What Others are saying
Here is the latest buzz on “design thinking” and related topics from sources we trust. Enjoy!
Recyclable materials
September 29, 2022, 11:17 am – [ Read the full story ... ]
Key phenomenon
September 29, 2022, 11:11 am – [ Read the full story ... ]
Frontier Design Prize & Speech
September 24, 2022, 12:42 am – I received the Frontier Design Innovation award by the World Design Conference and the Shanghai Municipal Government. My acceptance talk is based on my book, Design for a Better World: Understandable, Sustainable, Humanity Centered (MIT Press, Mar... [ Read the full story ... ]
Ethnography for the AI Age: How to Get Started
September 18, 2022, 8:43 pm – By , and , ReD Associates To influence the development of artificial intelligence, ethnographers must build more partnerships and new kinds of outputs. Artificial intelligence (AI) has made huge strides recently in areas like natural language proc... [ Read the full story ... ]
FastCo honors two ID projects in 2022 Innovation by Design Awards
September 15, 2022, 2:10 pm – Every year for the past 11 years design publication Fast Company has honored the designers and businesses solving the most crucial problems of today and anticipating the pressing issues of tomorrow. This year, Fast Company has honored two student ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Resilient Customer Archetypes: How Research Teams Can Build an Enduring and Evolving Understanding of Users
September 11, 2022, 4:17 pm – by GILLIAN BOWAN, Atlassian Atlassian teams rely on a range of customer archetypes to empathize with customers, understand their problems, and design solutions that meet user needs. But what happens to these artifacts over time? Do they become ane... [ Read the full story ... ]
What’s Next versus What’s Valuable: Perspectives on the Value of Ethnography in a Future-Focused World
September 4, 2022, 9:01 pm – by & , IS IT A BIRD A framework for ethnography and futures work that expands our understanding of the nature of change Ethnographers operating in the future-focused context of business consultancy face a core challenge. Our approach is holistic a... [ Read the full story ... ]
User Research & Engineering: Better Together During Discovery
September 2, 2022, 9:28 pm – by & , Spotify When we think about the “Discovery” phase in the product development process, we often picture product owners, design, and researchers working to understand a problem area, the needs of end users in that area, and testing product id... [ Read the full story ... ]
Hysterical Health: Building Ethnographic Expertise for More Equitable Innovation
August 29, 2022, 10:08 pm – An EPIC Talk with LUCY NEILAND, DEANA KOTIGA & ANGUS GRANT, Ipsos November 11, 8–9:30am US Pacific Time (16:00–17:30 GMT) Free for EPIC Members Ethnographers challenge the centuries-long legacy of myth and misinformation about women’s bodies that ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Seeing the World at Scale and in Depth: A Journey with Big and Thick Data
August 18, 2022, 11:54 pm – by , Stripe Partners When I was studying economics at university one of our professors introduced us to Jorge Luis Borges’s “On Exactitude in Science”, a one-paragraph story. It imagines an empire so enthralled by cartography that larger and large... [ Read the full story ... ]
An Interview with Tiffany Tivasuradej
August 12, 2022, 4:53 pm – Tiffany Tivasuradej is a Senior Manager at CBRE and co-chair of the EPIC2022 PechaKucha Committee. Tell us about yourself in one sentence. Anthropologist that’s exploring the future of work for her work and baking a lot when she’s not at work. Why... [ Read the full story ... ]
Watch/read The Evolution of User Research: past, present and future with Steve Portigal
