Design thinking is at the root of creative success. Seriously! But do you know how to shift your mindset and creative process – as well as that of your team – to create and ideate in ways that are truly innovative? The most inspired and innovative teams and individual designers need to be a part of a culture that enables forward-thinking, acceleration, and efficiency. It’s a combination of creative, analytical, and collaborative approaches that produce results.

1. Design Thinking Strategies for Facilitating
Growth and Performance
Carrie Cousins Rebecca Komathy
With: Moderated by:
TO USE YOUR COMPUTER'S AUDIO:
When the webinar begins, you will be connected to audio using
your computer's microphone and speakers (VoIP). A headset is
recommended.
Webinar will begin:
11:00 am, PDT
TO USE YOUR TELEPHONE:
If you prefer to use your phone, you must select "Use Telephone"
after joining the webinar and call in using the numbers below.
United States: +1 (562) 247-8422
Access Code: 370-837-007
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the webinar
--OR--
The Design Mind
Webinar Series

2. 2The Design Mind
Webinar Series
Click on the Questions panel to
interact with the presenters
https://www.graphicartstoday.com/webinar-series/11033/the-design-mind

3. 3The Design Mind
Webinar Series
3
About Carrie Cousins
Carrie Cousins has more than 15 years of experience in media, design, and content marketing. In her day job, she's
the director of communications for the Roanoke Regional Partnership, which serves as a catalyst for bringing
investment and talent to the Roanoke Region of Virginia. She’s also a freelance writer and designer, specializing in
creating amazing experiences online for small businesses. Her work has been featured in publications such as Design
Shack, Webdesigner Depot, and Fast Company. She's an avid runner, which comes in handy with a trio of Australian
shepherds at home.
About Rebecca Komathy
Rebecca attended California State University, Long Beach, where she earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing with a
concentration in Fiction. After working in the publishing and English education fields, she became more interested in the
information science and business aspects. She is attending SJSU for her second Master’s, this time in Library and
Information Science so she can learn more about digital curation. She currently works at Aggregage as a Webinar
Coordinator. When she’s not working, she is probably snuggling with her French bulldog named Kira.
3
Design Thinking Strategies for Facilitating Growth
and Performance

4. 4The Design Mind
Webinar Series
4
4
What Is Design Thinking?
“Design Thinking is a design methodology that provides a solution-based
approach to solving problems. It’s extremely useful in tackling complex
problems that are ill-defined or unknown, by understanding the human
needs involved, by re-framing the problem in human-centric ways, by
creating many ideas in brainstorming sessions, and by adopting a hands-on
approach in prototyping and testing.”
– Interaction Design Foundation

5. 5The Design Mind
Webinar Series
5
5

6. 6The Design Mind
Webinar Series
6
6
Design Thinking &
Business Growth
“Design is more than a feeling: it is
a CEO-level priority for growth
and long-term performance.”
– McKinsey & Company

7. 7The Design Mind
Webinar Series
7
7
Create a Culture
of Innovation
• You can’t just “go design think
and innovate”
• Teams must feel safe to
collaborate, ideate, and innovate
• It can look a lot of different ways

8. 8The Design Mind
Webinar Series
8
8
Assessment
and Exploration
• Does your team have an ability
to innovate?
• Does your team have the
willingness to innovate?
• Does your team have
opportunity for innovation?

9. 9The Design Mind
Webinar Series
9
9
Design Thinking
Should Be
Uncomfortable

10. 10The Design Mind
Webinar Series
10
10
Innovation Frameworks
• Discovery workshops where you use brainstorming to create ideas
and vote on potential outcomes.
• Ideation jams that involve a collaborative rapid idea generation to
develop a range of solutions while creativity.
• Actionable future workshops that set vision and direction.
• Design sprints (periods of quick, timed iteration or design
brainstorming) help establish an idea all the way to concept.

11. 11The Design Mind
Webinar Series
11
11
Design Think
Innovation Culture
• Think about creating an
innovation culture as the problem.
• What’s your challenge?
• Define it and move break that
challenge down.
• Visualize the solution.

12. 12The Design Mind
Webinar Series
12
12
Create Solutions
• How do you start to establish a
culture shift?
• Is It a new way of holding meetings?
• Is it incorporation design sprints
into the problem-solving process?
• How do you encourage greater
communication, ideation, and
collaboration?

