What Others are saying
Here is the latest buzz on “design thinking” and related topics from sources we trust. Enjoy!
Listen to Steve on the Product Quest podcast
July 23, 2024, 4:10 pm – I enjoyed speaking with Yann Wermuth, Jonathan Edwards, and Scott Burleson on their Product Quest podcast. We talked about How to go into an interview with someone you know you disagree How to keep a conversation going without tripping up How to c... [ Read the full story ... ]
Navigating the Challenges of Research Impact Tracking
July 18, 2024, 8:51 pm – Researchers across all industries have endured periods in which their business value was questioned. In industry terms, research is a cost center, so throughout economic downturns, research has often felt the brunt of company downsizings. This hel... [ Read the full story ... ]
Listen to Steve on the Making Things That Matter podcast
July 11, 2024, 5:30 pm – Thanks to Andrew Skotzko for a fun conversation on the Making Things That Matter podcast where we talked about improving your user research process. Our 75-minute conversation is on the episode page, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. You can f... [ Read the full story ... ]
Save 20% on Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries
July 10, 2024, 2:52 pm – Save 20% on my book Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries through the Rosenfeld Media summer sale, through July 15. This book of stories from other researchers examines the bizarre, comic, tragic, and generally astonishing experiences that researc... [ Read the full story ... ]
Listen to Steve on the Product Thinking podcast
July 9, 2024, 4:13 pm – Thanks to Melissa Perri for having me on the Product Thinking Podcast to discuss of the second edition of Interviewing Users. Our one-hour conversation is on the episode page, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. You can find a transcript on this... [ Read the full story ... ]
Why Technology Alone Can’t Solve Problems: The Importance of Human-Centred Design
July 4, 2024, 2:54 am – In an era where technology is rapidly advancing, it is tempting to view it as a universal remedy for a myriad of challenges. However, while technology has immense potential, it cannot solve problems by itself. The effectiveness of technology as a ... [ Read the full story ... ]
3 Ways Boxing Has Made Me A Better Design Thinker
July 4, 2024, 2:54 am – What do Design Thinking and boxing have in common? Surprisingly, more than you might think. As an Experience designer who has been boxing recreationally for the past two and a half years, I have discovered surprising parallels between these seemin... [ Read the full story ... ]
Design Thinking: A Catalyst for Business Growth
July 4, 2024, 2:53 am – Running a business is widely recognized as challenging, with the average startup lasting only about five years. While starting a business might seem straightforward, maintaining it proves to be the true test, a reality faced even by large multinat... [ Read the full story ... ]
Dollars to Donuts: Tamara Hale of Splunk
July 3, 2024, 4:23 pm – This episode of Dollars to Donuts features my conversation with Tamara Hale, the Director of Product Experience – Research & Insights at Splunk. We talk about the long tail of impact, being an anthropologist of work, and having a creative practice... [ Read the full story ... ]
Dollars to Donuts: Vanessa Arango Garcia of Delivery Hero
June 25, 2024, 11:59 pm – In this latest episode of Dollars to Donuts, I talk with Vanessa Arango Garcia, Director UX Research & Research Operations at Delivery Hero. We discuss creating an engaged research community across a global organization, being accountable for impa... [ Read the full story ... ]
Dollars to Donuts: Sarah Gregory of Coinbase
June 19, 2024, 4:01 pm – This episode of Dollars to Donuts features my conversation with Sarah Gregory, Director of User Research for Consumer at Coinbase. We talk about research comms, archiving user research, and doing research that no one is yet asking for. Our email i... [ Read the full story ... ]
Check out Steve’s AMA with Rally about user research maturity
June 18, 2024, 3:18 pm – Thanks to Lauren Gibson and the team at Rally for having me on for an Ask Me Anything session about user research maturity. Here’s the top takeaways. Rally published a detailed recap here and the recording is here (and embedded below). The post Ch... [ Read the full story ... ]
Dollars to Donuts: Jamika Burge of Capital One
June 7, 2024, 4:44 pm – In this episode of Dollars to Donuts I speak with Jamika Burge, the head of research for Data and AI at Capital One. We talk about her journey through academia, discovering user research, and intersectionality. Doing good – for me, as a researcher... [ Read the full story ... ]
Listen to Steve on the UX podcast
June 5, 2024, 3:23 pm – It was great to chat with Per and James (again — 2015 is here, 2017 is here) for their legendary UX Podcast (in support of the second edition of Interviewing Users). Our 40-minute conversation is on the episode page (with transcript here) and embe... [ Read the full story ... ]
I Don't Post Here Any Longer. But There is Some Old Stuff You Might Like
April 20, 2024, 5:08 pm – Dear Readers, I stopped blogging here actively about 10 years ago. If you are interested in my newer work, check out bobsutton.net, my posts on LinkedIn, and on X/Twitter. That said, there is still a lot of old stuff here... [ Read the full story ... ]
Letter from Simon Roberts, EPIC Board President
April 16, 2024, 1:40 am – Dear EPIC Community: In this momentous 20th year of EPIC, I want to take a moment to recognize what our members have achieved and invite you to be part of our future. Our community-driven, nonprofit organization has been grown and sustained by peo... [ Read the full story ... ]
在Mozilla开展混合研究以振兴开源
March 15, 2024, 4:04 pm – 本文是一篇关于Mozilla这个开源浏览器公司如何重新建立“在开放中协作”来恢复其竞争优势的案例分享. The post 在Mozilla开展混合研究以振兴开源 appeared first on EPIC. [ Read the full story ... ]
Meet EPIC2024 Co-chair Carrie Yury!