August 11, 2022, 3:44 pm – Kritika Oberoi and Looppanel did a great job editing down a long and discursive exchange into a few key takeaways. The full article is here. I offered my high-level take on the history of user research, especially in tech. Phase 1 – Research Consu... [ 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 ... ]
EPIC Member Meetup
August 8, 2022, 10:42 pm – Join our first virtual member meet-up! Thursday, 1 September, 8–9:00am US Pacific Time We're excited to hold our very first virtual member meet-up! Hosted by Jennifer Collier Jennings (Executive Director) and Simon Roberts (EPIC Board President)... [ Read the full story ... ]
An Interview with Robin Kwong
August 7, 2022, 10:44 pm – Robin Kwong is New Formats Editor at the Wall Street Journal in New York and a member of the EPIC2022 Case Studies Committee. Tell us a bit about yourself. I'm neither an ethnographer nor a researcher, but found my way to the EPIC community throug... [ Read the full story ... ]
An Interview with Kristen Guth
August 6, 2022, 2:59 pm – Kristen L. Guth is Principal of Product Research at Reddit. She is presenting a case study at EPIC2022 titled "Creating Resiliency of Research Findings: Using Ethnographic Methods to Combat Research Amnesia". Tell us about yourself in one sentence... [ Read the full story ... ]
An Interview with Romit Raj
August 4, 2022, 3:14 pm – Romit Raj is Principal at Quicksand Design Studio in India. He is presenting a paper at EPIC2022 titled "Amplifying Resilient Communities: Identifying Resilient Community Practices to Better Inform Health System Design". Tell us about yourself in ... [ Read the full story ... ]
An Interview with Payal Arora
August 3, 2022, 4:48 pm – Payal Arora is a Professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Co-founder of FemLab, and author of award-winning books, including ‘The Next Billion Users’ with Harvard Press. She is a Keynote Speaker at EPIC2022. Describe your keynote in less than 1... [ Read the full story ... ]
An Interview with Kurt Ward
August 3, 2022, 4:18 pm – Kurt Ward is Senior Design Director at Philips Healthcare. He is a Keynote Speaker at EPIC2022. Describe your keynote in less than 10 words. Mankind's irrational rationality and its impact on health and the environment. Without giving too much awa... [ Read the full story ... ]
An Interview with Kelsie Nabben
August 3, 2022, 2:48 pm – Kelsie Nabben is a Researcher at RMIT University in Australia. She is presenting a paper at EPIC2022 titled "Ethnography as a Feedback Loop: Designing Complex, Automated Systems". Tell us about yourself in one sentence. I research the social outco... [ Read the full story ... ]
An Interview with Traci Thomas
July 23, 2022, 6:52 pm – Traci Thomas is Principal Strategic Designer at Boston Consulting Group. She is presenting a PechaKucha at EPIC2022 called "Resilience: Lessons from a Period of Disruption." Tell us about yourself in one sentence. I’m a human-centered designer of ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Watch Steve present Stop Solving Problems! at CEDIM
July 21, 2022, 4:20 pm – I recently presented Stop Solving Problems! as part of the CEDIM Innovation Talk series. The 40 minute video is embedded below, and on YouTube here. The old maxim says we should “Find a need and fill it;” while at a one level that is certainly tru... [ Read the full story ... ]
Watch Steve on Good Morning UX
July 20, 2022, 4:08 pm – Thanks to Rafael Burity and Rodrigo Lemes for having me as a guest on Good Morning UX. The one-hour episode is embedded below and can also be found on the episode home page and YouTube. We usually have this life training to ask questions, but it d... [ Read the full story ... ]
Listen to Steve on The Informed Life
July 18, 2022, 5:56 pm – Thanks to Jorge Arango for a great conversation on The Informed Life podcast. The half-hour episode is embedded below, available at the podcast site, and wherever you get yer podcasts. The episode page also has a transcript. https://www.buzzsprout... [ Read the full story ... ]
