I help organizations innovate at scale by holistically combining strategy, capacity building and process change to deliver real and meaningful outcomes.
The same design methods and principles which create amazing products and services for customers are equally applicable to building strong, innovative and change-embracing teams, processes and cultures.
I'm passionate about the potential of design to bring together individuals, businesses and governments to solve complex challenges and improve lives.
I have seen firsthand, how design can empower teams and profoundly change entrenched systems. As Head of Design Transformation at BBVA in Madrid, Spain, I led a team dedicated to improving customer-centricity, collaboration and creativity for 130,000 employees across 13 countries. Now I help other organizations do the same.
I'm an active volunteer for Field Innovation Team. We are currently piloting a DIY shelter kit to help communities more effectively respond to disater.
Work experience in the US, Europe, Russia and India, has given me insight and empathy for the commonalities and differences across culture and socio-economic level. I have an MFA in New Media from Academy of Art University (my designer/problem solver side) and a MA in International Relations from Columbia University (my systems analyst/researcher side).
My role: Program founder and team lead, guiding strategy, methods and content
BBVA’s Design Transformation began in early 2016. Like many change management programmes in today’s competitive marketplace, the primary goal was to help BBVA be more innovative. Based on early research and analysis, the business chose three areas of focus: customer-centricity, collaboration and creativity. Our goal was to make each employee’s link to the customer more visible, tangible and actionable. Using Design Thinking, we have been able to provide a common language and set of tools to enable collaboration and enhance creativity.
Our first effort was an intensive four-day Design Thinking workshop known as Design Ambassadors. We found it crucial to ground training in real, practical challenges. Theory and jargon were out. But to create impact, we needed to go beyond training and initiate behaviour change in each participant’s day-to-day environment. The pilot workshop was followed by six-weeks of coaching, during which designers acted as help desk and mentor.
We asked each Ambassador to exhibit six key behaviours:
- Interact with customers
- Connect with other areas
- Experiment with new ideas
- Prototype and test concepts
- Iterate solutions
- Pass on what you’ve learned!
Though the Design Ambassador workshops were creating an elite group of viral change agents, to truly scale, we needed to provide multiple paths and levels of engagement. In early 2017, we began defining a pyramid-shaped framework to do just that.
At the bottom we placed small, bite-sized teaser content like innovation and design events, a virtual support community, posters to communicate new ways of working, and a single-page guide for formulating and submitting human-centred challenges and solutions. At the second level of the pyramid we created a virtual course in Design Thinking open to all BBVA employees. This project-based course was designed to empower everyone with basic tools for innovation. The third level of the pyramid, the Design Ambassador workshops and coaching, were already in place. To further incentivise and grow the Ambassadors, we began developing a series of Master Classes.
Creating an engaging online course meant going back to design basics - understanding user needs, ways of working, time and incenvies. In the end, we built a hybrid online/offline learning system which incorporated real-life project work with online videos and a special community for sharing insights and experiences.
Empowering communities during disaster
My role: Project Lead, guiding strategy and user experience; Bridge between BBVA and Field Innovation Team
The Fall of 2017 brought a myriad of major environmental disasters (Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma, marjor earthquakes in Mexico and widespread fires in California and Spain) which called into question the the traditional responses to disaster. First, it was clear that traditional centralized responses were nolonger adequate to cope with the ever larger geographic scope of storms. We needed a decentralized model. Secondly, we were seeing that traditional models were unnecessarily compounding an already bad experience. We needed a more human way to responding, one that quickly empowered surviors, making them the owners of their community's recovery.
Our solution was to forge a corporate-NGO-volunteer partnership to develope a set of tools for communities to use in order to take charge and do-it-yourself (DIY) in the face of disasters. Our first effort is a light-weight, easy-to-use and visual guide to quickly setting up a community shelter. We wanted to provide just the right amount of information at the right time in order to ease communities through the difficult response and recovery process.
After conducting field research during Hurricane Harvey and the California wildfires, we brought together a group of disaster experts, researchers, designers and futurists for a two-day design-thinking workshop in San Francisco. Participants, which included representatives from the Field Innovation Team (FIT), Red Cross, Salvation Army, San Francisco Emergency Management, Singularity University and designers from BBVA’s Spring Studio. Here we explored a number of concepts before settling on a community shelter guide as our first step.
