In this episode, Jaymes Hanna talks about how education technology continues to evolve, especially during the pandemic, and how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is designing education to meet people where they are. He also discusses the challenges of change management and how they are attempting to overcome them.

Jaymes Hanna is the senior program officer of Market Dynamics at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His work focuses on improving the design awareness and adoption of evidence-based programs, products, and services that support teachers and increase student success, including the use of human-centered design. Previously, Jaymes held roles with Leap Innovations and was the manager of Monitor Deloitte strategy console.

1:03 Jaymes' quest to find solutions to real-world problems.

2:47 What piqued his interest in human-centered design.

4:54 His role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the primary focus of the K12 team.

6:06 The ideal role of technology in education.

11:42 How they involve stakeholders and school leaders in achieving a common goal.

14:59 Scalability to meet more people where they are.

18:25 Human-centered design's role in shaping the future of education

21:22 Considerations for designing education.

25:22 Establishing reasonable and respectful expectations regarding the locus of control and the willingness to change.

32:28 Education, design, and technology’s bright future.

Ten Types of Innovation

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In this episode, Adha Menghis discusses how his journey from teaching young people to developing a love and passion for design and innovation began.

Adha currently serves as the project director for community and design at Digital Promise, where he designs learning experiences for educators rooted in equity and metacognition. He is passionate about excellent pedagogy and supporting people to realize their innate potential.

Adha talks about how digital learning has evolved in the last decade and how Digital Promise works with students, teachers, and communities to close the achievement gap and foster opportunities for lifelong learning.

1:02 How Adha's experience as a teacher sparked his interest in educational design and human-centered design.

3:23 People who influenced Adha's designer mindset.

5:28 About his role at Digital Promise and its mission of closing the digital learning gap.

10:00 I'm also curious, you know, as you think about the broader design field, and what ways do you think the broader field could maybe better address designing for equity as well?

12:26 Collaborating with students, educators, and communities.

14:36 Creating a level playing field for everyone through experiences and activities.

17:18 How they promote student co-leadership.

19:46 Working together with system leaders to integrate the human-centered design with sizable, already-existing systems

22:26 The contribution of design to societal transformation

26:37 A valuable piece of advice he received.

28:19 Digital Promise’s series of products and services for lifelong learning.

21:34 The future of design, education, and technology.

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Digital Promise website

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Digital Promise on LinkedIn

Digital Promise on Youtube

Center for Inclusive Innovation

Verizon Innovative Learning Schools

In this episode, Dr. Ijeoma Azodo, talks about her inspiration for transitioning from surgery to digital innovation and design for healthcare, as well as how NHS Education Scotland develops new projects to help improve the healthcare ecosystem.

Dr. Azodo, brings together service and systems design with her expertise in surgical care, health research, and patient-centered outcomes to build digital healthcare experiences.

Dr. Azodo is the Associate Director of Service Design at NHS Education Scotland technology service, an honorary clinical tutor with the Surgical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, and a council member in the Faculty of Clinical Informatics.

1:03 Dr. Azodo's inspiration for shifting her focus from surgery to digital innovation and design for healthcare

2:32 How her work influenced her learning and understanding of design, innovation, and  technology and their roles in healthcare

4:41 The role of technology in the healthcare ecosystem of NHS Scotland

8:06 The NES Technology Design team and Dr. Azodo’s responsibilities as the associate director

13:26 Essential skill sets in their line of work

14:34 The advantage of working in the NHS to the work that they do.

16:07 Fundamental shifts in patient-provider relationships

18:04 Her perspective on the trajectory of digital innovation in the healthcare space.

23:05 Developing design and technology principles centered on behavior change and equity for all patients.

25:10 The impact of design, research, and technology on the healthcare system.

29:42 How healthcare has evolved in terms of innovation throughout her career.

31:42 The future of healthcare

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In this episode, we talk about Loving Day, a holiday Ken Tanabe, created as a design-driven social change project that commemorates Loving versus Virginia, the 1967 US Supreme Court decision that struck down laws against interracial marriage. Ken talks about how he conceptualizes Loving Day Celebration, what they’re trying to achieve and how they are cultivating the Loving Day community.

