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Design Thinking 101

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Apr 28, 2020 • 43min

Designing Health Systems + Creating Effective Design Workshops with Sean Molloy — DT101 E44

Sean works in the healthcare industry as a Director of Patient Quality Experience at North York General Hospital in Toronto, Canada. We talk about Sean’s evolution into design thinking, how he dug deep and studied design, and how he felt that moving into this way of thinking was natural for him. Sean speaks of his career movement at North York General Hospital, how he integrates design into every aspect of the hospital, and Sean’s dream of creating a healthcare system that feels right to everyone. Show host: Dawan Stanford. Show Summary Sean has been working in healthcare for 25 years, and currently works at a large community hospital. The element he enjoys the most is the ability to positively impact people’s lives every day. He made his way into quality improvement and continued to move up the ladder to his current position.  His journey into design started with listening to a presentation from the Vice President of Innovation at Kaiser, who came to Sean’s hospital to give a talk about leveraging design and design thinking. Sean shifted his process to design thinking and started to integrate design thinking into his position with cancer research. In his Master’s program, he learned how to think about innovation and how to map out an innovation plan, then seeing where design fits into the project. We’ll talk about how to create a design thinking workshop, why people-centered innovation is now popular in healthcare, and how Sean believes healthcare can create a better future. Show Host: Dawan Stanford Listen in to learn: >> How to move towards human-centered care and the tools and methods to create design-centered solutions>> Why Sean found power in designing with people who weren’t in the healthcare field>> The foundational elements of healthcare and design>> Reasons why change and change management is complex in healthcare>> How design and design thinking have come to a critical mass in healthcare Our Guest Sean is the Director of Quality, Patient- and Family-Centered Care and Patient Flow at North York General Hospital in Toronto, Canada. He holds a Master’s of Design degree from OCAD University in Toronto, with a research interest in how health systems are using design for innovation and improvement. He also teaches in the Design for Health program at OCAD and mentors many students through internships and studio courses at the hospital, advancing the organization's academic mandate while offering students real-life opportunities to hone their design skills and build their careers. Sean is passionate about the potential of people-centered innovation in healthcare, and he has led multiple design engagements over the last 10 years, spanning from the individual level to systems-level innovation. He is committed to advancing patient and community voices into health system transformation, and leveraging design as a critical enabler of building a brighter future for those living in our communities. Show Highlights  [02:00] Sean explains his transition from multiple healthcare roles to his current role of quality control.[04:37] He remembers the VP from Kaiser coming to speak at his workplace and how it sparked his interest in design.[05:48] Sean decides to pursue his Master’s in Design in Toronto, Canada.[08:03] He describes how coursework for his Master’s in Design shaped how he thinks about healthcare and design[10:13] How innovation is playing out in Sean’s current work.[15:06] Co-creating, co-designing, and co-exploring design solutions.[24:12] Advice Sean gives to designers who are about to apply service design inside a healthcare system.[26:15] The heart of the designer’s role in a healthcare system.[28:21] How to make the most out of making systems visible.[32:27] The importance of revealing causal loops inside a system.[34:23] What Sean learned from studying over 30 design labs inside healthcare organizations. Why these labs often fail.[40:45] How to contact Sean and his social media platforms. Links Sean Malloy on Twitter Sean Malloy on LinkedIn  A Review of Design Labs as a Model for Healthcare Innovation by Sean Molloy North York General Hospital OCAD: Design for Health This is Service Design Doing Book Recommendations  Design for Care: Innovating Healthcare Experience by Peter Jones Thinking in Services: Encoding and Expressing Strategy through Design by Majid Iqbal Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like Designer's Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21 Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38 Healthcare Design Teams + Wellness + ScienceXDesign with Chris McCarthy — DT101 E24 ________________ Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
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Apr 14, 2020 • 48min

