Belinda Gannaway is the co-author of Employee Experience by Design and the Director at Fathom XP, an employee experience design agency based in the UK. She's also a facilitator and a team and systems coach. Today, we discuss her book, and what's possible when we apply design thinking to orchestrating how people perform and produce results in organizations.

Listen to learn about:

>> Using design thinking to create better employee experiences>> How our relationship with the work we do has changed>> Helping organizational leadership to understand the why of employee experience design>> The way the COVID-19 pandemic is changing how organizations think about their employees>> The drastic ways experience design and employee experience design have changed due to the pandemic>> How to discover what matters to your employees>> Three key principles of employee experience design>> The future of work and employee experience's role in that future

Our Guest

Belinda Gannaway is an employee experience design practitioner, facilitator and team coach. She is co-author of Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage, published in 2021 by Kogan Page.

Strategy director of EX design consultancy FathomXP, Belinda has been working in and around organizational culture for many years. Her interest in culture began early when she worked as a journalist in the UK Houses of Parliament – a 1,000-year-old institution.

Belinda's career has covered the worlds of journalism, PR and marketing, digital transformation and culture change. She has worked with some of the world's best-known organizations, including LEGO, Jaguar Land Rover, Diageo and the International Olympic Committee.

Show Highlights

[01:08] Dawan talks about the relevance of Employee Experience by Design in today's pandemic work world.[01:58] Belinda talks about what sparked her and her co-author, Emma Bridger, to write the book, and how our relationship with work has been changing, even before the pandemic.[02:33] Employees have become the consumers of the workplace.[03:01] The two things Belinda and Emma focused on when writing the book.[03:52] Democratizing great employee experience.[05:03] How Belinda's background as a political journalist helped during the writing process.[06:09] The two ways design thinking is being used in employee experience design.[07:11] The similarity of experience Belinda discovered was happening across many companies in different countries.[09:18] Starting from the desire to create better experiences for our employees.[10:23] Adding in a third diamond, focused on scoping, to the Double Diamond model.[10:38] The starting point: what does employee experience mean for this organization?[11:50] The next step is asking: where are we falling short?]14:31] The connections and inter-relationships between employee experience, employee performance, and the bottom line.[14:51] Organizational focus on employee experience is often around talent attraction and retention.[15:38] How the pandemic has changed this focus.[16:14] The link between a great employee experience and a great customer experience.[17:30] Writing the book as the pandemic unfolded.[17:56] Organizations' greater focus on the wellbeing of their employees.[18:22] Empathy as the "word of the year."[18:37] Experience design and employee experience design have changed drastically because of the pandemic.[21:01] Belinda offers advice on how organizations can use the book to start the work of looking at their employee experience and changing it for the better.[21:20] The book uses design thinking and positive psychology in its approach.[21:49] Start with a conversation around "tell me about your best experience at work."[22:02] The book explains how to set up this conversation in different ways, as needed.[24:21] The top ideas Belinda hopes people will take from the book and put into practice.[25:07] Three key principles of employee experience design.[27:51] Dawan and Belinda talk about the value of having an experimental mindset.[32:04] Belinda asks Dawan why he doesn't use the word "coach/ing" when he talks about his work.[34:16] What's next for employee experience and the future of work.[39:17] How employees as consumers of the workplace have the potential to change the ethos of business.[42:03] Belinda shares her go-to tool when she is working with organizations and their employee experience design.[44:47] Fluid Hive's resources for those wanting to learn and practice design thinking.

Links

Belinda on Twitter Belinda on LinkedIn Designing a meaningful employee experience: An interview with Belinda Gannaway How to launch or re-energize your employee experience approach FathomXP

Book Recommendation

Employee Experience by Design: How to Create an Effective EX for Competitive Advantage, by Emma Bridger and Belinda Gannaway

Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Building Design Capacity + Measuring Design Value + Designing Studios with Doug Powell — DT101 E16 Humble Design Leadership + Design Agency and Experience Design Evolution with Aleksandra Melnikova — DT101 E33 Designing Your Team + Teams in Design Education + Coaching Design Teams with Mary Sherwin and David Sherwin — DT101 E49

Resources

Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions

Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.

Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.

