Design Thinking 101

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.

Links
Julie on LinkedIn
Usable Learning
Designing for how people learn

Book Recommendations
Design 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 Episodes
Learning 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

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.

Links
David on LinkedIn
lemus&co
David?s website

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

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

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

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 Guest
Dr. 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

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

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 Guest
Pinar 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.

Links
Pinar 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 Recommendations
Design 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

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.

Links
Justin 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

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

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

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

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Humble Design Leadership + Design Agency and Experience Design Evolution with Aleksandra Melnikova ? DT101 E33
Three Little Words for Better (Business) Relationships // ALD 008 ? Ep79
User Research + Asking Better Questions with Michele Ronsen ? DT101 E88

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

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

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 LinkedIn
Shipra on Twitter
Shipra 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 UX
3 strategies any leader can use to spot and move past groupthink
Interview with Shipra on Rosenfeld Media
Design Hires Interviews Shipra Kayan

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Teams, Sprints, Prototyping, and Better Meetings with Douglas Ferguson ? DT101 E59
Collaboration + Facilitation + Workshops with Austin Govella ? DT101 E83
Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 ? DT101 E73

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

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

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

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

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 LinkedIn
Alvin Schexnider on Medium
GraffitiVersal
GraffitiVersal on Instagram
A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming (A Kids Co Publishing) by Alvin Schexnider - recently released!
Wakanda Forever - A Film Review - Human Futures Magazine
AIGA Chicago Podcast - Designing For: Equity
Interview with Slalom Consulting
Continuum Deck of Freeing Design & Vigorous Futures
 Traveling through the spacetime continuum to escape racism

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

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

Mike Monteiro 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 

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

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 Medium
Diana?s website
Diana?s articles on UX Booth
Diana?s articles on boxes and arrows
Lis on LinkedIn
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

Sara 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] Sara?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 Sara was able to use her design skills.
[09:22] Sara 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

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

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

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

Dr. Abby Bajuniemi holds a PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Minnesota and is currently a user researcher in industry. We talk about language, design research and researcher self-care.

Listen to learn about:

>> How language and linguistics affect design
>> The interaction of society and language
>> Trauma-informed user research
>> Researcher self-care
>> The importance of asking for help
>> Language and technology
>> Being mindful about the language used in design

Our Guest 

Abby is the manager of UX Research and Content at Calendly. She holds a PhD in Hispanic and Lusophone Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics with specialization in Second Language Acquisition and Sociolinguistics. She loves to nerd out with people about language and research methods, either together or separately. She loves the Oxford comma, but will never correct your grammar

Show Highlights

[00:57] How and why Abby moved from linguistics to user research.
[02:06] The importance of taking the time to think about language as a designer.
[03:30] Audience design.
[04:15] Aspects of linguistics that are helpful for designers and researchers.
[04:45] Being mindful of the language choices you?re making.
[05:07] Abby talks about the tone of language/voice.
[06:14] Abby?s ?superpower.?
[07:00] How people understand and use language.
[10:03] Abby talks about what happens when stakeholders don?t follow the user research recommendations.
[11:22] You have to be a good storyteller for your stakeholders.
[12:16] Ways Abby has seen her work come to fruition.
[15:14] User research can be revelatory for organizations that have never used it before.
[17:06] Trauma-informed research and researcher self-care.
[18:03] User research can be intense and emotional.
[20:05] Dawan and Abby talk about the importance of asking for help.
[22:35] Asking for help is part of what collaboration is.
[24:15] Asking for help is working smarter.
[25:27] Abby talks about the book she?s writing.
[25:56] Cognitive language models.
[26:42] Voice-activated assistants.
[28:07] Language and chatbot design.
[29:34] Thinking about the future of language design.
[33:01] Books and resources for researchers and those wanting to learn more about language.
[36:52] The way language can play into stigma.
[39:39] Abby talks about an example of purposeful language design done at the 18F agency. 

Links

Abby on LinkedIn
Abby on Medium
Abby?s website
Abby on Women Talk Design
On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?, by Emily Bender, Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major
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

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

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

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!

Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast.  This episode continues where episode 89 on crafting transformation stories left off, and focuses on telling your solution?s transformation story. 

This episode is based on this article: ALD011 // Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 2 ? Telling Well. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive?s Ask Like a Designer.