Weslynne Ashton discusses food waste
July 12, 2022, 2:21 pm – Associate Professor Weslynne Ashton was featured on FOX32 Chicago (starts at 2:35 in video below): We need a lot of technology to engage consumers in the fight against food waste. Weslynne has a joint appointment at the Institute of Design and the... [ Read the full story ... ]
ID earns top recognition from Core77 in Social Impact
June 30, 2022, 5:10 pm – Core77 has announced the honorees of its eleventh annual Design Awards. The Institute of Design, home to the only US design school devoted completely to graduate students and the first to offer a PhD, has won and earned more honors than any other ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Institute of Design seeks next dean
June 30, 2022, 4:46 pm – The Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech) seeks an ambitious, entrepreneurial, and strategic leader to serve as the next dean of the Institute of Design (ID). Founded by László Moholy-Nagy as The New Bauhaus in 1937, ID is known for pio... [ Read the full story ... ]
The relevance of emotions
June 22, 2022, 9:04 pm – By Rodrigo Isasi (MDM 2013) ID alum Rodrigo Isasi (MDM 2013) was our 2022 Commencement Speaker. As the CEO of Delosi, Isasi is the first design-trained CEO in a non-design-driven company in Peru. Delosi is a leading restaurant franchise which oper... [ Read the full story ... ]
Jessica Meharry, PhD, Associate Professor, Columbia College Chicago
June 21, 2022, 8:33 pm – By Thaddeus Mast Jessica Meharry (PhD 2022) has argued that bias and power asymmetries plague human-centered design, an approach used industry-wide, and she’s working to promote an alternative “anti-oppressive design framework.” Meharry successful... [ Read the full story ... ]
Gauri Bhatt, Design Researcher, Round Feather
June 21, 2022, 3:39 pm – By Andrew Wyder It was through a book written by Institute of Design Professor Emeritus Vijay Kumar that Gauri Bhatt first learned about design methods, a turning point that led her to a passion for, and a career in, design research. During her gr... [ Read the full story ... ]
Steve presenting “Stop Solving Problems!” at CEDIM
June 6, 2022, 4:11 pm – I’ll be presenting Stop Solving Problems! as part of the CEDIM Innovation Talk series. This free talk will be online (via Zoom), on Thursday June 30th, at 6:30 CT. Register here. The post Steve presenting “Stop Solving Problems!” at CEDIM first ap... [ Read the full story ... ]
Yes, we can design it! But should we?
June 3, 2022, 9:56 pm – By Monica Villazon San Martin (MDes 2022) Monica Villazon San Martin (MDes 2022) spoke at May 14, 2022 Institute of Design (ID) Commencement Ceremony. Following is the transcript and video of her speech. Three weeks ago, during a job interview — o... [ Read the full story ... ]
Dummy Title 5
May 23, 2022, 12:56 pm – [ Read the full story ... ]
Dummy Title 4
May 23, 2022, 12:55 pm – [ Read the full story ... ]
Dummy Title 3
May 23, 2022, 12:55 pm – [ Read the full story ... ]
Dummy Title 2
May 23, 2022, 12:54 pm – [ Read the full story ... ]
Dummy Title 1
May 23, 2022, 12:54 pm – [ Read the full story ... ]
Pamela Mead, VP of Global Design at SumUp
May 16, 2022, 7:43 pm – Pamela Mead (MDes 1991) spent a decade designing with new technologies, developing projects at Yahoo!, Sony, and Palm. After working with several startups, she moved to Madrid in 2011 to join Telefonica I+D and build a customer-driven innovation p... [ Read the full story ... ]
Kat Reiser, Design Strategist at Booz Allen Hamilton
May 6, 2022, 7:22 pm – By Andrew Wyder Early in her time at the Institute of Design, Kat Reiser (MDM 2022) watched as her two worlds of design clashed. On one side was industrial design—the source of her undergraduate degree and the field in which she was working at the... [ Read the full story ... ]
We say we value innovation and creativity…but do we?
