My journey

I have spent over 20 years in design, including at premier design firms such as Method, Ziba Design, and McKinsey & Co, helping clients innovate in a changing world. As a design researcher my focus has been on human behavior: analyzing lifestyle and habit, and testing what needs to be adjusted in a product or service in order to fit into people’s lives more naturally and intuitively.

What I discovered along the way is that the methods developed in the technology space — design thinking, co-creative problem solving, working iteratively — have proven to work so well that they are now been adopted by all industries looking to innovate. However after many successful product launches, it’s clear that “great design” also brought unintended consequences. 

We know very well now how to optimize for engagement but at what cost? As a first generation user experience designer, many of us are taking a hard look at our responsibility for the untold levels of social alienation, mental health issues, and frayed social fabric. Is there a window of opportunity for course correction, to use the power of design to make our world a better place? To rebalance our relationship with nature and make people happier, healthier, and more fulfilled?

Insights

My personal response to this paradox was to go on a deeper inquiry of inner and outer change. It led my on a journey to discover what inner transformative work was needed for people who wanted to do transformative social change work. I traveled far and wide, studying mindfulness, buddhist psychology, indigenous knowledge systems, and living and studying with renowned spiritual leaders.

I am convinced that there is a brilliant creative intelligence within each person and have made it my mission to help people connect with that: to help them find the source of what makes them come alive and to find what is their part to play in redesigning our world. I believe that when we get in touch with this inner source, it has a multiplying effect that ripples out to reawakening the world we live in.