Ken is a versatile creative leader with extensive design experience and a strong interest in balancing audiences and information. Professionally, he is a design leader who has worked for and with Fortune 50 companies and cultural institutions in industries such as technology, finance, health and wellness, and entertainment, among others. He was an award-winning adjunct design professor for 16 years and has given public speeches in over 90 venues.

1:18 The story of the couple behind the Loving Day celebration.

2:51 Loving Day’s focus and mission.

4:18 Why Ken chose Loving Day for his thesis in grad school.

6:05 The initial design process.

9:29 Reflecting the community in an authentic way.

11:29 How he’s cultivating the Loving Day community.

18:16 The trajectory of Loving Day.

24:48 How a loving day shaped Ken as a designer.

Loving day website

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Jennifer Gaze is a director at High Alpha Innovation, where she partners with global leading organizations to launch new ventures and build venture studios.

Prior to High Alpha, she led innovation teams at Wilson Sonsini and Mercedes Benz and advised leading corporations on issues of strategy and growth at the consulting firm, Innosight. She also serves as a startup advisor and investor with a focus on female-led ventures.

In this episode of the Optimistic Design podcast, Jennifer shares what she learned about the job’s framework that ultimately changed how she sees the world, as well as the skills she learned in her formative experience in big corporate companies that shaped her approach to partnering with venture teams.

Jennifer also discusses High Alpha Innovation's mission and her role as director, along with some actionable steps that organizational leaders can take to promote corporate creative innovation, and a whole lot more.

0:45 How Prof. Clayton Christensen’s Theory of Jobs To Be Done changed how Jennifer sees the world.

2:23 Jennifer's other roles at the intersection of innovation and technology that influenced how she approaches design innovation.

3:59 The many hats that Jennifer wears as the director of the startup company, High Alpha Innovations.

6:38 What the venture studio business model is and why do you need one.

8:32 Key components of the venture ecosystem.

10:09 High Alpha Innovation’s mission to launch 100 startups in five years.

12:12 Three categories of innovation and the different tools that you can use to achieve these types of innovation.

16:21 Some actionable steps organizational leaders can take to promote corporate creative innovation.

19:52 Important factors to consider when deciding whether to build this venture within the main organization or as a completely separate external entity.

22:09 Bringing everyone’s distinct perspective and diverse approach to solve problems and innovate.

23:25 The most important set of skills and mindset she brings to the table.

27:26 Key pieces of advice for those looking to innovate and get things done.

29:09 The design and innovation trajectory appears to be happening and trending towards a more inclusive ecosystem and massive underserved markets.

Jennifer Gaze on LinkedIn

High Alpha Innovation website

High Alpha Innovation on LinkedIn

High Alpha Innovation on Twitter

High Alpha Innovation on Facebook

Beth Kolko is the co-founder and former CEO of Shift Labs, a for-profit company building low-cost medical devices for emerging markets leveraging global innovation networks. She has been the Director of Innovation at the Makerbot Foundation (2013), a Fulbright professor at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2000), a Visiting Faculty Researcher at Microsoft Research (2007), and a Fellow (2007-2009) and Faculty Associate (2009-present) at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

Beth began her career as a professor in the humanities, studying how diverse communities used a then text-based internet to organize and enact change. Her current work focuses on the potential of non-experts to create disruptive solutions.

In this episode of the Optimistic Design podcast, Beth shares how she became interested in human-centered design and why her initial research took her towards helping people become functional engineers and solve problems in their own communities. She discusses the experiences and organizations that have shaped her approach to design and technology, including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Beth discusses the strong connective thread of providing the impact that runs through all of the work she has done. She highlights why she felt she should stop critiquing the way technology was designed and the ways in which it was exclusionary and instead make the leap into creating better, more human-centered products. We also dive into the venture capitalism aspect of Beth’s work, and she lists some of the information she likes Start-Up founders to present to her when discussing funding.

