Design Thinking for All

I’ve spent many years working in design related fields — from User Experience, Interaction Design and Digital Product to Business Strategy and Strategic Design and Management. I’ve been on the client side, the agency side, in the start-up space and as a collegiate educator.

In all of these roles I’ve always sought to take the tools and methods of design thinking and business strategy and make them simple. Not because people can’t handle their complexity, but because they just don’t need to be that complicated.

In all honesty, many people are already “practicing” these methodologies, they just may be doing it in an less structured or formal way- or they simply don’t realize they’re doing it.

For example, if you have children, pets or difficult friends or family, you’ve probably done a fair amount of what is commonly referred to as Test & Learn + Iteration:

Example 1: Aunt always late to family events? Perhaps you tell them it starts 20 minutes earlier. (the Test) Did it work? (Learn) Should we do it again or next time try something else? (Iteration)

Example 2: Trying to cause a change in your child’s behavior? Offer them a new toy. (the Test) Was it enough to motivate them to change? (Learn) If not, try another method. (Iteration)

Example 3: You’re trying to teach your pet a new trick by dangling a treat at your pet (the Test) and they still won’t come? (Learn) Try something else. (Iteration)

That’s true for other vital tools and methods as well. Stuck on a problem? Google around a bit- what are your competitors doing? What else is going on in your market or space? Who is doing cool stuff in general? Guess what? You’re doing Analogous Research.

Throughout the coming weeks, months and posts I’ll be sharing the most effective and useful tools, methods and frameworks from strategy and design thinking playbooks. Broken down and back to basics, simple and usable.

That is not to say that the work of professional ‘design thinkers’ or ‘strategists’ isn’t valuable, it is. Outside (or internal) experts bring a huge amount of value– as anyone who’s ever been part of a brainstorming session that got out of control- can tell you.

So with that, it begins…. design thinking for all, where we make it easy to use design techniques and strategies to achieve business outcomes.

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Contact me via email if you’d like to connect for 1:1 coaching or to see how I can help you or your organization. You can also follow me on LinkedIn.