May 3, 2022, 6:23 pm – It shouldn’t be a big surprise to anyone reading this that the uncertainty of something new and innovative creates a feeling of risk, and can discourage the pursuit of a creative option. Some research from 2012 (The Bias Against Creativity: Why Pe... [ Read the full story ... ]
Taking a Stand for Ukraine
April 25, 2022, 6:39 pm – The Service Design Network has put together a small panel (6 people) of designers--two from Ukraine--to talk about what design might do for Ukraine. I am one of the six people: Here is my talk. [ 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 ... ]
Humanity-Centered versus Human-Centered Design
February 26, 2022, 10:24 pm – Human-Centered Design works well for mass-produced products and traditional products and services. But today, we owe our allegiance far beyond individual people -- we owe it to all humanity. [ Read the full story ... ]
Design for a Better World
February 26, 2022, 10:14 pm – Table of Contents of book manuscript: Design for a better world: How to create a meaningful, sustainable, and humanity-centered world. (MIT Press, early 2023) [ Read the full story ... ]
Almost Everything I See Is Artificial (book excerpt)
February 26, 2022, 10:02 pm – Almost Everything I see Is Artificial, and Almost Everything Artificial Has Been Designed. If it is design that got the world into its current mess, perhaps it is design than can get us out. [ 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 ... ]
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 ... ]
Watch Steve on The Service Design Show
June 3, 2021, 4:34 pm – Thanks to Marc Fonteijn for having me back on The Service Design Show. The one-hour episode is embedded below and can also be found on YouTube. Everything in service design starts with user research. But as you’ve probably experienced often it’s c... [ Read the full story ... ]
Listen to Steve on the Nodes of Design Podcast
May 24, 2021, 3:18 pm – Thanks to Ravi Tej for having me on the Nodes of Design podcast. The 35-minute episode is embedded below and can also be found on the podcast site. In this episode, Steve shared wonderful insights on user interviews and why we do user interviews i... [ Read the full story ... ]
Video of my Delta CX AMA
March 24, 2021, 4:42 pm – I recently did an Ask Me Anything session organized by Debbie Levitt of Delta CX. The video is now online. We went for about 75 minutes and talked about learning to balance all different pressures when leading an interview, encouraging teams to su... [ Read the full story ... ]
What you asked/What they heard
March 18, 2021, 7:44 pm – In this video from 2016, basketball player Taurean Prince, in a post-game press conference, responds to a question about the team’s rebound performance with an explanation of how rebounds work. I can’t tell from this clip if there’s an actual misc... [ Read the full story ... ]
How Garfield Helped Me Make Peace With a Culture in Decline
March 3, 2021, 5:20 pm – Randomized Garfield comic #12323 using Censored template, inspired by @CensoredGarf pic.twitter.com/bhxehVAEW3 — Garfield Randomized (@RandomizedGarf) December 22, 2020 pic.twitter.com/d0xId6tb5j — pipe garfield (@GarfieldPipe) February 2, 2021 I ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Listen to Steve on the Enterprise Product Leadership Podcast
February 24, 2021, 4:19 pm – https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/iotproductleadership/IOT_039.mp3 Thanks to Daniel Elizalde for having me on the Enterprise Product Leadership podcast to talk about user research, especially in enterprise and industrial organizations. The audio (... [ Read the full story ... ]
Frederick Wiseman on observing natural behavior
February 23, 2021, 11:11 pm – This wonderful profile of documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman confirms my own experience with this frequently-asked-question about user research. “There’s a whole issue as to whether the camera changes behavior — the pretentious way of talking... [ Read the full story ... ]
How William Gibson keeps an eye out for possible futures
February 11, 2021, 4:23 pm – From an interview with William Gibson last year for the Mother Jones podcast. You’ve always had an uncanny ability to write about technology that doesn’t exist or certainly isn’t widely known, but that then comes to the fore. Do you study cutting ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Check out Steve on the Brave UX podcast
February 10, 2021, 7:15 pm – I enjoyed the chance to speak with Brendan Jarvis for his Brave UX podcast. The 67-minute episode is embedded above, and is on YouTube. In this episode… How Steve’s adapted his practice in recent years, as a result of industry changes Why should r... [ Read the full story ... ]
Steve interviewed for “People of Research”
January 21, 2021, 4:11 pm – Thanks to Research Loop for interviewing me as part of their People of Research series. The interview is here, and I’ve reposted it below. Big thanks for accepting the invitation, Steve, a pleasure to have you on #PeopleOfResearch interview series... [ Read the full story ... ]
Lee the Puppet teaches you about body language over video conference
January 14, 2021, 4:58 pm – User researchers are continuing to experiment with and be challenged by remote research, especially around rapport and building empathy. For help, check out this charming 9-minute video from puppeteer and sci-fi author Mary Robinette Kowal about b... [ 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 ... ]
