Welcome to the Design Thinking podcast! I’m Dawan Stanford, your host. Today I’m interviewing Chris McCarthy. He is the Vice President of Strategy & Design at Hopelab where he is excited to deepen its impact on the health and wellness of young people through design and systems thinking. He is also the Executive Director and Founder of the Innovation Learning Network.

Today we explore the different pathways of healthcare and the effect of design thinking on the healthcare industry, the beginnings of design thinking in the healthcare industry and why design thinking is so challenging to implement in the field of healthcare.

One of the most important factors for Chris was to not put the Innovation and Design team out front first. Putting the Innovation and design team out first “triggers the immune system of the organization” as the team is so different from the other sections of the company. He explains why he had the innovation and design team behind the scenes when working with staff members.

Chris and I talk about the subtle dance of support and help, along with people being able to tell their story with their voice for the staff to have a say and a stake in the process of development in the design innovation realm.

We’ll also dig into his projet, Hopelab which is a social innovation lab focused on designing science-based technologies to improve the health and well-being of teens and young adults.

Learn More About Today's Guest

Chris McCarthy on LinkedIn Hopelab.org ILN.org mccarthychris.com

In This Episode

[01:58] We hear about Chris’s background, and how his experience in business and marketing helped to lead him to where he is today.[03:14] The precursor to human centered design.[04:54] Iconic IDO Shopping Cart video in 1999.[06:30] Chris and Christi Zuber start running design projects and the company grows.[09:21] The list of what “not to-do” when running a business inside of healthcare.[16:58] Humility is a large factor in design thinking.[18:48] Different types of designers and their success in implementing new design thinking models.[20:44] The convergence in the field of design thinking and the importance of being mission driven.[21:14] We hear Chris’s response to the setting of new, young hires in design thinking.[26:20] Chris lists the necessary, mandated rules of sharing information within the medical field.[28:09] Chris talks about the procedures within the team of Kaiser Permanente during the early years.[30:12] Working within co-opting the different constraints of healthcare.[38:53] Dawan and Chris talk about working with students at Hopelab and furthering health. and mental well-being for students.[46:58] Good, better and best research methods for design thinking.[51:22] Starting up and running the Innovation Learning Network.[56:42] The challenges different industries are facing.[61:03] Where can people learn more about Chris and his work.

Links and Resources

Design Thinking at Work The Reflective Practitioner by Donald Schon Innovation with Information Technologies in Healthcare Automating Humanity The Signals Are Talking The Necessity of Strangers The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation. ReWork Accelerating Innovation Through Coopetition Kaiser Permanente’s Innovation on the Front Lines