March 13, 2024, 9:05 pm – Meet Carrie Yury (she/her), a design leader, artist, and dedicated EPIC member since 2011. Carrie has co-chaired EPIC conference committees, including PechaKucha, salons, and workshops, and presented fantastic work of her own. Carrie is currently ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Meet EPIC2024 Co-chair Lee Cesafsky!
March 5, 2024, 10:52 pm – Lee (they/them) is a UX Researcher who has been part of the EPIC family since 2017. They specialize in complex technologies and AI/ML-driven products and work systems, having worked on AR/VR for Meta, autonomous vehicles for Waymo and Renault-Niss... [ Read the full story ... ]
Grounded Models: The Future of Sensemaking in a World of Generative AI
January 9, 2024, 7:23 pm – The promise of generative AI technologies is seductive to product leaders: frictionless research in which synthetic data can be both generated and analysed via a simple end-to-end UI, enabling teams to speed up research timelines and reduce costs.... [ Read the full story ... ]
A Critical Moment for Global Change: Ethnographers Acting on Climate and Sustainability
January 9, 2024, 4:10 pm – Ethnography has grown, like many other industries, in tandem with a fossil fuel economy. As evidence of weather, resource and species disruption surround us on a daily basis, the climate sessions provided guideposts and practical resources to adju... [ Read the full story ... ]
Deciding How to Decide with Research
January 9, 2024, 3:35 pm – Researchers can play a key role in decision making for teams—and knowing how and when to do so in your organizational environment is essential to making an impact. Researchers can provide options, marshal evidence towards options that are ideal, a... [ Read the full story ... ]
A Personal Research Project that Turned into My Life’s Work
January 9, 2024, 4:10 am – My journey to becoming a social impact founder that started with a simple research question: “Why didn’t we see college educated refugees (who generally don’t have the right to work in their host countries) work on remote work platforms like Upwor... [ Read the full story ... ]
Friction as Sneaky Power
January 9, 2024, 4:08 am – Friction frequently presents as a mere by-product of daily life, the innocent outcome of inefficiency or ambivalence. But it can also be employed to powerful ends, and with intent—by individuals, organizations, corporations and governments. The wo... [ Read the full story ... ]
Test post
December 21, 2023, 2:56 pm – baljacklckaslkas as das dasd The post Test post first appeared on Aalto Design Factory. [ Read the full story ... ]
ESC and Design Sojourn’s Innovating for Sustainability Programme Offers Grant Support for Singaporean Companies
September 5, 2023, 7:00 am – ESC, the leading sustainability consultancy in Asia, and Design Sojourn, a renowned design thinking and innovation consultancy, have partnered to launch the Innovating for Sustainability Programme (ISP). This new programme aims to help Singaporean... [ Read the full story ... ]
Fintech uses Design but not in the way it should
November 9, 2022, 2:17 pm – I was honoured to be invited last Friday (4th Nov 2022) to speak at the Singapore Fintech Festival’s Talent Pavilion organised by our partner WSG (Workforce Singapore). I shared why Fintech needs Design. But before I get into that, let me share ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Recyclable materials
September 29, 2022, 11:17 am – [ Read the full story ... ]
Key phenomenon
September 29, 2022, 11:11 am – [ Read the full story ... ]
Lens International Design Conference 2022 Keynote: Redesigning Design
August 10, 2022, 2:43 pm – I am honoured to be invited by Shih Chien University College of Design to give a keynote speech during their Lens International Design Conference 2022 on January 7th 2022. In the conference The Lens, design is interpreted as a multi-perspective ... [ Read the full story ... ]
What do designers and canaries have in common?
March 28, 2022, 10:07 am – Point of View by Vikki Eriksson, Postdoctoral researcher, Aalto Design Factory Sensitive to emerging changes, the first one to respond to early signs of trouble in the operational environment, with a vital role for the survival of the whole organi... [ Read the full story ... ]
Can we measure with facial expression analysis, how well does a designer understand a user?
