Design Strategy in action
Working "strategy" into teamwork
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I’ve worked at both ends of the design spectrum: doing the ethnographic research to deeply understand user needs and identify latent needs a company can serve (to a great business outcome), and wrangling the dev gods to make our intended interaction work the way we were hoping it would.
Here my workshop on how to keep your spirits up throughout the design process, like you are staying in a bit of control (when you don’t always get to call the shots).
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Synthesis & Storytelling
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This is an interactive session I’ve led with teams I’ve worked with - participants can pick out specific synthesis methods and shared their own experience grappling with ethics and rigor.
The TLDR:
Workshop on design synthesis methods (of synthesis itself, and sharing out synthesis with partners/stakeholders)
How to think about the differences between synthesis methods
Synthesis & the human condition: considering ethics / our now-hopefully-better recognition of bias and what to do with it
Storytelling your synthesis (your objective in sharing and how that shapes your narrative)
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Talk: Adapting Tools for the Future
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Angela Yeh founded Yeh Ideology to help employers and design professionals gear up for success in this changing world of design.
Towards that end, she runs a summit every year to bring together individuals she has worked with from both her career coaching and her recruiting side of the business.
Angela and I crossed paths - she was headhunting, and I got to share a bit about my story. Even though that one particular opportunity was not quite a match, we stayed in touch.
I was delighted to be invited to speak at her summit, especially given the theme “Metamorphosis” and the day’s talks ranging from what it means to design far out into the future to how to level up your own personal career journey.
The half hour I spent going over various ways we designers need to adapt the tools of our trade flew by - take a look below.
Skim the slides here, although note that speaker notes no longer appear in Slideshare captions (a shame!)
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Talk: Designing in-house
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Gave a lunchtime seminar at MIT’s IDM program (Integrated Design & Management, a fantastic masters program on the intersection of design & business) on working in-house as a designer. The focus was on the ways that design scales, and how my focus shifts accordingly.
And a quick plug for Prezi’s in-video slide features - it made it easier to encourage an ongoing discussion across participants, as well as allow for my eyes to stay on the camera a bit better.
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Talk: Designing at Scale
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I gave a talk in April 2020 on Pyjama Talks, a talk series hosted during the early surge of the pandemic by Stanford’s Knight-Hennessy Scholars program. They invited experts from around the globe to give 8-minute nuggets of information, inspiration, and delight from the comfort of their home. Wearing pyjamas encouraged!
For now, the video is still up on facebook - have a watch!
I’d prepared a couple “slides” to share, as I’d understood it to be a short presentation followed by Q & A- the format shifted a bit to more of an interview, and so the slides periodically pop up throughout, which worked out quite well in the end.
Here the full slate of slides I’d prepared: Giving a bit of my definition of scale, how to break problems down into chunks, and the broad strokes approach to creative problem solving that applies at all scales. The tricky part of course comes in applying it in real life, but we only had a couple minutes - so much more to dig into this topic, for sure.
And here a fun shot of my soft opener Q, answering “what is home”? (My answer that day: the feeling of walking out on a street in Berlin, Germany, and it just feeling familiar. The scents, navigating around)
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What is "Design"
Team management tools
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Managing Teams: digital software options
June 2012
Task management is a cornerstone of a successful team/organization/your own work load.
Here I put together a brief overview of things to consider when working with a team of people, using Asana as an example of how to create a workflow.
Presented to Stanford Product Design Student Association
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Saving your word-heavy PPT
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Pecha Kucha on Presentation Design
In November 2013
Sitting before your screen the night before a presentation is due, looking at 100+ slides that have only just had their copy dumped into it, cramming text and images in a big jumble, can be a harrowing experience. Here I present a couple quick ways to visually organize your slides.
Presented in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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