Regenerative Design Process

DMBA 2020 Capstone Project by Erin Schnair, Holly McKenna, Sarah Grimm & Serena Chan

Who We Are

We are a group of four graduate students in the MBA in Design Strategy program at CCA: Sarah Grimm, Holly McKenna, Serena Chan, and Erin Schnair. We are all committed to not just what work we do, but how and why we do that work. For this reason, we joined forces for our DMBA capstone project, Fidu. This is a glimpse into our design process.

Trust the (Design) Process

The unknown is essential in the design process, for it provides space for innovative solutions to be revealed. It can be uncomfortable to start a project and not know where it will go; to be at the beginning and not see the end. For this reason, this process requires trust, in each of the collaborators and in the process itself, for it to show results.

For our capstone project at the DMBA, our team committed to trusting the (design) process and to building trust with one another. We launched our collaboration in the SF Botanical Gardens and defined our guiding principles for our adapted “Regenerative Design Process.” There are four pillars of this process: Human-Centeredness, Agility, Collaboration, and Equity. This is a case study of how we worked together, how each of these pillars came to life, and what we learned.

The Regenerative Design Process

Human-Centered

Working in a human-centered way meant maintaining connection to one another’s humanity, and listening deeply to each other and anyone we came in contact with regarding our work: interviewees, mentors, etc. We did this in the following ways:

• We began and closed every meeting with three collective breaths of compassion
• We began each meeting (whether in person or virtual) with a short, creative activity
• We welcomed personal check-ins, poems, and stretches at the beginning of the meetings, and when needed
• We incorporated the Green Lens framework that helped ground us in each others’ wholeness
• We practiced feedback in pods each week, and provided team process feedback every two months
• We reached out to people who had lived experiences in the problem space we identified
• We listened deeply to the people we interviewed and were mindful of their time and energy

Agile

Working in an agile way meant openness to change in our processes, roles, timeline, and end-product. We did this in the following ways:

• We set aside time to critique and iterate on our team processes and charter
• We mocked up product concepts, tested them with potential customers, and iterated again based on feedback
• We seamlessly shifted our in-person design jogs, to virtual design jogs, hosted on Mural
• We checked in each week at a “standup” meeting, that took the form of a Slack update on 1) what we’ve done, 2) what we’ll do next, and 3) what blockers we’re facing and any help we need
• A facilitator designed and time boxed our Design Jog exercises and incorporated breaks to keep us moving moving along

Collaborative

We worked in an organic, flat structure in person and then shifted to a full-remote virtual collaboration process with the start of shelter-in-place mid-semester:

• We met weekly for 4–5 hour co-working and design sprints
• We rotated design facilitators each sprint, taking turns crafting the agenda with warm-up activities, design exercises, and objectives
• We practiced co-creation with yes-and mindsets and active listening
• We worked in rotating pods to allow for more dedicated focus, autonomy, and accountability
• We switched our pods weekly to cross-pollinate and prevent siloing
• We used virtual collaboration tools including Zoom, Mural, Trello, Slack, and Google Drive

Equitable

With a commitment to practice design equity, we incorporated frameworks and practices from Pathways to Equity (link) and other equity design leaders. Design equity in practice included:

• We started off design jogs with reviewing Maria Nemeth’s Green Lens and committing to collaborating from this perspective
• We called for equity pauses to stop, reflect, and discuss ways we could work more equitably and inclusively
• We created time for individual reflection before sharing back to the group in design sprints to promote equity of voices, and prevent groupthink
• We incorporated opportunities for visual reflection and communication to meet the needs of our visual thinkers
• We checked in on equity of work when delegating deliverables

Closing Thoughts

The design process can be hard to trust, yet it is deeply rewarding, especially when teams are committed to developing interpersonal trust. In trusting each other and the process, we journeyed into the unknown, grew as individuals, strengthened as a team, and developed a business and product we could not have imagined at the start. Particular areas we would like to continue exploring are how to balance autonomy and co-creation, critique culture, and clarifying roles without rigidity. The journey taught us a great deal, and we have come to the finish line with a desire to continue learning, which is success in our book.