February 18, 2022, 8:06 am – What did we study? A key element of product development is understanding the user. In design interviews, the designer tries to understand what the user thinks and feels, and what are their needs.Correctly identifying these needs helps to create us... [ Read the full story ... ]
Together we stand – joining forces to advance the industry as a whole
December 17, 2021, 9:32 am – Operating in the same market does not always make competitors. Despite the alcoholic beverages industry being heavily restricted by laws and regulations, it is also an industry with a lot of cooperation going on between different players. Especial... [ Read the full story ... ]
Saving the ‘little ones’ & our oceans
December 17, 2021, 9:23 am – Cabbage farmers with passion to innovate and work with various projects involving farming, nature, bees and handcraft, Sugar Daddies Co. based in Iso-Kyrö is a good case where linked missions influence business actions, strategy and decision makin... [ Read the full story ... ]
From business chemistry to perfecting food chemistry
December 16, 2021, 12:06 pm – Collaboration and co-creation between companies can spark new ideas, products and ways forward. Restaurants and their chefs have been one of the most active development collaborators of packaged food and beverage entrepreneurs, testing products as... [ Read the full story ... ]
Co-creating with bartenders
December 16, 2021, 12:01 pm – Already familiar with utilizing the expertise of bartenders in their earlier products, Kyrö Distillery Company decided to utilize the expertise of international bartenders in developing their bitters. After choosing seven bartenders as co-develope... [ Read the full story ... ]
Learnings from collaboration in times of calm & crisis
December 16, 2021, 10:57 am – Within 72 entrepreneur interviews, 37 DesignBites case companies reported 606 interactions with stakeholders outside of their company when describing their development efforts – we’ve analyzed what these reflect on during-crisis collaboration. In ... [ Read the full story ... ]
How to Work From Home as a Designer
October 22, 2021, 10:15 am – If you have been working from home the past year or so, you are not alone! As you know, since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted, remote working has started to become a norm (due to safe management measures to mitigate the risk of wide-spreading...... [ Read the full story ... ]
We are looking for Junior Experience Designers! (Closed)
August 17, 2021, 11:32 am – The hiring for this position is now officially closed! Design Sojourn is a Design Led Innovation Consultancy that loves to inspire, impact and create better lives. We are currently looking for smart, dynamic, self-motivated Junior Experience D... [ Read the full story ... ]
We are Hiring Experience Designers and Design Thinkers (Closed!)
December 16, 2020, 3:29 am – Design Sojourn is a proven Design Led Innovation Consultancy passionate in radically transforming lives. We are growing our team in 2021! The post We are Hiring Experience Designers and Design Thinkers (Closed!) appeared first on Design Sojourn. ... [ Read the full story ... ]
The creative ceiling
November 8, 2020, 11:33 am – There is a funny phenomenon that occurs in your creative career that no one really tells you or forewarns you about. It isn’t entirely explicit, although, perhaps I didn’t see what was always hanging above me until my focus gazed upwards from my n... [ Read the full story ... ]
izanami
October 10, 2020, 1:44 pm – The shinto goddess of creation and death, and a fitting representation to what feels like the death and re-birth of this blog. After many months (years??) of deliberation I decided to reach into the ashes to nurture a fresh new set of writing wing... [ Read the full story ... ]
Designing Clarity 03 – Did Apple just Disrupt Healthcare?
October 8, 2020, 7:28 am – Did Apple just disrupt Healthcare? More specifically, Health Tech? I would say Healthcare is one of those industries ripe for innovation disruption. It is a mature industry lead by large slow-moving organisations, that have been around forever. ... [ Read the full story ... ]
TR18-001 | Bring Home Methods: Additions to the Bootcamp Bootleg | Julia von Thienen, Hanadi Traifeh, Christoph Meinel, Antje Schubotz, Maximilian Diez, Simon Krogmann, Ahmad Bourazan, Anne Radunski, Arne Boockmeyer, Ramin Gharib
December 23, 2018, 10:44 am – For years, the Bootcamp Bootleg (d.school, 2010) has been a valuable toolkit to facilitate design thinking practice. The booklet shares methods for five process phases, or modes, in creative work. Teams are guided up to a point where they hold suc... [ Read the full story ... ]
Your strategy needs a minimum viable experience
April 15, 2018, 1:40 pm – Let’s all play a game of buzzword bingo. But instead, let’s name those words that denote practices which pragmatically improve our understanding of how we work, without resulting in confused shrugs. I’ll start: The ubiquitous MVP (minimum viable p... [ Read the full story ... ]
TR17-002 | Success-Failure Analysis: A Tool for Advancing Domain Knowledge - Design Thinking Style | Julia von Thienen, Anja Perlich, Christoph Meinel, Giovanni Corazza
August 28, 2017, 1:08 pm – Drawing on the Dynamic Creativity Framework and Failure Theory, this paper explores what it means to advance domain knowledge with creative ambitions. Failures are analysed as an extraordinary resource in the search for radical innovation. Success... [ Read the full story ... ]
Are you a designer, or just a facilitator?
