Design Methods Platform

Student User Journey

Prospective
Student

Student

Graduating
Student

Entry
Level
Practioner

Expert

Portal for project sponsorship,

exclusive RecruitID access, rank
student work

Temporary access to SeeIDstyle method

previews, synonymous term links,
method comparitor

Full access to
curated methods
library, templates,
and tutorials

Public methods
portfolio showing
5 star examples &
student-author

Exclusive access to methods

case studies in
exchange for
providing future
cases

Activity

Evaluate schools,
programs, and
disciplines.

Learning methods, diving in,

trying them

Preparing portfolio, interviewing,

selling your value

Merging into
proprietary processes unfamiliar
with methods

Driving process,
leading others,
turning the ship,
hiring collaborators

Need

Determine specialization, or
augmenting skill
set to study.

Gain experience,
learn by doing,
alignment to
courses taken,

Differentiate from
others (ID, MBA),
explaining design
methods & IDs
program

Establish credibility, feel secure

in employment,
demonstrate
value

Teach others in
the org, define
metrics, open
innovation, grow
company

Many dont
know there are
alternatives to an
MBA, or search
terms to explore

Curation needed,
uncommunicated
method evolution,
random curriculum progression

ID is selfselecting, nonaffiliates need

introduction and
validation to

Lone-ID-alums
need help selling
the value - even
at design firms,
culture change is
hard

Many experts
return to teach to
scout talent at a
deeper level

Design
Methods
Platform

Insight

Scott Massing | Communication Strategy | Kim Erwin | Spring 2013

Design Methods are like

ESP for collaborators

Some confuse design methods to be formulaic insight calculators, when their real value comes
from the communication required to populate them. This communication is what helps identify
insights and expose the opportunity.

Often we dont communicate what we mean

Scott Massing | Communication Strategy | Kim Erwin | Spring 2013

Design Methods help optimize communication

Design Methods: An Evolution In How Problems Are Solved

The old way asked what is?

The new way asks what could be?

Scott Massing | Communication Strategy | Kim Erwin | Spring 2013

Communication Plan
Engagement participants:
Full time ID students: a homogenous group that through the self-selecting onboarding process at ID
arrive already believing in the value of learning and using design methodology. Because of a lack of
naysayers in their learning environment, they may not develop the skills required to introduce and
justify the value created by the methods, or realize those skills may be critical towards initiating their
practice after graduation.
Engagement goal (What do I want them to do?):
Better understand how some external stakeholders, not as familiar with design methodology, may or
may not perceive ID and its methodology. Building upon that experience, they would begin
conceptualizing features of a platform to bridge this gap of misunderstanding, and afterwards be
motivated to provide seed content for a self-sustaining design methods platform.
Key Message:
Design methodologies are powerful tools, but involve a skillset foreign to many outside the design
industry. Working to understand the existing value systems related to innovation will benefit all design
students, even those targeting employment amongst the design savvy in a consultancy, as you may need
to convince a corporate client why she needs to pay for phases of work they do not understand.

Scott Massing | Communication Strategy | Kim Erwin | Spring 2013

Experience Plan
Background context.
Outside of Communication Strategy, Im taking a Design Planning Workshop that is assigned to
conceptualize what a platform related to Vijay Kumars 101 Design Methods book might embody. Our
group is considering the following personas: prospective students of ID, ID students, ID alumni,
prospective corporate participants, and consultancies. This Communication Plan will pull from that
research but primarily focus on the student persona.
The ID students from the Communication Plan (prior page) will participate and be joined by the
additional participants below (prospective graduate students, and recruiters).
Prospective Student Exercise
Prospective graduate school attendees with little knowledge of ID or design thinking will be selected by
filtering for undergraduate skill sets that synergize well with design thinking (MBA, engineering,
architecture, design, psychology, marketing, etc.).
The prospective students will have been told to review the ID website and anything else they can easily
find about ID prior to the engagement date, to answer the following questionnaire: what is taught at ID,
how it might be of value after graduation, what their thoughts are on how attending the school would or
would not benefit them, and any remaining questions theyd like answered.
The ID students will bring one piece of work that best demonstrates the value of design methods, and
be prepared to pitch it for no more than 3 minutes. The 3 prospective students will speed date
around a circle with the 3 ID students remaining at their stations. Each speed date will last 20 minutes
with the student first presenting their work for 3 minutes, and then both reviewing the prospective
students answers to the questionnaire and asking how the students presentation affected the
comprehension of ID (7 minutes). During the last 10 minutes they are to capture how the presentation
assisted in their understanding of ID and design methods, what questions remain, and what other tools,
content or media may have helped improve the prospective students comprehension of the subject.
Each student will have 3 cardboard boxes roughly 12x12x12. They will fill one out for each interview
they did. Each prospective students questions get adhered to cube side A. The corresponding answers,
presentation benefits, and suggestions for tools to augment comprehension go on side B. The
remaining sides will be filled out in the next two exercises.
Recruiter Exercise
Recruiters will be recruited from companies that would benefit from the skills taught at ID, but will not
have engaged ID prior. They will have been given access to the Recruit-ID resume book, told to review
the ID website and anything else they can easily find to complete the following questionnaire: what is
taught at ID, how it might be of value to their company, what their thoughts are on how hiring from the

Scott Massing | Communication Strategy | Kim Erwin | Spring 2013

school would or would not benefit their company, and also to record any remaining questions theyd
like answered.
The recruiters will also be asked to interview their companys executive responsible for innovation, and
determine what their thoughts are on sponsoring a semester long class of graduate students to reinvent
a segment of the business or product line. Theyd also be asked to obtain 3 key questions that would
need to be answered to secure funding of the sponsorship.
The 3 ID students will again remain at their stations with the recruiters speed dating around the circle of
stations, 20 minutes per station. The ID student will interview, the recruiter for 7 minutes about their
interview goals, HR needs, and understanding of the program and its emerging graduates. The student
will then present their work for 3 minutes and then review and record similar aspects as they did with
the prospective students (10 minutes) .
The recruiters needs will be captured and adhered to side C of the cubes from earlier. The
corresponding answers, presentation benefits, an d suggestions for tools to augment comprehension go
on side D. The remaining sides are reserved for the results of the Innovation Executive Exercise next.
Innovation Executive Elevator Pitch Exercise
The 3 ID students will again remain at their stations with the recruiters speed dating around the circle of
stations, 20 minutes per station. The ID student will interview the recruiter about what their executives
3 key questions were regarding sponsorship and then the two will work together for 10 minutes to
create a short 1 minute elevator pitch. The recruiter will play the executive and the student the
recruiter. They will get up and stand in the foam core elevator (2 sheets of 4x8 foam core in the
corner) and quickly show how the recruiter should convince the exec that they stand to benefit from
sponsoring a challenge at ID. Addressing each question with a solution provided by the platform.
The 3 questions will go on side E, with the rebuttals going on side F.
Wrap up
The cubes represent the platform, with opposite sides being the inputs and outputs with respect to
different stakeholder groups. All the stakeholder groups mentioned in the exercise are fairly extreme
non-users of our methodology, but if satisfied would ensure stakeholders with a higher alignment would
by default also be satisfied. The follow-up work would be to determine how the needs of one
stakeholder group could be met by another, so that a self-sustaining platform could be created. For
example, the students would be encouraged to submit work if it were publicly viewed by recruiters.
This in turn would help prospective students see what they would learn if they attended ID. This type of
synergy is what is being sought in potential platform concepts.

Scott Massing | Communication Strategy | Kim Erwin | Spring 2013