What an honor to lead a two-day workshop with the winners of the Knight Foundation Prototype Fund at ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Focused on misinformation and trust in the media, more than 20 thought-leaders from around the world assembled to apply LUMA's Human-centered Design methodologies to their concepts. Together we pushed their ideas further, leveraging feedback from their esteemed peers.

Charting a path towards successful enterprise-wide adoption of innovation programs is a hot topic, and one I was happy to discuss at the first design-centered summit ever held within Thomson Reuters at their NYC headquarters.

Engaging executive leadership from across the company, I shared a compelling narrative framework to set the stage for a day of discussion and commitment to action. Why is innovation important when things seem to be moving along just fine? Why is it vital for non-designers to get involved, to be partners for success? What challenges will the organization face, and what are the rewards for perseverance?

Idea synthesis, rapid learning and adaptability are the key.

Ever see a product and wonder, "Why did anyone waste their time bringing this to market?" We've all experienced the Abilene Paradox, toiling on a product or service that you doubt, but go along with anyway - only to have it crash and burn in the market. It's this type of waste that author and UX Guru Jeff Gothelf would like you to avoid.

Jeff's public workshops typically use paper tools, but together with Mural and Intuit we crafted a "digital-first" experience where team members collaborated using their personal devices and an 84" Microsoft Surface HUB.

After a brief orientation, the team jumped right in.  They brainstormed, sorted, prioritized and voted to complete a digital version of Jeff's LEAN UX CANVAS. When the day was over, the other teams took pictures of their paper artifacts while the digital team already had editable, digital files to take with them.

I've been a fan of Mural for many years - even before their residence at IDEO. I'm now honored to be working with their leadership to evolve their message and help other design leaders go "digital first" with cloud-based whiteboarding. 

When I was leading design teams that spanned three continents and fourteen time zones, I became very empathetic to the struggles of distributed teams. Even if the whole team isn't online at the same time, Mural's "digital first" approach allows a team in San Francisco to start a design thinking process and then hand it off to the team in Shanghai, Hyderabad, Tel Aviv, and Toronto. While you've been sleeping, teams around the world have been adding value to the artifact you started. In addition to the increased productivity, the teams feel connected, inspired and aligned.

FastCo.Design, July 22, 2016 | "International design firm Ideo popularized the designer brainstorming session: Just lock a team of creatives up in a conference room with some Sharpies and multi-colored Post-its, and don't let them leave until a brilliant idea strikes. But this brainstorming method doesn't work well when your team is spread around the globe. Now Mural, an alumni of Ideo's startup-in-residence program, is trying to bring what goes on inside Ideo's conference rooms to the cloud."

One of the biggest challenges design leaders face today is how to involve all of the available talent, regardless of where it is located. It was my pleasure to facilitate an embedded Human-centered Design exercise at a recent event hosted by IDEO, where design leaders from around the world came to discuss the successes and challenges faced by IBM and Intuit as they have made astounding progress in establishing design culture at the center of those companies.

We also showcased the intuitive and transformative way MURAL's online brainstorming, synthesis and collaboration experience works across any device - including the Microsoft Surface Hub.  Observations were captured throughout the event using mobile phones, iPads, laptops, and tablets and shared to a common MURAL running on an 80", touch-capable Surface Hub. We affinitized the audience's observations into clusters which highlighted challenges including the many issues faced by teams spread across time zones that don't have dedicated creative spaces.

I love the guiding principles on display at IDEO - especially the one, "Make Others Successful" - which seemed to sum up the event nicely. 

Watch the whole event, including interviews with Design leaders from Nestle, IBM, SAP, Intuit and more.

It was my sincere pleasure to work with the team at LUMA Institute to help facilitate a Human-centered Design innovation workshop in Little Rock, Arkansas.

With 8 facilitators and over 80 participants, we were able to dig deep into 4 key initiatives with the customer, generate over 500 ideas, narrow them down to around 20 contenders and by the end of the day empower the participants to present their 8 top innovative concepts to their department.

I love to sketch. As it turns out, there are some significant, scientifically proven benefits to beefing up the visual side of your note-taking, problem pondering and day-to-day communication.

My presentation was a rally cry to summit participants to follow a few, simple steps that could dramatically improve their retention of summit content and create artifacts that allow their teams back home to also benefit from what they learned.

I was thrilled to see how many people shared their sketches! #xsummit15

This one-day workshop focuses on answering two key questions for every member of a high-performing creative team: What is your unique value proposition as a design professional? What are your "design superpowers" that make you invaluable to your team? Through a thoughtful mix of group inquiry and individual activities each participant completed the day with their unique story in hand, the beginnings of a professional online portfolio and a deeper appreciation for their fellow design superfriends.  

A360 offers a collaborative workspace for engineering projects that makes viewing, sharing and review of 2D & 3D design data a breeze.  Before A360, only the professionals with high-end CAD systems and specialized training could access design & engineering data.

Now with A360 - clients, marketing folks, project managers, manufacturers, vendors, and anyone else on an extended project team can access & review project data - using only a browser or smart-phone.