August 27, 2017, 1:37 am – A few weeks back I was standing in a room facilitating a large ideation workshop. Mid-session I found myself thinking, I am not sure if I enjoy this. Walking out of that workshop, I told myself that I entered into the design field to become… Read ... [ Read the full story ... ]
TR17-001 | A Short Theory of Failure | Julia von Thienen, Christoph Meinel, Giovanni Corazza
July 25, 2017, 7:16 am – Failures are a key concept in design thinking. They are discussed as a resource for learning, whereas fear of failure would be a major block to creative activity. We attempt to clarify the term by reconstructing “failures” as “inconclusive outcome... [ Read the full story ... ]
Culture eats innovation for breakfast
July 1, 2017, 3:18 pm – There are often times when I come to a sudden halt and find myself feeling stuck or unable to produce or execute work that I otherwise may feel confident and comfortable to complete. This happens to everyone at some point in their career, and more... [ Read the full story ... ]
The Asshole Survival Guide: My Latest Book
April 17, 2017, 4:19 pm – The No Asshole Rule was published 10 years ago. It focused on building civilized workplaces. Yet the most frequent question that it provoked were variations of "Help. I am dealing with an asshole (or a bunch of them), what do... [ Read the full story ... ]
TR15-002 | Manifesto: Design Thinking Becomes Foundational | Larry Leifer, Christoph Meinel
May 19, 2015, 10:33 am – With the integration of design thinking into engineering education, a missing link has been created between the science-focused, context-independent part of engineering and the human society-focused, context-dependent aspect. The latter area has l... [ Read the full story ... ]
TR15-001 | Building on a Stages of Change Model to Bring Home More Big Design Thinking Ideas | Julia von Thienen, Christoph Meinel
February 27, 2015, 9:30 am – Design Thinking is an approach to creating human-centered product or service innovations, based on a model of problem solving. Regularly, design thinking projects yield exciting visions for a better future. However, up to the present they often fa... [ Read the full story ... ]
The Dark Side of Scaling Up: Will You Want to Live in What You Build?
February 12, 2015, 11:21 pm – My Stanford colleague Huggy Rao and I devoted seven years to learning about what it takes to scale up excellence in organizations. We studied how leaders and teams build and identify pockets of goodness in organizations and spread such goodness... [ Read the full story ... ]
My Organizational Behavior Class: The Current Iteration
January 3, 2015, 7:13 pm – The first time I taught an introductory organizational behavior class was in 1980 or 1981. I was a second-year doctoral student in organizational psychology at The University of Michigan. I had no teaching experience (except for one guest lecture ... [ Read the full story ... ]
12 Books That Every Leader Should Read: Updated
December 17, 2014, 9:03 pm – I have been maintaining – and occasionally updating -- a list of “Books Every Leader Should Read” on this Work Matters blog since 2011. These are books that have taught me much about people, teams, and organizations -- while at... [ Read the full story ... ]
TR14-002 | A Design Thinking Process to Tackle Individual Life Problems (Created for Use in Behaviour Psychotherapy) | Julia von Thienen, Christoph Meinel
May 28, 2014, 7:13 am – The design thinking community has at its disposal a rich pool of teaching material to help students master the process of creative problem solving. We re-designed some of this material for use in a new context: behaviour psychotherapy. Here, patie... [ Read the full story ... ]
Random thoughts on the future and implications on corporations and universities
May 19, 2014, 3:26 am – I just got back from the Bay Area Maker Faire 2014. Looking at all of the cool maker stuff, the upcoming technologies and the startups pitching their next generation 3D printing robot drones has got me thinking about the future. I thought it wo... [ Read the full story ... ]
Random thoughts on the future and implications on corporations and universities
May 19, 2014, 3:26 am – I just got back from the Bay Area Maker Faire 2014. Looking at all of the cool maker stuff, the upcoming technologies and the startups pitching their next generation 3D printing robot drones has got me thinking about the future. I thought it wo... [ Read the full story ... ]
TR14-001 | Let’s Bring Home Even More Benefits from Design Thinking: Ideas for an Iterated Design Thinking Process Model | Julia von Thienen, Christoph Meinel
May 12, 2014, 7:39 am – Design thinking research has provided two good reasons for a revision of the design thinking process model. (a) Prototyping is now considered an important means for facilitating communication in all stages of the design thinking process. Therefore... [ Read the full story ... ]
Innovation Networks in Action: The Case Study of Intuit's Innovation Catalysts
May 2, 2014, 7:58 pm – I recently published a case study on the Innovation Catalysts. I was focusing on how creating a network for people to connect with upon completing innovation training can ensure the lasting impact of the training and ignite new opportunities to ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Innovation Networks in Action: The Case Study of Intuit's Innovation Catalysts
May 2, 2014, 7:58 pm – I recently published a case study on the Innovation Catalysts. I was focusing on how creating a network for people to connect with upon completing innovation training can ensure the lasting impact of the training and ignite new opportunities to ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Walt Disney and Brad Bird on Why They Want to Make Money
