Enterprise Design Thinking
Design thinking shouldn’t be controversial—it’s simply the idea that everyone on a team should be focused on their users, first and foremost.
We built on that idea, adding strategies, tactics and activities to create a framework that uniquely scales design thinking across teams of all shapes and sizes, whether they are co-located or widely dispersed.
The Principles
The foundational elements
of our approach
A focus on user outcomes
Who are you designing for, and what do they need?
We measure success by how well we fulfill human needs. Our users are more than just the people we make for, they’re our partners in design.
Restless reinvention
When’s the last time you rethought what you’re making?
Everything is a prototype. Being essential—and staying essential—requires a continuous conversation with our users and clients, responding to their changing needs through rapid prototyping and constant iteration.
Diverse empowered teams
Do you have the right mix of makers?
Diversity is the bedrock of a dynamic team. By empowering people with different skillsets, backgrounds and perspectives to bring their unique points of view to the table, we generate more breakthrough ideas faster.
The Loop
A process of rapid iteration
Observe
To drive meaningful outcomes for our users, we must first gain a deep understanding of the challenges they face.
By constantly immersing ourselves in the worlds of our users, we ensure that our solutions always address real-world needs.
Reflect
Different people can interpret the same situation in very different ways.
Coming together to reflect on our observations helps us synthesize and analyze findings, building a more nuanced understanding of our users across the team.
Make
The only way to see an outcome is to make one—even if the idea isn’t fully baked yet.
Rapid, low-fidelity prototyping allows us to simulate ideas and test hypotheses quickly and cheaply. The end result: solutions that are robust, effective, and battle-tested.
The Keys
Tactics for maintaining alignment
Hills
Hills are concise statements of the goals we aim to help our users accomplish. By making these goals explicit and evaluating them regularly, we align teams around a single shared mission.
Playbacks
Playbacks are regular check-ins that bring users, stakeholders and teams together to tell stories and exchange feedback. They allow us to measure progress on a regular basis while uncovering and addressing any misalignment that may exist.
Sponsor Users
Sponsor users are real-world users that provide teams with deep expertise and knowledge on the problems they’re facing. They are crucial to keeping us aligned with our users’ reality throughout the course of a project.
Keep exploring
our approach
Design services
Let’s define your strategy, create exceptional experiences, and drive better business outcomes.
Design philosphy
Our beliefs drive everything we do. Design is about moving people forward, both emotionally and functionally.