E102: Riverdale: Design Thinking Approach Wins Big Viewership & Respect
Release Date: 10/31/2019
E121: 3 Secret Ingredients of Branding with Bryton Udy
CanInnovate
This episode is for anyone professional and business owners that need to pivot. Bryton is now taking his knowledge and experience and helping small businesses and thought leaders find clarity and confidence in their own branding and marketing with his brand coaching company, At Heart Branding Co.
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E120: Find Flexible Talent & Work Environments with Jennifer Hargreaves
CanInnovate
Jennifer is the Founder and CEO of tellent and is on a mission to make work, work better for women. Her professional experience spans three continents across brand strategy and international market development and while her primary school teachers didn’t appreciate her questions challenging “why”, she embraces that curiosity and the perspective that comes with challenging the status quo to create impactful and lasting change.
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E119: Empower entrepreneurs to build better businesses and change the world with Keith Ippel
CanInnovate
This week, I sat down with Keith Ippel, the CEO & Co-founder of Spring. They are on a mission to help entrepreneurs change the world. First of all, Keith is the most down to earth person who is full of compassion, kindness and is genuinely there to help small-medium businesses get through whichever phase they are in. From idea to growth.
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E118: Driving change during a downturn with Richard Batchelor
CanInnovate
I get a chance to sit down and chat with the infamous Rich Batchelor, who is a global Organizational Change Management guru and disruptor. We are always told to embrace change, but COVID-19 has definitely been more than most people have bargained for. Rich and I really get down to talk about how to navigate change, when it’s so disruptive.
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E117: COVID-19, The Adult ‘Time-Out’ is a Gift w/ Jessie Lynn MacDonald
CanInnovate
COVID-19 is always on our mind, it’s what everyone is talking about. We look at the COVID-19 for the things that it took away from us, but what has COVID-19 provided us? Did COVID-19 actually give us a gift? Is this an opportunity?
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E116: How to beat procrastination and be productive during the Covid -19 Pandemic w/ Paul Minors
CanInnovate
Paul Minors is a productivity blogger and virtual consultant. In this episode we talked about how to beat procrastination and be productive.
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E115: Explore your curiosity during COVID with Julie Shum
CanInnovate
Are you finished baking and looking for other ideas to entertain yourself… well… I have the perfect guest. I get to chat with Julie Shum, who has been a friend for over two decades and she always provides me with the perfect boost of inspiration. I’m so #Grateful for having such a down to earth, inspirational friend
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E114: Could COVID-19 actually kill Narcissism?
CanInnovate
As we all embrace and adjust to the ‘New Normal’, the impact on humankind is going to be instrumental. The biggest thing that we have just been reminded us to stop and be really present.
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E113: 7 Tips on how to deal with overwhelm
CanInnovate
Life is always a rollercoaster! Lately, I’ve been overwhelmed by all the key activities that are in my life. It doesn’t help that I have a heightened sense of urgency. I like to get things done. It’s my favorite mode. Come up with a strategy, a plan to execute and just go!
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E112: 8 Secrets of Strong Women
CanInnovate
Everyday is Happy Women’s Day! You know why? because we choose our mindsets each day. Every morning when I’m in the shower, I’m thinking about the day and how to conquer it. Not, thinking about how it’s going to be a struggle. I look at all the opportunities in front of me and decide where I want to spend more time or less time on.
info_outlineI’ll be honest, I’ve always been a Brandon Walsh girl over Dylan McKay! I have to say, I just watched Netflix’s Riverdale episode, and how they honour Fred Andrew (who was played by Luke Perry). I have to say… WOW! They really nailed it!
How they handled Luke Perry’s death, was absolutely beautiful. The writers truly honoured Luke Perry and the audience that grew up with him. We got to truly mourn his death (here is a little photo tribute). My sister and I were bawling throughout the entire episode. These writers were definitely thinking with their hearts and that level of empathy was so evident. We actually felt like we attended his funeral and got to say goodbye to him. They invoked so many memories and really helped us along the journey. There were a few hidden surprises, that just took our breath away.
This got me thinking about how this is a great example of design thinking. First of all, we all hear the words design thinking but it’s hard to envision and understand. Design Thinking is Human- Centered design, versus system centered. The Riverdale show writers, really understood their target market. Having all the Riverdale parents being teen idol stars from the 80’s, we know from Luke Perry, Molly Ringwald, Mark Consuelos, Skeet Ulrich, Robin Givens & Mädchen Amick.
They really kept the audience in mind when writing this episode. They really understand & understood their target audience and the different audience personas. Which means that every piece of content speaks to the audience personas. Which is exactly why this Riverdale episode and the funeral of Fred Andrews (aka Luke Perry) was such a big deal. How they handled this so tastefully, will encourage even more loyalty.
Design Thinking provides a hybrid approach to problem solving. It does not just look at data analytics and science, it also uses emotions and intuition. Design Thinking really provides a hands-on-approach to problem solving. Not just researching on a computer or google to problem solve. It wants you to get out their on the field to talk to people to ‘hear’ & ‘understand’. Less talk and more action. It’s an iterative process, where we seek to understand the user, challenge ‘same-old’ assumptions , and redefine problems to identify additional opportunities. Design Thinking is a total shift to the mindset.
There are lots of times that we get caught up in meetings and not actually talking to people that would be impacted. We make decisions without doing early testing. Designing the solution in real-time with the actual end users (aka people that will be using their solution), is where you will hit that sweet spot.
Here are some tips for you to start to embrace design thinking
- Know thy audience, including audience Personas – get to truly understand your audience. What are they struggling with? What are worked well before? What doesn’t?
- Learn from Failures – so try and test early. Get out there and listen and learn. Don’t just sit there and google to do research. Design Thinking goes beyond a computer, it goes back to the basics (pre-internet time). Just get out there and talk to people!
- Embrace Ambiguity – don’t be afraid of not knowing things. This is where many folks fall victim to ‘Imposter Syndrome’. Look at the gaps and unknowns as clues. Play detective and enjoy the mystery. It will allow you to be open to hearing and exploring new possibilities. One of my favourite quotes “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”― Thomas A. Edison
- Iterate & continuously improve – don’t develop something and go into a black box, until you finish developing everything. Touch base with your customers/target audiences frequently, grab their feedback to improve things throughout the process.
I hope this helps. I’ve also included a free little checklist to help you find questions to gather feedback. Just click here REFLECTIONS AFTER ACTION REVIEW. It takes 10 minutes to do a reflection to thinking.
Let me know what your thoughts are.
Best Always,
Sapna