March 7, 2014, 12:06 am – I was exchanging emails with a colleague that used to be at the Stanford d.school and now works with schools. He menionted Brad Bird, which reminded my of an interview that Huggy Rao and I did with him in 2008... [ Read the full story ... ]
Why Big Teams Suck: Seven (Plus or Minus Two) Is the Magical Number Once Again
March 3, 2014, 5:28 pm – I also posted this piece over at LinkedIn this morning. It offers a simple lesson, but one that is often disregarded, and in turn undermines the team and organizational performance, creates dysfunctional conflict. and weakens social bonds. In 1957... [ Read the full story ... ]
The Writing Life And Scaling Up Excellence: You Are What You Do
December 27, 2013, 11:42 pm – A few years back, one of my closest friends at Stanford, Steve Barley, made a comment that I still think of often “If you are what you do, then I am a sociologist.” Steve was making a general point (drawn... [ Read the full story ... ]
Essentialism; It Will Make You Think and Might Even Make You Less Crazy
December 8, 2013, 3:08 pm – Greg McKeown's publisher sent me an advanced copy of his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. I said I would look at for a possible blurb (I don't do advanced praise for a lot of books, in part, because... [ Read the full story ... ]
Huggy Rao, Scaling, and Me: An Excellent, Exacting, and Eccentric Adventure
November 27, 2013, 5:16 pm – During the seven years that Huggy Rao and I worked on Scaling Up Excellence, we got involved in some pretty unusual situations – at least for two rather staid old professors. We did everything from working with a company that... [ Read the full story ... ]
Three Hallmarks of Good Performance Evaluations
November 24, 2013, 8:18 pm – Phyllis Korkki of the New York Times wrote a piece this Sunday for her Workstation column called Invasion of the Annual Reviews. It emphasizes the risks and downsides of annual reviews, and she quotes me quite a bit -- I... [ Read the full story ... ]
Creativity,Inc. by Pixar's Ed Catmull: One of the Best Business Books of All Time
November 22, 2013, 7:12 pm – Ed Catmull has been one of my favorite senior executives for a long time. I admired him from afar after reading about him in David Price's excellent The Pixar Touch. I admired him even more after talking to people at... [ Read the full story ... ]
Scaling Up Excellence: The Problem of More
October 9, 2013, 4:34 pm – This is reprinted from the Harvard Business Review site. A big thanks to Julia Kirby for the wonderful editing. Start talking about the challenge of “scaling” with people, and you’ll find the term gets used to mean a lot of... [ Read the full story ... ]
James G. March: Organizations aren't Rigid, They are Impressively Imaginative
October 7, 2013, 4:28 pm – Stanford's James G. March is arguably the most prestigious living organizational theorist. We are reading his 1981 classic paper "Footnotes to Organizational Change" for my scaling up excellence doctoral class. There is one paragraph in this paper... [ Read the full story ... ]
Back at HBR, the Joys of Writing, and Continuing the Scaling Conversation
October 5, 2013, 6:37 pm – Earlier in the week, I did my first post at HBR.org in over 2.5 years -- my last was in January 2011. I was pretty shocked that it had been so long -- my last post was about a story... [ Read the full story ... ]
TR13-002 | Jumpstarting Scrum with Design Thinking | Christophe Vetterli, Falk Übernickel, Walter Brenner, Thomas Kowark, Franziska Häger, Jens Krüger, Jürgen Müller, Hasso Plattner, Barbara Stortz, Vishal Sikkha
September 23, 2013, 9:25 am – Customers have become more demanding in terms of customization, speed, and involvement with the value proposition of today’s services and products. This means that in order to remain competitive, companies need to re-design their existing developm... [ Read the full story ... ]
F.M. Cornford's Complete Principle of the Dangerous Precedent
August 28, 2013, 9:51 pm – I was tried to get this out over Twitter, but breaking it into pieces ruins it. If you want to read one of the most spot on, timeless, and funny books about organizational politics, check out the F.M. Cornford's 1908... [ Read the full story ... ]
Scott Berkun's The Year Without Pants: Funny Title, Silly Cover, Seriously Well-Crafted Book
August 22, 2013, 6:43 pm – Several months back, Scott Berkun's publisher sent me an advanced copy of "The Year Without Pants" to read; it is a pretty silly title and as you can see, the cover is pretty wild too (I love it). Scott's last... [ Read the full story ... ]
Dysfunctional Competition, the Knowing-Doing Gap, and Sears Holdings
August 21, 2013, 9:56 pm – A compelling and instructive story on Sears Holdings appeared in BusinessWeek last month -- they own Sears stores, Kmart, Land's End and a host of other brands such as Craftsman tools, Kenmore appliances, and DieHard batteries. It is written by... [ Read the full story ... ]
Delta Airlines Shows How to Apologize
July 15, 2013, 4:30 pm – Please forgive my months of silence. I appreciate all the folks who have asked if I am OK (I am fine!) and who have urged me to start blogging again. You will start hearing more here about what I've been... [ Read the full story ... ]
Lessons from Leading the Innovation Catalysts
May 30, 2013, 6:15 pm – I have a fantastic job that I love. I know that I'm lucky, but I also have aligned my work to my strengths and passions. My current job is as the Leader of the Innovation Catalysts at Intuit. I've been a part of the Innovation Catalyst program he... [ Read the full story ... ]
Lessons from Leading the Innovation Catalysts
