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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Talk: Synthesis & Storytelling
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Ladies Who Strategize is a thriving, private online community for female identifying and non-binary strategists of all stripes and industry persuasions. It’s a mix of brand, marketing, agency, in-house, and design strategists at the beginning middle and top of their game.
Annually, we have the opportunity to gather at a retreat and share meals and mindmeld on things while stepping out of our collective crazy days.
In 2024 I had the great opportunity to contribute to the retreat agenda, and led a workshop on all things Synthesis & Storytelling. Session discussion and where I led more of an introduction to a topic or where we dove into the nuances organically emerged based on the make-up of who was in the room. This was an interactive session, with participants picking 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
Sstorytelling your synthesis (your objective in sharing and how that shapes your narrative)
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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"
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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