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

Julie Guinn combines design, research, strategy, and systems thinking to help teams build innovation capabilities, solve complex business challenges and deliver delightful, intuitive product experiences. We discuss systems awareness, leading design work inside complex systems, and ways to pull system awareness and system design into your innovation efforts. Show host: Dawan Stanford. Show Summary Julie defines the differences between systems and complex adaptive systems, and how the many elements that are highly interconnected in complex adaptive systems create complexity and how that impacts the way you approach the design process. She talks about her first foray into designing for healthcare, and how she quickly discovered that none of the typical tools in a design thinker’s toolkit were working. Her discovering  Designing for Care by Peter Jones started her on the path of learning about systems and system-centered design, which led to a whole new skillset and toolbox of methods specifically geared towards designing systems and designing inside systems.  She discusses the unique challenges of designing for systems and how multiple phases and iterations are key when implementing change in complex adaptive systems. She also talks about some clients that were more challenging when it came to design implementation, and how some companies weren’t ready for design, and what she did to overcome these challenges. Julie talks about how to be intentional when building a plan for convening and facilitating systems design experiences, and why you should think differently when you plan projects, especially when considering how much time each step will take. Listen in to learn: >> Differences between systems and complex adaptive systems>> Critical parts of complex adaptive systems and the elements they encompass>> Mapping systems and how you can use mapping systems in design>> Types of considerations to think about when designing for healthcare systems>> When you need a system-centered practice as opposed to a design-centered practice>> Ways to address obstacles in client work>> Timescale and system change with placing new interventions in place>> Why you should break optimized systems around your target outcomes>> What can you do if you find yourself in a much more complicated system than you anticipated? Our Guest Julie Guinn is a User Experience Research Principal at Dell Boomi, where she focuses on understanding complex enterprise data ecosystems. She has 20 years of experience leading human-centered design and research in technology and healthcare organizations, including Microsoft, Intuit, the University of Pennsylvania Medical System, and Elsevier. Her collaborative, human-centered approach is founded on a passion for understanding human behavior and a deep belief in the transformative power of design.  Julie’s first experience with design came from watching a PBS Nova episode on the development of new snack foods when she was a teenager. Watching the research team ask consumers questions about snacks hooked her interest. She holds a Master's degree in Human-Centered Design from the Illinois Institute of Design and a Bachelor's degree in Human Factors from Tufts University. Show Highlights  [03:30] Julie talks about her path to a career in user experience and enrolling at Tufts University.[04:56] Defining Systems Design and the multiple fields of study which are encompassed in this career.[05:56] Julie defines the differences between systems and complex adaptive systems. [08:18] Systems and mapping systems commonly found in design projects today.[10:14] Considerations when designing healthcare using mapping systems.[14:20] The “invisible furniture” that can get in the way when designing healthcare systems.[16:07] Aspects to build into your design program for healthcare design.[19:45] The importance of understanding incentive structures that influence behavior in systems.[23:05] Creating space to work inside complex adaptive systems.[26:06] How setting boundaries on where you will work inside complex adaptive systems improves your success chances.[27:37] What works well in the realm of collaboration for people and teams.[31:40] How can you make the system visible to everyone using it?[34:44] Changes and impacts that happen when people see the systems they inhabit.[38:38] Advice for those who are finding themselves in a much more complicated system than they expected. Links Julie Guinn on the Web Julie Guinn on Twitter Julie Guinn on LinkedIn Service Design Network Talk TISDD stakeholder mapping method Book Recommendations Designing for Care Thinking in Systems Systems Thinking for Social Change Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like Designer's Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21 Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38 Healthcare Design Teams + Wellness + ScienceXDesign with Chris McCarthy — DT101 E24 ________________ Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
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Mar 31, 2020 • 49min