May 30, 2013, 6:15 pm – I have a fantastic job that I love. I know that I'm lucky, but I also have aligned my work to my strengths and passions. My current job is as the Leader of the Innovation Catalysts at Intuit. I've been a part of the Innovation Catalyst program he... [ Read the full story ... ]
TR13-001 | Design Thinking Research - Building Innovation Eco-Systems | Christoph Meinel, Larry Leifer
April 19, 2013, 6:44 am – This is the introductory chapter of the fourth volume “Design Thinking Research – Building Innovation Eco-Systems” edited by Hasso Plattner, Christoph Meinel, and Larry Leifer to be published in the series “Understanding Innovation” of the Springer. [ Read the full story ... ]
Beyond the PhD - advice for PhD students and grads who want to get into Industry
March 16, 2013, 9:53 pm – I recently spoke on a Panel at USC at their "Beyond the PhD" conference. I was struck by how academia hasn't really changed much in it's preparation of PhDs for the outside of academia (clearly, of course, USC recognized this, thus put on the con... [ Read the full story ... ]
Beyond the PhD - advice for PhD students and grads who want to get into Industry
March 16, 2013, 9:53 pm – I recently spoke on a Panel at USC at their "Beyond the PhD" conference. I was struck by how academia hasn't really changed much in it's preparation of PhDs for the outside of academia (clearly, of course, USC recognized this, thus put on the con... [ Read the full story ... ]
UX Influence & Innovation
March 16, 2013, 7:42 pm – UX Influence & Innovation from Wendy CastlemanA talk I recently gave at the Walmart Global UX Summit on Gaining influence as User Experience Professionals within corporations by empowering others with your tools. [ Read the full story ... ]
UX Influence & Innovation
March 16, 2013, 7:42 pm – UX Influence & Innovation from Wendy CastlemanA talk I recently gave at the Walmart Global UX Summit on Gaining influence as User Experience Professionals within corporations by empowering others with your tools. [ Read the full story ... ]
12 Books Every Leader Should Read:Updated
November 26, 2012, 9:13 pm – I first posted this in 2011, but I update it now and then. Note I have removed two from the list: Men and Women of the Corporation and Who Says that Elephants Can't Dance? They are both great books, but... [ Read the full story ... ]
Two talks I gave and haven't posted here...
April 27, 2012, 2:23 pm – These are two webinar format talks that I gave over the last 9 months that I neglected to post on my blog. Actually, I've been neglecting the blog completely for a while. Perhaps its time to revisit... Shift: 5 lessons for changing a corporate c... [ Read the full story ... ]
Two talks I gave and haven't posted here...
April 27, 2012, 2:23 pm – These are two webinar format talks that I gave over the last 9 months that I neglected to post on my blog. Actually, I've been neglecting the blog completely for a while. Perhaps its time to revisit... Shift: 5 lessons for changing a corporate c... [ Read the full story ... ]
TR12-001 | Design Thinking Research Report | Christoph Meinel, Larry Leifer
March 27, 2012, 6:40 am – This is the introductory chapter of the third volume “Design Thinking Research – Measuring Performance in Context” edited by Hasso Plattner, Christoph Meinel, and Larry Leifer to be published in the series “Understanding Innovation” of the Springer. [ Read the full story ... ]
Go through training to be your customer
June 28, 2011, 3:49 am – We all know that when we aren't our customer, we make design choices that often don't really resonate with the customer. This can be especially true if you are highly tech savvy and your customer is not. In some cases, we are designing for audie... [ Read the full story ... ]
Go through training to be your customer
June 28, 2011, 3:49 am – We all know that when we aren't our customer, we make design choices that often don't really resonate with the customer. This can be especially true if you are highly tech savvy and your customer is not. In some cases, we are designing for audie... [ Read the full story ... ]
Deep Customer Empathy Method: Be the solution
June 7, 2011, 10:08 pm – Want to understand the relationship between your customer and your product? Here's a method that might reveal some good insights. Use bodystorming with your customer and have them teach you. In this case, you play the role of your product. Ask ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Deep Customer Empathy Method: Be the solution
June 7, 2011, 10:08 pm – Want to understand the relationship between your customer and your product? Here's a method that might reveal some good insights. Use bodystorming with your customer and have them teach you. In this case, you play the role of your product. Ask ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Get first-hand experience with the task to understand the experience
September 23, 2010, 3:32 pm – I've worked with a lot of teams who have been trying to design a feature or product to help people with a particular task. Oddly, I often find that people on the team have not tried the task itself, either with their solution or with any other me... [ Read the full story ... ]
Get first-hand experience with the task to understand the experience
September 23, 2010, 3:32 pm – I've worked with a lot of teams who have been trying to design a feature or product to help people with a particular task. Oddly, I often find that people on the team have not tried the task itself, either with their solution or with any other me... [ Read the full story ... ]
AIGA D.Talk on The Rise of Service Design
September 17, 2010, 4:38 pm – Last night I attended a panel at AIGA on “The Rise of Service Design”. It was a packed room, reflecting the general interest in this topic. The session was moderated by Josh Levine (Great Monday) The panelists were: Chris McCarthy (... [ Read the full story ... ]