James Howard is a teacher, design historian, industrial designer, and inventor of over 300 products with 18 patents. He's currently the owner-operator of Entrepreneurial U, a specialty private design school. Prior to teaching at the county college of Morris in New Jersey, Professor Howard was the owner-operator of the award-winning Howard Design Agency, an industrial design practice whose clients included Coca-Cola, Colgate Palmolive, and Johnson & Johnson.

James is also the owner of Cozy Cupboard Tearoom of Morristown, New Jersey. The English-style business has been a regional favorite for over 10 years. James serves as the Executive Director of the Black Inventors Hall of Fame, a virtual museum devoted to immortalizing African-Americans whose noteworthy inventions have improved lives, yet gone unnoticed.

Listen in to learn more about:

>> James' journey to become an industrial designer>> The Howard Design Agency>> James' years teaching design>> Entrepreneurial U>> Growth mindset>> The power of optimism – in work, and in life

Show Highlights

[01:55] James talks about his journey into design, and his big sister Doris. [03:11] Entering his first drawing contest as a young boy. [03:16] The disappointment of not getting into the graphic design program – and James' shift into industrial design as a result. [05:31] Challenges James faced during his undergraduate and graduate years. [08:56] Getting into graduate school. [10:38] James' struggles with his first mentor in graduate school. [12:30] How things changed once he had a strong mentor on his side. [13:15] Winning a design award from RESNA. [14:01] His first job as an industrial designer. [15:49] James' advice for people dealing with bumps in the road. [16:49] Why James decided to start his own design agency. [19:51] 15 years at the Howard Design Agency. [21:10] How running his own agency changed the way James thought about design. [23:17] James offers advice on how to make a good pitch. [26:42] The decision to leave his design agency and begin teaching. [30:59] Founding Entrepreneurial U. [32:09] James talks about the Bridge program, which helps adults change career pathways. [32:51] The importance of cultivating a growth mindset. [33:51] James as the perpetual optimist, and passing that optimism on to his students. [36:16] Doodling as a second language, to tell stories and convey ideas. [38:07] Resources James recommends. [41:18] Where to find out more about James and his work. [42:30] The Black Inventors' Hall of Fame. [46:20] Fluid Hive's resources for those wanting to learn and practice design thinking.

Links

James on LinkedIn Entrepreneurial U Black Inventors' Hall of Fame A Conversation with James Howard, Perpetual Optimist The History of Black Industrial Designers

Book Recommendations

Marketing for the Small Design Firm, by Jim MorganWho Moved My Cheese: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life, by Spencer Johnson Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us, by Tom Kelley and David Kelley Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life, by Francesca Gino The Universal Traveler, by James Bagnell and Don Koberg

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Learning Service Design + Leading Service Transformation with Clive Grinyer — DT101 E66 Integrating Engineering, Design and Business with Tony Hu — DT101 E35 Leading a Design Thinking Consultancy, Betting Small to Win Big, and Driving Business Growth with Design Thinking with Natalie Foley — DT101 E5

Other Resources

Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions

Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.

Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.

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

This episode is all about facilitation. You'll meet Fluid Hive's Event Design Questions and learn new ways to create effective events everyone will love. In these short Ask Like a Designer episodes on the show, you'll find new ways to explore the show's stories and ideas about design-driven innovation. I'll share methods, templates, and ideas that have worked in my practice in teaching.

This episode is based on this article: ALD006 // Designing Facilitation: Create events, workshops and meetings that solve problems, save money, and protect your reputation. Download the Thinking Tool for this ALD article, an event creation guide based on Fluid Hive's Event Design Questions.

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

Cheers ~ Dawan

Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host

President, Fluid Hive

Show Highlights

[00:58] What do YOU do when you're tasked with creating and facilitating an event?[01:51] A better way to create your event: Fluid Hive's Event Design questions.[02:15] Fluid Hive's definition of an event.[02:34] What is facilitation?[02:57] Applying Fluid Hive's See-Solve-Act design process to event design.[03:20] Seeing the challenge.[05:34] Seeing the people.[05:58] Seeing the participants.[06:38] Seeing the relationships.[06:55] Seeing the time.[07:23] Seeing the place.[07:55] Solving for success.[08:10] Solving for outcomes.[08:26] Solving for interaction.[08:52] Solving for documenting the event.[09:17] Solving for the guides participants will need.[09:55] Solving for the breaks participants will need.[10:15] Solving for the rules and guidelines to keep the event and participants on track.[10:41] Acting to create the script.[11:00] Acting to test the script.[11:25] Acting to plan for contingencies and backups.[11:54] Acting to take care of the event facilitator, not just the participants.[12:12] Acting to walk through the delivery dance.[13:24] Free Ask Like a Designer tool: facilitation design workbook.[13:55] Design Thinking 101 Learning courses.[14:07] The Innovation Smart Start webinar.

