I toured John Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital’s innovation center in Washington DC, and was amazed at what they are accomplishing with their human-centered design approach. Their projects included everything from helping moms interact with newborns in the NICU, to a story-telling approach to make MRI machines less scary for children, to how patients park at the hospital.
Some key take-aways:
- Design thinking helps achieve strategic goals because you need innovation to be a transformation leader
- Design thinking starts with end user in mind
- Innovation is the middle of a Venn Diagram: Desirability (Human), Viability (Business), and Feasibility (Technical)
Their axioms included:
- Go Broad To Go Deep
- Fail Often and Early In Order To Succeed Sooner (Fail Forward)
- Value Diverse Thought
- If It’s Not Broken…Break It
- Any Innovation Will Never Be Successful If It Requires Additional Work
How are you using design thinking to innovate at your company?
