Below you will find descriptions of some projects I have worked on over the past few years. There are three additional elements to each description: highlights, impact, and major learnings. Highlights cover things I am particularly proud of or interesting details that do not fit in the general overview. Impact is particularly relevant because that is a criteria I am mindful of in all of my work, be it teaching, managing, or research. Finally, because I view all my efforts as iterative, I included major learnings as a window into my process. These capture some of the most current and compelling insights that I use to improve each project.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
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The goal of the d.school’s executive education program is to develop mindsets and confidence in innovative processes that can be applied in a corporate setting.
I have led and taught over 20 workshops. These multi- day experiences are intensive immersions in a design process which allow participants to work in a far more creative environment than they typically see in their jobs. For the students, who range from middle management to c-level executives, this stark contrast to how they normally work is a powerful change agent.
Through short lectures and activities coupled with facilitated project work, the participants practice design methodologies on challenges like redesigning the ground experiences for jetBlue. Workshops conclude with exercises that focus on implementing this way of working back at their home organizations.
One of the main outcomes of this work has been a growing network of professionals who support one another’s efforts to practice design thinking in their organizations.
Highlights:
• 2-hour design research blitz in San Francisco International Airport.
• Having workshop graduates return as apprentice coaches to learn how to facilitate the teaching of design thinking.
Impact:
A network of industry coaches have returned to teach workshops and tell their stories of transforming organizations that range from software firms to non- profits focusing on cancer research. A number of companies like Fidelity, GE, Intuit, P&G, and more have started major design thinking initiatives. A former student, Doug Dietz is redefining pediatric medical imaging by transforming the way children experience MRI and CT machines.
Major learnings:
• Design thinking initiatives follow a pattern as they expand in organizations; they align to minimize conflict. • Developing culture is more important than developing design techniques.
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I founded the d.school research initiative not to simply measure the d.school’s impact, but rather with the goal of measurement that amplifies impact. This applied point of view inspired me to use both academic and design research methodologies to create an understanding of how and why the d.school works and what are possible ways to improve it.
For my main line of research, investigating alumni outcomes, I brought in a graduate student in education to help me develop a research platform rooted in understanding how d.school alumni apply and adapt design thinking. The first step was to launch a mixed methods study where we sent out a survey to over 600 former d.school students and followed up with 16 in-depth interviews with students working in a range of fields and types of organizations.
Some of the initial findings show that alumni are quite successful at applying lessons learned at the d.school in short bursts at work but have mixed success adapting their creative processes to make a sustained cultural change. On an individual level our data suggests that d.school alumni have a greater comfort with risk as well as a stronger believe in their creativity because of the experiences at the d.school.
A second line of inquiry investigates possible mechanisms for how the d.school affects students. Currently I am developing a creative self-efficacy scale that I will attempt to use to measure how design-based learning experiences affect students’ creative confidence. Additionally, I am part of a team using fMRI and other psychological measures to detect a change in the structural composition of students brains after a design thinking intervention.
Future lines of research will focus on developing measures that describe the impact our alumni are having by applying and adapting design thinking in the real world.
Highlights:
• Developing a conceptual model that describes how alumni use what they learn at the d.school.
• Learning to operate an fMRI machine.
Impact:
The d.school spends more of its efforts working on preparing students to adapt not just apply lessons learned after graduation.
Major learnings:
• How to connect a longer, more rigorous research cycle with a faster, more nimble design process.
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This lab is a collaboration between the Stanford School of Education and the d.school. The purpose is to use research to further our understand of how students learn design thinking in primary and secondary school, as well as, higher education.
Our research includes understanding how low SES students engage with curriculum that combines design thinking content knowledge, developing assessment for design skills and mindsets, and learning how teams taking college level design classes function.
Highlights:
• Facilitating a session for the Design and Technology special interest group at the American Education Researcher Association Conference.
• Teaching design thinking to middle school students in low income neighborhoods.
• Winner of the Como for Children Design Competition at the International Conference on Interaction Design and Children.
Impact:
REDlab has published results in multiple conferences and journals. We also received a grant to host a 2-day workshop where academics and practitioners came together to develop prototypes for new design-based educational curricula. An example we shared was a 6- week middle school math unit where students use design methodologies and concepts like area and perimeter to redesign a fictional science station in Antarctica for a group of scientists.
Major learnings:
• Not over-designing the research treatment.
• Perhaps the biggest benefit of design in K-12 education is how it increases students’ motivation.
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The Research as Design group (RAD) explores how design methodologies can be used to enhance less explicit parts of research processes like generating ideas for studies and being strategic about what impact a line of research can make.
This work currently consists of two parts: (1) running workshops with researchers and (2) investigating the extent to which the process of developing strong interdisciplinary research resembles design thinking.
Working primarily with a team of 3 graduate students and 2 professors, we’ve developed a curriculum that works to enhance PhD students’ research by infusing design thinking methodologies.
Highlights:
• Creating a toolkit that graduate students can use to apply design thinking to their research process.
• Invitation to run a workshop for the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program for promising young faculty.
Impact:
We have run five workshops serving over 100 participants. Four more events are scheduled in the first half of 2012. The University of Ljublijana (Slovenia) is implementing our toolkit in research being done on innovation and entrepreneurship.
Major learnings:
• How powerful a simple design technique, like brainstorming, when executed well, can be for something like hypothesis generation. That is one example of many implicit skills required for a robust research process that graduate students struggle to acquire.
• There is tremendous value in developing mindfulness and flexibility of major attitudes that accompany the different approaches, such as skepticism for research and optimism for design thinking. Students benefit from knowing when and how to don each perspective.