Other Design Thinking 101 Ask Like a Designer Episodes You Might Like

Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61 Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63 There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 — DT101 E65 Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67 The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions // ALD 005 — DT 101 E69

Sarah Fathallah is an independent social designer and researcher. Today, we talk about trauma-informed design, participatory design, and research with vulnerable populations.

Listen to learn more about:

>> Trauma-informed design>> Virtual facilitation design>> Examining power dynamics in design work>> Participatory design and its connection to trauma-informed design>> The challenges of compensating community members who participate in the design process

Our Guest

Sarah Fathallah is an independent designer, researcher, and educator, who specializes in applying participatory research and design to the social sector. She has worked on projects of all sizes with non-profits, governments, and social enterprises, on topics ranging from civil and human rights, to healthcare, education, and financial inclusion. Her clients have included the International Domestic Workers Federation, the International Rescue Committee, and Open Society Foundations, to name a few. Sarah's design work has been honored by the Core77 Design Awards, the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), ONE Prize, and the GSMA mWomen Design Challenge. Sarah also co-founded Design Gigs for Good, a free community-driven resource to help more people use the tools of design to create positive social change. Sarah is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris, where she studied International Business and Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Affairs. She also studied design innovation at the Paris Est d.school, user experience design at General Assembly, and participatory design at MIT.

Show Highlights

[01:03] Sarah talks about how she stumbled into design.[01:50] Her introduction to service design while in grad school.[02:14] Sarah's career has been focused on using the tools and methods of design in global development.[02:47] The diverse range of projects Sarah works on.[04:29] Sarah talks about how the pandemic changed her facilitation work.[05:32] Ways of ensuring virtual experiences are as robust as in-person.[07:30] Sarah explains what self holds are and how to use them.[08:30] What is trauma-informed design?[11:35] How Sarah helps bring people into trauma-informed design.[14:18] Sarah offers advice on how to bring trauma-informed design into your own work.[15:45] The potential problem with user interviews.[16:22] Ways to learn about trauma and trauma-informed systems.[18:14] Designers must always acknowledge and reflect on the imperfections in their work and seek to improve.[20:31] Ways designers can self-reflect and critique the work that they do as they're doing it.[23:45] A framework Sarah uses to examine power dynamics.[24:08] Examining the power differentials in the identities of the people involved.[25:09] How to make sure you're not exploiting the community or population you're designing with and for.[25:47] Ensuring the community is actively participating in the design work.[27:50] The importance of participatory design in trauma-informed design.[28:02] Defining participatory design.[29:22] How Sarah applies participatory design to her own work.[31:47] One question Sarah reflects on when she thinks about design work.[34:10] The struggle designers often have in finding ways to compensate participants.[35:53] Non-monetary participant compensation options that Sarah has used in the past.[36:57] Asking the community what they want and need when it comes to compensation.[38:08] Things Sarah wishes would be part of teaching design.[43:10] Designer mindsets.[46:07] Books and resources Sarah recommends.[48:25] How to learn more about Sarah and her work.[50:05] Fluid Hive's resources for those wanting to learn and practice design thinking.

Links

Sarah's Website Sarah on Twitter Sarah on Medium Sarah on Instagram Sarah's profile on Women Talk DesignConversations on Design: Design Research with Sarah Fathallah The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk Companion to Feminist Studies, by Nancy A. Naples Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need (Information Policy), by Sasha Costanza-Chock Research as Resistance: Revisiting Critical, Indigenous, and Anti-Oppressive Approaches, by Leslie Brown and Susan Strega Design in Crisis: New Worlds, Philosophies, and Practices, edited by Tony Fry and Adam Nocek Modernity + Coloniality

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Design Thinking for the Public Sector + Building and Training Design Thinking Teams with Stephanie Wade — DT101 E14 Designer's Role in Healthcare & Public Health + Studio Thinking with Jess Roberts — DT101 E21 Design for Mental Health: Creating an Effective Response to Student Loneliness with Denise Ho and Andrew Baker — DT101 E60

Other Resources

Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions

Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.

Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.

This is the first DT101 Books episode. Karen Hold joins us on the show to talk about Experiencing Design: The Innovator's Journey, a book she co-authored with Jeanne Liedtka and Jessica Eldridge.

In DT101 Books episodes, authors explore why their book exists and what it will help you do. Each book is chosen because it has something that will help you think and solve like a designer as you learn, lead and apply design thinking.

Our Guest and Her Co-Authors

Jeanne Liedtka is a faculty member at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. Her Columbia Business School Publishing books include Designing for Growth: A Manager's Toolkit (2011) and Design Thinking for the Greater Good: Innovation in the Social Sector (2017).

Karen Hold is the founder of Experience Labs, an innovation consulting firm. She is also the director of DT:DC, a design thinking community in Washington, DC, and a visiting professor at École des Ponts Business School in Paris, France.

Jessica Eldridge is a consultant working at the intersection of educational equity and purposeful innovation. She is a specialist in design thinking, innovation management, and cross-sector collaboration.

About Experiencing Design: The Innovator's Journey

In daylong hackathons, design thinking seems deceptively easy. On the surface, it involves a set of seemingly simple activities such as gathering data, identifying insights, generating ideas, prototyping, and experimentation. But practiced at a superficial level, even great design tools don't go deep enough to create the shifts in mindset and skill set that are required to achieve transformational impact.

Going deep with design requires more than changing the activities of innovators; it involves creating the conditions that shape who they become. Individuals become design thinkers by experiencing design.

Drawing on decades of researching and teaching design thinking to people not trained in design, Jeanne Liedtka, Karen Hold, and Jessica Eldridge offer a guide for how to create these deep experiences at each stage of the design thinking journey, whether for an individual, a team, or an organization.

For each experience phase, they specify the mindset shifts and competencies that need to be achieved, describe how different personality types experience different kinds of journeys, and show how to fully leverage the diversity of teams. Experiencing Design explores both the science and practicalities of design and includes two assessment instruments for individual and organizational development.

Ultimately, innovators need to be someone new to create something new. This book shows you how to use design thinking to make this happen.

Show Highlights

[00:56] Dawan muses on trying to come up with a name for the podcast book episodes.[01:06] Michael Silverblatt as the one and only Bookworm.[02:07] Karen talks about the ideas and discussions that started the book-writing process.[02:51] Igniting the design spark (or not!) in the people she works with.[04:57] The book is for those already familiar with, and using, design thinking.[06:05] It's intended to help design thinking users deepen their practice.[07:25] Different personality types experience design and design thinking differently.[08:11] Karen, Jeanne, and Jessica developed four Innovator Personalities.[08:20] You have to become someone new to make something new.[08:54] Karen gives an example from her time on the brand team at Folgers during the rise of Starbucks.[10:15] Quantitative versus qualitative research.[10:48] Biases in decision making.[13:47] Insights and sensemaking occurs gradually and purposefully.[15:04] Sensemaking involves learning from perspectives that are not our own.[18:00] The book provides a set of Minimum Viable Competencies (MVCs) – behaviors and indicators that help designers gauge skill and mindset improvement.[19:00] Karen discusses some of the MVCs found in the book.[20:00] Observation versus interpretation.[21:33] Double-loop learning.[22:00] Becoming too attached to one point of view and closing off.[23:16] MVCs are skills that people can improve with time, training, and use.[24:47] The book offers the reader an entire section on creating a personal development plan.[26:45] A digital tool to help readers develop their plan is in beta-test and will be available soon.[28:13] The development plan process also works for teams within an organization.[30:30] Some of the surprises that appeared during the writing journey.[30:43] The tale of how the title of the book changed at the last minute.[35:12] Karen talks about working with her co-authors, and her shift from learner to sharer.[36:58] Missing the daily learning that happened during the writing of the book.[38:14] The intense focus that happened during, and even because of, the pandemic.[38:54] The shift to working virtually.[40:03] The science behind the "A-ha! moment."[41:55] Why Karen makes sure that her workshops now have an overnight in between activities.[42:45] The difference between ordinary and expert intuition.[44:03] The hope Karen has for those who read the book.[46:00] Fluid Hive's resources for those wanting to learn and practice design thinking.

