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- Are We Having Fun Yet?Link visible for attendees
Portland Design Thinkers are excited to welcome Rodney Echols: Are We Having Fun Yet? Finding Joy In Your Design Career
Rodney will introduce his BRIGHT framework—a practical methodology for cultivating joy and preventing burnout in design work. Using design thinking principles, he transformed his UX expertise into wellness tools that address the unique challenges creative professionals face, offering actionable techniques that go beyond typical self-care advice.
This interactive session blends design methodology with mental health strategies, featuring Rodney's signature humor and proven techniques for maintaining creative passion. You'll learn to apply UX principles to your own wellbeing through real-world case studies and contribute to discussions about sustainable creativity, walking away with frameworks you can implement immediately.
About Rodney Echols:
A curious creative entrepreneur and certified Design Thinking facilitator, Rodney also holds a certification as a remote meeting humor professional from the same instructor who teaches humor psychology at Stanford University's post-graduate program.In 2021, he founded a project called workgameperk.com as an outlet for his work-life neglect during the pandemic. A very busy minded UX and product designer the project has kept him busy as thought leader for wellbeing for creatives. Some highlights include the "Wellmade Podcast" - a series setting boundaries for self-care, he created digital projects (such as the biggest Self-care activity list on the internet, the BRIGHT framework for boredom, and "Do you know Joey": methods for joy at work) remote workshops. Now the project focuses on combining his longtime dream of being on a TV game show with his love for gamification and virtual events.
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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.
