A back to school, digital innovation design deep dive
Why? Why a separate section dedicated to storytelling and argumentation? W-H-Y? Those three letters hold the answer. Everyone wants and needs to know why. Why is one thing better than the other? Why should I work with you instead of someone else? Why did you do something that way and not the other way round?
Use structure to your advantage
The first aspect of convincing someone to agree with your point of view is your argumentation. The second aspect is how you deliver your arguments, how you tell your story, which is at least as important as the argumentation. Little did I understand about these…
A back to school, digital innovation design deep dive
Working remote
This deep dive is all about the remote. I guess most of you have been confronted with remote working and maybe even remote education in the last weeks, too. I will try not to bore you and refrain from general guidance on the issue and focus on my setup and what worked for me.
Again, as mentioned above, I wanted to ensure:
- Everyone contributes and we make use of everyone’s knowledge
- We collaboratively design a digital innovation
- Empathy, Facilitation, and Storytelling skills get developed
Setup and helpers
The first thing I had to realize was that I left something important in the office…
For designers and consultants who do not have time or project budget to experiment with unknown methods or approaches, I will share the insights of my course with you.
The process
I needed a process that helped me to reach my goals:
- Have everyone contribute and make use of everyone’s knowledge
- Design a digital innovation
- Provide space for skills I consider essential:
Empathy, Facilitation, and Storytelling
Over the course of the semester, I had 7 sessions of 4 hours to work together with the whole group of 11 students. Plus an additional session reserved for the students pitching their innovations which made…
Teaching - Digital Innovation Design - is better than studying
In the following article, I will share with you my experience and learnings from teaching a bunch of students. As I was hosting a course in digital innovation design, most parts are probably more relevant for designers than for anyone else. Anyhow, I think at least one of the three deep dives might be interesting for everyone. Moreover, I would be extremely happy if I can help you with anything I mention in the future or simply a coffee break talking about methods, remote, or storytelling.
I was in the right place at the right time before the right people.
Establish a daily connection to your peers.
The headline says it all. I felt disconnected from my team and I wanted to change something about that. But first of all give me the chance to describe my situation, see if you can relate and afterwards I’ll tell you what to do about it. It will not take long and I will even skip images from now on, I promise.
I feel disconnected
With everyone being in homeoffice, I have the feeling that I am actually talking more with everyone than I ever did before. We even have a daily meeting in the morning without working in scrum — yes, it…
Empathic listening as a design superpower.
Have you ever dreamt of being a superhero? Or at least of having a superpower? What about shapeshifting, having superhuman strength or traveling through time? I guess we all were at the point when we were capable of superhuman things and rescued the world. Or at least made the world a little bit more bearable for ourself.
But as this article will be about design, the question is not which superpower you would choose.
Which superpower would a designer choose?
The answer is pretty simple and straightforward: Read minds in order to truly understand people and design for their unsatisfied…
All the others are the same anyway
UX-, UI-, Product-, Interaction-, Motion-, Service-, Brand- and Innovation-Designers, listen up, it is that time of year again. I am not talking about Christmas or New Year’s Eve. I am talking about trends for the next year. For the next decade. For the future.
Are you bored at work or at home?
If you are bored and do not know how to use your time, you might read all reports all across the internet. Else you might:
- Finally finish your portfolio
- Build lego houses with your children, nephew or niece, …
- Exercise, do yoga or meditate
If you are not bored and would rather spend your time with…
It is the same old story as with beer.
Ever had that one annoying colleague, who is nagging all the time, with questions, that have super obvious answers? That colleague, who is questioning everything?
What is the difference between Design Thinking and Service Design and a Design Sprint and Lean UX and …?
I have not. I was, and probably still am, that particular person. I just could not see a difference. It was all centred around a user and everything sounded the same to me.
First I was excited about the theory
Read here, why it turned into disappointment
I started, where any great work starts: Google. I looked at charts and read articles. Everything mixed with everything. That meant, I had…
Maximilian Schmidt
Innovation consultant with a passion for experience and strategy.