Order your copy of Experiencing Design

Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

From Branding to Design + Teaching Design Teams + Leading Summer of Design with Karen Hold — DT101E13 Designing for the Greater Good, Strategy + Design Thinking, and Measuring Design Thinking with Jeanne Liedtka — DT101 E1 Design Thinking at Work + Three Tensions Designers Navigate with David Dunne — DT101 E23

Fluid Hive Resources

Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions

Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn new ways to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.

Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.

John B. Johnson is an identity architect and principal of A Small Studio. He works with corporations and scaling startups, using A Small Studio's identity design framework. John and his team also work with creatives to bring peace to people's lives. Today, John and I talk about corporate and individual identity design, why people are more important than process, and intersectional design leadership.

Listen to learn about:

>> Defining identity>> Identity design>> The intersection of brand/identity and authentic design

Our Guest

John B. Johnson is a brother, a son, a husband, a friend, and the founder, principal, and Identity Architect of a small studio. a small studio is a collective of creatives who use their design gifts to improve lives through branding and product design. They believe every design project starts with Identity. In less than 3 years, his team has built over 40 brands worldwide. John leverages his Master's Degrees in Architecture and Business Administration to help people, start-ups, and enterprises benefit from infusing their identity into the work they do and what they offer the people they serve.

Show Highlights

[01:20] John talks about his path into the work he's doing today in identity design.[01:39] Design thinking is a core principle of architecture.[03:06] John's fascination with the people in the built environment and designing buildings with an eye towards the human interactions occurring there, and how that led him away from architecture.[03:34] Leaving architecture behind to focus more on community and the human equation.[04:45] Lessons learned during John's first startup business.[05:25] John discovers his passion for branding.[06:10] John's co-founding of a small studio, and a move to Seattle.[07:43] Authentic design and how it feeds into brand and identity design.[08:39] John defines identity.[08:49] What happens during the branding process.[10:39] The importance of frameworks and processes for John's work.[12:28] John uses deeply personal stories and moments to help build powerful visual identities for clients.[12:59] a small studio's Identity Architecture workshop — for individuals, teams, and corporations.[15:25] Moving fully into remote work during the pandemic.[17:24] The challenges of building a business.[18:46] Time is a key factor when it comes to going virtual.[19:55] The benefits that have come from folks needing to work remotely.[21:35] Remote work has sparked creativity and innovation in ways we've never experienced before.[22:36] Working remotely has led to more acceptance of the humanity of one another.[26:00] John talks about his life and experiences being a Black man and a Black designer.[28:27] His experiences being the only Black person in his education and work spaces and the unique way of seeing the world that came because of it.[29:47] How his life has motivated him to be a connector and a bridge between people and communities.[31:51] Intersectionality is the ethos of design and design thinking.[33:55] Dawan and John talk about bringing what is unique to us as individuals more deeply into our professional and personal lives, especially as a designer.[36:11] Bringing your full, whole self to every situation.[39:10] "Constant becoming," and intentionally designing a good life.[41:47] Where to find out more about John and his work.[42:45] Books and resources John recommends.

Links

John on LinkedIn John on Twitter John on Medium John on Instagram John's personal website A Small Studio Everything Starts Small podcast Design Thinking Isn't Just for the Privileged Brighton Jones Talent for Good Interview Series: John B. Johnson

Book Recommendations

Community: The Structure of Belonging, by Peter Block The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, by Eckhart Tolle

Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

From Branding to Design + Teaching Design Teams + Leading Summer of Design with Karen Hold — DT101E13 Redesigning a Design School + Designing Higher Ed with Jason Schupbach — DT101 E30 Rethinking Service Design + Student Projects + Community Systems with Amy O'Keefe — DT101 E56

Fluid Hive Resources

Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions

Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn new ways to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.

Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.

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

This episode is about how to use "How might we …" questions to anchor your innovation projects, align your team, and adjust the problem you are trying to solve as you learn.

This episode is based on this article: ALD 005 // The Swiss-Army Lives of How-Might-We Questions. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive's Ask Like a Designer.

