Innovation at Home: Solutions for a Pandemic Design Challenge Winners

Key Insights

• It’s all about the system
  Our first and most important step is to understand the system in which we‘re working. Mapping and understanding the system is key to developing appropriate solutions, instead of just making the problem worse. It’s critical to learn about a system’s many stakeholders, how they interact, and what influences them. Systems thinking means understanding the interrelations that create complex problems and rethinking assumptions about how change happens.
• Multidisciplinary for the win
  Groupthink is a dangerous thing. Assembling a team with complementary skills will lead to much deeper understanding of a challenge and the ability to create more innovative solutions. For example, a team with an engineer, business person, and designer will benefit from different and valuable perspectives and skillsets.
• Think bigger
  It takes more than a smartphone app to redesign an environment and achieve system-level change. An app may be part of a solution, but it shouldn’t BE the solution. Apps have limited ability to produce change, and are only accessible to smartphone users.
• Leverage technology appropriately
  Technology is key, but it goes so much further than buzzwords like AI or machine learning. We need to understand what the technology can do, and question whether an analog solution would work just as well. Using technology for technology’s sake just adds unnecessary cost and complexity
• Remember the magic of narrative
  Using storytelling to communicate ideas makes them easier to understand and remember. Stories allow for more creativity and can produce more emotional responses and support from potential champions.
• Equity is a key design principle
  When designing a solution, accessibility should be a top priority. Evaluate designs through the lenses of income, mobility, age, and more.
• Design for us, not them
  Trying to solve other people’s problems can, at times, be misguided. While empathy is necessary for good design, it is not sufficient. It’s important to ask, is this a real problem that needs a solution? Or do we simply lack understanding of “them”?