Design Thinking Accelerates Collaborative Innovation at a Pioneering Transit Agency
Client
Location
- Seattle, WA
Organization Type
Government agency
Service
2 Day Workshop Design Thinking: 101 + Design Thinking: Application
(#Tags)
accessibility, cross-department collaboration, customer service, Design Thinking, innovation and creativity, marketing and business development, organizational development, systems and processes, team buildingReal-World Requirements
A recent reorganizaton at King County Metro had resulted in a new market innovation division, charged with expanding network reach and transportation options through employer partnerships, direct community engagement, and increased mobility and accessibility offerings. With an ambitious new charter and a number of new team members, it was important to set a collaborative tone and to get everyone working quickly and embracing iteration to fuel breakthrough innovation.
A key priority was to get the new team thinking about how it could better meet the needs of its customers—breaking down barriers and opening up new opportunities for the full range of transit riders as well as the internal partners who would be instrumental in developing and implementing new ideas.
Insightful Experiences
On Day 1, we gathered 40 participants for our flagship Design Thinking: 101 training program, our fast-paced, experiential immersion into the core concepts of design thinking. We introduced our best practices and techniques for framing problem statements, deepening customer empathy, interviewing, and creating helpful customer profiles. We kicked off each activity with improv exercises to help attendees open themselves up to new skills, new mindsets, and new capacity for creative leadership.
“The improvisation worked really well—they really enjoyed it, and it helped everyone push themselves out of their constraints a little bit.”
CAROL COOPER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MARKET INNOVATION, KING COUNTY METRO
With the design thinking process of Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test as a guide, the team broke into groups to put what they had learned into practice. To keep the stakes low, we focused on the experience of airplane travel — a topic that was familiar to all, but unrelated to their job responsibilities.
Fueled by the hypothetical problem solving of Day 1, the team was ready to delve into the practical Design Thinking: Application session of Day 2, which focused on: How might we reimagine how Market Innovation engages with internal agency partners when pursuing new ideas?
This part of the workshop gave participants the opportunity to go deeper into the Empathize, Define, and Ideate phases of the process by gathering actionable customer insights through interviews. After learning strategies for writing thoughtful questions and creating an effective discussion guide, the participants interviewed actual internal agency partners they’d be working with and synthesized their findings.
“The feedback was very, very positive. The [design thinking] concept is intuitively in line with how they think they should be working. People found the exercises engaging and relatable. The process made sense; they could do the steps and understand how it all flowed.”
CAROL COOPER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MARKET INNOVATION, KING COUNTY METRO
Inspired Results
The team came out of the workshop excited to incorporate design thinking into their work and held a follow-up ideation session to explore how they could apply their new knowledge. One group proactively started conducting more customer interviews, using the methods and best practices they had learned.
“I was really pleased with both days; you were incredibly well organized. It exceeded my expectations. The feedback I’ve gotten from everyone has been very positive. Folks are really excited about using what they learned and plunging right in.”
CAROL COOPER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MARKET INNOVATION, KING COUNTY METRO
As a result of their experience, the team also developed a deeper appreciation of the importance of including diverse perspectives beyond their own immediate experience. The director has observed a strong commitment to using and building on the new toolset.
As part of the follow-up coaching included with every Design Thinking: Application session, we worked with a small group of participants to help them apply a human-centered lens to their internal communication and information-sharing initiatives. The team’s leaders have expressed interest in additional coaching and follow-up applications to continue to build on their new expertise.
Mindhatch Moments
To what extent did the completed project meet expectations and objectives, and achieve desired outcomes?
“Exceeded expectations.”
“Prepare for everything and roll with the unexpected.”