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

Julie Dirksen is a learning strategist with more than 15 years of experience creating highly interactive e-learning experiences for clients, from Fortune 500 companies and technology startups to grant-funded research initiatives. Our conversation today is about learning design and learning in design, as well as her book, Design For How People Learn. We also talk about behavior change, practicing complex skills, and persuasive technology. Show host: Dawan Stanford. Show Summary Starting her career as an English as a Foreign Language instructor, Julie quickly became interested in finding out how technology could be used for learning. As an instructional designer for over a decade, Julie’s niche interest is in the area of behavior change. She has found that many experts have a deep body of knowledge, but lack the skills on how to teach others. Julie’s experience is that when people who do not have a teaching background try to create a curriculum or teach a class, they are merely mimicking teachers they’ve experienced, and not truly understanding the student’s learning process. What’s missing are learning strategies that a great instructor uses to help their students learn and grow. As a result, instructors are not putting essential learning elements into their learning experiences. She felt that there needed to be a good book for instructors to learn from in order to add more effective teaching strategies to their toolbox. Her goal with the book was to provide information on the components that need to be considered before a teacher designs a learning experience so instructors start with a solid foundation. Listen in to find out how > Habits, motivation, and other behavior changes Julie addresses in her book>> Julie breaks down learning into categories, and how each affects learning>> Avoidable mistakes instructional designers make when designing courses>> Pattern recognition’s role in student learning, and how long students need to see patterns before they become experts in their field>> Opportunities and emerging practices for design behavior change and learning design>> The components of persuasive technology Our Guest Julie Dirksen is an independent consultant and instructional designer who focuses on the science of sustainable behavior change. She has helped create learning curriculum for large companies, nonprofits and foundations, and higher education institutions. She's the author of Design For How People Learn, and she's happiest whenever she gets to learn something new. You can find her online at usablelearning.com. Show Highlights  [02:32] Julie introduces herself and gives a synopsis of her background.[03:40] How Julie’s book happened and why.[05:25] Underlying principles of what makes a class a good class for learning.[07:58] The level at which Julie starts instructors out in her book and where she takes her content from that point.[09:07] Julie’s suggestions for new instructors on where they should start when designing a curriculum and curriculum creation gaps she’s found in instructors.[13:23] Avoidable mistakes people make when creating courses.[16:56] Factors determining how many repetitions students need to learn their material.[20:45] How should a student know when to look for a hypothesis, a correct answer, or to come to the conclusion there is no answer to their problem?[22:50] Opportunities and emerging practices for designing behavior change and learning design.[26:28] Behavior change design opportunities for learning designers.[28:29] What is persuasive technology?[33:15] How can professionals in the design field take on the challenge of technology change?[36:28] Effective and non-effective strategies for teaching.[38:32] How to structure learning experiences. The design recipe myth.[42:58] Books that have influenced Julie’s career. Links Usable Learning on Twitter Design for How People Learn on Facebook Usable Learning on the Web Design Better Learning Online Course Book Recommendations Design for How People Learn The Headfirst Books Badass: Making Users Awesome Other Episodes You Might Like Behavioral Science + Behavior Change Design + Social Impact with Dustin DiTommaso — DT101 E28  The Evolution of Teaching and Learning Design with Bruce Hanington — DT101 E39 Behavioral Design X Service Design with Anne van Lieren — DT101 E40 ________________ Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
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Mar 17, 2020 • 44min

Innovation in Nursing Education + Design Thinking for Health with Marion Leary — DT101 E41

Marion Leary is the Director of Innovation at the Pennsylvania School of Nursing. We discuss innovation and nursing education, University of Pennsylvania’s free online Design Thinking for Health platform, nurses as innovation leaders, and why storytelling matters. Show host: Dawan Stanford. Show Summary Design thinking was not Marion’s first focus. She was a researcher for 13 years before taking the role of Director of Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She has a dual degree, with a Master’s in Nursing and Public Health. Marion is currently pursuing her Ph.D., focusing on innovation and design thinking around cardiac arrest and bystander response. She is interested in using design thinking to solve problems in nursing and healthcare. Marion enjoys the empathetic, human-centered approach of creatively solving problems in health and healthcare, which connects with nursing. She is a leader in design thinking and created the course Innovation and Health Foundations of Design Thinking using a flipped-classroom, active-learning approach. This interdisciplinary course at Penn can be taken by upper-level undergraduate or graduate students, regardless of their major. Learn how Marion collaborates with other departments to create a successful design thinking cohort, how she coordinated the first Penn Nursing Innovation Accelerator Program, and how Marion is integrating design thinking into her curriculum. Listen in to find out: >> How nursing and design thinking are similar iterative processes>> More about the Innovation and Health Foundations of Design Thinking course>> How this design thinking course attracts students from many majors>> Marion’s experience on campus leading design thinking students>> Marion’s prediction for long-term trends in nursing and innovative design Our Guest Marion Leary is the Director of Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing. As the Director of Innovation at Penn Nursing, she works to amplify and educate nurses as leaders in health and healthcare innovation, recently launching a free, online, open access platform called Design Thinking for Health. Ms. Leary is a member of the American Nurses Association's Innovation Advisory Committee, a Founding member of the Society of Nurse Scientists, Innovators, Entrepreneurs and Leaders (SONSIEL), and a member of the American Heart Association's Emergency Cardiovascular Care Innovation Subcommittee. This past August 2019, she was named as an Influencer of Healthcare winner in the category of Excellence in Innovation by the Philadelphia Inquirer.  In 2017, she was named Geek of the Year for her outstanding achievements in Philadelphia's vibrant geek community in the areas of innovation, technology, and activism. Show Highlights  [02:22] Marion walks us through her journey to her current position today.[04:30] How nursing and design thinking are similar processes.[06:11] Marion describes the design thinking course.[09:12] Student experience in the design thinking classroom at University of Pennsylvania.[11:10] Marion’s experience leading design thinking on campus at University of Pennsylvania.[12:30] The first Penn Nursing Innovation Accelerator Program.[14:05] Her prediction for long-term trends in nursing and innovative design.[17:14] How do others outside of nursing use Marion’s design thinking resources?[21:45] Focusing on storytelling as an integral part of design thinking.[24:49] How healthcare leaders and designers can support nurses in their role.[27:28] The type of listening that comes with nursing training.[31:44] Scope of practice and human-centered design.[35:45] How Marion is integrating design thinking into her curriculum.[39:14] Resources to use for learning first-aid and first response techniques. Links Design Thinking for Health Design For Health at UPenn UPENN nursing IDEO Health Design Thinking by Bon Ku and Ellen Lupton Design resources at UPenn Marion Leary on Twitter Marion Leary on the Web Marion Leary Nursing Profile Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like Designer's Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38 Healthcare Design Teams + Wellness + ScienceXDesign with Chris McCarthy — DT101 E24 ________________ Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
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Mar 3, 2020 • 40min