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

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

Cheers ~ Dawan

Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host

President, Fluid Hive

Show Highlights

[00:58] The One Question to rule them all: what problem are you trying to solve?[01:15] Finding the right problem to solve is the key to great innovation work.[01:32] What do you do with your answer to the question?[01:47] The purpose of "How might we…" questions.[02:17] The three required parts of a "How might we…" question.[02:27] The two optional parts of a "How might we…" question.[03:48] Ways "How might we…" questions can help a designer or design team.[04:16] What is reframing, and how does it relate to innovation work?[05:07] "How might we…" questions also help those who are not on the team, but who are providing knowledge, insights, or assistance in some way.[05:44] Having clear goals is important when doing innovation work.[06:27] "How might we…" questions help guide team conversations about the work.[06:43] "How might we…" questions also act as a guidepost.[07:30] We want questions that create possibilities for many workable solutions.[07:59] Free Ask Like a Designer tool to help you create your own "How might we…" questions.[08:31] Design Thinking 101 Learning courses.[08:52] The Innovation Smart Start webinar.

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Ask Like a Designer — DT101 E61 Design, and One Question to Rule Them All // ALD 002 — DT101 E63 There Are No Problems Worth Solving — Only Questions Worth Asking // ALD 003 — DT101 E65 Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance // ALD 004 — DT101 E67

Other Resources

Download Fluid Hive's Innovation Shield — a guide to avoiding innovation traps by asking 9 of Fluid Hive's Design Thinking Questions

Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Learn to Ask Like a Designer and take your innovation projects from frantic to focused by working smart from the start.

Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills – people who want to think and solve like a designer.

Designing Elections? Yes! Whitney Quesenbery and I talk about designing elections, designing in government, and the future of election design. We dive deep into the world of elections, and Whitney's and the Center for Civic Design's work to help election officials nationwide design better elections.

Show Summary

Whitney had two careers before she landed in civic design. She had a professional career in theatre for a number of years before a friend asked her to write a product manual. That led to a shift into writing, and she worked for a number of large organizations creating and documenting content. In 2000, Whitney ended up on a federal advisory committee writing voting system standards, which led her into civic design and to what she calls her "last great adventure" founding the Center for Civic Design.

Listen to learn about:

>> Using design in elections>> Designing with government and election officials>> The Center for Civic Design's work>> The evolution of election design>> The 2016 and 2020 elections and how they are shaping the future of election design>> Ways local leaders can get more involved in election design

Our Guest

Whitney Quesenbery is the director of the Center for Civic Design, solving democracy as a design problem and improving the voter experience. She combines a fascination with people and an obsession to communicate clearly with her goal of usable accessibility for all. She's written 3 books — A Web for Everyone: Designing accessible user experiences, Storytelling for User Experience, and Global UX — to help practitioners keep users in mind throughout the creative process.

Show Highlights

[01:32] Whitney talks about her three careers.[04:12] Whitney's co-founding of the Center for Civic Design.[05:37] The challenge of applying the methods of design to elections.[07:00] Government election workers don't tend to see themselves as designers.[08:19] How to bring non-designers comfortably into design work.[08:42] Whitney talks about the Center's founding project in California designing voter guides.[11:24] The importance of public review and iteration to the success of the project.[13:55] How Whitney's work has evolved over the years.[14:35] Ways the Center changed its user research to ensure diversity.[16:14] Collaborating with other organizations.[17:26] Whitney talks about the 2020 election and the future of the Center's work.[18:52] The Center's work on mail-in voting before and after the election.[20:53] The importance of street-level bureaucrats in the running of elections.[22:22] How ordinary Americans showed up and volunteered to help run the 2020 election: registering voters, poll workers, ballot counters, etc.[23:34] Whitney talks about designing in ways to encourage volunteerism in elections.[24:45] The "public square" concept in elections.[25:08] Whitney shares one story as an example of the ways information (and misinformation) can affect elections and how people vote.[27:48] Opportunities for local leaders to help design elections.[28:11] The importance of the day-to-day, "everyday" work and effort.[31:44] Service design and the "gentle disruption" part of Whitney's work.[34:58] Whitney offers advice and encouragement for local election officials thinking about working with a designer.[35:31] The Center's Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent.[37:23] More about the Center's work.[38:03] The Center's online Election Design course at the University of Minnesota.[39:53] The difference between Big D Design and little d design.[40:14] Whitney talks about a project for the Department of Health and Human Services.[42:55] How the Center is building a team with the right skills.[45:03] The future of the Center for Civic Design.[48:45] Resources for people interested in civic design, civic tech, and election design.[53:03] Where to find out more about Whitney and the Center for Civic Design.[53:16] The Center for Civic Design's Irregulars List.[54:09] Ways you can support the Center for Civic Design's work.