AIGA D.Talk on The Rise of Service Design
September 17, 2010, 4:38 pm – Last night I attended a panel at AIGA on “The Rise of Service Design”. It was a packed room, reflecting the general interest in this topic. The session was moderated by Josh Levine (Great Monday) The panelists were: Chris McCarthy (... [ Read the full story ... ]
Make your life an integral part of your customer's life
September 16, 2010, 8:32 pm – We all want our products and services to be important to our customers. So important that they are integral; the customers can't live without them! Since this is our aim, we need to really be intimate with that customer's life. Talking with them ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Make your life an integral part of your customer's life
September 16, 2010, 8:32 pm – We all want our products and services to be important to our customers. So important that they are integral; the customers can't live without them! Since this is our aim, we need to really be intimate with that customer's life. Talking with them ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Become the Customer for Deep Customer Empathy
September 15, 2010, 3:12 pm – About a year ago, I wanted to understand the big deal about Farmville... it seems that 1% of the world's population plays Farmville. I know that it leverages some of the key components of gaming that make it compelling (check out slide 8 on Byron ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Become the Customer for Deep Customer Empathy
September 15, 2010, 3:12 pm – About a year ago, I wanted to understand the big deal about Farmville... it seems that 1% of the world's population plays Farmville. I know that it leverages some of the key components of gaming that make it compelling (check out slide 8 on Byron ... [ Read the full story ... ]
101 Ways to get Deep Customer Empathy for Design Inspiration and Insights
September 13, 2010, 2:51 pm – Okay, so I'm not going to list all 101 right now. What I am going to do is start a series where I will be talking about these 101 ways. My goal is to write about at least 2 per week... but, before I start, I thought I'd lay some context:Why do y... [ Read the full story ... ]
101 Ways to get Deep Customer Empathy for Design Inspiration and Insights
September 13, 2010, 2:51 pm – Okay, so I'm not going to list all 101 right now. What I am going to do is start a series where I will be talking about these 101 ways. My goal is to write about at least 2 per week... but, before I start, I thought I'd lay some context:Why do y... [ Read the full story ... ]
Necessity as the mother of invention
August 20, 2010, 6:50 pm – I'm sure you've heard the Plato's phrase "Necessity is the Mother of Invention".. .A couple of weeks ago, I was introduced to someone who once again drove this home. His name is Matthew Browning. He's a nurse and founder of a really cool web a... [ Read the full story ... ]
Necessity as the mother of invention
August 20, 2010, 6:50 pm – I'm sure you've heard the Plato's phrase "Necessity is the Mother of Invention".. .A couple of weeks ago, I was introduced to someone who once again drove this home. His name is Matthew Browning. He's a nurse and founder of a really cool web a... [ Read the full story ... ]
Understand Your Customers' Minds
July 12, 2010, 2:40 pm – In some ways, this method isn't at all new. Yet, the video articulates it and the benefit so well... [ Read the full story ... ]
Understand Your Customers' Minds
July 12, 2010, 2:40 pm – In some ways, this method isn't at all new. Yet, the video articulates it and the benefit so well... [ Read the full story ... ]
iPad, Kindle and Paper - Reading Speeds and Immersion
July 2, 2010, 4:56 pm – Jakob Nielsen just released a study on iPad, Kindle, Paper and PC reading rates.I have issues with this study, but it's interesting. As a user of Paper Books, PCs, a Kindle, and an iPad, I can definitely say that I have some preferences. But, wh... [ Read the full story ... ]
iPad, Kindle and Paper - Reading Speeds and Immersion
July 2, 2010, 4:56 pm – Jakob Nielsen just released a study on iPad, Kindle, Paper and PC reading rates.I have issues with this study, but it's interesting. As a user of Paper Books, PCs, a Kindle, and an iPad, I can definitely say that I have some preferences. But, wh... [ Read the full story ... ]
Innovation Lessons from Visual Perception and Walks
June 9, 2010, 7:20 pm – I was just out on a walk at the lovely Shoreline park, just behind where I work. I was walking along, thinking about Innovation challenges, and passively observing the world go by.One of the things I noticed was the phenomenon of Motion Parallax.... [ Read the full story ... ]
Innovation Lessons from Visual Perception and Walks
June 9, 2010, 7:20 pm – I was just out on a walk at the lovely Shoreline park, just behind where I work. I was walking along, thinking about Innovation challenges, and passively observing the world go by.One of the things I noticed was the phenomenon of Motion Parallax.... [ Read the full story ... ]
Digging for innovation diamonds
June 2, 2010, 4:12 pm – This morning on NPR, I heard a story about Einstein’s brain. Bear with me, this is relevant to innovation…Apparently,Einstein’s brain was fairly normal, except that it had an overabundance of a type of cell called a Glial cell. When I was taught... [ Read the full story ... ]
Digging for innovation diamonds
June 2, 2010, 4:12 pm – This morning on NPR, I heard a story about Einstein’s brain. Bear with me, this is relevant to innovation…Apparently,Einstein’s brain was fairly normal, except that it had an overabundance of a type of cell called a Glial cell. When I was taught... [ Read the full story ... ]
Is your culture inhibiting your creativity?