In this Episode

02:30 How issues of gender, race, and technology usage patterns brought Beth to human-centered design as an approach

06:02 Why Beth founded Shift Labs in 2012, what their mission is, how it led to the development of life-changing technologies for low-income communities

09:20 How human-centered design shaped Beth’s approach to the operational side of the business as Shift Lab’s founder

13:46 Beth’s experience as a venture capitalist with both the Pioneer Fund and Pack Ventures and the journey of moving from founder to venture capitalist

19:38 The community focus of Beth’s business including mentoring Start-Up founders and why she is so passionate also about diversifying who has access to building a successful company

21:15 How human-centered design and equity centered design align to shape the kind of  venture capitalist she is

35:12  How remote working has facilitated diversifying the design space over the last two years and accelerated innovation

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Katie Silvers is the Director of Design and UX at Salesforce and is an expert in aligning business needs and communication with core leadership. Before joining Salesforce, Katie was a manager of Corporate Strategy and Innovation at the Arielle X Group and LexisNexis. She specializes in Design Thinking tools and Agile methodologies and believes product and process innovation is an indispensable element in business growth. Katie leads an international design and research team responsible for creating productivity and efficiency tools for the internal sales organization.

This week on the Optimistic Design podcast, Katie joins us to give her perspective on the role of design lead innovation in technology as an industry as a whole. She shares the non-tradition route she took into the design world and how her current role at Salesforce works to drive collaboration between designers and developers. We also dig into Katie’s actionable advice for other leaders scaling design and innovation teams in large organizations, particularly in today’s economic climate.

“The customer is at the center — whether it's an internal customer or an external customer, they're always top of mind.” - Katie Silvers

“I'm optimistic about the fact that people are taking design seriously. People always knew it was part of the process but never saw it as a key piece” - Katie Silvers

03:03 What influenced Katie’s approach to design and innovation at the start of her career

05:38 What characterizes Salesforce’s approach to design lead innovation

09:49 The relationship between incubation of ideas and design technology

13:29 Katie’s thoughts on what is so unique about working with an in-house sales team

18:24 Salesforce is a CRM company with a long history of using data-driven insights and analytics, so Katie describes how that history influences her team’s approach to their work

19:29 How Salesforce has evolved as a designer and research organization and what is coming next for the company

21:43 How design innovation can scale and grow within a large organization like Salesforce

27:01 Developments in the future of design and innovation that Katie is optimistic about

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Michelle Lee, Managing Director at IDEO, leads their Design for Play team. She has made it her mission to use the principles of play to create impactful products for a diverse range of industries, from healthcare to food and beverage. Michelle is an award-winning designer driven by a desire to bring thoughtful solutions to fruition through user-centered design.

Before joining IDEO, designing toys at VTech and University Games fueled Michelle’s passion for play while lead product roles at thredUP and ShopWell ignited her spirit of entrepreneurship. Michelle firmly believes that the power of play enhances engagement, builds connections, helps us face challenging situations with enthusiasm, and stretches our abilities to new levels.

This week on the Optimistic Design podcast, I’m excited to welcome Michelle and hear her thoughts on the importance of play as adults. Michelle dives into the concept of designing for joy and how it intersects with the overall need for functionality. We discuss how to appeal to emotional needs through design and thereby ensure longer-term engagement. Michelle also shares the scientific evidence that backs the importance of play and some examples of play as a human experience that have been personally impactful for her.

“Our mission is to empower the world through play. We believe that it's important to apply play principles across different industries, in a way that we can utilize the power of play, to spark curiosity, to deepen connections, to encourage creativity, and to help people really find meaning in the world.” - Michelle Lee

“As designers, we can see that play gives us the confidence to tackle challenges, to see beyond our assumptions and what we think is reality, to start imagining a different future.” - Michelle Lee

04:30 Michelle shares the mission of IDEOS Play Lab and the talents of the team she leads

07:03 What is most important for designers to consider when working at the intersection of design and play.

10:55 How the Play Lab team measure joy when prototyping and testing designs

12:19 The importance of sharing concepts through roleplay and other creative mechanisms.

15:27 How the design team has embedded their playful culture in a virtual environment over the last two years.

17:27 How play is now being used to tackle more complex issues, like sustainability, the circular economy, and mental health.

18:53 How Michelle’s team thinks about play in different contexts and environments.

21:27 Ways in which designing for play have evolved since Michelle started working in the space.

23:29 Play as a part of self-care and Michelle’s advice for teams trying to incorporate a sense of play into the way they work and how they engage with one another.

27:39 How to learn more about play-centered design.

