Chris Domina’s Post

Day 2 of unemployment: you really do learn something new every day at IDEO. I mentioned this in yesterday’s post, but in addition to every single IDEOer being truly inspirational, I have never felt more supported by my employer and colleagues in my desire to learn and grow. 🌱 Here's how IDEO/IDEOers helped me grow these 2 years: 💸 Fully covered the cost of 8 IDEO U courses. 🎨 Assigned me a craft mentor (the talented Sara Behbakht) when I expressed an interest in learning interaction design.  ⚙ Just within my first 3 months there, my team encouraged and empowered me to experiment with and develop a new system using Airtable which ultimately led to my new focus in Design Operations during my second year. (And now my interest in pursuing product management.) 👩🏫 Everyone was more than willing to help and teach their craft. Although my official titles were Business Operations Lead and Design Operations Lead, I was constantly learning and practicing skills in Design Research, Interaction Design, Systems Design, Service Design, Program Management, and Product Management. I left IDEO with more curiosity and confidence in my ability to learn and grow in various crafts thanks to its culture and the people. And now I’m excited to explore what I could possibly do next. This leads me to more things to consider in my job search: what type of support does the company offer around learning and development? Is there opportunity for growth in the position I’m applying for? Not just vertically but also laterally? How is failure embraced, even encouraged, to help employees learn and build confidence? How will I continue to learn and grow during unemployment? By hopefully getting through all of these books that I bought using my remaining learning fund. 📚 Which one should I start with!? *not pictured: the art of innovation by Tom Kelley*

Day 4 of unemployment: within IDEO there wasn’t an "us vs them". We were all designers. Although I don’t have other design firm experiences to compare with, I have experienced an “us vs them” in the music world (musician vs arts administrators). But at IDEO, designers (who had years of professional experience designing) called me (someone who has a drawing level of a <5 year old), a designer. Why does this matter? 💡 Because this simple yet incredible gesture fostered an environment where ideas were welcomed, no matter who you were or what you did. 🧠 And it encouraged and empowered creative thinking. ✨ And without creativity, IDEO wouldn’t be a global leader of innovation. So what do I want to know about the next company I work for?  What is their mission and how are they empowering all of their employees to contribute towards their shared goal, regardless of title, level and experience? How are they fostering a sense of “we are all on the same team”? P.S. I'll admit that I think my drawing skills have improved somewhat thanks to my 2 year old forcing me to draw the same things every day, like her favorite animal, the alligator 🐊 What do you think? 😁

Reflecting on my formative years, the summer when I was 16 stands out as a pivotal chapter in my journey of self-discovery and professional growth. It was a period marked by an immersive experience in a bootcamp on innovation and design, hosted at the iconic IDEO offices in Farringdon. - 🚀 Journey into Innovation: A deep dive into the realms of creativity and design thinking. - 📍 Setting: The inspiring IDEO Farringdon, a hub of creativity. - 💡 Eureka Moment: Captured while eagerly asking a question, embodying my quest for knowledge. - 🛠️ Takeaways: Enhanced critical thinking, refined creativity, and honed problem-solving skills. - 🌱 Impact: This experience was a catalyst for my professional development, igniting a passion for innovation that drives me forward. Looking back, it wasn't just a summer—it was the beginning of a lifelong pursuit of learning and growth.

I am baffled by how the news of IDEO cutting a third of its staff and closing offices can bring smiles to people. And the drama with headlines such as "The End of an Era." As if this situation were exclusive to IDEO. Many other consultancies are facing a similar destiny. Design Thinking is not dead. We don't need to conduct post-mortems. Refrain! Design Thinking was a repackaging of 'creative problem solving.' So, it will live forever. And, to be honest, it has done more good than harm. The most significant achievement, for me, is how easily it nurtured a mindset in product-centric/tech-oriented organizations, emphasizing that thinking about PEOPLE is crucial for designing and delivering better solutions. As we confront challenges, let's keep in mind that the core of design thinking rests in its adaptability. While navigating uncertainties, let's persist in cultivating a mindset that gives precedence to people-centric solutions. Design Thinking isn't just a passing trend; it's a timeless way of defining problems and finding solutions. So it is capable of evolving and enduring. Therefore, let's welcome the insights, drive innovation, and collaboratively mold the future of problem-solving. *I know I am late to this discussion. ** You might not know it but I was an intern at Eye Dee Oh.

Sure, he does not, nor does the layoffs at IDEO end the era of design thinking, as Fast Company stated last week. Here's why Design thinking didn't start with IDEO, and it will not end with it either. Design thinking is only a way of thinking and knowing differently. It is nothing more and certainly nothing less than a cognitive methodology to come to an understanding of what will be or what needs to be. If you want to, you can reduce design thinking to abductive reasoning. We are all familiar with inductive and deductive reasoning. But these only work to generalise from observations or to conclude from accepted principles. In both cases, we start from what is already. Abductive reasoning is a pendulum between an assumed solution and an understood problem. Based on what you understand from the problem, you can assume a possible solution, test it and learn more from the problem or need to correct course in solving the problem, and again…. Because of that back-and-forth thinking, we often talk about the iterative design thinking process. With the assumed end of the design thinking era, we can go back to its essentials and reduce the focus on features, the double-diamond, alike. It is sad when people lose their jobs, but assuming that design thinking started and will end with IDEO is a bridge too far. #designcommunity #designthinking