Links

Whitney on LinkedIn Whitney on Twitter Whitney on Women Talk Design Whitney on UX Matters Whitney's personal website Whitney's presentations on Slideshare Center for Civic Design and their 2020 Annual Report Center for Civic Design on Twitter Election design course, online, at Election Academy! Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent from the Center for Civic Design An invitation to redistricting Designing ballot cure forms that invite voters to act Minnesota gets new polling place signage with help from design students ElectionTools.org UX Magazine: Book Excerpt: A Web for Everyone, by Sarah Horton and Whitney Quesenbery Accessible Elections: Are we there yet? STC Summit Interview with Whitney Designing our civic life: can paying taxes be delightful? Design as a Civic Responsibility Whitney Quesenbery with Tala Schlossberg, NY Times (October 29, 2020): Good design is the secret to better democracy (Ballots are broken. We redesigned them.) ConveyUX: Writing great persona stories ConveyUX: Content for Everyone: Making information accessible 18F Blog: Delivering civic technology

Book Recommendations

A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences, by Sarah Horton and Whitney QuesenberyStorytelling for User Experience: Crafting Stories for Better Design, by Whitney Quesenbery and Kevin Brooks Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World, by Whitney Quesenbery and Daniel Szuc A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide, by Cyd Harrell

Center for Civic Design Irregulars List: when we need extra help on a project, from running flash usability tests to collecting data on local election information, we turn to our extended community: Join the list

So you want to serve your country: A (biased) guide to tech jobs in federal government

Support the Center for Civic Design

Donations to support our work are gratefully accepted and are tax deductible. We accept donations:

Through PayPal as [email protected]

By mail at:5443 Tates Bank RoadCambridge, MD 21613

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

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________________

Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan

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

In my coaching conversations, I help people take a more holistic view of life and work. We find experiments that define values, shape goals and establish habits. This episode is about running your own experiments using our system for high performance with living well at its core — Fluid Hive's Good-Life Operating System.

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

This episode is based on this article: ALD 004 // Your Good-Life OS: Designing a System for Living Well and Peak Performance. Read the article and others like it on Fluid Hive's Ask Like a Designer.

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

Cheers ~ Dawan

Design Thinking 101 Podcast Host

President, Fluid Hive

Show Highlights

[00:51] You can use design thinking to help you create your system for living well.[01:03] Living well is the foundation of high performance.[01:52] What's your purpose?[02:13] The three questions we all need to answer to create the Good-Life Operating System.[02:54] Efficiency procrastination.[03:22] Researching habit formation.[04:19] Incorporating the variables of time and change into goal-setting.[04:54] Binary measurements for goal outcomes tracking.[06:05] Secular Goals vs. Value Goals.[07:19] Using "I am someone who…" to establish value goals.[08:07] Three obstacles to the Good-Life OS.[09:45] The benefit of regular Life Scans.[10:40] How to set up your own Life Scan.[11:17] Bringing it all together to get your Good-Life OS up and running.[12:21] Free Ask Like a Designer Thinking Tool to help you create your GoodLife OS.[12:59] Design Thinking 101 Learning courses.[13:29] The Innovation SmartStart webinar.

Design Thinking 101 Learning — Courses and More

Design Thinking 101 Learning helps people learn, lead and apply design-driven innovation. Each training course focuses on a different collection of actions and skills critical to using design thinking effectively and getting the results you seek.

Please join me in the first course, Design Thinking 101 — Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve.

Each course is structured to help your innovation actions create what you need for the people you serve, your organization and yourself.

Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like

Design Thinking 101 Podcast Episode 61: Ask Like a Designer Episode 001 Design Thinking 101 Podcast Episode 63: Ask Like a Designer Episode 002 Design Thinking 101 Podcast Episode 65: Ask Like a Designer Episode 003

Other Resources

Download the Design-Driven Innovation Project Launch Guide — Guide to launching innovation projects and avoiding common innovation traps Design-Driven Innovation.

Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!

Fluid Hive: Learn — A growing collection of courses, webinars, and articles for people expanding their design thinking, service design, and human-centered design skills.

Clive Grinyer is the Head of Service Design at the Royal College of Art in London. Clive's an acknowledged expert in service design, design thinking, and design and technology innovation, who has led award-winning design teams for companies around the globe. He started in design consultancy with IDEO in London and San Francisco before co-founding the design consultancy company Tangerine with Martin Derbyshire and future Apple design chief and RCA chancellor, Jony Ive.

