https://www.creatingconditions.com/projects-1 daily 1.0 2020-05-28 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55d23071c10bb86403e5e2/1549140625727/Screen+Shot+2019-02-02+at+12.11.21+PM.png Projects - Design Research Design research and customer-centric consulting for new products, experiences, and services https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55d2cc104c7b514752fcde/1549140620001/Screen+Shot+2019-02-02+at+12.12.52+PM.png Projects - Organizational Design Prototypes and initiatives for creative and effective teams, groups, and communities https://www.creatingconditions.com/gumbolive daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c61bf92eb39314271f3b4cd/1549909916082/nola2.png New Page - Radical Experiments in Creative Process CHALLENGE: Develop a working model for an innovation incubator designed to invigorate the marketing and advertising industry with unique perspectives and revolutionary ideas. PROCESS & APPROACH: Structured as a non-hierarchical experimental ‘idea factory,’ GumboLive was created with the belief that the best ideas emerge from interaction and collaboration between people of diverse perspectives (who are not governed by limiting beliefs acquired while working in advertising). Operating as an minimum viable organization producing intellectual capital, we solved briefs and hosted workshops for IPG’s vast network of agencies. Engaging the endlessly inspiring environment of New Orleans in our work, the city taught us that the most powerful sense of belonging emerges from a culture of celebration, organic communion, and practiced appreciation. These insights became the guiding tenets of our project work and our approach to creative process and practice. Deliverables included a variety of formats for communicating concepts—white papers, decks, videos, and interactive presentations. RESULTS: Between 2012 and 2015, GumboLive solved more than 200 briefs that delivered industry-changing creative ideas.After 3 years of organizational R&D, we developed three distinct revenue-generating business models for future idea-incubators. https://www.creatingconditions.com/innovationprojects daily 0.75 2020-05-28 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55f2cbee6eb0443f6bb24f/1549140320576/thumburbancooling.jpg Innovation Projects - Fighting Urban Heat Island Effect Like a Forest https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55f5a70d92978c05b44767/1549140298121/thumbpostretial.png Innovation Projects - Creating the Future of Post Retail Environments https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55f318085229a138aafd59/1549140336047/thumbincarcomm.jpg Innovation Projects - Understanding In-Car Communication https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55f58b71c10bb864057ed8/1549140265910/thumbmobileistening.png Innovation Projects - Reimagining Mobile Listening https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55f363085229a138ab008a/1549140363712/thumbhealthoutcomes.png Innovation Projects - Opening Minds to Improve Health Outcomes https://www.creatingconditions.com/organizationaldesign daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55f98f652dead3277b0997/1549295857203/Screen+Shot+2019-02-02+at+12.41.49+PM.png org design work - Radical Experiments in Creative Process https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55ff5024a694539d170955/1549910083058/thumblegocspace.png org design work - Defining the Future of the D&I Team https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55fb64104c7b514754b922/1549296196746/nb.jpg org design work - Applying Nature’s Genius to Unlock Ideas https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55fbb4419202e8ac1663ad/1549296215986/thumblivinglab.jpg org design work - Embedding Innovation into Natural Ecosystems https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c55f8c37817f790cc009e6a/1549295864228/thumbskyord.png org design work - Instilling Curiosity into Start Up Culture https://www.creatingconditions.com/skyword daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c586131eef1a137a4f957a5/1549295948148/skyword.png Skyword - Instilling curiosity into start-up culture CHALLENGE: Define, develop, and instill effective and scalable creative processes into a young content marketing start-up. Work across all client service teams within the organization to enable more effective collaboration and ideation; elevate creative outputs and enable formation of trusted advisor relationships with clients. Cultivate a more creative culture across the board. PROCESS & APPROACH: Embedding deeply into the organization granted access to key stakeholder perspectives, from the interns to the C suite. Working directly with client services teams to elevate the quality of their content programs created empathy and shared understanding quickly, revealing opportunities for positive change beyond the original scope. The approach was two pronged: 1) design, test, and refine a suite of bespoke design-thinking processes for brainstorming and developing new content ideas; and 2) inspire and cultivate a culture shift that empowers employees at all levels to be change-makers within the company as well as the industry of content marketing. Outcome: Developed and instilled a custom framework of brainstorming processes throughout the organization. Founded Bridge Teams, a program enabling any employee to form and lead a special-ops team to solve a problem or improve the company. RESULTS: After adopting new tools, Skyword’s culture developed a new sense of permission and creative confidence, emerging as a leader within the developing field of content marketing. Skyword received $30m of funding in 2018. https://www.creatingconditions.com/legoseriousplay daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c5861bb4e17b656b09b6e82/1549296067218/dand1.png Legoseriousplay - Defining the future of the D&I team CHALLENGE: Design + Innovation at C Space is formed of multiple teams that share resources. Busy teams working on separate projects means it can be hard to collaborate and share a cohesive identity. Joining forces with other trained Lego Serious Play facilitators, we proposed a plan for an LSP workshop to co-create a future-state vision of a more collaborative department that optimizes resources, skillsets, and abilities. PROCESS & APPROACH: We planned and executed a half day LSP workshop for the D&I team that would generate a new vision of the team’s future. The session plan included general upskilling in the Lego Serious