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Rethinking Risk in the 21st Century
Human-Centered Design Thinking Instills Organizational Competency for Greater Business Risk Mitigation.
By Kel Davison
Growth Strategist, Intersection-inc.
“It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.
If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” - Warren Buffet
A Human-Centered Design (HCD) mindset and tools equip an organization to face a challenging economy with greater insights and confidence. Risk mitigation, among other benefits, is inherent to Human-Centered Design.
The heightened interest in Human-Centered Design today is no coincidence. Changing consumer preferences, expectations and social connectivity have given the public an unprecedented voice and powerful political leverage. This has prompted business executives to start listening more to the needs and feedback of key stakeholders.
Human-Centered Design Thinking, was popularized outside the design industry through over the past decade through the publication of various articles published in top business journals, like the Harvard Business Review’s, Design Thinking Comes of Age (Kolko, 2015). Human-Centered Design Thinking is a methodology of creative thinking and problem-solving that uses an empathic lens to better understand end-user motivations and needs; shifting conventional product or service development practices from a focus on resources and competition to emotional drivers of behavior. Emotions are powerful. According to a recent report published by Forrester Research on the impact of emotions on business, “This is not a touchy-feely consideration about delighting customers as a matter of altruism: Emotion continues to be the most potent driver for growth. This is, at its heart, crass and clear financial risk” (Forrester Research, 2018).
Kel Davison
The Design Academy, Intersection-Inc.
San Diego, California
© 2018 Intersection-Inc All Rights Reserved
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Biography
Kel Davison | Growth Strategist, Intersection-Inc.
Before working with Intersection, Kel Davison served as the System Strategist for the National University System where she developed and managed the first System wide Innovation Program for the institution among other unique initiatives.
Her insatiable quest for learning and exploration has inspired her work across multiple industries, both non-profit and for-profit models, domestic and abroad. Her business operations, enterprise strategy and innovation model implementation background strengthens the approach to multi-faceted challenges and critical deliverables set forth by high-performing clients. Kel’s focus is on translating the value of Human-Centered Design to stakeholders and identifying how partner entities can win and transform through practical implementation of creative problem-solving practices.
Kel shepherded her own comprehensive Human-Centered Design project within a complex organizational structure and facilitated several Design Thinking workshops in diverse group environments. She is fluent in conducting a range of quantitative and qualitative research, facilitating interactive workshops and communicating impact with large audiences.
As a passionate champion for Human-Centered Design, Kel’s mission is to guide clients and community partners toward meaningful results that improve an organizational bottom line, instill an innovative culture and fortify social equity.