In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you?ll find new ways to explore the show?s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I?ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.

What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.

Cheers ~ Dawan

Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host

President, Fluid Hive

Show Highlights

[00:54] What is a transformation story?
[01:15] The magic bridge.
[01:44] Defining a good transformation story.
[02:19] Fluid Hive?s Story Shield checklist.
[02:28] Story.
[03:14] Translating.
[03:49] Shape-shifting.
[04:21] The 360 perspective.
[04:40] Be Bold.
[05:10] Be Natural.
[05:36] Always Ask.
[06:05] Avoid the Spandex.
[06:50] Fluid Hive?s free thinking tool will help you tell your solution?s transformation story.

The Design Thinking 101 Podcast?s Ask Like a Designer series 

Ask Like a Designer ? DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 ? DT101 E63
There Are No Problems Worth Solving ? Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 ? DT101 E65
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 ? DT101 E67
The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 ? DT 101 E69
Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 ? DT101 E73
The Innovation Saboteur?s Handbook // ALD 007 ? DT101 E77
Three Little Words for Better (Business) Relationships // ALD 008 ? DT101 E79
The 30-Minute Solution Matrix: How to Think and Solve Under Pressure // ALD 009 ? DT101 E87
Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 1 ? Crafting Well // ALD 010 ? DT101 E89

Raja Schaar is an industrial designer, afrofuturist and doomsday optimist. She is the Director at Drexel University's product design program and co-chair of the Industrial Designers Society of America, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Council.

Listen to learn about:

>> Raja?s career in design
>> Climate change and design
>> How Raja uses science fiction and futurism in her teaching and work
>> Black Girls STEAMing Through Dance
>> Social Impact Design
>> The power of design
>> Media resources for designers wanting to explore future-thinking

Our Guest

Raja Schaar, IDSA (she/her) is Director and Associate Professor of the Product Design Program at Drexel University?s Westphal Collage of Media Arts and Design. She co-chairs IDSA?s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council is the past Education Director for the organization. Raja studies the ethical implications of design and technology through the lenses of speculative design and climate change. Her current projects address biases maternal health through wearable technology and participatory design; community-based co-design for engaging black girls and underrepresented minorities in STEM/STEAM; and generating frameworks and tools to embed Afrofuturism, biomimicry, sustainability, and climate justice into Design praxis. 

Show Highlights

[02:09] Raja takes us on a fun trip through her childhood ?what do you want to be when you grow up?? dreams.
[05:47] STEM and creativity.
[06:24] How Raja ended up going into industrial design in college.
[09:03] The interdisciplinary design class that changed everything.
[11:37] Diving into materials life cycles and sustainability in her junior year.
[13:31] Why Raja got angry at her major and wanting to change the way we do design.
[16:37] Volunteering at a science museum and discovering a love of exhibition design.
[17:22] Replacing the museum?s carpet tile introduced Raja to Interface, Inc. and their sustainable modular carpet system.
[19:28] Product design can be ethical and sustainable and conscientious of its environmental impact.
[20:38] Creating a conceptual project for the Children?s Museum of Atlanta.
[21:13] Graduate school and studying critical pedagogies and looking at new ways of teaching rooted in social change.
[21:59] How Raja got into teaching.
[23:52] Raja talks about some of the design challenges she?s passionate about right now.
[24:03] Climate change.
[24:34] Economic accessibility and inclusion.
[24:50] Usability.
[25:27] Social impact design.
[26:00] Who has access to the power of design?
[28:00] Raja?s mission to open the doors of design to young black girls.
[28:40] What Raja loves about design.
[30:06] The true power of design.
[31:14] Founding Black Girls STEAMing Through Dance at Drexel.
[32:37] Looking at the effects of climate change on communities of color worldwide.
[35:01] Science fiction and speculative design in Raja?s work.
[35:18] Everybody?s a futurist.
[36:14] Raja?s love of science fiction came from her parents.
[37:08] Reading Mary Shelley?s Frankenstein in an engineering ethics class.
[40:25] There?s a lot to learn from science fiction?s futurist thinking.
[41:41] Using ideas from science fiction in her work on climate change.
[44:54] Raja calls herself a ?doomsday optimist.?
[49:35] Octavia Butler?s Parable of the Sower.
[53:25] Looking at the world through the eyes of black women.
[58:14] The connection between science fiction and speculative design.
[58:41] Designing the future.
[1:01:10] Speculative design allows us to ask deep questions.
[1:01:46] The Keurig K-Cup example.
[1:04:35] Speculating and futuring has to be part of how we teach and learn.
[1:05:07] The importance of reflecting on our own design decisions and their potential future consequences.
[1:06:36] Books and resources Raja recommends for those wanting to explore...
[1:07:07] Climate change.
[1:15:25] The role of technology in society.
[1:16:19] Netflix?s documentary, Coded Bias.
[1:30:29] Doomsday and the idea of the point of no return.
[1:33:23] The Avengers? Thanos as a hyper-violet environmentalist.
[1:38:40] Thinking about where we?re at now, and what future we want?