Behavioral Design X Service Design with Anne van Lieren — DT101 E40

Anne van Lieren is a service designer and behavior design enthusiast. We talk about her path to joining Livework in the Netherlands as a service designer, where service design and behavioral design are converging, examples from her work, and what happens when you add behavioral design to journey mapping.   Anne discusses her path to Livework with Dawan Stanford, your podcast host. She started working part-time through Livework through the University of the Netherlands and eventually started working at Livework Design full time. Anne worked on numerous projects, including helping organizations to adopt design principles and practices, and innovation projects optimizing current client services or building new service pathways. Show Summary With her bachelor’s degree in design from the University of the Netherlands, Anne moved on to Strategic Project Design, which was mostly focused on Service Design. While working on many user research projects, she developed an interest in psychology and behavior, and in understanding why people behave in specific ways. So, she decided to start looking into behavioral science and how this applied to service design. Find out how Anne bridges the understanding gap for clients within the context of mindset, why she believes experiences are the key to training her client’s mental mindset, and why she focuses on the human-centered mindset. Learn how Anne teaches her clients to be more collaborative, think across departments and stakeholders, and encourages companies to be more experimental. Learn how Anne: >> Uses situation-specific prototypes for solutions in the workplace>> Teaches companies how to use new and existing tools for design>> Works with creative agility and the positive design that results from working the creative mental muscle>> Specifies the types of mindsets she focuses on in the context of experimental experiences with her clients>> Deals with the expectations of clients looking for solid answers>> Frames the dynamics involved in the design thinking process>> Incorporates behavioral design in the design thinking process to influence others in their behavior>> Builds and designs co-design workshops Our Guest Anne is a service designer and behavioral expert at Livework Studio. She leverages insights from behavioral science and Livework’s expertise in service design to create environments that make customers aware, active, and able to make better decisions. By fundamentally understanding behavior and designing behavioral interventions, she helps organizations to create a durable impact on behavior change. Her research into nudging was published at a major international conference on design research. Show Highlights  [02:27] Anne’s path to becoming a service designer.[03:30] How Anne’s journey took her to working with Livework Design.[05:01] What process does Anne implement to assist clients in understanding mindset?[06:38] Anne speaks about creative agility — the creative mental muscle.[12:12] The source for Anne’s enthusiasm for design based on working with her students on design projects.[13:52] How incorporating behavioral science basics is beneficial for design thinking.[16:51] An emotional hot state example and how to design more thoughtful interaction with nudges.[19:55] Nudges and rational overrides in the context of behavioral science.[22:31] Negotiations on the delivery side and how Anne handles this conversation.[24:17] Building and designing co-design workshops.[27:00] Advice Anne gives for others building co-design workshops.[29:52] How Anne started using journey maps during her thesis.[33:31] Anne’s prediction for service design’s future and role.[36:32] Working on difficult social issues. Links Livework Design Studio Anne van Lieren at Livework The Behavioural Insights Team Annual Update Report 2017–18 Podcast: You are not so smart SDGC19 | Anne van Lieren: Customer Behaviour by Design - Influencing Behaviour Beyond Nudging Contact Anne van Lieren Anne van Lieren on Twitter Anne van Lieren on LinkedIn Book Recommendation  Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by Cass Sunstein & Richard Thaler Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like Teaching and Learning Service Design for Designers and Non-designers with Maurício Manhães — DT101 E34Service Design in Healthcare Inside Multiple Business Contexts with Jessica Dugan — DT101 E22Nursing + Service Design + Healthcare Innovation with Brittany Merkle — DT101 E38 Behavioral Science + Behavior Change Design + Social Impact with Dustin DiTommaso — DT101 E28 ________________ Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!
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Feb 18, 2020 • 43min

