Experience by Design

"You gotta slow down to go fast" - Douglas FergusonVoltage Control president, design thinking facilitator and innovation coach Douglas Ferguson recently published a book called Beyond the Prototype that aims to help teams and organizations (and individuals!) go from generating awesome ideas to implementing them. Over the course of our conversation we cover:the power of systems thinkingseeing variables in the design ecosystemfacilitation as model through systems thinkingThe connections between organizations and society. HR departments using design thinking to point the lens inwardCaution that when we compress ideas there is opportunity to meaning to be lostWhy facilitation is such a crucial rolefor example, realizing if you’re using one word to mean two things, or two words to mean the same thing - skilled facilitating brings these discrepancies and differences in meaning into focus for teams to help them overcome roadblocks in understandingWhy so many start up founders get stuck on the idea of scale rather versus pursuing a smaller, but passion-driven ideaHow design facilitation sessions are about harnessing the power of the child’s mind - playful energyand debriefing as a crucial stage in any process: can you answer the question of why did we did this?Links and Resources mentioned in today's episodevoltagecontrol.combeyondtheprototype.comstartwithin.comBeyond the Prototype bookJake Knapp - Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five DaysGreg Satell - Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational ChangeDavid Epstein - Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World 

Gary and Gio go a long way back to 2013 when Gio was a student in Sociology of Sports and later did an internship with CBS Sports where he paired music with sports highlights. From these humble beginnings began a career in media working with some big shows and performers, where today Gio LoMonaco is a Coordinator of Music and Media Licensing at Viacom. Whether watching a movie, or streaming a show, or tuning into a sporting event or highlights, music is an integral part of what we experience, and how we experience it. So how is music selected and how does it get incorporated into what we watch? How does the vibe of the show or sport relate to different kinds of music? What happens if you have the wrong music pairing for a show? Gary and Gio talk about the "old days" at Bentley University, the intricacies of music licensing, how music can set the mood for a  show, and working with Lights Out with David Spade. 

Before COVID-19, the criminal justice system was cracking under its own weight. Now, those cracks have started to spread. Police are changing how they perform their duties based on the virus, limiting pro-active policing and placing N95 masks next to Kevlar vests as safety equipment. Courts are shutting down based, suspending trials and releasing those awaiting trial. Prisons are facing a potential major crisis with outbreaks looming and emerging behind the walls. What we are seeing happen today is not surprising given that we incarcerate more people by far than any other industrialized country in the world. But just because it is not surprising does not mean it should be acceptable. Attorney Marissa Bluestine comes by the Experience by Design studios to talk about her work in the criminal justice system, and what can be done to design a better system. While today’s episode was recorded before the COVID-19 outbreak, we do examine the issues around the criminal justice system. From her founding of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, to her current work with as an Assistant Director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania, we explore what a just criminal justice system would look like. 

It is not surprising to hear that everyone’s state of anxiety is pretty high. We are all facing a very uncertain future. Turning on the news, which I recommend doing only in moderation, it is easy to get caught up in the frightening images and metrics as the pandemic spreads. Enter digital psychiatry and e-mental health tools. Technically speaking, digital psychiatry refers to any electronic device or mechanism through which people can get information about or assistance with their mental health. And it might be the future of mental health careBut what does this mean for patients and the clinicians, as well as caregivers and healthcare professionals? Besides, does any of this stuff work? How does it impact the clinical workflow and clinical profession? And what does it mean for privacy and security?To help answer these questions and more, we have Dr. John Torous, psychiatrist and Director of the BIDMC Digital Psychiatry Clinic. John has been engaged in this topic for some time, and is one of the leaders in the field. He also created the LAMP app, an open-source tool that clinicians and patients can use to track symptoms and onset of chronic mental illness. You can say he knows a lot about digital psychiatry.John drops by the Experience by Design studio to talk digital psychiatry, COVID-19 responses, and the future of clinical mental health. Hope you enjoy our discussion. 