Links

Raja on LinkedIn
Raja on Instagram
Raja on Drexel University
Raja on IDSA
Drink in Design: Raja Schaar & Ann Gerondelis on Bio-Inspired Design
Tulane Taylor Center: March Design Thinking Breakfast with Raja Schaar, IDSA
Coded Bias on Netflix

Book Recommendations

The Green Imperative: Ecology and Ethics in Design and Architecture, by Victor Papanek
Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, by Victor Papanek
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, by Safiya Umoja Noble
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, by Cathy O?Neil
Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need, by Sasha Costanza-Chock
How Long 'til Black Future Month?: Stories, by N. K. Jemison
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams
The Lorax (Classic Seuss), by Dr. Seuss

Movie/TV Recommendations

For designers wanting to think about climate change: Avatar, Fern Gully, Waterworld, Elysium, Snowpiercer, The Expanse

For designers wanting to think about the role of technology in society: Minority Report, Omniscient, Interstellar

Futurist: Matrix, Terminator, Wall-E

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Speculative Design + Designing for Justice + Design Research with Alix Gerber ? DT101 E27
A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross ? DT101 E45
Working and Leading at the Intersection of Engineering, Business and Design with Kevin Bethune ? DT101 E76

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

Thank you for listening to this Ask Like a Designer episode of the Design Thinking 101 Podcast.

This episode shows you everything you need to create your solution?s transformation story (and why it?s so important to do so).

This episode is based on this article: ALD010 // Protect Your Solutions with Transformation Stories: Part 1 ? Crafting Well. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive?s Ask Like a Designer.

In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the Design Thinking 101 podcast, you?ll find new ways to explore the show?s stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I?ll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.

What did you think of this episode? Please send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team.

Cheers ~ Dawan

Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host

President, Fluid Hive 

Show Highlights

[00:56] Why we need stories.
[01:27] What is a transformation story?
[01:33] The magic bridge.
[02:14] Storytelling neglect.
[02:43] We tell stories all through the design process.
[03:51] The transformation story creation pattern.
[04:07] The people.
[04:45] The problem.
[05:19] Influence.
[05:27] Using the COM-B behavior change model.
[06:47] Bridges, the heart of the transformation story.
[07:38] Evidence.
[08:09] Solution outcomes.
[08:45] Destination: a better world.
[09:27] Fluid Hive?s Transformation Story Questions.
[11:08]  This Ask Like a Designer Thinking Tool download will help you use the transformation story questions.

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Ask Like a Designer ? DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 ? DT101 E63
There Are No Problems Worth Solving ? Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 ? DT101 E65
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 ? DT101 E67
The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 ? DT 101 E69
Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 ? DT101 E73
The Innovation Saboteur?s Handbook // ALD 007 ? DT101 E77
Three Little Words for Better (Business) Relationships // ALD 008 ? DT101 E79
The 30-Minute Solution Matrix: How to Think and Solve Under Pressure // ALD 009 ? DT101 E87

Michele Ronsen is the founder of Curiosity Tank, a leading user research consultancy and educational institution, helping individuals and organizations learn how to ask better questions, conduct research, and make better decisions around the world.

Listen to learn about:

>> The benefits of user research to designers
>> User research skills
>> Quantitative vs qualitative research
>> Curiosity Tank?s six-workshop series, Ask Like a Pro
>> Where user research is headed

Our Guest

Michele Ronsen is an executive with 20 years of experience in Fortune 500s, academia, and start-ups. A professionally trained graphic designer, Michele worked at top design firms before moving to Nordstrom where she built two creative teams from the ground up. From there, she built a career helping numerous entities strategically design and grow their businesses.

