Upgrade to Pro — share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …

A Design State of Mind

Ben Holliday
October 24, 2019

A Design State of Mind

"A mindset is how we respond to the world around us. It acts as a center of gravity. It goes with you. It shapes who you are and what you do, wherever you are."

In this talk from Create Leicester 2019, Ben Holliday (Chief Design Officer at FutureGov) introduced how to think differently about how we use design as a way of responding and shaping the change happening all around us, exploring how creativity needs to be a capability and the foundation for how 21st Century organisations work.

Ben Holliday

October 24, 2019
Tweet

More Decks by Ben Holliday

Other Decks in Design

Transcript

  1. wearefuturegov.com
    A Design State of Mind
    Create Leicester 2019
    @benholliday

    View Slide

  2. hello
    hello

    View Slide

  3. Ben Holliday
    Twitter:
    @benholliday
    Website/blog:
    benholliday.com
    medium.com/@BenHolliday
    Zoe Stanton
    Twitter:
    @stantonzoe
    Blog:
    medium.com/
    @zoe_43818
    Zoe is an experienced
    design leader and
    FutureGov’s Experience
    Director, leading our work
    around client and staff
    experience.
    Alessandra Canella
    Twitter:
    @hello_lale
    Website:
    medium.com/
    @alessandracanella
    Ale is a Lead Service
    Designer at FutureGov
    and is leading work around
    service patterns for local
    government.
    (patterns.wearefuturegov.com)

    View Slide

  4. View Slide

  5. Why
    should
    anyone
    care?

    View Slide

  6. “Don't forget how fast things change,
    how quickly people change what they do
    as they conform and shape themselves
    from all that's around them.”
    Tony Benn

    View Slide

  7. “…an analogue business
    model in a digital world.”

    View Slide

  8. What
    is design
    good
    for?

    View Slide

  9. View Slide

  10. Reframing
    Creating
    Connecting
    Doing (as a way of learning)
    Continuing (to improve things)

    View Slide

  11. A design
    state of mind

    View Slide

  12. A design mindset is how we
    respond to our immediate
    surroundings and work. This
    means asking different types
    of questions, and requires a
    different set of responses to
    the challenges we face.

    View Slide

  13. [Billy Joel]

    View Slide

  14. A design
    state of mind

    View Slide

  15. FROM
    Business/technical perspective
    “It works like this to maintain BAU”
    Complexity
    “We’re dealing with great complexity”
    We can’t change that
    “Absolutely not…”
    Needing certainty
    “We need certainty”
    Fixed assumptions
    “How can we prove we’re right”
    Closed
    “There’s no need to share/make work visible”
    TO
    User-focussed
    “It could work like this for people in the future”
    Simplicity
    “Let’s go back to first principles”
    We can change that
    “Why not…”
    Not knowing
    “Ambiguity is okay, we can learn more by doing”
    Changing our minds
    “How might we be wrong about this”
    Open
    “Collaboration connects and creates new ideas”

    View Slide

  16. User-focussed

    View Slide

  17. View Slide

  18. It could look work like this
    for people in the future.
    User-focused

    View Slide

  19. “…mapping backwards, instead of
    relying solely on mapping forwards,
    concentrates the mind …it focuses
    [you] to think through operations
    from the beginning to the very end.”
    The Blunders of Our Governments – Anthony King
    A useful and usable vision

    View Slide

  20. Simplicity

    View Slide

  21. More focus on outcomes
    than process (as a way of
    navigating complexity).
    Simplicity

    View Slide

  22. Complex (complexity)
    means something that
    consists of many different
    and connected/
    component parts.

    View Slide

  23. Service map (navigating something complex)

    View Slide

  24. An outcomes based approach to complexity:
    - Creating simple models to communicate component
    parts of a bigger picture/system.
    - Framing challenges and priorities without being drawn
    into detail too early or in the wrong places.
    - Having a clear goal (vision/proposition) to work
    towards that helps us stay focussed on user-based
    and/or policy outcomes.

    View Slide

  25. Not over-complicating (and
    being able to visualise and
    communicate clearly).
    Simplicity

    View Slide

  26. Storyboarding

    View Slide

  27. User Experience
    (impact)
    Safeguarding
    outcomes (impact)
    Organisation
    capabilities
    Data security
    Service/systems view

    View Slide

  28. When dealing with
    complexity, let’s go
    back to first principles.
    Simplicity

    View Slide

  29. First principles is breaking
    something down to its most
    fundamental component parts,
    or what you believe is true.
    Then you work from there.

    View Slide

  30. “…[a framework or model] is purposefully reductive.
    It takes things away, emphasising only a small part
    of a large whole, so that we can focus only on what
    remains. A world map is a model of earth that
    removes nearly everything about the planet, leaving
    only relative masses, names of countries and cities,
    and overall proximity.”
    Jon Kolko

    View Slide

  31. We can change that

    View Slide

  32. View Slide

  33. Design is about imagining what
    the future could look like.
    Putting sticks in the ground.

    View Slide

  34. A big idea is better than
    having a big plan. People get
    behind ideas, and are inspired,
    engaged and take action
    because of ideas.

    View Slide

  35. Not knowing

    View Slide

  36. View Slide

  37. Ambiguity is holding
    opposing/different ideas in
    tension at the same time.

    View Slide

  38. Learning by doing
    is working with what
    you don’t know.

    View Slide

  39. Prototyping

    View Slide

  40. Starting
    Taking intuitive leaps
    Strong opinions (loosely held)
    Ideas in tension
    Confidence to let go of detail
    Doing the hard work (creatively)

    View Slide

  41. Changing our minds

    View Slide

  42. How can we prove
    we’re right?
    Changing our minds

    View Slide

  43. How can we prove
    we’re right?
    How might we be wrong
    about this?
    Changing our minds

    View Slide

  44. Open (creativity,
    ideas, and making
    new connections)

    View Slide

  45. View Slide

  46. …giving ourselves a way to
    see the world outside, as well
    as letting the world see us.

    View Slide

  47. Collaboration connects
    and creates new ideas.
    Open

    View Slide

  48. Open
    Are the result of new perspectives.
    They open new doors. Bad ideas
    restrict or close doors.
    Combine
    They’re combinations and
    connections between
    smaller ideas.
    Question
    They challenge accepted truths,
    principles, and the ways things
    currently work.
    Good ideas (the process of exploring & connecting)
    Adapt
    They’re able to adapt to
    future changes and new
    circumstances.
    Active
    They invite further exploration,
    and can be a call to action e.g. for
    testing and learning.
    Grow
    They generate more ideas which
    can improve on one another.

    View Slide

  49. Creativity should not be
    thought of as a specialist or
    localised resource, but as a
    competence that needs to be
    part of the fabric of 21st
    century organisations.

    View Slide

  50. What
    do
    you
    see?

    View Slide

  51. View Slide

  52. You get to design
    what happens next...

    View Slide

  53. Thanks
    @benholliday
    benholliday.com
    wearefuturegov.com

    View Slide