CORE TOOLS
Human-centered design, also known as design thinking, is an approach to problem-solving that includes a deep inquiry into the needs of people using the product or service, creative brainstorming, and repeated prototypes.
The simplicity and flexibility of the framework allows organizations to develop and test new ideas to make sure they meet real needs, generally in a fairly quick and low-resource way.
Human-centered design has been popularized by organizations such as Stanford's d.school and IDEO. Once the province of designers and engineers, design thinking is now being adapted and applied to a wide range of uses, from health care services to education.
Lean startup principles, developed by Eric Ries, draw from lean manufacturing to establish a framework to design and test new products or business concepts. The concept of "lean" development has its roots in lean manufacturing principles that emphasize reducing waste and inefficiencies. The core focus is on clients' needs, prototyping, and testing in a series of iterations.
Lean analytics is a systematic process used to determine what you need to learn, choose the most effective metrics, and assess the impact of your work.
Design thinking is an approach to problem-solving that includes a deep inquiry into the needs of people using the product or service, creative brainstorming, and repeated prototypes.
The Four Disciplines of Execution, with its emphasis on a Wildly Important Goal, is a framework for highly disciplined execution. It gets the whole team focused on what activities will move the needle to maximize impact.
View the Theory of Change questions to think through how change happens in your field and your organization’s role in the overall ecosystem.
Download the KIC Assessment and Next Steps templates and additional resources.
GET INSPIRED
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Summer 2015
By Peter Murray & Steve Ma
“The work of innovation can be slow and cumbersome—particularly in the social sector. But by adopting a model that is increasingly common in the business world, nonprofit organizations can launch, test, and implement new programs and services more efficiently and more effectively.”
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By IDEO
“In 2009, IDEO designed and launched the HCD Toolkit, a first-of-its-kind book that laid out how and why human-centered design can impact the social sector. In short order, a community of designers, entrepreneurs, and social sector innovators embraced it, buying and downloading over 150,000 copies.”
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Stanford d.School
The d.School has curated a collection of resources from their classes and workshops for you to explore. Use these activities, tools, and how-tos as a starting point — hack them for whatever challenge you’re working on.
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ABC Nightline challenges IDEO to redesign the shopping cart in 5 days.
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See how the Nordstrom Innovation Lab created, tested and built an iPad app in just one week.
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14 FEB 2011
RESEARCH & IDEAS, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOLby Carmen Nobel
“About 95 percent of new products fail. The problem often is that their creators are using an ineffective market segmentation mechanism, according to HBS professor Clayton Christensen. It's time for companies to look at products the way customers do: as a way to get a job done.”
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August 11, 2010
By Ash Maurya
“The validated learning loop is the fundamental feedback loop that drives a lean startup:
Even though this diagram shows “CODE” as the artifact of BUILD, I subscribe to a much looser interpretation of BUILD that applies to anything you create for the purpose of learning from customers. So, a problem presentation, landing page, and even components of your business model are all examples of BUILD artifacts.”
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By Avinash Kaushik
“This should not be news to you. To win in business you need to follow this process: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act. Online, offline or nonline.
Yet this structure rarely exists in companies.”
CREATIVE THINKING
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March 1, 2015
By Zafer Achi and Jennifer Garvey Berger
“In an unpredictable world, executives should stretch beyond managing the probable.”
This article from McKinsey offers ways to break out of assumptions by asking different questions or taking different perspectives.
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By Kimberly Bringas
“Conflict is a scary beast we encounter periodically through our personal and professional lives.
Like all perceived threats, our natural inclinations are to either flee or fight, neither of which is particularly useful in interpersonal conflict. However, they’re likely the only two responses you’ve ever learned.”
This “lightweight conflict resolution process” gives a great overview of how we get triggered into conflict (like threats to our competence or our “lightweight conflict resolution process” autonomy)—and what to do about it when we do.
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By Alison Peters
Check out my webinar on Leading With Curiosity, about how to build a curious mindset to design better practices for managing change.
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June 2, 2017
By Denis Weil
“Making effective use of the creative power of design requires engaging entire organizations—from leadership to the front lines.”
Many human-centered design tools need reshaping to fit the nonprofit world. Prototyping, for example, needs some rethinking to work in complex ecosystems. This article from Stanford Social Innovation Review offers suggestions on how.