13. 13The Design Mind
Webinar Series
13
13
Innovative Cultures are Paradoxical
• Tolerance for failure and intolerance for incompetence
• Willingness to experiment and rigorous discipline
• Psychological safety and comfort with brutal candor
• Collaboration and individual accountability
• Flatness and strong leadership

14. 14The Design Mind
Webinar Series
14
14
But Why
Design Thinking?
• Uncover solutions that might
not be obvious
• Create an efficient way to try
new ideas
• Learn faster and create buy-in

15. 15The Design Mind
Webinar Series
15
15
“The structure of design thinking creates a natural flow from research to
rollout. Immersion in the customer experience produces data, which is
transformed into insights, which help teams agree on design criteria they use
to brainstorm solutions. Assumptions about what’s critical to the success of
those solutions are examined and then tested with rough prototypes that
help teams further develop innovations and prepare them for real-world
experiments.”
-- Jeanne Liedtka, Harvard Business Review

16. 16The Design Mind
Webinar Series
16
16
Apply it to Design/UX Work
• What challenges does a user have when they interact with a design?
• What conversions don’t meet goals or expectations?
• Are there common user paths that result in abandonment?
• Does user behavior mimic industry trends?
• What parts of the UX meet or exceed expectations or goals?

17. 17The Design Mind
Webinar Series
17
17
Put Design Thinking in Action
Step 1
• EMPATHIZE with the target audience.
• Visit (observe) websites in the same industry as the project at hand.
• What works and what doesn’t?
• What stands out to you?

18. 18The Design Mind
Webinar Series
18
18
Put Design Thinking in Action
Step 1
• EMPATHIZE with the target audience.
• Visit (observe) websites in the same industry as the project at hand.
• What works and what doesn’t?
• What stands out to you?

19. 19The Design Mind
Webinar Series
19
19
Put Design Thinking in Action
Step 2
• DEFINE AND VISUALIZE the problem and write it out on paper.
• Try to see it in your mind – both the problem and solution.
• Come back a few times and rethink it.
• Add a new idea each time.

20. 20The Design Mind
Webinar Series
20
20
Put Design Thinking in Action
Step 3
• IDEATE and COLLABORATE to develop potential solutions.
• Sketch these out on another sheet of paper.
• Don’t get caught in perceived boundaries.
• Consider every idea – even if it seems silly.
• Challenge yourself to come up with one idea that breaks traditional
“rules” for the project you are tackling.

21. 21The Design Mind
Webinar Series
21
21
Put Design Thinking in Action
Step 4
• PROTOTYPE and sketch out solutions.
• What’s the goal? Work backward and focus on one to three key
elements of the project. (Think small to think large.)
• You can go back and work through this phase with different aspects of
the project, such as the site map or the homepage design.

22. 22The Design Mind
Webinar Series
22
22
Put Design Thinking in Action
Step 5
• TEST design concepts and accept that not all ideas will be good or
work.
• Dare yourself to fail along the way.
• Learn from the misses and ideate again.

23. 23The Design Mind
Webinar Series
23
23

24. 24The Design Mind
Webinar Series
24
24
Put Design Thinking in Action
Step 6 (Bonus)
• Make it part of your routine.
• When negotiating a design thinking problem or session, break it up
into small bits.
• These design sprints – think 5 to 10 minutes – of rapid-fire thinking
will help you dump all of your ideas at once without over thinking.
• Brainstorm and step away. Repeat.

25. 25The Design Mind
Webinar Series
25
25
“To think like a designer requires dreaming up wild ideas, taking time
to tinker and test, and being willing to fail early and often. The
designer's mindset embraces empathy, optimism, iteration, creativity,
and ambiguity. And most critically, design thinking keeps people at the
center of every process.”
-- Tim Brown, executive chair of IDEO

26. 26The Design Mind
Webinar Series
26
26
Conclusion
Design thinking gives you the chance to succeed – or fail – and try
again. It brings together the idea that no project is finished. It evolves.
Design thinking is user experience thinking.

27. 27The Design Mind
Webinar Series
27
27
Resources & Further Reading
• “The Business Value of Design,” McKinsey & Company
• “The Hard Truth About Innovative Cultures,” Gary P. Pisano for Harvard Business Review
• “What is Design Thinking?,” The Interaction Design Foundation
• “Why Design Thinking Works,” Jeanne Liedtka for Harvard Business Review
• “How to Use Design Thinking at Home or With a Remote Team,” Carrie Cousins for Shaping Design
• “Design Thinking 101 for Designers,” Carrie Cousins for Onextrapixel
• IDEO Design Thinking Today
• Creative Commons Photos by Unsplash

28. 28The Design Mind
Webinar Series
Q&A
Rebecca Komathy
With: Moderated by:
Founder and Freelancer Writer & Designer,
Carrie Cousins LLC
Linkedin page: /in/carriecousins1/
Twitter ID: @carriecousins
Personal Website: carriecousins.com
Portfolio: behance.net/carriecousins
Carrie Cousins
Webinar Coordinator,
Graphic Arts Today
Linkedin page: /in/rebeccakomathy/
Twitter ID: @graphicarttoday
Website: graphicartstoday.com
Email: rebecca@aggregage.com
https://www.graphicartstoday.com/webinar-series/11033/the-design-mind