In 2010, Michele founded Ronsen Consulting, a design and strategy firm specialized in human-centered research and development. In 2020, she founded Curiosity Tank to further expand the team's research consulting and education efforts. Recent clients include Slack, Zillow, Blue Shield of California, Xero, Facebook, Gusto, Invisalign, Microsoft and Kaiser Permanente.

Michele has inspired hundreds of students and professionals at UC Berkeley, the California College of the Arts, the Academy of Art University, and General Assembly teaching design, research and strategy classes and workshops.

Show Highlights

[00:33] Drawing the gear inside the McDonald?s sign and how Michele?s father taught her and her brother to ask how and why instead of what and when.
[02:14] Michele?s first career in graphic design and as a creative and design director.
[02:56] How conducting ethnographies helped Michele fall in love with user research.
[04:47] Michele talks about the user research skillset.
[07:02] Michele reminisces on her design process before she knew more about user research.
[09:18] Advice for organizations that want to do more qualitative research.
[10:37] The value of qualitative research.
[12:09] The Moccasins Project at the California College of the Arts.
[14:20] How Michele starts the process of working with clients.
[16:05] Curiosity Tank?s Ask Like a Pro workshop series helps people level-up their user research skills.
[20:18] Ensuring user research makes it into the product or service starts in the planning phase.
[22:05] Getting stakeholder buy-in right from the beginning.
[23:24] The problem space and the opportunity space.
[26:19] User research trends and the future of user research.
[26:49] The surprising way the pandemic changed the trajectory of user research.
[29:48] Thoughts and advice for those wanting to learn more about user research.
[29:58] Open versus closed questions.
[31:48] Having a curious mindset is key to becoming a great researcher.

Links

Michele on LinkedIn
Michele on General Assembly
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

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.

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Ask Like a Designer ? DT101 E61
Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 ? DT101 E63
There Are No Problems Worth Solving ? Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 ? DT101 E65
Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 ? DT101 E67
The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 ? DT 101 E69
Designing Facilitation: A System for Creating and Leading Exceptional Events // ALD 006 ? DT101 E73
The Innovation Saboteur?s Handbook // ALD 007 ? DT101 E77
Three Little Words for Better (Business) Relationships // ALD 008 ? DT101 E79

Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg is the author of What?s Your Problem and coauthor of Innovation as Usual. We talk about problem reframing, developing innovation skills, and the power of thinking deeply about problems.

Listen to learn about:

>> Framing and reframing problems
>> Helping teams and companies to change their approach to problem-solving
>> Thomas? books
>> Advice for companies and individuals wanting to learn problem reframing
>> A shortcoming in design thinking tools
>> The future of innovation and problem framing
>> Some hints about Thomas? new book-in-progress

Our Guest

Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg is the author of "What's Your Problem," published by Harvard Business Review Press. He works with companies all over the world to help them solve the right problems. HIs first book was "Innovation as Usual," coauthored with Paddy Miller, focusing on how to drive innovation as part of an everyday job. He was born in Denmark and is now based in New York.

Show Highlights

[01:19] How a failure led Thomas into a collaboration with a professor from his business school.
[01:50] Observing what happened to business innovation advice taught in school and how it played out in the real world.
[02:39] Co-authoring ?Innovation as Usual? with Paddy Miller.
[03:54] Thomas talks about what led him to write ?What?s Your Problem.?
[07:00] Mistakes people make when framing, and re-framing, problems.
[08:15] The slow elevator problem.
[11:11] The importance of the people?s perspective when looking at the problem space.
[13:28] The mental shift of having the answer to finding the answer.
[15:05] Thomas? advice to companies wanting to do better when it comes to finding and framing problems.
[16:13] Two critical things a team needs when starting to incorporate reframing in their work.
[19:09] Thomas asks Dawan to talk about his use and emphasis of the question, ?What problem are you trying to solve??
[20:56] Problems that arise when a company starts solving the wrong problem.
[22:09] Solving the right problem and reframing also works for internal problems.
[24:54] Problems change over time.
[27:23] A problem by any other name is still a problem.
[29:27] Thomas shares a story about PayPal.
[31:49] Thomas talks about the future of problem-solving and innovation.
[34:28] One thing Thomas discovered while developing his workshop.
[35:09] The question storming method.
[36:31] Thomas points out a shortcoming of current design thinking tools.
[38:27] Advice for those wanting to develop their problem framing and questioning skills.
[39:33] Books and resources Thomas recommends and that have influenced his work.
[42:15] Thomas gives some hints about the book he?s working on now.
[42:28] Thomas asks Dawan to recommend resources that he really likes and that influenced him.
[44:14] The success of ?What?s Your Problem.?
[46:03] Where to find out more about Thomas and his work.
[47:01] Why Thomas says he?s like a truffle-sniffing pig, and how it?s similar to problem reframing.
[47:49] ?Thought leadership? is the topic of the book Thomas is writing now.