May 26, 2010, 7:28 pm – I'm giving a talk tomorrow morning on the impact of working environment "culture" on creativity and capability to design great solutions. This is an update on the one that I gave a little over a year ago at the Design Research conference in Spoka... [ Read the full story ... ]
Is your culture inhibiting your creativity?
May 26, 2010, 7:28 pm – I'm giving a talk tomorrow morning on the impact of working environment "culture" on creativity and capability to design great solutions. This is an update on the one that I gave a little over a year ago at the Design Research conference in Spoka... [ Read the full story ... ]
Apparently, Nothing Trumps the Power of a Personal Experience
March 12, 2010, 12:06 am – A small group of executives was given a vast amount of data about a problem they were tackling about employee engagement. They looked it over and set it aside. Then, they had frank conversations with a couple of individual employees. They came aw... [ Read the full story ... ]
Apparently, Nothing Trumps the Power of a Personal Experience
March 12, 2010, 12:06 am – A small group of executives was given a vast amount of data about a problem they were tackling about employee engagement. They looked it over and set it aside. Then, they had frank conversations with a couple of individual employees. They came aw... [ Read the full story ... ]
Soaking rain of ideas in a brainstorm
February 23, 2010, 5:21 pm – I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on brainstorming. Sometimes brainstorms are wildly successful, and we come up with really new ways of approaching a problem/solution. Other times, it seems like brainstorms don't really generate much of any... [ Read the full story ... ]
Soaking rain of ideas in a brainstorm
February 23, 2010, 5:21 pm – I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on brainstorming. Sometimes brainstorms are wildly successful, and we come up with really new ways of approaching a problem/solution. Other times, it seems like brainstorms don't really generate much of any... [ Read the full story ... ]
Following Objects
February 12, 2010, 5:49 pm – When studying a new area, we often talk with and watch people doing whatever it is we're interested in. For example, if we were interested in Shopping, we might talk with people about their shopping habits, watch them shopping (maybe going with t... [ Read the full story ... ]
Following Objects
February 12, 2010, 5:49 pm – When studying a new area, we often talk with and watch people doing whatever it is we're interested in. For example, if we were interested in Shopping, we might talk with people about their shopping habits, watch them shopping (maybe going with t... [ Read the full story ... ]
Cool New Trend in Resumes
January 9, 2010, 8:57 pm – Looking for work? Got a resume? This is for you:Why be boring and staid like everyone else in the pile of resumes? Why not show your uniqueness, creativity and visual thinking design skills in creating a visual resume?One of my favorite blogs is ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Cool New Trend in Resumes
January 9, 2010, 8:57 pm – Looking for work? Got a resume? This is for you:Why be boring and staid like everyone else in the pile of resumes? Why not show your uniqueness, creativity and visual thinking design skills in creating a visual resume?One of my favorite blogs is ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Do I listen to what I say I do?
December 21, 2009, 8:55 pm – Anyone who studies behavior knows that what people say is not what they do. More evidence reported in the NY Times shows that what people report listening to isn't what they actually listen to. [ Read the full story ... ]
Do I listen to what I say I do?
December 21, 2009, 8:55 pm – Anyone who studies behavior knows that what people say is not what they do. More evidence reported in the NY Times shows that what people report listening to isn't what they actually listen to. [ Read the full story ... ]
Visualizing You.... leveraging the internet to break down your name
October 2, 2009, 4:02 pm – This shows 3 iterations of "Wendy Castleman". It is a pretty cool visualization from MIT:It combines all of the data on the internet related to your name and creates a "digital DNA map". It seems to change every time I do it... and it combines me... [ Read the full story ... ]
Visualizing You.... leveraging the internet to break down your name
October 2, 2009, 4:02 pm – This shows 3 iterations of "Wendy Castleman". It is a pretty cool visualization from MIT:It combines all of the data on the internet related to your name and creates a "digital DNA map". It seems to change every time I do it... and it combines me... [ Read the full story ... ]
Author: Jan Schmiedgen | Last modified: September 29, 2015