The guide is designed to foster a human-centered local community response and facilitate a smoother hand-off to formalized responses. Half reference and half workbook the guide is designed to be a workign tool during disaster. Shelter organizers are able to learn next steps, valuale tips and techniques and plan for their own response all in one space.
The guide has undergone expert peer review from the disaster response community and the team is currently preparing a pilot in North America.
Bringing government to the people
My role: Project Lead, guiding strategy, UX and research collaboration
Faced with a growing demand for services, the Califoria Department of Justice needed a strategy to upgrade an antiquated digital presence. They needed a new web presence but also ways to rethink the delivery of services. Spring Studio brought a user-centered approach to the project. Goals included:
- Improved overall user experience
- Increased usefulness and engagement for key user groups
- Strategic placement of content to support core messages
- Modernized visual design
- Responsive implementation
- Strategic roadmap to position the California DOJ as a national and global exemplar
We relized right away that the DoJ was facing the dual challenges of a wide and diverse user base as well as inherent mistrust from some core user groups. Our challenge was to find a way to meet one group's needs while not compromising another's. We also had to build a foundation of trust that would foster increased engagement. After understanding the 'who' we needed to better understand the existing journey.
Our solution began with a new high-level messaging strategy which acknowledged our opportunity to demonstrate the critical role CA DoJ plays in the lives of Californians by emphasizing how it’s championing the rights of residents and businesses throughout the state.
“We’re fighting every day for the rights of Californians” began the new vision/mission statement. We developed a set of design principles to help make this statement a reality.
The final design brought these principles to life with a persistent left navigation revealing the system structure and high level topics, a content-rich layout to facilitate quick scanning, an app-like layout to create consistency across devices and modern typography and vibrant color palette. We also surfaced the most requested resources so they would always be accessible.
Facilitating the perfect employment match
My role: Exeperience Lead, strategy, UX, research
Kinzaa, meaning little treasure, is disrupting conventional staffing by applying the dating model to find the BEST match. The platform consists of two mirrored portals: employer and recruit. Our goal was to create a one-stop shop for employers and recruits alike, with fewer and better quality matches, quicker application and recruitment workflows and rapidly scannable visualizations.
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After initial requirement, user, and competitor analysis, we created an information architecture diagram for the entire system. Our key demographic was split between employers (needing accurate matching to find the best recruit for the job with less time and hassle) and recruits (needing a quick application which leverages existing info and makes finding a job and finding THE RIGHT JOB easier and faster). As a result, a key feature of this system was mirrored portals for employers and recruits.
Recruits quickly import and create visual infographic-resumes. They are able to see potential employers and job matches in real-time, showing the experience and skills that are most relevant to that target market. Employers see the same info but reversed. Job listings are automatically matched based on experience, skills, education and personality. Recruits are able to sort and save jobs as they see fit.
Job listings are viewable in match-mode (highlighting the similarities) or gap-mode (highlights the differences), making screening faster and more efficient. Employers see recruit resumes the same way.
Key Kinzaa take-aways: Mirrored interface portals support consistency, promote expectations, facilitate modularity and ease of use, visual display of data facilitates fast scanning, data sort and filter options empower users.
Harnessing data for software security
My role: Experience Lead, strategy, UX, research
Our challenge was to redesign a world-class software security suite. Early on we identified a number of deeply rooted issues: too much information - not enough meaning, barriers to communication and collaboration, and even adversarial attitudes surrounding security itself. We also had a super complex and technical domain to master overnight. The game was on!
After a focused series of interviews, we created a light persona set. Four core users were identified, each with competing goals and needs. These user profiles along with a corresponding set of design principals, guided our work throughout the project.
Our initial concepts explored three competing interaction models each driven by a different question:
Functional Groupings - WHAT does the software do?
User Roles - WHO is the software for?
Workflow - HOW is the software used?
For each model we sketched the underlying concept, the corresponding IA and a high level wireframe flow. Based on the pros and cons of each approach, we decided that the workflow model best met our design goals.
Software security, it turned out, was a team sport, best resembling a relay race with traced handoffs.
A big challenge of this project was getting a handle on all the necessary data points. We produced a set of affinity diagrams, first for the existing product and later a revised and streamlined version to support the new design. Simultaneously, we explored a series of data visualization exercises. Our goal was to find the best way to display complex data, surfacing key insights users needed to accomplish their goals.