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These workshops focus on helping educators not only inject design thinking into the classroom but also to use design thinking as a methodology for how they collaborate.
As a designer in our K-12 lab, I have designed and led multiple workshops for educators. These experiences engage teachers, administrators, and policy makers with design thinking and help them take it back to their schools and districts.
Participants generally spend the first day or two focusing on process by working on a design challenge in analogous spaces like health or environment. After they develop process confidence we focus on creating experiences to take back to their schools. This can take the form of new curriculum or a prototype of a different way to run a staff meeting.
Highlights:
• A veteran teacher told the workshop leaders that prior to attending the workshop, she was planning to quit teaching.
• Watching teachers actively test prototypes with kindergartners on a playground.
• A metric-minded principal denouncing the concept of grading because assigning a number to a creative process would hinder the ability of students to learn it. • Surprising teachers by giving them 1 hour to plan a 20 minute design thinking session for primary students who were on a bus heading for the d.school.
Impact:
The K-12 lab has run over 40 workshops ranging from 4 hours to 4 days. Over 1300 educators from nearly 50 districts have had a d.school experience. We have worked directly with leadership teams from 25 schools, including two large charter management organizations, the Henry Ford Learning Institute and Aspire. One reading specialist, Melissa Pelochino, used design thinking with her struggling students and was able to advance their reading scores two grade levels on average in 20 weeks.
Major learnings:
• How to help teachers who want to create learning experiences for their students remember why they decided to go into teaching.
• A strategy for effecting bottom-up systemic change.
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The goal of this interdisciplinary, project-based course is to teach students to use design thinking to explore and solve problems in education.
I created this course with three other co-teachers: a professor in the School of Education, an associate partner at NewSchools Venture Fund, and the director of the K-12 Lab at the d.school. Graduates students studying engineering, computer science, business, policy, and education work on projects in teams connected with industry partners that range from school districts to education technology startups.
Our partnership with New Schools Venture Fund, a non-profit venture philanthropy firm, not only helps make the projects real and more engaging, it connects our students to a broader network in which they will soon find themselves in after graduation.
Highlights:
• Holding a class session inside an under-resourced, urban high school.
• Guest speakers including Sal Kahn (Kahn Academy), John Katzman (founder Princeton Review), and Michael Horn (author Disrupting Class).
Impact:
Alumni are implementing lessons learned during 338x in a variety of ways. Two students developed
successful startups as part of their project work: Formative Assessment, which focuses on customized teaching assessment, and Equal Opportunity Schools (EOS), a non-profit working to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in high school advanced placement courses. Other graduates have used design thinking in their new organizations to facilitate projects, like a training program for incoming employees and the creation of an entire after-school/ summer program.
Major Learnings:
• How to balance student interest and project partner wants.
• Focusing educational entrepreneurs on how use design research to explore core problems of education like assessment and motivation.
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This is the cornerstone course at the d.school. Students practice design thinking methods, develop mindsets to support innovative processes, and grow their creative confidence.
Students from all 7 schools in Stanford apply to this course. The 10-week experience has students work in interdisciplinary teams on two large design challenges. Past topics have included promoting nutrition in under-
resourced communities, helping small businesses save, and increasing charitable donations to Muslim non- profits. The course is team taught and typically involves a project partner for at least one of the main design challenges.
Students learn how to use the design process taught at the d.school to explore and solve complex problems. One of my primary responsibilities has been teaching Ideation and Low Resolution Prototyping.
The major learning objective is not command of our process, but rather we aim to develop mindsets like human centeredness and a culture of prototyping. The ultimate outcome is for students to leave with a strong command and confidence in their creative process.
Highlights:
• 200+ prospective students experiencing our 1-hour introduction to design exercise.
• Improv as idea generation.
• Storytelling day (featuring popcorn machine).
Impact:
On a survey, bootcamp alumni reported applying lessons learned about 2 to 3 times a week on average.
Major Learnings:
• How to scale up the course to meet intense demand. • Scoping challenges that are not so big and overwhelming but are not too small and specific.
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In the first four years of our existence, the d.school has been in four different buildings. As a designer in our Environments lab,
I have helped research and design these spaces.
Most of my work
focused on
understanding two
things: (1) how team
spaces can be
modified to encourage
different types of activity and (2) an initial framework that synthesizes the various components of the d.school space. An example is how working in a corner creates a feeling of safety where students feel more comfortable sharing ideas.
These two points are important because they directly led to a codification of how the d.school conceptualizes space. That knowledge was organized into a book and recently released. The goal was to help others understand and design spaces that support creative work.
Highlights:
• The failed team “sandbox” prototype. • The Sweet Hall everything-on-casters experiment.
• Hacking the entire IKEA product line.
• Designing and helping to build a 3,000 square foot innovation lab (I-lab) at a local school.
Impact:
The d.school space is instrumental in teaching our skills, process, and dispositions. Many alumni share stories of how they have modified their office space or even their apartments. An example of this is Parker Gates. Parker went through our executive education program as a participant and then again as a coach. He returned to his position at e+ Cancer Care, found a seldom used large conference room, and created a design studio complete with rolling whiteboards and prototyping tables.
Another example is that of startup incubators, such as The Designer Fund and Innovation Endeavors Runway. Both of these groups invest in early stage startups and house teams in spaces inspired by the d.school as a means to enhance their creative work.
Major learnings:
• A large part of supporting creative work physically is about regulating the team energy.
• How to work with architects and interior space firms who have a slower design cycle than the d.school.
• Space makes the first impression.
Adam Royalty's site 