This month it’s time to close a beautiful chapter and embark on a new adventure. IDEO was five years of surprising briefs, crazy travel adventures, tough questions, magical co-creation sessions, and just the most incredible people. Was is always perfect? Definitely not. Did I work way too many hours? Absolutely. But amid the chaos, I’m endlessly grateful for what I’ve learned. For how much I was allowed to experiment and grow. For experiencing what it feels like if smart and compassionate people rally around a common goal with the belief anything is possible. I will never unlearn the feeling of everyone truly wanting the other to succeed. Where colleagues make time to bring some magic to your work in the midst of their own time crunch. Where directors and partners work hands-on but the junior designers get to present their work to the client directly too. Where every success and failure is celebrated or learned from by the community as a whole. I will never forget the kindness people give each other when you show vulnerability. Where you can be open about what you still have to learn and 5 people step forward to teach or learn with you. Where projects start with reflecting on peoples biases and concerns. Where a client feels comfortable to share a private matter that‘s weighing on their heart and mind. I will forever miss the IDEO slack-universe. Where the most unlikely ISO (in search of) question gets a meaningful response. Where you find like minded people to inspire you daily, be it about environmental scientific advancements, innovative business strategies or cats. Where there is a channel just for 5-word stories, one for strange quotes without context and one that has no words at all. IDEO, a place where the most incredible people come together to create magic! I hope many of our journeys will join paths again in the future!

I’ve had a few people send me the links to the announcement of IDEO layoff 😢 Asking is this the end of Design Thinking The answer is well yes and no Here is what I think has got us here: 🎯 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀: I personally saw a big shift in demand in 2019 where clients were asking me to help drive internal capabilities even then. The shift moved from fix our challenge to, help us fix our own challenges. 🏋️ 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘄𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: there been a huge spike in people offering 1-day bootcamp on learning design thinking. Unfortunately, this is the impact of them one day bootcamps. You can’t learn Design Thinking in a day. However, people went on these bootcamps then went into the real world and couldnt deliver the impact to the organisation… the reason being they were set up to fail from the get go with false promises. 🧰 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: I posted about this last week, but time and time again I noticed a lot of design thinking was focused purely on the tool and not on the application and core knowledge needed of design thinking and human centred design. This big puzzle piece missing meant people would go into the business and stick with a method not really being aware that it wasn’t working . ♾️ 𝗟𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: design thinking like everything else needed to evolve with the times. Like IBM design thinking approach did. Also, Design Thinking didn’t go anywhere near system thinking, or experience design. This is ultimately the reason I designed my own approach in my book The Insightful Innovator 💜 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: The best designers in the world have now become available for the right progressive companies. Ones that will bring them in, not block them with very poor leadership and instead support them with development to fill their gaps. So while right now it sucks, in a few years we will see the impact of what happens when a great design thinker meets a great progressive organisation #DesignThinking #Leadership #ExperienceDesign #EmployeeExperience #Work

In the wake of recent industry shifts, including the surprising layoffs at design giant IDEO the internet is buzzing with a provocative question: Is design thinking, especially in the realm of healthcare, truly dead? As someone deeply immersed in the healthcare industry, I find myself pondering the fate of this creative problem-solving approach. Design thinking has long been hailed for its ability to foster innovation, centering on user needs, and pushing the boundaries of traditional methodologies. Yet, the landscape is changing. Have we moved beyond design thinking, or is it simply evolving to meet the complexities of today's challenges? Does the ethos of design thinking still hold its transformative power in healthcare, where human-centered solutions are not just nice-to-have but essential? I invite my network to share their insights and experiences. How do you see design thinking manifesting in your work today? Is it in a period of decline, or are we on the cusp of its renaissance? What do you think? Alex Barker Martin Sandhu Jesper Vestergaard Achim Schmidt Andrea Berchowitz Bartosz Bialek Jinder Kang Theo Sauls Jan Wardecki Bruno Ferrari Hannah Peres Aga Szóstek #DesignThinking #HealthcareInnovation #FutureOfDesign

IDEO changed my life and led me to my career. It changed the way many people think about solving problems, interacting with customers, and building awesome things. What they branded as design thinking, has since evolved and blossomed into core tactics for facilitation. People still need to communicate, collaborate, and innovate. Organizations still need to focus on users, on humans, and on creative ways to solve sticky problems. The words change. The tools change. People remain the same. https://lnkd.in/dzEmuWYR

🚀 Excited to share my recent completion of the Designing Strategy course at IDEO U! 👩🎓 It was an invaluable journey, delving deep into the art of crafting strategic solutions. 👉 The course kicked off by pinpointing the core strategy problems we aimed to tackle, followed by immersing ourselves in shared frameworks. These frameworks not only provided a common language for strategizing but also ignited collaborative thinking, allowing us to explore diverse strategic possibilities to address our challenges. Applying the renowned Creative Process of design thinking, we embarked on cycles of divergent and convergent thinking, navigating through a myriad of options to make informed choices. After all, strategy is about making choices. 🙏 A big shoutout to Thomas Reneau and Eve Bills Lacivita for their insightful love sessions! Their infectious positivity made the learning experience truly delightful, as well as my amazing colleagues!💓 ✨ Armed with the Strategy Choice Cascade and Strategy Process Map, I now feel equipped with clear methodologies to tackle strategic hurdles and collaborate effectively on finding innovative solutions. 💪 #DesignThinking #CreativeStrategy #StrategicInnovation #ProfessionalDevelopment