“Why does your organization or business exist?”

It’s a question I ask when I am working with companies and organizations who are seeking to improve quality, create a new service or product or simply, to make a positive change.

The responses are typically, “Because we provide support to vulnerable people”, or, “Because we have a product that people use” or “we make people’s lives easier.”

 What’s the key word in all of these answers?

People.

Whether you work in non-profit, community services, education, health care or in business, the reason you do the work that you do is for people, your fellow human being.

Dr. Prabhjot Singh, Director of the Arnhold Institute, and Chair of the Department of Health System Design & Global Health, at the Mount Sinai Health System and Icahn School of Medicine, New York, as well as Special Advisor for Strategy and Design at the Peterson Center for Healthcare, New York states,

“We spend a lot of time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.”

Quite often, in human services, the designer of services and the user of services are on two separate paths.  I continue to believe that exploring both courses and discovering what is in common, understanding the gaps and finding ways to bring the pathways together, will strengthen the outcomes for the service user.

Similarly in business, with new product design or working on improved customer service, putting the wishes of the consumer as the foundation for moving forward, will lead to greater customer satisfaction.  And satisfied customers will come back and will refer others to you.

Human centered design often involves out-of-the-box thinking that leads to creative solutions, providing the opportunity to listen to and share ideas with the customer, co-designing and testing solutions by prototyping and running through the process, saving valuable time and money in the long term.

Creating change through human centered design is about visualizing, designing, experiencing and creating, in partnership with customers.  It places the perspective of the customer as valuable and important.  After all, isn’t that why you exist?

If you are seeking to improve quality, create a new service or product or thinking about organizational change, I would welcome the opportunity to work with you and uncover all of the possibilities.

~ Lisa