What we’re about
PDT is a community of creative problem solvers advancing human-centered design literacy through high-quality events, lively conversation, and practice-based development.
We're made up of all kinds of people: practitioners who use human-centered design methods and mindsets every day, designers and researchers, design strategists, Agile scrum leaders, urban planners, and many more who use or appreciate Design Thinking.
One way to define design thinking is that it is a mindset, approach, and set of tools and techniques for problem-solving and innovation anchored around human-centered design. Design thinking is different from other innovation and ideation processes in that it’s solution-based and user-centric rather than problem-based. This means it focuses on the solution to a problem instead of the problem itself. Design thinking is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity, and rationality to meet human needs and drive business success.
Typically, we meet monthly, mostly virtually, and occasionally in person. Our monthly meetings, announced through MeetUp, may be webinar-style, or interactive and focus on some topic of interest to our community.
But we're about more than just meetup events.
You can find information about our upcoming events as well as links to recordings of past events on our website [PortlandDesignThinkers.com](portlanddesignthinkers.com).
We have an active, private Slack workspace – it is a thriving online discussion space for all things design thinking. Please join us there --[ https://bit.ly/2JuQ2V6](https://bit.ly/2JuQ2V6).
We also have a private LinkedIn group. Please join us there as well – https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13997019/.
PDT is a volunteer-run organization. We rely on sponsors and donations to help us offset these costs. If you or your organization is interested in sponsorship opportunities, please contact Deb Mrazek (debmrazek@gmail.com ).
Upcoming events (1)
See all- Resilience by DesignLink visible for attendees
Portland Design Thinkers are excited to welcome Vikki Espinosa: Resilience by Design
What happens when your life or career gets knocked sideways?
In this interactive session, Vikki Espinosa shares her 3 Rs Framework—Resilience, Recovery, and Redesign—a personal and professional process for navigating disruption. Through real stories and design thinking tools, she explores how to recover from setbacks, redesign your path, and move forward with intention. Whether you're facing illness, injury, or unexpected change, this session invites you to reframe the chaos as a creative challenge.
You'll reflect on your current state, explore micro-recovery practices, identify what's no longer working, and design a tiny next step that aligns with your values. Vikki offers a trauma-aware, adult-learning-informed approach that supports all types of learners, with options to write, draw, map, or share their thoughts.
Attendees will leave with:
- A simple worksheet and personal reflection map
- Microrecovery tactics and reframing prompts
- A one-sentence reminder to carry forward
- A practical redesign plan that starts now
This session combines storytelling, psychology, and design thinking to help you navigate life's most challenging moments with flexibility, creativity, and resilience.
About our Speaker:
Vikki Espinosa is a writer, educator, and career strategist known for her practical, design-inspired approach to resilience and reinvention. Throughout her career, she's rebuilt more than once—navigating loss, identity shifts, and life-altering detours that demanded creativity, clarity, and grit.Drawing from both personal experience and decades of coaching, Vikki helps individuals and teams approach disruption as a design challenge—something to iterate on, not just survive. Her work focuses on taking small, smart steps forward, especially in moments of uncertainty.
She lives in Oregon with her husband and their rescue dog, and believes in the power each of us has to make the changes needed to lead a fulfilling and purpose-driven life.***
If you have any questions or would like to connect with other members of PDT, join our Slack community.PDT is a volunteer-run Oregon nonprofit organization, and as you can imagine, organizing events can be expensive. We rely on sponsors and donations to help us offset these costs. If you would like to help, we accept donations through Venmo @PortlandDesignThinkers.