The Evolution of Teaching and Learning Design with Bruce Hanington — DT101 E39

Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. In today's episode I am joined by Bruce Hanington. He remembers being introduced to design as a small child with his father being a Commercial Designer. Initially headed for a career in architecture, his journey took a detour as an undergrad when he ended up graduating with a degree in Applied Psychology. But Bruce realized he wanted to get into design, and that he wanted to be on the creative side instead of just studying design. During his graduate work in industrial design, he continued his interest in dealing with the more human factors of design, primarily, how design affects everyday encounters and life. After emerging with an Industrial Design education coupled with Applied Psychology, he landed in academia in the School of Design as a part of the Industrial Design core, able to teach in all the aspects of teaching he loves best, including form giving, human factors, and understanding the interpretation of objects with meaning and significance. His recent promotions included an appointment to the Head of Design at Carnegie Mellon six months ago. Bruce believes technology, and the products which are a part of our life now as a direct result of technology, are the biggest game-changers for design thinking. The orientation of work toward social causes, and designing for social good, has become an established part of design thinking. On disciplinary boundaries, “I think you see a broadening of boundaries so regardless of what form of design you may have a particular passion for and how you might study it, ultimately I think that designers have a more broad-based understanding of design and problem solving in general, and design methods, approaches and practices can be applied to almost any design.” Bruce has seen a shift in design methods over time, especially in the surge of information via books and online courses. He recently authored his own book on design thinking, “Universal Methods of Design.” There’s been a shift in design thinking to design responsibly for everyday living to enhance people’s lives. Listen in to find out the new hurdles of design thinking, what new companies are looking for concerning the design thinking process, and why design thinking is more of a philosophical approach. Find out Bruce’s opinion on which methods or approaches to design have changed the most in the past decade. Our Guest Bruce Hanington is a professor and head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Prior to this, he was director of graduate studies, and program chair of industrial design. Bruce has dedicated his teaching and research to methods and practices for human-centered design, with an emphasis on design ethnography, participatory design, and the meaning of form in context.  In addition to working with industry partners through collaborative projects and executive education, his work has been published in Design Issues, The Design Journal, and Interactions, with chapters in Affective Sciences in Human Factors and Human-Computer Interaction, and The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design. Bruce is co-author of the book Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions. In This Episode [01:06] How Bruce arrived to where he is today.[05:32] Bruce’s recent promotions in the design field.[06:35] Factors which Bruce believes are having a significant impact on design in the classroom.[08:45] Components which are a factor of design maturing in the United States. [10:21] How Bruce has seen design research methods shift over time.[13:34] Wrestling with the “rush to artifact.”[16:48] Companies are looking for ways to design more creatively, flexibly, and collaboratively.[18:45] Challenges brought to the design thinking table, and responses that work well.[23:11] Changes and updates that Bruce has recognized in the newest edition of his book.[28:20] Where students are headed in the future, and what will they need to be equipped with to succeed in design thinking.[35:38] What needs to happen at the personal level for students and professors.[38:52] How you can contact Bruce and learn more about his work.  Links and Resources Bruce Hanington on LinkedIn Bruce Hanington on the Web Bruce Hanington at CMU Bruce Hanington's Research Bruce Hanington's articles on Academia.edu Design Research Methods: a Repository of Research Methods for Design An interview with Bruce Hanington on Medium Design for America Elon By Design at Elon University Center for Design Thinking at Elon University Book Recommendations Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions by Hanington, Bruce & Martin, Bella The Pocket Universal Methods of Design by Hanington, Bruce & Martin, Bella
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Feb 4, 2020 • 35min

