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

"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