Check out my articles on “Great User Research For Non-Researchers”
December 15, 2020, 7:59 pm – I was honored to be invited to be part of User Research Explained – A Charity Collection Of Essays For Pandemic Relief (To Benefit Doctors Without Borders). My contribution is Great Research For Non-Researchers, presented in three parts Planning R... [ Read the full story ... ]
To create a better society: The 2020 MP Ranjan memorial lecture
November 20, 2020, 10:32 pm – The great spiritual and humanistic power of design has been lost in its current emphasis upon business and industry. Design can be much more powerful than that: Design is a way of thinking that can be applied to almost any issue, but most importan... [ 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 ... ]
Designing Clarity 02 – Maish Nichani – The Digitisation Tipping Point
September 21, 2020, 6:09 am – Finally, episode 2 of the Designing Clarity Podcast is here! Sorry, it took a while as there was a lot of editing required due to signal dropouts and tech failures. We hope to improve our workflow and get it more streamlined for the next one....... [ Read the full story ... ]
Listen to Steve on the Why UX? Podcast
September 10, 2020, 7:56 pm – http://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/forcedn/whyux/30Steve_Portigal.mp3 Thanks to Helena Levison (“Queen of UX”) for having me on the Why UX? podcast to talk about Doorbells, Danger, and Dead Batteries. The audio (28 min) is embedded above, and availa... [ Read the full story ... ]
Steve contributed to “Remote User Research: 12 Tips from Experts”
September 3, 2020, 5:06 pm – There’s a really good range of ideas and best practices in Remote User Research: 12 Tips from Experts. Mine is below 2. Set expectations for your participants If you’re carrying out remote research via video conferencing tools, it’s always a good ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Designing Clarity 01 – Alrick Dorett – Captaining Yourself and Your Ship
August 25, 2020, 2:04 pm – Bam! Here comes the real first episode. The famous military strategist Sun Tzu said: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you... [ Read the full story ... ]
Designing Clarity – A Podcast Series for Innovating and Designing Your New Normal
August 24, 2020, 2:28 am – I am very excited to share the launch of my first podcast series with you! My team and I have not blogged much this year. We could not figure out the best format to get our thoughts across to you. We are not even... The post Designing Clarity... [ Read the full story ... ]
The Future of Design Education
July 13, 2020, 9:22 pm – Does design education prepare designers to work with the multidisciplinary teams required for the complex issues of the 21st Century? Join us in rethinking design education. Help us find people who will provide diversity of age, gender, race, inte... [ Read the full story ... ]
21st Century Design (In 6 minutes)
May 13, 2020, 12:45 am – The 21s Century brings new challenges to design The implication? Design Education must change. [ Read the full story ... ]
"The universe is made of stories, not atoms"
March 19, 2020, 10:18 pm – A quote from the poet Muriel Rukeyzer's book "The speed of darkness." Why stories? Because they combine history and context, critical events and results, both good and bad, expected and unexpected all linked through causal explanations. Stories em... [ Read the full story ... ]
Recycling: A poor solution to the wrong problem: An essay in two parts
March 10, 2020, 12:26 am – A two-part essay: 1. why recycling is too complex for me (and perhaps everyone)to understand; 2. Why recycling is the wrong answer to the problem of waste. [ Read the full story ... ]
Changing Design Education for the 21st Century
March 10, 2020, 12:00 am – Updated: April 2, 2020. We recommend a procedure for updating design education through curricula that match their goals and abilities of every school, producing practitioner and academics who will fully realizing the value of design in the 21st ce... [ Read the full story ... ]
We are Hiring (2020)
January 28, 2020, 3:50 pm – Design Sojourn is an exciting strategic design consultancy passionate in helping our clients leverage on Design Led Innovation to make people's lives better. We have openings for Designers or Design Researchers with a strong background in Ethnogra... [ Read the full story ... ]
Why Designers don't have much power in companies
January 11, 2020, 7:43 pm – Every division of a company plays an essential role. Each has a different, valid perspective. To be successful, learn to balance the conflicting views and select a course that is best for the product, customer, and company, even if you must discar... [ Read the full story ... ]
The Design Thinking Process Paradox
November 4, 2019, 7:39 am – Designers or Design Thinkers often like to think that they require a certain level of “freedom” to allow their creativity to flourish. Indeed, the best ideas come when the mind is free from distractions: particularly in places like the shower or ... [ Read the full story ... ]
People-Centered (Not Tech-Driven) Design*
July 26, 2019, 10:25 pm – How did we reach the point where our technology is more important than people? How can we reverse this to ensure that technologies are designed with people in mind, more humane, more collaborative, and more beneficial to the needs of people, socie... [ Read the full story ... ]