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

Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today's  Guest is Brittany Merkle. Her design path started at the University of Virginia in the College of Arts and Sciences. During her first semester, her grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. On weekend trips home, Brittany witnessed the incredible service Hospice offered. When she returned for her second year at college, she immediately changed majors and enrolled in nursing. Brittany shadowed nursing students and learned what nursing looked like as a career. She jumped into qualitative research and realized she wanted her career to combine two things: 1. Creativity, and 2. Make a difference. "These two seemed very siloed in my mind," Brittany remarked.  She hadn’t yet considered fusing these two aspects into one career. Brittany wasn't sure where she wanted to go for graduate school, when she came across the Savannah College of Art and Design. She started with Hospice Case Management, but continued to think of service design in relation to her profession. Brittany enrolled in the SCAD Master's program and started to unlearn her previous content she learned from her Bachelor’s degree, which was her biggest challenge. She was one of the first nurses to graduate from the SCAD program. She was looking for a new approach to bring to the healthcare system, which she found as a lead innovation strategist with the University's healthcare team. Brittany wanted to make her mark in the system and to challenge herself with the design skills she has learned. Our Guest Brittany Merkle, RN, BSN, supports the innovation and design thinking efforts in UH Ventures. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing with distinction, and is graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with a Master of Fine Arts in Service Design. She is one of the first nurses to graduate from SCAD, and the first in the country with this specific degree combination. She has experience in Hospice Case Management, and in acute and urgent care services as a practicing Registered Nurse before she began pursuing her Master's. Her thesis focused on service design as a lens for nursing innovation. Brittany is passionate about the demystification of innovation and catalyzing innovative behavior amongst healthcare providers and caregivers. Her work is focused on enhancing patient and provider experiences through innovative care models and digital tools. In This Episode [01:13] Brittany’s background and path to design thinking. [03:40] Her realization of what she wanted to do with her career.[06:39] The turning point for Brittany, where her learning became her unlearning.[08:44] How SCAD spoke to Brittany’s imposter syndrome. [10:45] Brittany’s design internship.[12:14] UH’s prototypical healthcare system.[16:27] New design language Brittany is adapting to her new position.[17:18] Unique superpowers when she is performing her fieldwork.[19:33] Advice Brittany would give to other healthcare professionals who do not have a design background.[27:49] Suggestions for faculty on the innovation side of healthcare.[30:27] Resources that have helped Brittany along the way. Links and Resources SCAD | Savannah College of Art & Design Service Design Program UH Ventures Brittany Merkle on LinkedIn Dustin DiTommaso’s podcast episode Episode 28, Behavior Change Design Book Recommendations This is Service Design Doing by Marc Stickdorn The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho On Managing Yourself by Harvard Business Review
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Dec 17, 2019 • 35min

Design for America: Founding + Present + Future, Part 2 — DT101 E37

Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today's episode is part two of a two-part series on Design for America. Design for America is a nationwide network that supports design innovation for social impact. DFA was founded at Northwestern University, and is helping to shape the next generation of social innovators and student-led design-led studios on over 40 college campuses. Today, we'll speak to two guests about what Design for America is, why DFA exists, how DFA works, and what the future may look like at Design for America. We start our episode talking to Kelly Wisneski about her DFA experience, which began at Washington University in St. Louis during her undergraduate education. She knew she wanted to talk to people who were involved in Design For America in the Washington University chapter. She was working on a project related to food insecurity in St. Louis when she realized DFA would be her entry point into St. Louis. Kelly joined DFA during her first semester at university, and found herself on the leadership board in her second semester. She enjoyed being part of the leadership board and having a hand in growing DFA from a small studio into a more extensive workshop. Kelly assisted others in getting their projects off the ground in her early stages of leadership. In 2019, Kelly has contributed to the building of nine new DFA studios. "DFA is not just design thinking projects, they are projects that are here to make an impact on the people that it matters to the most." Our second conversation is with Liz Gerber. We first chatted with Liz about how DFA was launched. She worked in the research sector of the toy industry with kids, asking them how they would build their own toys. As a new professor at her university, Liz was not satisfied with just research and publishing. She wanted to launch a new idea that she had brewing. Liz yearned to create a unique educational and impact structure in which students were working directly with community members. She broke down the boundary between the classroom and campus and the “real world,” giving students the ability to tackle and solve real-world community problems. Our Guests Kelly Wisneski is a Program Coordinator at Design for America, supporting DFA studios across the country and working to improve DFA's data systems. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, where she studied Architecture and Computer Science and led her local DFA chapter for 4 years. Liz Gerber is the Faculty Director and Co-Founder at Design for America. The question that drives her is, "What can I do for others," and she continues to create communities that innovate collectively to tackle messy and meaningful problems. She is a design professor with a passion for understanding social interactions and practical applications for the technology. In This Episode [01:34] Kelly talks about her early DFA experiences.[04:25] Advice Kelly gives for studios that are getting off the ground.[07:27] What Kelly has learned and what her students have learned when they are a part of the project experience.[10:57] Kelly highlights some DFA project components she enjoyed learning.[11:57] How Kelly is working with mentors and guiding them through the process.[15:08] Kelly’s advice if you want to start a DFA studio.[16:37] Liz tells the DFA launch backstory.[20:30] The students’ first challenge: helping children with diabetes.[22:15] Ten years later: Liz reflects on the work of DFA.[23:40] Anniversary party for DFA and the DFA chapter’s ripple effects.[29:13] Open questions about the future for DFA. Links and Resources: Liz Gerber at Northwestern University Liz Gerber on LinkedIn Kelly Wisneski on LinkedIn UC San Diego Design Lab Contact UC San Diego Design Lab Design for America Northwestern University Elon By Design at Elon University Center for Design Thinking at Elon University Design for America Washington University DFA Receives Cooper Hewitt Design Award in 2018
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Dec 12, 2019 • 42min

