“I have worked with many of the leading firms involved in design thinking, each of which adapts the principles of empathy, creativity, prototyping, and human-centered solutions to their own practices. Yet Marc, Dara, and Maureen of Onesuch Design have developed an approach that is so engaging, so accessible, so fluid in its ability to allow participants to discover the power and effect of design thinking, that in my experience it eclipses others in enhancing the skills of those fortunate enough to be exposed to their work. And it comes with the unbridled fun of learning, discovery, and creating.”
Ric Grefé, Design Thinker in Residence, former CEO of AIGA
“Not a day goes by that I don’t use something I learned in this program.“
-Israel Reyes, Associate Professor of Spanish
“Design thinking changed the way I approach meetings.
Serving as a department chair or dean can be very frustrating when there’s a need for a group of academics to come up with creative approaches to challenges they face. Over and over again I’ve seen committee members lob a proposed solution into the discussion and wait for everyone else to ooh and aw at its brilliance. But, of course, because of workplace power relations, everyone else actually feels compelled to point out the flaws in the first proposal, and then make their own counter-proposals. The result is a competitive impasse that leaves people feeling angry, criticized, or ignored. Good new ideas never emerge in that environment.
After learning some design thinking strategies, I now start meetings about difficult challenges by having the group pose questions about the problem—no answers or ‘solutions’ allowed at first. I use silly stokes and invite the group to be playful about these questions as well as to build on their colleagues’ questions. Something this simple changes the tone and purpose of the meeting. We move away from competition with each other, and toward creativity and a focus on the ideas/possibilities.”
Rebecca Biron, Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature
“The workshop really has made a huge difference for me […]. I come back to it on an almost-daily basis. Even for someone who was already into user-centered design it’s transformed the way in which I approach every single project: I am much more rigorous and deliberate about stepping back, understanding the context, and doing research into the actual problem statement, rather than taking it at face value. And the emphasis on rapid prototyping and constant testing and iterating has been really helpful in making things happen much more quickly, despite that initial up-front investment in real-world “empathy.” Design Thinking has become a pretty well-known methodology — and your workshop has given me enough of a design thinking vocabulary — and stories! — to successfully persuade my management to let me incorporate and adopt it for our work. We are also having a lot more fun!
I also can’t stress enough the impact of a learning Design Thinking through a workshop… no amount of reading or theorizing can even remotely approximate the impact of experiencing Design Thinking in action.“
Barbara Knauff, Ph.D., Associate Director of Academic Technologies and Client Services