Product Innovation
Strategic design uses research to bridge business strategy with service or product development to create markets and meet customer needs. I lead teams of strategists and designers to explore new market opportunities, envision future scenarios that merge digital systems with physical realities, and conduct customer research to inform product development.
Drivers and trends inform emerging market dynamics.
User Research
Through customer research, we gain real world understanding of people’s ground truth realities so we can help them achieve their goals. Product design must take into account unanticipated factors and validate assumptions in order to succeed in moving from idea to business success. Connecting with real users allows us to shape products that meet their needs and build relationships for future cycles of prototype testing and pilot program deployments.
Field research to learn how Otis installation technicians use manuals on site.
Innovation Workshops
Defining product strategy requires co-creating with a diverse set of stakeholders, subject matter experts and leaders in order to define systems that satisfy needs, technical constraints and business objectives.
We hold innovation workshops to analyze, ideate and synthesize new solutions in co-creative sessions. These activities are rooted in innovation methodologies modelled after Clay Christiansen’s Innovator’s DNA and Google Venture’s Design Sprints, among others.
We articulate value propositions in human-centered and planet-conscious ways that resonate with their intended audiences.
An areospace company’s airport operations innovation workshop, led to pilot deployment of new data integration product for airport duty managers.
Prototyping & User Testing
Iterative development through prototyping allows us to learn as we build. Getting feedback early and often is important to refine what the design looks like, feels like, and how it works. From rapid concept validation with mockups to refined product specs and pilot deployments in test markets, we apply lean startup and agile development methods to learn, pivot and scale rapidly.
Watch my talk Prototyping for Strategy, Innovation and Design (at SPLOT Institute, 2023) on YouTube.
A aerospace company app, honorable mention at Airplane Interiors Expo, 2024.
Customer Experience
The notion of Customer Experience is tied more closely to service design, where we look at multi-touchpoint customer journeys and the strategic orchestration of the processes that enable them. Mapping these journeys is both a planning tool for deploying new products and services, and a method for conducting analysis to optimize existing ones.
Improving test registration experience with customers of a national testing company.
Customer feedback on test registration experience at a national testing company.
Customer onboarding journey at and insurance company.