Design for America: Students + Design Thinking + Community Impact, Part 1 — DT101 E36

Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today's episode is part one of a two-part series on Design for America. Design for America is a nationwide network that supports innovation for social impact. DFA was founded at Northwestern University, and is helping to shape the next generation of social innovators and design-led studios on over 40 college campuses. Today, we’ll speak to three guests about what Design for America is and what does the experience look like when a member participates in a Design for America studio. We start our episode with Eric Richards explaining how he founded Design for America on the UC San Diego campus. Eric was interested in human-led design and, coupled with his interest in social impact, Eric started to search Facebook for others who had a similar desire in utilizing both fields interchangeably. He found a Good Design Lab founded by Don Mormont at UC San Diego. Many of the UC San Diego students who were interested in human-led design had worked at this lab. Eric liked the concept, applied to the university, and was accepted to the program. Through this lab and Don's involvement, many design classes were available to students. Eric joined Good Design Lab as a sophomore - the year after the lab was founded - and took the introductory design class. During his journey with Good Design Lab, Eric became part of a very tight-knit community. He was grateful to have found a community that, like Eric, valued using their skill set for social impact. Andrew Demas discovered DFA by accident while he was a student. He had a friend who was involved in DFA, and one day Andrew visited the Good Design Lab. He fell in love with the process and how the process affects social impact. DFA taught Andrew how to find out who your user is, gaining empathy for the user, and developing a solution for someone else. His new perspective not only changed the way he solved problems in real-world applications, it also changed his view of how he thinks about his curriculum at school, and changed the way he works towards coming up with solutions. Throughout this time, Andrew was connected to many other students who had a passion for design and for giving back to their community in a sustainable way. He was able to put his newfound skills to use when he and his classmates rebuilt a community center that was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Andrew felt that DFA gave him his best college and learning experience in university, and he’s passionate about his alumni board and networking for future leaders of design thinking and to get more corporations involved with DFA. William Moner is a faculty member who sponsors a DFA Studio at Elon University. Dawan Stanford approached William to mentor and encourage students to engage in the design process. William talks about the process of creating a DFA Studio, using DFA guides, and bringing together the efforts of everyone involved to make DFA happen on campus. He also discusses the challenges of mentoring and recruiting students for DFA. Our Guests Eric Richards is starting his last year at UC San Diego, where he's studying Human-Computer Interaction and Design for Social Innovation. His interest is in design that empowers communities and advances equity and sustainability. He currently leads Design for America at UCSD, and advises undergraduate humanitarian engineering projects on campus. Andrew Demas is a Senior Managing Consultant in IBM's Digital Strategy & IX practice and is also the digital account partner for one of IBM's top telecommunications clients. As an IBM Design Thinking Leader, he runs the New York Design Thinking Chapter. His passion for design started with DFA; he served as President of the Barnard-Columbia Design for America Studio for three years, and he currently sits on the DFA Alumni Board.  William Moner is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Elon University and is the faculty mentor for the Elon Design for America studio. He holds a Ph.D. in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas, and his research focuses on emerging methods of storytelling and interactive media production through open software platforms and systems. In This Episode [01:28] Eric tells his story of how he founded Design for America at UCSD. [02:54] Eric’s early experience with DFA chapter on campus.[05:15] How Eric foresees using his skills in his work in the future.[06:31] How Eric came into and is currently developing his need-finding skills.[09:09] The value Eric finds in DFA and his DFA experience. [13:40] Andrew’s transformative experience with DFA on his university campus.[15:43] Andrew’s most memorable project to date, and the skills Andrew and his classmates employed to this project, and what he learned from DFA.[20:03] Andrew and his passion project with DFA.[26:44] Students start to bring DFA to Elon University.[32:30] Wicked problems in the DFA Studio at Elon University.[34:28] William’s advice on how to mentor at a DFA Studio.[38:58] The work of DFA and who William is grateful for at DFA. Links and Resources UC San Diego Design Lab Contact UC San Diego Design Lab Design for America Elon By Design at Elon University Center for Design Thinking at Elon University Bernard-Columbia Design for America William Moner Andrew Demas Eric Richards
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Nov 26, 2019 • 42min

