Beyond the Prototype: Navigating that Fuzzy Area between Ideas and Outcomes with Douglas Ferguson

05/06/20 • 71 min

Today we talk with Voltage Control president Douglas Ferguson and we're taking you beyond the prototype. If you ever run a design sprint, or even if you simply sat down at your desk to think through a really cool idea for a product or a new podcast or how do we improve something in your neighborhood. You started the design process. The question is, how do you go from a good idea to putting something out into the world? Douglas helps us find out.
"You gotta slow down to go fast" - Douglas Ferguson
Voltage Control president, design thinking facilitator and innovation coach Douglas Ferguson recently published a book called Beyond the Prototype that aims to help teams and organizations (and individuals!) go from generating awesome ideas to implementing them. Over the course of our conversation we cover:
the power of systems thinking
seeing variables in the design ecosystem
facilitation as model through systems thinking
The connections between organizations and society.
HR departments using design thinking to point the lens inward
Caution that when we compress ideas there is opportunity to meaning to be lost
Why facilitation is such a crucial role
for example, realizing if you’re using one word to mean two things, or two words to mean the same thing - skilled facilitating brings these discrepancies and differences in meaning into focus for teams to help them overcome roadblocks in understanding
Why so many start up founders get stuck on the idea of scale rather versus pursuing a smaller, but passion-driven idea
How design facilitation sessions are about harnessing the power of the child’s mind - playful energy
and debriefing as a crucial stage in any process: can you answer the question of why did we did this?
Links and Resources mentioned in today's episode
voltagecontrol.com
beyondtheprototype.com
startwithin.com
Beyond the Prototype book
Jake Knapp - Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days
Greg Satell - Cascades: How to Create a Movement that Drives Transformational Change
David Epstein - Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
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Previous Episode

How Do You Make a 2.4 Billion Dollar Observatory Disappear?

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a next-generation observatory currently under development that has created a watershed moment for the scientific community and Hawaiian society. This is because of its planned location on Mauna Kea... the most sacred mountain in the Hawaiian religion. But the case of TMT and Mauna Kea is not an outlier because mountain summits often have profound meanings to both indigenous cultural practitioners and technology developers. For example, Kanamota is another sacred mountain that is the site of technological development. It's also known as Mount Saint Helena. Ian Garrett is the co-founder and director of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) and an Associate Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University. He's collaborating with indigenous communities to understand and express how contested spaces are experienced through virtual reality. In this second installment of Starstruck, we talk with him about his ongoing collaborations with indigenous communities and explore the use of diminished reality to make the observatories on Mauna Kea disappear.
Starstruck Episode 001
Check out our Prelude episode on the background of the Thirty Meter Telescope, Will We Find God with this Machine?
Produced by Adam Gamwell + Missing Link Studios + Mindshare
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Next Episode

The Connected Cup: Coffee, Tea, Happiness and Visual Storytelling Around the Globe with Documentarian Brooke Bierhaus

What is it about coffee and tea - two simple drinks - that both transcends culture and is intimately bound up by it? In this episode, Adam talks with Independent documentary filmmaker and coffee anthropologist Brooke Bierhaus about her film "The Connected Cup" which explores the heart of coffee and tea as global human connectors across cultures and backgrounds. For the film Brooke traveled to over 9 countries to film and capture intimate moments, stories, and portraits of human life around the connected cup.
We dig into:
Brooke's process for filming across 9 countries
how coffee and tea provide a window into what makes the good life and happiness
cultures of coffee and tea around the globe
narrative and ethnographic voice as part of filmmaking
https://www.theconnectedcup.com/
https://www.instagram.com/itsbrookebierhaus/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10149658/
Brooke's Bio from IMDB: Brooke Bierhaus is an American award-winning documentary filmmaker and visual storyteller. Brooke is known for her feature film, "The Connected Cup", following the heart of coffee and tea around the world as a global language of connection. Brooke has worked and produced stories in 22 countries.
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