Cultivator Profile: Is ‘Design Thinking’ the Future-Proof Skill Your Team Needs?
Meet Steven
In a way, Steven Panza, Innovation and Design Thinking Lead at Experian, takes his work home with him. His knowledge of Design Thinking and his commitment to finding innovative solutions extends beyond his work hours, even leading him to test different layouts in his kitchen to optimize the experience of making his morning coffee!
This kind of creative curiosity has shaped his career. He references working at Johnson & Johnson with Cultivate CEO, Steve Garguilo, saying, “I was incubated in creativity to some extent, so that has been the foundation of my career journey. It’s almost like there’s no other way to do it when you live and breathe that in your early career.” Now Steven is creating spaces for his colleagues to lean into their creativity.
At Experian, a global company in the credit reporting sector Steven is tasked with bringing the Design Thinking framework to the company at large. With a lot of economic uncertainty, the timing felt right, to “take a step back and think: how do we bring more capabilities, mindsets, and empathy to Experian?”
An active member of our Cultivators Community with a history of modeling collaboration and vulnerability, we can see why Steven was the perfect person to democratize Design Thinking at Experian. I caught up with him after the launch of the live pilot Design Thinking program in September 2022 to hear about his process, the importance of co-creation, and how to persevere past roadblocks as a Cultivator.
The Challenge:
Experian had some past success with four-day Design Thinking sprints, resulting in a core base of dedicated advocates. However, understandably, the four-day time commitment proved a blocker for departments and teams who were subject to tight timelines and wary of giving up four days to a process they were unfamiliar with. Further, this framework meant that Steven and his team needed to lead the sprints, rather than teams and departments being able to act autonomously and employ these skills when needed.
As in many companies with a large, global workforce, unintentional organizational silos tend to pop up around work streams and projects at Experian. To bring Design Thinking to the team as a whole, would also mean finding ways to bridge these silos toward a more collaborative and communicative team.
Lastly, while rising inflation is certainly a major challenge within the credit sector, Experian is choosing to meet this challenge along with its employees and clients, investing in skill-building and listening to better meet the needs of a changing economic climate.
The Idea:
Create a robust Design Thinking training program, open to all Experian employees that ensures that, “every role, every person has a foundational knowledge of Design Thinking”, with a focus on depth, tools, and research skills. Rather than leading sprints on a one-by-one basis, Steven and his team will scale the program to support their colleagues in developing the skills and frameworks to use design thinking in every part of the business.
Even in an economic downturn, Steven calls these skills future-proof. He says, “Following this structure you can come up with a solution to almost anything because you’re talking to the people you’re designing for,” uncovering the needs and pain points of clients to develop better solutions and be more efficient in the process.
The Outcome:
In true Design Thinking fashion, Steven embarked on a learning mission around the company, having one-on-ones with team members to ensure that he understood their pain points, needs, and concerns. This also served as their introduction to how Design Thinking could support their work. He wanted to make sure that when the program launched, his stakeholders were empowered to speak with one voice about the program and what it would do.
While the live pilot had just launched, Steven said they have “heard over and over that their process sped up months of work into a few days”. While he acknowledges that learning the skills of Design Thinking is a heavy lift initially, it leads to quicker and better solutions in the long run as the company becomes more customer-centric. Already 350 colleagues have taken part in the kickoff sessions and the team is anticipating that they will need to employ a waitlist to keep up with demand. A problem they are gladly tackling by creating an engaging and user-centric waitlist process of course!
Steven hypothesizes that this framework will lead to a better user experience for clients and for employees (internally-focused departments like HR will also take the training), reducing the costs associated with launching solutions before they have a clear idea of the problem. They have already experienced a lot of excitement from their raving fans, and the train-the-trainer model means that the program will become increasingly scalable. “People have been clamoring for this for quite some time so we’re excited to start delivering it.”
What worked?
Solve real problems now, while building skills for the future: Steven recognizes that training may feel like just one more thing for his colleagues to do, so he has committed to making the training practical. The course mission is focused on solving “sticky problems” and he challenges attendees to bring their most challenging problems to the course so they can work through them together.
Walk the walk: This training was built using the Design Thinking approach, centering end-users in every part of the build. Modeling behavior is a powerful tool in organizational change, as is bringing that experimental mindset to the table. As Steven says, “I can’t fail because this is an experiment and I’ll learn, adjust, and adapt.”
Leave space for vulnerability: It’s vulnerable to put your ideas out there for feedback. Steven recognizes this and says that acknowledging that and honing a mindset of openness is important for him and for those he works with.
Work with existing frameworks: Design Thinking is a fit for Experian because it works well within their existing frameworks of Agile Teams and Lean 6 Sigma. Steven didn’t try to discard these frameworks but instead sought how they could work in synergy with each other.
Build excitement: Steven made sure to keep his colleagues in the loop as the program developed. He likened it to a film release, “Movies don’t just come out there are movie premieres and anticipation…how do you bring people along with the journey so that they feel a part of the solution?”
Steven’s Advice for Fellow Cultivators:
Let your users be a part of the journey: As a part of his design process, Steven centered questions like “What would it look like for you to be a part of this? What do you need?” when talking to his colleagues. He says that people love to be helped and to give help, we often just need to be willing to ask questions.
Find a support network of like-minded folks: Throughout our interview, Steven stressed the importance of having a support network. He credits spaces like the Cultivators Community as safe places to test ideas, talk to like-minded people, and get feedback. He even brought this idea to Changeathon, working with Mars’ Deborah Madelaine as a mentor!
Ground yourself: As you work to make a change at your organization, ask yourself what practices support you when work feels challenging. Maybe it’s nature, exercise, or time with friends, but whatever it is make time to support yourself along the way.
Be kind to yourself: I want to end with this direct quote because I couldn’t have said it better: “It’s never going to be easy to make organizational change, so be a friend to yourself in the process. You’re going to have those down days where you didn’t get the answer you wanted or things didn’t go to plan. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Be nice to yourself.”