Integrating Engineering, Design and Business with Tony Hu — DT101 E35

Welcome to the Design Thinking 101 podcast! I'm Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I'll be interviewing Tony Hu, who is the academic director at MIT’s Integrated Design and Management Master’s program. We’ll be talking about how Tony discovered design, human-centered design’s impact on students, and MIT’s unique program combining design and engineering management. We start our episode during Tony’s high school career, with his passion for writing. He started on the journalism team and edited the school newspaper. Additionally, he was interested in gadgets - this was during the Sony Walkman era. Tony was interested in working on a similar technology at the time. His father was an engineer and was a big influence on Tony’s career. He heard MIT was the route to take if he was serious about engineering, so he applied and was accepted, to the dismay of his journalism teacher. While at MIT, Tony studied transistors and Maxwell’s equations, which was not an enjoyable experience for him. He stuck through the course and found an interesting opportunity with an internship from the media lab working with the “newspaper of the future.” He graduated with an electrical engineering degree; however, he wasn’t actually interested in the field. Tony wanted to learn about other aspects of products and interviewed with IBM in Boston as a Systems Engineer. When he started getting bored selling computers, he decided to look into a career in advertising. He was pursuing a bookstore for advertising books when just a few shelves down he discovered books on industrial design and product design. He found out about night classes at a local college and was hooked! After talking with several people, he found out about the Stanford program and fell in love with Stanford. Tony talks about the challenges he faced in the early 1980s in the industrial design career. He realizes that students today are challenged with finding multiple solutions instead of just one engineering solution. Students are having to change their mindset and thinking, to offer numerous solutions. Another challenge is interviewing others, especially when they themselves are an introvert. During his journey, Tony has designed toys and been a consultant to numerous companies. He was the first designer and product developer at a small company that sold baby products. At this first position, he learned the value of testing products. He then went through a succession of companies, exploring his passion for working with toys. His primary interest was to see a product all the way through from design to marketing, and he still wanted to stay in the toy field. He started his own company creating toys and licensing them out to companies. One of his crazier designs was a bodysuit with casters which you could use to roll down a road! Another design he created was breathable, more comfortable protective gear for rollerblading. Throughout this time, Tony taught Visual Design at Stanford. He met his wife, and 13 years later when she was expecting her first child and needed to find a teacher for her classes, she suggested her husband for the position. He ended up teaching several of her classes. Through his wife and teaching, he met Matt Kressy, who is an industrial designer from the Rhode Island School of Design. Matt went on to start a design program at MIT and invited Tony to check it out. A few years later, Matt asked him to join the program. Our Guest Tony Hu is the Academic Director of MIT's Integrated Design & Management Master's Program. As an entrepreneurial leader with 20+ years of experience as head of product development at both startups and large corporations, he has brought over 200 consumer products to market globally, including electronics, appliances, toys, and sporting goods, and is a champion of design, creativity, and innovation. He’s also an inventor, with 18 patents and 22 products he designed and licensed himself. For the past 13 years, Tony has taught design thinking as a lecturer at MIT and Stanford. He earned his Masters in Product Design at Stanford and his bachelor in Electrical Engineering at MIT, where he conducted research at the Media Lab. As a teacher, he is a rarity: an engineer with a background in both design and business. Tony loves sharing his holistic approach to product design with students. In This Episode [01:05] Tony talks about his origin story in design and how he started on the path to design.[05:07] How he landed a job at IBM and his experience at IBM in sales.[07:01] Tony’s introduction into industrial and product design.[08:30] Challenges Tony encountered in the early years of working in design.[11:58] Tony talks about his first product development position and his takeaways from product development.[16:04] Tony’s steps further down his design journey, focusing mainly on toys.[20:18] Before the .com boom - more history and working with different companies.[25:05] Tony talks about meeting Matt and how working with Matt influenced Tony’s path in design.[27:28] How this unique program is attracting diverse learners.[30:02] The process of design thinking on product development.[35:33] Tony’s role in the transformation of teaching design thinking.[39:08] Find out about Tony’s newest endeavor: Brainy Yak Labs Links and Resources Tony Hu LinkedIn profile Brainy Yak Labs MIT IDM on the web

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