design, Design Thinking in Large Organizations, and Critique for Design Teams with Jean-Louis Racine — DT01 E3

Teaching Yourself Design Thinking + Innovating in Government with Amy J. Wilson — DT101 E19

Designing Your Team + Teams in Design Education + Coaching Design Teams with Mary Sherwin and David Sherwin — DT101 E49

________________

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!

View Details

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: Optimizing Instructional Design Methods in Higher Education (Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development)

Book: Learning from Hypermedia: The Role of Metacognitive Skills

MOOC: Massive Open Online Courses

IDEXX Learning Center

Coursera

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Designing for the Greater Good, Strategy + Design Thinking, and Measuring Design Thinking with Jeanne Liedtka — DT101 E1

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

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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

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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

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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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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

Asana

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

Designing Your Team + Teams in Design Education + Coaching Design Teams with Mary Sherwin and David Sherwin — DT101 E49

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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 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!)

His Twitter

His LinkedIn

Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics, by Stephen Wendel

Action Design Network

Think Better with Steve Wendel

Turning Intention to Action

Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser’s Road to Hell in 12 Steps

Behavioral Economics

Behavioral Design Hub

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

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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 MadPow in 2000. Amy plays an essential role in MadPow’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 MadPow’s presence, client base, and revenue, leading to MadPow’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 on MadPow

Amy on LinkedIn

Amy on Twitter

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

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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

Emergency Design Collective

Personal Website

Innovation as a requirement for success in healthcare

An Everyone Included Design Story

TEDMED Interview with Nick from 2014

Ward Infinity

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

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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

Leading a Design Thinking Consultancy, Betting Small to Win Big, and Driving Business Growth with Design Thinking with Natalie Foley — DT101 E5

From Branding to Design + Teaching Design Teams + Leading Summer of Design with Karen Hold — DT101E13

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

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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

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

Leading a Design Thinking Consultancy, Betting Small to Win Big, and Driving Business Growth with Design Thinking with Natalie Foley — DT101 E5

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

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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

Design Thinking 101

Fluid Hive Design Innovation

Ask the Sherwins, LLC

Contact Mary and David

Teamwords: The Working Deck

Books by David and Mary Sherwin:

Turning People into Teams

Creative Workshops

Success by Design

Book Recommendation: The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business, by Erin Meyer

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Humble Design Leadership + Design Agency and Experience Design Evolution with Aleksandra Melnikova — DT101 E33

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

Portigal Consulting

Steve Portigal on LinkedIn

Steve Portigal on Medium

Steve Portigal on Twitter

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

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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

Tracey on LinkedIn

Design Thinking 101

Fluid Hive Design Innovation

Absa Bank

SDN Conference 2019

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

A Design Thinking Practitioner’s Shift into Higher Education and the Potential for Design Thinking in Higher Education with Fred Leichter — DT101 E4

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!

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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

Design Thinking 101

Fluid Hive Design Innovation

Carlye Lauff on the Web

Contact Carlye Lauff

Carlye Lauff on LinkedIn

Carlye Lauff on Medium

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

Desklight Learning

Mockups: a fast-paced game for people who build to think

theDesignExchange

Design Innovation

Luma Institute and Luma Workplace

A Taxonomy of Innovation: 36 human-centered design methods

IDEO’s Design Kit

Loft

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!

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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

Design Thinking 101

Fluid Hive Design Innovation

Lorna Ross on LinkedIn

Lorna Ross on Twitter

The Service Design Network

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

Grand Designs: Lorna Ross

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 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!

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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

Design Thinking 101

Fluid Hive Design Innovation

Sean Malloy on Twitter

Sean Malloy on LinkedIn

A Review of Design Labs as a Model for Healthcare Innovation by Sean Molloy

North York General Hospital

OCAD: Design for Health

This is Service Design Doing

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!

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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

Design Thinking 101

Fluid Hive Design Innovation

Julie Guinn on the Web

Julie Guinn on Twitter

Julie Guinn on LinkedIn

Service Design Network Talk

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!

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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 Thinking 101

Fluid Hive Design Innovation

Usable Learning on Twitter

Design for How People Learn on Facebook

Usable Learning on the Web

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!

View Details

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

Design Thinking 101

Fluid Hive Design Innovation

Design Thinking for Health

Design For Health at UPenn

UPENN nursing

IDEO

Health Design Thinking by Bon Ku and Ellen Lupton

Design resources at UPenn

Marion Leary on Twitter

Marion Leary on the Web

Marion Leary Nursing Profile

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!

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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

Design Thinking 101

Fluid Hive Design Innovation

Livework Design Studio

Anne van Lieren at Livework

The Behavioural Insights Team Annual Update Report 2017–18

Podcast: You are not so smart

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

Contact Anne van Lieren

Anne van Lieren on Twitter

Anne van Lieren on LinkedIn

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Teaching and Learning Service Design for Designers and Non-designers with Maurício Manhães — DT101 E34

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!