He went on to build and lead design teams for Orange, Samsung, and Cisco, and was Director of Service Design for Barclays. As Director of Design of the UK's Design Council, he created the Design Demand program, taking design into over one thousand UK companies. As a consultant, he's worked with the cabinet office policy lab and at Nesta. Clive speaks at national and international conferences, writes articles and blogs, and has published Smart Design, a book on design and technology.

Show Summary

Clive discovered his interest in design at an early age, in part thanks to toys and dresses! His grandmother's dress shop introduced him to the idea that there were actual people out there whose job was making decisions about what we would like and what would be trendy. That would lead him to art school. A conversation with a career advisor uncovered an affinity for product design, and that's where Clive's design path began: designing physical objects.

He worked for several well-known design consultancies, including Moggridge Associates (founded by Bill Moggridge, who would go on to co-found IDEO), and then Clive chose to co-found a design consultancy himself before shifting gears away from consulting altogether and going in-house, taking a position with Samsung, where he helped open the company's design office in Europe. After Samsung, Clive worked for a number of the world's leading corporations, culminating in a position with Barclays bank, where he again shifted--this time from digital design to service design--setting up their service design team and working on customer experience.

Clive recently left the corporate world behind, taking the Head of Service Design position at the RCA not long before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Today, we'll talk about building service design teams, teaching service design and how the RCA service design department adapted its teaching and courses in response to the pandemic, and where Clive believes service design needs to take us in the future.

Listen in to learn more about:

>> Clive's path from product design to service design>> Building a service design team>> Service design at RCA>> The future of service design, post-pandemic>> Service design in Europe and the US>> How the impact of service design is often invisible>> Service design, design thinking, and innovation

Show Highlights

[02:01] Clive talks about his design career path.[07:50] Moving from consulting to in-house.[09:54] Leaving the corporate world behind for the RCA.[10:41] Challenges Clive faced while building the service design team at Barclays.[13:02] Finding the right people for the team.[13:34] Design Council's double diamond.[14:40] The Barclays team's first project.[17:47] Culture change as a vital function of a service designer.[19:08] Taking people on a journey, and passing on the tools of design to others.[22:26] Teaching service design at the RCA in the midst of the pandemic.[23:02] Ramping up the use of digital tools and going online.[24:20] The success of RCA's graduate virtual service design show.[25:54] Taking the lessons from the last year and using them going forward.[26:38] Clive talks about a successful project conducting user research online via TikTok.[27:30] Post-pandemic opportunities for service design.[27:40] Generation Regeneration.[27:56] "Never waste a crisis."[30:23] How service design can help us make decisions to build the future we want.[31:51] Clive and Dawan talk about the state of service design in the U.S.[33:49] The focus of design thinking in the U.S.[34:04] The impact of service design in Europe.[35:23] Service design is fixing things.[36:42] The "invisible impact" of service design.[38:28] The role of service design and design thinking in innovation.[41:03] Clive offers advice to those wanting to try service design at their organization.[42:03] Thinking differently.[45:41] Clive talks about the two-year master's at RCA.[48:16] More about RCA's service design tutors.[51:41] The importance of storytelling to service design.[53:18] The big challenge Clive sees for service designers.[55:06] Where to find out more about Clive and his work.

Links

Clive's website Clive on LinkedIn Clive on Twitter Clive's profile on the Royal College of Art website RCA Service Design Ageing Well: Designing a world accessible to all Creative Review's Top 50 for 2018 Designing Our Futures Clive Grinyer on Service Design CLG Podcast: Public services are ahead of business when it comes to service design Unknown Origins podcast: Clive Grinyer on Service Design

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________________

Thank you for listening to the show and looking at the show notes. Send your questions, suggestions, and guest ideas to Dawan and the Fluid Hive team. Cheers ~ Dawan

Ready to learn new ways to think and solve like a designer today? Enroll in Framing: Creating Better Solutions by Finding More Valuable Problems to Solve — from Fluid Hive's Design Thinking 101 Learning.

Free Download — Design Driven Innovation: Avoid Innovation Traps with These 9 Steps

Innovation Smart Start Webinar — Take your innovation projects from frantic to focused!