The Four Fundamental Principles of Human-Centered Design and Application
July 23, 2019, 12:57 am – Human-centered design has four major principles: 1. Understand and Address the Core Problems; 2. Be People-Centered; 3. Use a Systems Approach; 4. Use Rapid Iterations of Prototyping and Testing. [ Read the full story ... ]
Why Criticism Is Good for Creativity
July 22, 2019, 12:53 am – A popular mantra for innovation is “avoid criticism.” Criticism, it is thought, kills the flow of creativity. We suggest that this infuses a superficial sense of collaboration that leads to compromises and weakens ideas. Effective teams do not def... [ 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 ... ]
Design generates growth here and now
December 10, 2015, 10:33 am – Far too many companies have a management approach that is too traditional to secure their long-term market value. Studies and think tanks from several countries point to strategic design as part of the answer, but many business leaders think that ... [ Read the full story ... ]
The design cluster aims to transform Denmark into an innovative society by means of design
December 9, 2015, 2:41 pm – In the design cluster D2i – Design to innovate, we are sharpening our focus with four new priority areas aimed at contributing to growth in Denmark. Our design cluster consists of companies, organisations and knowledge environments working togethe... [ 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 ... ]
Open lecture by Silvia Grimaldi
November 17, 2014, 2:04 pm – Tellable Objects: Designing Narrative Product Interactions On Wednesday 19 November designer, researcher and academic Silvia Grimaldi will visit Kolding and present a series of techniques and guidelines to help designers think of the product exper... [ Read the full story ... ]
How Strategic Use of Design Connects Business with People
October 28, 2014, 12:08 pm – Arne Jacobsen chairs, PH lamps and blue fluted china. These are classic examples of Danish design. But design is so much more. Design includes – when used strategically – top executives going on observation trips far from vision statements and Exc... [ Read the full story ... ]
An effective diet starts with a saliva sample
September 24, 2014, 9:39 am – A newly started company may sometimes find it a challenge to target its business – particularly when its product is intended for an extremely broad group. The Danish-owned start-up Diet and Genes found help in understanding market mechanisms at a ... [ Read the full story ... ]
Film: Isover – from product sale to project sale
September 23, 2014, 1:16 pm – Watch the film and see how Saint-Gobain Isover through application of design thinking developed their business model. The company learned through a design consultation with D2i how to apply design thinking so they could identify their customers ne... [ Read the full story ... ]
Film: Easyfood – when design-thinking causes less waste and more growth
September 23, 2014, 12:35 pm – Over the years Easyfood worked increasingly more focused on design thinking and design methods in product development and innovation. The company has repeatedly sought help and inspiration for design thinking and accompanying innovation. They have... [ Read the full story ... ]
Film: Kruuse – supplier for the veterinary industry and design thinkers
September 23, 2014, 12:27 pm – At D2i we focus on how companies use design thinking in their different development processes. Kruuse A/S is an example of a company that works consciously with creative processes, designers and design thinking can initiate. Kruuse will among othe... [ Read the full story ... ]
A mobile space for innovation
September 22, 2014, 9:42 am – For the past 50 years, OJ Electronics has been producing electronic solutions for controlling heating and ventilation. When preparing an overarching, more closely targeted innovation strategy, the company came up with completely new ideas and spec... [ Read the full story ... ]
Kitchen users and designers deals with waste issues
September 22, 2014, 9:36 am – What started out as a no-obligation full-day meeting between the Danish kitchen manufacturer Kvik and a team of designers from Design2innovate quickly developed into something more exciting. The partnership has now resulted in the development of a... [ 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 wou... [ 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 wou... [ 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 r... [ 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 r... [ 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 her... [ 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 her... [ 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 ... ]
Kurt Vonnegut, Joe Heller, and a Great Thanksgiving Message
November 22, 2012, 5:53 pm – It is Thanksgiving morning here in California and I was thinking of all the good things in my life I have to be thankful for, just as I know that so many of you are thinking today. I thought it... [ 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 cu... [ 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 cu... [ 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 y... [ 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 y... [ 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