This Anthro Life
Beyond the Prototype: Navigating that Fuzzy Area between Ideas and Outcomes with Douglas Ferguson
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Episode notes
Today we talk with Voltage Control president Douglas Ferguson and we're taking you beyond the prototype. If you ever run a design sprint, or even if you simply sat down at your desk to think through a really cool idea for a product or a new podcast or how do we improve something in your neighborhood. You started the design process. The question is, how do you go from a good idea to putting something out into the world? Douglas helps us find out.
"You gotta slow down to go fast" - Douglas Ferguson
Voltage Control president, design thinking facilitator and innovation coach Douglas Ferguson recently published a book called Beyond the Prototype that aims to help teams and organizations (and individuals!) go from generating awesome ideas to implementing them. Over the course of our conversation we cover:
- the power of systems thinking
- seeing variables in the design ecosystem
- facilitation as model through systems thinking
- The connections between organizations and society.
- HR departments using design thinking to point the lens inward
- Caution that when we compress ideas there is opportunity to meaning to be lost
- Why facilitation is such a crucial role
- for example, realizing if you’re using one word to mean two things, or two words to mean the same thing - skilled facilitating brings these discrepancies and differences in meaning into focus for teams to help them overcome roadblocks in understanding
- Why so many start up founders get stuck on the idea of scale rather versus pursuing a smaller, but passion-driven idea
- How design facilitation sessions are about harnessing the power of the child’s mind - playful energy
- and debriefing as a crucial stage in any process: can you answer the question of why did we did this?
Links and Resources mentioned in today's episode
Jake Knapp - Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days
Greg Satell - Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change
David Epstein - Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
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