Links

Thomas on Twitter
Thomas on LinkedIn
Thomas? website
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

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

Jennifer Rittner is a design educator and writer. We talk about design, education, ethics, social justice, system design, and design joy.

>> The current state of design education
>> Human-centered design methodology
>> Important designers working at design?s cutting edge
>> Designing with and for marginalized populations
>> Smaller scale design
>> The empathy problem
>> The power-design ecosystem

Jennifer is a writer, educator and communications strategist who has taught at Parsons School of Design, the School Visual Arts, and SUNY FIT. In Fall 2021, she was a visiting lecturer at the California College of Art. She has been published in The New York Times, Eye on Design, DMI: Journal, and Core77; and recently guest edited a special issue on Policing & Design for the Design Museum Everywhere. She frequently writes and lectures about design and social justice.

[01:00] Jennifer talks about starting her career as a museum educator before finding her way into design.
[01:56] Jennifer?s career teaching design, and some of the courses she taught.
[03:26] How design shows up in the world and how it shapes our reality.
[04:22] An important a-ha moment some of Jennifer?s students had about design.
[08:52] Human- and community-centered design.
[09:29] Dawan and Jennifer talk about design education and learning design as a never-ending process.
[10:44] Technical skills versus soft skills in design.
[11:50] Jennifer?s thoughts about human-centered design as a methodology.
[13:15] The need for a more critical thinking approach to how we teach design.
[14:06] Designers who are doing the work of critiquing current methodologies and offering alternatives.
[16:08] Something Jennifer would like to see design schools teach about methodology.
[17:45] Jennifer talks about her background and some of her current struggles in the design space.
[21:43] The concept of ?inappropriateness? and design.
[24:51] Design on a smaller scale and designers whose work Jennifer admires.
[25:03] Design and technology.
[25:33] How design often marginalizes disabled people.
[27:09] The importance of design in helping the people being served find their own voices to speak on their own behalf.
[28:37] Advice for designers who are looking to move into work that is more socially impactful.
[32:41] Jennifer talks about the problematic nature of workplace culture.
[35:18] Dawan and Jennifer talk about empathy and how it is often misunderstood and misused in design work.
[40:30] Empathy and how it relates to people and organizations that hold power.
[43:29] The importance of knowing the history of a problem if you intend to design in that space.
[44:15] Making the case for systems design.
[45:51] Design and the institutions of power.
[51:29] Jennifer?s hopes for design as it begins to grapple with system design challenges.
[55:53] Where to find out more about Jennifer and her work and writing.

Jennifer on Twitter
Jennifer on LinkedIn
Jennifer on Instagram
Jennifer on Medium
Content Matters NY ? Ideas Design for Social Justice Equity Representation Art
The Latinx Project interview with Jennifer
Jennifer at Montclair Art Museum
Core77?s interview with Jennifer
Sloan Leo
Liz Agbu
Annika Hansteen-Izora
Antoinette Carroll
Ari Melenciano
Liz Jackson
Alex Haagaard
The Disabled List
Marc Dones at King County Regional Homelessness Authority
George Aye
Sabiha Basrai

The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection, by Anne Berry, Kareem Collie, Penina Acayo Laker, Lesly-Ann Noel, Jennifer Rittner, and Kelly Waters

How to Learn Design Thinking + Design Thinking Pedagogy with Julie Schell ? DT101 E15 Critical and Emancipatory Design Thinking with Lesley-Ann Noel ? DT101 E57 Trauma-Informed Design + Participatory Design Perils + Research with Vulnerable Populations with Sarah Fathallah ? DT101 E72

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

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