Design strategy: figuring out what the heck to design

Have you been tangled up designing for a complex problem with no solution in sight?

Samantha Dempsey will be giving a talk and an interactive workshop that will guide participants through the snarls of early stage design discovery for sticky problems. Participants will be introduced to the design strategy tools and mindsets needed to forge a path from problem definition to solution concept. We’ll explore how to use design research and facilitation to move teams collectively from assumptions to meaningful rapid prototyping to validated solution concepts. We’ll also discuss common mistakes and share examples of times when we got it right. And it won’t be all talk! Participants will have the opportunity to practice their new skills by applying them to real live problems.

About Samantha
She's a human-centered designer and researcher co-creating experiences, services, and products that promote healthy and equitable
communities. Her experience includes designing at Foundation Medicine, Hennepin Healthcare System’s Upstream Health Innovations, the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation, and Mad*Pow. Samantha has also served as the co-creator of the Designer's Oath and sits on the board of directors for the nonprofit Creature Conserve advocating for collaboration between artists and scientists. She holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. When she is not designing, Samantha enjoys embroidering patterns of bacteria onto household
objects.