Our final wireframe set comprised nearly 200 screens and detailed the new system end-to-end. We had reimagined the product as an intuitive, highly visual, collaborative and incentivized workspace.
Many issues were solved during the redesign process: too much data, not enough meaning, murky, non-intuitive structure, difficulty navigating and finding needed information, poor integration with existing workflows and the software development lifecycle, feature and function gaps, repetitive and labor intensive workflows, top down system, old fashioned interface and visual design.
Other issues proved to be more complex. Some issues went beyond software UI into process and service design: security is seen as an obstacle, the security process is ad hoc, security issues are broader than any single software platform. We recommended a larger eco-system study to guide overall product strategy and define new opportunities.
Designing a K-12 Mixed-Learning System
My role: Project Lead, guiding strategy, UX and research collaboration
Our goal was to redesign SchoolLoop, an integrated learning management system, using a human centered design process. The initial focus was to reduce administrative workload so that teachers could spend more time doing what mattered most to them: teaching students. Along the way we also needed to plan for Common Core, extend the platform to primary schools, improve integration of multiple user types, and bake-in improved motivation and engagement for all users.
We identified three key issues we needed to wrap our heads around in order to approach the design in a targeted and efficient manner:
- How could we make grading easier? And, what comprises a grading journey?
- What are the similarities and difference between primary and secondary school experiences?
- Were some users more important than others?
After conducting primary research in schools, our understanding and insights crystalized into a multi-user journey map which identified key steps in the grading process, handoffs between user types, major tasks, emotions and core opportunities.
The journey maps were designed to work in conjunction with a set of comparative personas. These helped us focus our design efforts on key differences within the same user type.
A key part of our solution included a new gradebook to help teachers deal with Common Core Standards which track skill mastery rather than content knowledge. The interface automated many process and facilitated quick actions. The gradebook included easy ways to add assessments and create or access existing rubrics. We used infographics to help teachers quickly spot and react to trends, communicating directly with students and parents without navigating away.
A big take away from the SchoolLoop project was that design problems can be so specialized that sometimes its necessary to create new tools in order to get at the necessary information or insight. In this case, we created the combined journey maps and comparative personas to surface insights which would not have been visible otherwise.
Water, like air and climate, is a collective transnational resource, uniquely vulnerable to neglect and exploitation. According to the UN, shortage of clean water is a root cause of poverty, social instability and even war. Despite this magnitude, water issues have received very little attention. The issues involved are complex, diffuse, even depressing; making them inaccessible to many.
The Riverbed is a first-person interactive ecological mystery game designed to increase awareness and provide information about water use and misuse in an entertaining and engaging way. It is one of a growing number of interactive entertainment titles with a strong social message. The game focuses on political, economic, and social factors such as upstream/downstream, tragedy of the commons, conservation and sustainability, zero vs. positive sum, and unintended consequences. The Riverbed visually and physically (through gameplay) illustrates the incredible power of water to transform landscapes and lives.
The Riverbed is a serialized game composed of eight unique locations, comprising four levels. Each location will be released individually, as part of a viral marketing strategy. The game’s fictional narrative is based on real-world cases of the Aral Sea, and the Colorado and Ganges Rivers. Setting, story and gameplay focus on the social, economic, political and philosophical issues surrounding water.
The story begins on a barren desert plain. Panning the horizon, dark shapes are visible. Moving closer, the player realizes they are the rusting hulks of huge ships, somehow marooned in the desert. How and why they arrived here is the rst of many mysteries. Players take on the character of Mik Fisher whose quest is to solve the murder of his father, a prominent environmentalist involved in water treaty negotiations at the time of his death. By tracking down clues to the murder, players are immersed in the history of the valley, discovering what went wrong and why. Solving the murder provides players with an opportunity to ecologically restore the river and valley.
Human-Centered Change Management
Organisational change is defined as “a process of profound and radical change that orients an organisation in a new direction and takes it to an entirely different level of effectiveness.” But change is hard. It is generally agreed that 70% of change programmes fail.
Design has traditionally been applied to the innovation and creation of products and services. However, all the elements which make design powerful for innovating products and services are equally applicable for driving transformation within organizations.
Flipping the Traditional Models
Traditional hierarchical models of organizational change (Like Kotter and McKinsey) tend to rely on senior leadership and focus on process and efficiency before people. However, the complexity of today's world together with the speed of technological change is putting these models to the test.