Play method, empathy building, and creating a shared vision of our current state. Including each perspective in the room, we built an interactive model of our future state that included barriers and pathways for transformation. RESULTS: Creating a 3D visual representation of ‘who we are now’ generated a much needed shared understanding of our current context—especially for entry-level team members who had little understanding of our context. The future-state model allowed us all to envision new possibilities while spawning clear goals and directional purpose. The process revealed our biggest weaknesses and strengths and allowed for easy brainstorming and real-time strategy development, ultimately forging a flexible pathway to our future vision. https://www.creatingconditions.com/naturebites daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c586274f4e1fced3ce0f635/1549296249368/ naturebites - Applying nature’s genius to unlock ideas CHALLENGE: Create an easy way for organizations to integrate biomimicry thinking into their design process and discover more efficient and effective solutions. APPROACH: Co-founded with biologist Timothy McGee of Seattle based studio LikoLab, Nature Bites emerged from a need to create awareness and understanding for applying biomimicry at systemic levels—not solely for physical or mechanical product innovation, but for more complex challenges as well—civic planning, social issues, organizational design, and design for social change. Life on Earth has spent billions of years evolving solutions to every problem imaginable, Nature Bites offers easy access this vibrant living resource of nature's evolved solutions. We work with design teams to unlock new opportunities and insights that lead to successful and sustainable outcomes. RESULTS: Our Nature Bites process is simple, quick, and inspiring – a structured 30 minute session to define the problem, 3 days of research and synthesis on our end, then a 1 hour video workshop to deliver and socialize nature’s solutions and insights. We provide real value by connecting our clients to 3.8 billion years of research and development. Our output of easy-to-digest visual case studies creates sticky mental models that unlock new ways of seeing and solving the problem at hand. We do it all quickly and without breaking the project budget. https://www.creatingconditions.com/thelivinglab daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c5862d74785d39e50e91a93/1549296362392/livinglab.png thelivinglab - Embedding innovation into natural ecosystems CHALLENGE: [Proactive Project] Create the future vision for an interdisciplinary biomimicry innovation center—a purposeful and sustainable community embedded in nature—also serving as the central hub connecting biomimicry practitioners across all disciplines and locations. PROPOSED APPROACH, PHASE 1: Initial research and discovery will span industries and history to understand ecological and philosophical perspectives on the relationship between humans and earth, as well as the factors that create the conditions for successful innovation. We’ll tap into our networks and engage a wide range of perspectives (futurists, founders, scientists, anarchists, government leaders, city planners, historians, and more) for interviews, discussions, and ideation activities around the inception of new societies and complex human systems. To design everything from business models to water filtration systems, we’ll engage the public in co-creation using digital platforms, social media, public engagements, and live test sites. Social media provides a platform to demonstrate ideas and raise awareness: Eco-pioneers will document short stays at communes and in the wild. We’ll spend time with students to understand how young people want to work, create, and live in the future. We’ll engage with the elderly to understand how life purpose is realized, and how the American Dream has evolved. We’ll look throughout time, species, and disciplines to understand how societies and communities form, and what allows them to thrive. Phase 1 goals: Discover guiding insights. Build awareness and presence. Find collaborators and potential partners. Generate 3 to 5 variations of a roadmap and strategic vision based on feasible resourcing strategies. https://www.creatingconditions.com/mobilelistening daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c585c189b747a21baf81399/1549294627090/mobilelistening.png mobilelistening - Reimagining mobile listening CHALLENGE: Generate customer insights to fuel the exploratory research phase of a cross-functional multi-stakeholder innovation program for an audio equipment manufacturer seeking to redefine personal and social listening experiences in and out of the home. PROCESS & APPROACH: We leveraged the research capabilities of our online community to engage members in interactive design challenges and surveys to uncover listening needs, behaviors, and pain points. We immersed in our client’s organization to absorb stakeholder perspectives, optimize the relationship, and represent the voice of the customer in the war room and behind the curtain during in-person use tests. Deliverables included weekly research newsletters, synthesized insights, and a final summary report to guide product design and refinement. RESULTS: We designed a novel final deliverable to ensure our research was accessible and easy to navigate for the teams completing the final stages of product development. The ‘Field Guide to Listening Ecosystems’ is an interactive PDF that functions like a website and contains 10 weeks of raw (and synthesized) data. Using the lens of biological ecosystem health, we identified three key innovation opportunity areas around the experience of personal-portable listening: Anticipate Disruption, Fit Form to Function, and Optimize Resource Allocation. The ecosystem framework proves to be an invaluable tool to the stakeholder team as they socialize guiding insights and transition from prototyping to final designs. Products under final stages of development as of December 2018. https://www.creatingconditions.com/postretailenvironments daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c585d35652dea18a300ed8d/1549294932431/futureofretail.png postretailenvironments - Creating the future of post-retail environments CHALLENGE: Reimagine the entire customer experience in and around our client’s commercial real estate properties (big box store lots) across the United States, and identify scalable future use strategies for the spaces, from 3 