Michelle Lee on LinkedIn

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Todd Diemer is the User Research Lead at Khan Academy, the non-profit educational organization created in 2006 to provide free, world-class education for students nationally and internationally. He is a user researcher rooted in qualitative methods, which has rooted his career in mission-driven organizations, including the Peace Corps, Fitbit, and Khan Academy.

Todd's work focuses on user research efforts to help build empathy with and design for the students, teachers, district leaders, and parents who use Khan Academy. He is passionate about education through new media, a part-time photographer, and a full-time Christmas enthusiast.

In the inaugural episode of the second series of the Optimistic Design podcast, I talk to Todd about how he has taken the overarching vision of Khan Academy into account when leveraging his skills as a leader of user research.  We discuss what differentiates Khan Academy as an education technology company, why Todd’s work itself is at the intersection of both education and technology, and his background in both spaces.

Todd shares the advice that he would give to other researchers that are interested in working at the intersection of education, design, and technology. He discusses what he feels is most important to consider when designing for this unique space. We also dive into how Todd’s experience of being part of the Peace Corps in West Africa and why their user-centered design approach still has such an impact on Todd today.

“A lot of my personal joy comes from helping us focus in, and get a better sense of where we can really have the most impact” - Todd Diemer.

“It's really important for anyone who's interested in education, design, and technology and research to get to know teachers and students and classrooms today.” - Todd Diemer.

01:44 How Todd became interested in user research and why his time in The Gambia compounded his fascination with how people use technology.

02:59 Who influenced and inspired how Todd approaches his work today.

07:11 The role of the researcher and the responsibility they have to contribute to and collaborate with product teams when working on projects.

12:46 Khan Academy is an organization that aims to support students nationally and globally, and how Todd thinks about designing for education technology on that scale.

21:25 What equity-centered design means to Todd as a researcher.

23:54 How the design research field is evolving, and Todd’s thoughts on the direction it should take.

27:42 Skill sets that are most important for aspiring new user researchers.

29:41 The best research advice that anyone gave Todd.

Todd Diemer on LinkedIn

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Over the last nine years, Jennifer McFadden has played an integral part in developing and fostering an entrepreneurial culture across Yale University.

On the show, we dive into the net of who is an entrepreneur and who has the opportunity to become one. Jennifer explains why she feels that we all have a responsibility to think wisely about our organizations, why we're building them, who we include, how we reward them, and why she’s optimistic that these changes are coming. We also zoom in on the role of design and design research and how Jennifer advises that new founders approach it when preparing to launch their new business.

Jennifer serves as an advisor to the Yale Landscape Lab on Yale’s West Campus, which supports synergistic projects in health science, entrepreneurship, and more, and connects over 20 professional schools, departments, organizations, and student groups across Yale. She also launched the Women Entrepreneurs at Yale (WE@Yale) Initiative and is a co-founder and advisor at Skillcrush, an online education company that focuses on teaching women technical skills. Prior to joining Yale SOM, Jennifer worked in media and tech. She was an adjunct professor at the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York, where she also conducted research at the intersection of media, tech, and entrepreneurship and worked with start-ups in the news space.

“You try to give as much as you can get, and so my perspective on all that is, you know, regardless of the industry in which someone operates, they always have something to offer.” - Jennifer McFadden

“It's equally as important to pull people through the process of just exploring what it's like to find a problem, to find people who have that problem, to talk to them, to figure out how you can solve that problem and to put something out into the world.” - Jennifer McFadden

05:25 How Jennifer pivoted to her current role working with founders

10:09 The most significant challenges new founders face 

12:21 Skillsets that new founders often undervalue 

16:37 Trends in the types of problems that founders are trying to solve today vs when Jennifer first started in her role as an adviser to entrepreneurs

20:31 How Jennifer is approaching her mentoring responsibilities in a virtual environment

25:19 Why she launched WE@Yale Initiative for women innovators, and its goals going forward

34:31 What Jennifer advises founders who have just received their first set of truly terrible feedback do to get back on track

37:30 How Jennifer’s approach to working with founders has evolved over the last decade

42:23 Jennifer’s reflections on the future of entrepreneurship as an industry and how it's taught at universities

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Skillcrush website

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