Overview
As a design leader, you know companies need to differentiate to stay in business. You’ve asked your colleagues to explain the business model and strategy, but you struggle to get a straight answer. Worse, you get contradicting responses.
You need a new approach.
In this course, you’ll first use visualization techniques to quickly learn how your company creates, delivers, and captures value. Secondly, you'll learn powerful soft skill techniques to better understand underlying stakeholder motivations and rationale.
- Visualize Dependencies Between Roles
- Find Unmet Business Needs
- Demonstrate Active Listening
- Use Empathy to Enhance Collaboration
Who is this for?
All levels
Program goal
Recognize how empathy relates to maturing your business perspective. Validate your assumptions about what your colleagues do and what they’re responsible for. Discover new ways to speak in the languages your colleagues receive. Create clear, concise framing statements to connect the value of your work to the outcomes your colleagues care about.
Topics Covered
The Value Activity Matrix
Quickly map the value of your activities to the outcomes your colleagues and partners care about. Rapid review of your craft and reasoning.
Empathy Mapping
Rapid empathize with your colleagues and stakeholders because they’re human too. Check your own assumptions about what their day-to-day responsibilities are, what keeps them up a night, and what they’re hoping to get if they do a good job.
The Imago Dialogue
Do you know what's hard? Being empathetic in-the-moment with someone you disagree with. Instead, use an active listening technique from relationship theory and learn how validating others can lead to positive, ground-breaking results.
EcoSystem Mapping
Identify the actors (business units, 3rd parties, customers), offerings (products and services), and channels (iOS, web, phone, in-store, etc.) your company or product provides.
Reaction Mapping
Map the reactions your partners have to the skills and capabilities you provide, how often you provide them, and why they’re valuable
Meet your Instructor
Ryan Rumsey
For 20+ years, Ryan worked as a designer and executive at Apple, Electronic Arts, USAA, Nestlé, and Comcast. He is also the author of Business Thinking for Designers.
Ryan spent 10+ years as the senior design leader charged with building and scaling design organizations.
For the last four years, Ryan has been teaching design executives, leaders, and teams as CEO of Second Wave Dive and lead instructor of CDO School.