to 10 years out. PROCESS & APPROACH: We approached the challenge from many angles—engaging customers in online research communities, bringing stakeholders together for alignment and scoping sessions using the Lego Serious Play method, and finally bringing customers and stakeholders together for an immersive innovation sprint. To optimize and validate the strategic visions that emerged from our workshops, we tested and improved the concepts in our research communities before final rendering in VR and large scale quantitative evaluation. RESULTS: Keeping customers at the center of the work throughout the project enabled us to deep dive into their perspectives and identify a strategic framework that leveraged space and partnerships for future needs—a scalable strategy that allowed for localized experiences. Our work led our client to move away from their ‘highest bidder’ approach to leasing space on their lots, and toward a modular, location-specific framework for services and real estate partnerships, which optimized flexibility and maximized overall return. The winning strategy ‘Better Together’ is designed to reflect and elevate the unique character and needs of local communities. The concept is currently being prototyped in customer-facing test stores. See more on the test stores here: https://www.walmartreimagined.com/reimagined-centers/ https://www.creatingconditions.com/fightinglikeaforest daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c585e52ec212dc059595a78/1549295207567/urbanheat.png fightinglikeaforest - Fighting Urban Heat Island Effect like a Forest CHALLENGE: How can we effectively mitigate the urban heat island effect in Cambridge, Massachusetts? UHI is a phenomenon created by the architecture and infrastructure of built environments where summer temperatures in dense urban areas become significantly warmer (10’-30’F) than nearby parks and forested neighborhoods. BACKGROUND: The Climate Protection Action Committee has developed a series of goals for 2020, one of which is to minimize the urban heat island effect by developing UHI reduction programs, policies, and design solutions. To support this goal The City of Cambridge engaged with innovators, entrepreneurs, scientists, and inventors from around the world to create localized solutions that mitigate UHI. Our team of designers and biologists at LikoLab joined forces with Biomimicry New England to bring our idea to life: beautiful net installations that cool cities on hot days by recreating the cooling effects of forests. The concept was one of 6 winners chosen to pitch to the City of Cambridge and present at MIT’s international conference, Crowds and Climate in 2015. RESULTS: The design of the service providing nets mimics several cooling forest functions: the nets provide shade and shelter for life beneath to thrive; they capture and disperse falling rain water, decreasing runoff and evaporation; and the organic shapes recreate wind generating effects of forests (varied texture, form, and light refraction). We’ll leverage the visibility of these installations to incite conversations about climate change and pose the question, "How can a city function like a forest?” https://www.creatingconditions.com/incarcommunication daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c585ed424a694eab8e0bc60/1549295337103/incarcommune.png incarcommunication - Understanding in-car communication needs CHALLENGE: Observe in-vehicle communication and behaviors during daily drives to understand the unmet needs and opportunities to improve the experience of being in a car together. PROCESS & APPROACH: We observed more than 50 hours of dash cam drive footage from 15 select participants from our online research community (individuals and families) to uncover actionable insights and clear strategic directions to inspire new product innovations. Providing customers with tiny incognito dash cams allowed us to capture authentic moments that occurred during drives. In addition to video footage, customers submitted longitudinal journals charting their experiences, and participated in a concluding survey to validate insights and test ideas to improve in-car communication. Deliverables included compiled and edited drive footage, a summary video, and a detailed final report with templates for stakeholder design teams. RESULTS: Although many unpredictable factors affect in-car communication, we discovered that communication needs fall into specific patterns based on the arrangement of people in the car. Five distinct scenarios emerged and became the organizing framework for our final report and design templates to guide engineering and product teams in product development. Our observations revealed emergent ‘languages’ composed of collaboration, gestures, and non-verbal sounds, and highlighted the impact of seating arrangements on relationships and in-car social dynamics. https://www.creatingconditions.com/openingminds daily 0.75 2019-03-13 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ba91c76b7c92ce6bc4608f4/t/5c585f8b15fcc0dce401e71a/1549295506970/hpv.png openingminds - Opening minds to improve health outcomes CHALLENGE: Develop messaging and engagement strategies to shape cultural attitudes and behaviors around HPV and cervical cancer. Upskill project stakeholders with inspired creative confidence to takeaway and instill throughout their organization. PROCESS & APPROACH: Researching across history and industries, we analyzed a broad range of frameworks and catalysts for cultural change—women’s suffrage, alternative medicine, adoption of seatbelts, the film Philadelphia, #MeToo, and more. We engaged a diverse group of experts (political strategists to behavioral scientists) for in-depth interviews on sparking cultural change. The project culminated in Boston for two days of immersive experiences and creative upskilling: At the MFA, we opened our minds and learned to ‘see, think, and do’ like great artists before diving into a full day of collaboration with systems thinkers, entrepreneurs, and social leaders creating big ideas to catalyze change. Project deliverables included weekly research newsletters, a detailed final report, and a summary video bringing viewers into the process and spirit of the work. RESULTS: We identified three key stakeholder groups who need to be engaged in order to spark a movement that changes attitudes at scale: HCPs, families, and young adults. Mapping stakeholder ecosystems frames the problem from key perspectives, revealing intervention points to leverage for change.