Shelley White is an Assistant Professor of Public Health and Sociology, and Program Director of the Master of Public Health.Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal is the Assistant Program Director and Associate Professor of Practice at MPH@Simmons.What a difference a week makes. Or does it? With the expanding pandemic of COVID-19 disrupting more lives, many here in the United States might feel caught off guard, or that things have changed to rapidly. Now health care is a constant concern.What Shelley White and Meenakshi Verma-Agrawal help us put in perspective is that even though we can all get sick, public health and care has always been political, and who has access to care, and even what diagnoses one gets, have been deeply tied to class, race, ethnicity and other socioeconomic classifications. Public health, in fact, is designed. Moments of pandemic, where a virus crosses borders and bodies with no care for the social structures we’ve erected, brings to light the radically unequal way our public health systems are designed. For middle class families who find themselves for the first time concerned about the lack of available health care or beds at a hospital, must now contend with the fact that this is a common reality for many poorer communities and communities of color.But moments of crisis like this are also moments of hope. As Dr. White notes in the conversation, we have to remember that there are more people who seek equity and change than those who benefit from the status quo. What's radical is to acknowledge the racial, social, and economic injustices that frame our public health system and to then set about to change those inequities for a more just world. 

Gigaom CEO, publisher and author of "The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity" stops by virtually to chat with host Adam Gamwell and guest host Astrid Countee to help us make sense of just what Artificial Intelligence is, what are its promises and limits, and what this means for the possibilities of conscious computing and smart robots. Byron breaks down the philosophies behind our ways of thinking about AI in way that gives us new social tools to approach the deep technological revolution we are undergoing in a more human and even optimistic manner. Website: https://byronreese.com/Twitter: @byronreeseFacebook: @byronreeseLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/byronreese

We meet a lot of people who say they want to do a podcast, and in fact they are technologically easy to produce. Getting listeners is another matter altogether. And getting listeners pay for content is a totally different proposition. The  podcast landscape is pretty saturated, with as many options as stars in the sky. How then can podcast producers create listener experiences that their audiences are willing to pay for? Our guest for today, Amira Valliani, has some thoughts on how to meet this challenge.. Amira is the co-founder and CEO of Glow.fm. As they describe themselves, “Glow is the best, most flexible way to build your podcast’s membership program.”  We talk about what led her to create Glow.fm out of covering local politics in Cambridge, MA. We discuss the more than 800,000 podcasts that exist worldwide, and how storytelling has forever been our primary mode of self-expression. Finally, we explore both the professionalization of podcasting, as well as its democratizing effects of giving everyone a voice who wants to use it. 

Loans have a fascinating cultural property. We might think of ‘loan sharks’ as the present-day manifestation of the ancient pronouncements against taking advantage of people through the giving of loans. More generally, people who handle money in some cultures are seen as ‘unclean.’ So, the topic of loans and lending is by no means a new one.This makes tackling the ‘loan experience’ a unique challenge, and one that the company Lightstream is taking head-on. To learn more, Adam and I chatted with Kristin Shuff, who is the Senior VP of marketing at Lightstream. We hear how Kristin grew up reading Ad Age and early on being captivated by the characters she knew and loved being created by ad agencies. We also discuss how ‘omni-channel’ marketing doesn’t automatically mean ALL channels. Kristin describes how customer and employee centricity are central to mapping a loan experience that correlates for why people are getting loans, and how providing loan information beyond interest rates is a key to their branding efforts. 

Micah Solomon had dreams of wanting to be a rock star. When that wasn't going to happen, Micah's new journey took him from opening up a recording studio that became a manufacturing business, which then led him to be a Customer Experience star. In this episode of Experience by Design podcast, Micah visit the Experience by Design studio to talk about his new book, "Ignore Your Customers and They'll Go Away." We explore how to create a company culture that is experience-centric and which listens to voices of customers and employees alike. Micah also provides practical tools from his CX playbook on how to capture these voices and turn that information into moments that matter. We discuss companies that are doing it right, and how you can help your company do it better.

Whitney Quesenbery has had a long and influential career in user experience. The author of three books on UX, Whitney has been involved in a lot of projects aimed at making things more usable. But perhaps none of her work is as important as her co-founding and co-directing the Center for Civic Design. Whitney talks about her unintended introduction into the world of experience design through a theater class,  her early work in UX as being user-centric, and how a committee assignment through the Usability Professionals Association led to her life's work on civic design and voting experiences. Listen to her talk about the UX tragedy of the 'butterfly ballot' in the 2000 election, how big experiences come from simple changes, and what people can do to help design better elections.