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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 on the Web

Bruce Hanington at CMU

Bruce Hanington's Research

Bruce Hanington's articles on Academia.edu

Design Research Methods: a Repository of Research Methods for Design

An interview with Bruce Hanington on Medium

Design for America

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

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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

UH Ventures

Brittany Merkle on LinkedIn

Dustin DiTommaso’s podcast episode Episode 28, Behavior Change Design

Books Recommended

This is Service Design Doing by Marc Stickdorn

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

On Managing Yourself by Harvard Business Review

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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

Liz Gerber on LinkedIn

Kelly Wisneski on LinkedIn

UC San Diego Design Lab

Contact UC San Diego Design Lab

Design for America

Northwestern University

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

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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

UC San Diego Design Lab

Contact UC San Diego Design Lab

Design for America

Elon By Design at Elon University

Center for Design Thinking at Elon University

Bernard-Columbia Design for America

William Moner

Andrew Demas

Eric Richards

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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

Tony Hu LinkedIn profile

Brainy Yak Labs

MIT IDM on the web

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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

Maurício on Twitter

Savannah College of Art and Design

Maurício on LinkedIn

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

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Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I’ll be interviewing Aleksandra Melnikova and talking about her position as Head of Experience Design at Publicis•Poke in London, England. In this episode, we talk about humble design leadership and how design is evolving to better serve our clients and the world. Aleksandra tells us about how her art, sculpture, and drawing training inform her work as a designer and leader. Today, we explore Aleksandra’s work and her team at Publicis•Poke in London, design agency evolution, how she leads an experience design team with a wide array of talents, and how she inspires by mentoring people outside work. Aleksandra likes to start from a blank sheet of paper and accepting that she and her team have a great deal to learn from and with clients. She fosters the culture of not being afraid to ask questions and being blunt about the information and what is going right and wrong. She encourages her team to spend 80% of their time on questioning. She believes the answer she needs will come to her when the question is formulated in the right way. Aleksandra talks about design agencies approaches to the work, and noted agencies are getting away from presentation culture and moving towards collaborative approaches to working with clients. She enjoys going into a business and looking at their workflow as a point of reference to start her work with the client. “We are communicators of connections in this world,” and Aleksandra believes these connections are systematic connections, and they more they are exposed, the better the end product. This episode also offers a look at the shift in approach to user design, and how the previous system of UX design was disjointed compared to today’s design thinking process of a team working together to manage the entire project. She talks about exposing research and data to clients that they have not synthesized into their operations, and how the data set is made into practical actions to solve problems. She also talks about how her team acts as a facilitator to the design thinking process. About Aleksandra Aleksandra’s mission is to bring the power of connected disciplines into design, research, and team management. Her background is in the Arts and Product Service Systems Design, her playground for creating new methods, tools, and approaches that frequently challenge existing structures and the status quo. Two of her biggest strengths are storytelling and system thinking. During the past 11 years, Aleksandra has worked from both the client and agency perspective and successfully delivered digital experiences for companies such as VISA, Lloyds, TSB, SKY, Aviva, VSO, GSK, and British Airways, and she has led the experience design team within Publicis•Poke. She has collaborated with UK universities, mentored at Global Service Jam, and has been a speaker on the topics of connections between literature, art, and design. In This Episode [01:30] Aleksandra’s journey in design thinking. [05:04] She describes the team she leads as Head of Experience Design at Publicis•Poke in London. [05:25] How Aleksandra brings out the best in her team, which has a wide array of talents. [06:58] Aleksandra coaches humility with her team, based on the ever-changing world and the lack of knowledge we have because our world changes so fast. [08:56] How Aleksandra assists clients in adapting to this process of questioning when they are working together. [10:50] Tuning the relationship with the client when they haven’t worked with a team who uses design thinking. [13:06] How blurring the boundaries on design affects the work being done by her team. [15:03] Is there a shift in approach to experience design? [18:54] The five why questions Aleksandra uses when having conversations with her clients. [20:08] Viewing your project from the protagonist’s viewpoint is helpful with design thinking. [22:14] Elements and engagements that is making Aleksandra’s work possible. [24:09] How Aleksandra uses simple interviews and other elements to create valuable data for her clients. [26:45] The value of the journey in the process of design thinking and how Aleksandra is against selling deliverables. [30:41] Where can you find innovation in design thinking. [35:47] Advice Aleksandra gives to emerging designers. [40:08] The ethical role expanding and emerging in the design process. [44:17] Thinking about the future and what is the worst thing that can happen if you say “no” to an idea or action. [50:57] Use of technology and how technology can impact work. [52:21] Don’t get too focused on the mono tools or methods and using them for every project. [55:46] “Best practice” means “stop thinking”. [57:34] Looking forward to what can lead to transformation. Links and Resources Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro Aleksandra Meinikova on Medium Aleksandra on Twitter Aleksandra on the Web Find Aleksandra on LinkedIn Aleksandra at Women Talk Design Publicis•Poke

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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

Fluid Hive

Dawan Stanford on Twitter

Design Thinking 101 Podcast on iTunes, and on The Podcast App

Transforming healthcare for children and their families: Doug Dietz at TEDxSanJoseCA 2012

Ten Types of Innovation

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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

Service Design Network

Design For America

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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/

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