Before taking d.studio, my thinking process was always the same. I would jot down ideas when they came to me and I would review them as I go along. This process seemed to work well for writing assignments and brainstorming. However, I didn’t know what to do when I was stuck or if I needed something done quickly. One design thinking technique which I found very useful in these instances was prototyping. For example, while working with Pacific Arbour on measuring their carbon foodprint, we wanted to see if and how other business were tackling the same issue. However, we did not know which industries to look at and how to approach the problem. Denise challenged us to quickly come up with an idea to role-play. We decided to look at local restaurants who marketed themselves as Farm-to-Table. Farm-to-Table is a food movement associated with local purchasing and sustainable agricultural practices. We acted out a scenario as if we were actually contacting these restaurants. After the first scenario, we tried speaking in different ways and asking different questions. This process took less than 10 minutes but the impact was huge. We were able to refine our questions, decide on what was most important and allow ourselves to be put in an challenging and uncomfortable situation. The studio was a safe space for me to role-play as I would’ve never been able to face my fear of acting in front of a class.

While reading In Studio: Recipes for Systemic Change, I found the application of design studio used by the Helsinki Design Lab (HDL) to help government leaders in Finland very powerful. While many of the proposals coming out of the HDL studios were incomplete, it challenged stakeholders to work together and come up with innovative solutions. In the Education studio, participants challenged assumptions in traditional pedagogy, roles and infrastructure. By the end of the studio, they were able to prototype a new learning environment focusing on open collaboration, cultural skills and experiential learning to tackle the issue of dropouts. I was quite excited when I learned that Bryan Boyer from HDL was coming to Vancouver to speak about social innovation. During his presentation, one project that he worked on was very intriguing to me. Open Kitchen was a three week program to allow potential Helsinki food entrepreneurs to prototype their restaurants for a week. Here’s the video he showed during his presentation:

Open Kitchen from Sitra- Finnish Innovation Fund

In addition to prototyping, we frequently used Assumption Dumption in our Climate Smart project. We used Assumption Dumption whenever we needed to explore an unfamiliar idea. When we were coming up with potential carbon foodprint reduction opportunities for Pacific Arbour to pursue, I suggested we look at helping Pacific Arbour build a network with other businesses. Through through discussion, we assumed that Pacific Arbour is not the only business interested in reducing their carbon foodprint. We also assumed that the process of measuring a foodprint was not something that can be done overnight. Eventually, Assumption Dumption helped us discover the Green Table Network (a network of food related businesses focused on “greening” the industry) and led us to contacting Climate Smart with the assumption that there are other businesses for Pacific Arbour to work with on measuring their respective carbon foodprints.

d.studio has provided me with a safe space to explore different design techniques and the activities have challenged me to use these techniques in practical ways. Prototyping and Assumption Dumption were two main techniques I discovered to be very helpful when working in teams and with clients. By using d.studio techniques, my team and I were able to co-create solutions to a challenging and relatively new area in carbon management. My interest in design thinking has grown substantially since the course started and I already see the many different applications in my own experiences and in the literature of this subject. I am looking forward to using more techniques in my future projects and is quite thankful for the opportunity to learn and practice strategic design thinking in d.studio.

-Jackson