Empathy First

Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that allows non-designers to use the designer’s creative tools and methods to match human needs with what is conceptually feasible and what a sound strategy can convert into true value.

The ultimate goal of Design Thinking is to embed a simple and sustainable innovation method across the entire organization, enabling a companywide culture of constant creativity and collaboration.

Similar to the way I learned it at Stanford’s d school, my Design Thinking training course is an experiential immersion in which participants focus on solving a real-world problem, enabling them to experience the entire design thinking process:

Humanizing — gaining empathy for users

Conceptualizing — meeting user needs creatively

Prototyping — building low resolution mockups

Testing — iterative experimenting with prototypes

Course formats can be tailored, and range from a 90-minute “crash course” to a multi-day bootcamp delivering a deep dive into design thinking techniques.

Wasteless Continuous Improvement

Whether it’s lean manufacturing or lean startup, the word lean in a business context has a simple definition: the absence of excessive complexity.

Lean has a single goal: make more room for what truly matters by eliminating what doesn’t. It’s a different, subtractive way of thinking. That’s why so many companies can’t get lean, no matter what they do.

Nearly a decade of working closely with Toyota—the birthplace of lean—taught me the right way. And it’s what makes my Lean Thinking unique: it’s authentic.

Lean Thinking is applicable to everything from internal process redesign to new product development and entrepreneurial startup.

Participants in my Lean Thinking course experience lean  principles in action through the official Toyota Production System (TPS) simulation. They then engage in an exercise designed to identify real-world issues that represent opportunities to employ Lean Thinking.

Participants in multi-day Lean Thinking courses will learn continuous process improvement via the kaizen methodology, and gain facility with my Kaizen Canvas, a proprietary tool adapted from the Toyota A3 problem-solving process.

Course formats can be tailored, and range from a 3-hour “crash course” to a 2-day immersive bootcamp.

IMPROVING THE EXPERIENCE

One of the most critical areas of strategic focus for any organization is improving the customer experience. Organizations that deliberately transform how they grow and innovate are able to do so because they think about the people on the receiving end of their decisions: customers. Every activity is, and must be, focused on delighting customers, in order to drive long term value.

An important first step in any human-centered innovation effort is creating a good customer journey map: a visual representation of a typical experience over time as customers interact with your products, processes, and people.

Participants in my Journey Mapping course will learn to use the Customer Journey Canvas, my proprietary visual tool that allows any experience to be mapped. It includes mapping key jobs-to- be-done, touchpoints, painpoints, and emotions, as well as outlining opportunities for improvement focused on customer-centered problem statements.

Course format: 1/2-day or 1-day