3 Things I Learned Working with Doug Dietz

Through my Commercial Leadership Program internship with GE this summer, I had the great fortune of working with renowned design thinking expert Doug Dietz. I participated in a design thinking session held by Doug during orientation week at the beginning of June. In July, I toured the Menlo Innovation Lab and GE Makerspace in Waukesha and completed another design thinking session there with some of GE’s high school interns. I learned a few things that I want to share:

1. Socialize your ideas early and often. — All too often, we hold ourselves back from expressing an idea because it’s not yet fully formed or comprehensively supported. Working with Doug, I realized it’s imperative to put your thoughts, even ones that aren’t fully grown, out to the world because the people around you can help turn them into something much greater. One of the major points of emphasis in Doug’s design thinking sessions was the “yes and” mentality, which ensures that you build upon the ideas of others rather than presenting objections. This thought pattern led to some pretty interesting and forward-thinking propositions at the sessions as everyone felt less inhibited to add to the discussion.
2. Leave assumptions behind. — Effective design thinking requires that one check their preconceptions at the door. In order to come up with truly innovative solutions, we often have to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch. Of course, we stand on the shoulders of giants and learn from those who came before us. However, that doesn’t mean we’re confined to doing things exactly as they’ve always been done, and we certainly don’t have to retain the same thought processes as our predecessors. New ways of thinking need room to grow, otherwise they might not get enough oxygen to see the light of day.
3. Empathize always. — Empathy is the foundation of design thinking. The underlying principle is that looking at a problem from the perspective of another results in better solutions. In Doug’s case with “Adventure Series” at UPMC, he was applying his skills as an industrial designer to solve a problem for children who undergo frightening scans. But Doug didn’t look at the problem like an industrial designer; he looked at it from the children’s point of view, literally ducking to eye-level with the youngsters to find their perspective. During our design thinking sessions, we focused on solving the problem in creative ways from the user’s point of view instead of the designer’s. Empathy is what makes us human, and it’s also what helps us optimize the way we design solutions for others.

Working with Doug Dietz was definitely one of the most inspiring parts of my summer. As I reflect on my internship experience, I look forward to applying the principles I learned through my design thinking sessions with Doug.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on August 9, 2017.