Human-centered change recognizes that everyone in the organization must accept their ownership stake in the customer experience and have the power and agency to act for the benefit of the customer as well as their fellow employees. The focus is on people ad engagement first, creating a powerfull organizational value proposition for everyone in the organization to get behind and make leadership vision a reality.
Toward a New Model
A design focused model of change differs from the traditional models in significant ways. The most striking difference is that the former is circular, recongizing the need to test, imporve and continuously change. A second core difference is that human centered models, while recognizing the key role played by senior management, also recognize the limitations of that role. Complexity and speed of change require that the organization empower everyone within the organization to be aware and to exercise their own personal agency in tackling challenges.
Research-Driven Product & Service Design
There are two keys to producing great products and services. The first is a lean user-centered process which creates a strong fit between user needs and product benefits. By establishing this link, design lowers costs and risk while increasing efficiency and even employee engagement. The second half of the equation is an integrated agile process. Agile and design, often at odds in organizations, are in reality highly complementary and essential for each other's success.
While the design process comes in many forms, they all boil down to three essential steps.
Discovery and Understanding
Asking the right questions is the first step to creating a successful product or service which meets user needs and provides motivation to engage. The goal of this phase is to learn as much as possible about the user, the problem space, potential solutions and finally arrive at a clear framing of the problem to be solved.
This step is often characterized by field research. Deliverables include interviews, surveys, contextual inquiry findings, competitor and inspirational research, user and audience demographics, user personas, journey or service maps and detailed requirements analysis.
Ideation, Concepting & Prototyping
In this phase, we cast a wide net for ideas while also building a solid conceptual framework or mental model which provides the foundation for engaging and coherent experiences.
Cross-functional teams drawn from business, engineering and design create many concept models, diagrams and prototypes to examine the problem and solutions from as many angles as possible. The key is to learn fast and make pivotal decisions earaly while the cost of change is low.
This step is characterized by facilitated cross-team co-creation sessions. Outputs include concept maps, mind maps, mood boards, storyboards, information architectures, site taxonomies and maps, use cases, lots of sketches and prototypes.
Testing, Iteration & Implementation
By this stage, the process is often a mix of design and agile. Design is working to refine product or service ideas to more closely meet user needs while agile teams are begining the build phase with heavy support from design.
How much we learn from validation depends on using the right testing methodology for each stage in the process. Well designed tests mean accurate and useful results. I have years of testing experience and believe in testing early and often. This phase can consist of focus groups, surveys, lab based one-on-one user testing, remote testing, heuristic analysis, expert evaluation and design reviews.
Scaling with Design Systems, Processes & Education
New technologies are changing customer expectations and driving a wave of competition and disruption across many industries. For large organizations to remain competitive, design needs to scale into the organization and be accessible to everyone.
A big success differentiator is the creation of well-governed (and highly used) design processes, systems and education - essentially targeting tools, ways of working and people/culture.
Design Systems
Design Systems include design patterns/templates, visual assets and code components, common standards, best practices and customer insights. These tools capture common design and functional elements and standardize them for reuse across an entire product and service suite.
The benefits of a good design system are many: a common language across the organization, a faster and cheaper design process, and reduced design debt through efficient re-use of elements. The result is improved quality and consistency across products, a faster design and development process and improved collaboration and communication across teams and siloes.
Design Processes
For many companies, building and deploying the system is the easy part. The hard part is building consensus and governing the system. This takes hard work by a cross-functional team. It must be co-owned by key areas, have a rigorous set of governing processes and strong sponsorship from senior leadership.
Design is only a single part of the product and service creation process. To be effective, the design process must be closely aligned and integrated with adjacent processes like agile, marketing and strategic prioritization.
Design Education
To effectively use design, businesses must take design thinking and much of design doing beyond the Design Department and infuse it into the entire organization. Everyone needs to keep the customer first, collaborate effectively and appraoch challenges with a creative mindset and toolset.
The best way to learn is by doing. Hands-on projects should form the structure of all courses – taking participants from problem to prototype to testing. But design process and skills are only part of the story. To be effective in today’s business world, everyone must have a strong grasp of “soft” communication and leadership skills as well. Design, as a social technology, is a great way to teach empathy, collaboration, leadership skills, values, as well as build community through teamwork and workshop interactions.
For more details of my life as a student and teacher, please check out my curriculum vitae.
