DFNZ Newsletter
Student interview — Karan
Tool time - empathy maps
1. Start-again session. One of the most powerful tools we know is to gather your team for half-a-day, and ask the question – “If we were going to launch a business in our industry today, what would we do?” This question gets you away from the assumptions and norms you typically have and invites you to imagine an entrepreneurial approach to disrupting and challenging your industry.
Grab a start-up canvas, plan a marketing strategy, consider who you would partner with, and what your 30-60-90-day plan would be.
At the end of this time, you’ll discover a wealth of ideas for what you could do with your current business to accelerate growth.
2. Reach out to your problem owners. Your business is in the business of solving problems. Whatever it is you do – you exist to help solve someone’s problem.
The past 18 months has likely made this problem different for them. Exercise looks different. Business marketing looks different. Construction looks different. Education looks different.
Just as your world has changed – so has theirs, and so has their experience of the problems you’re helping them solve.
So – go to your problem owners! Get on the phone, and call some of your customers to discover how their world has changed. Ask them what the biggest challenges facing them in your problem space are. Discuss what solutions would look best for them.
It’s amazing the insights that you discover when you talk to people experiencing the problem, rather than just talking about these people.
3. Make small bets. As you discover more about the problems people have and opportunities you can explore, you’ll start to create possible solutions. It’s tempting to fixate on these solutions and dream about launching them without testing the underlying hypothesis first.
This is where small bets come in. In short, this is a simple process where you define your underlying hypothesis and what evidence you would need to confirm this hypothesis.
Let’s say you’re in the fitness industry, and you’ve discovered that people miss the gym but appreciate the safety of working out in their homes. So, you have a genius idea – what if your gym had specific times where only certain members could work out?
First, you need to work out the underlying hypothesis here. Simply put – “We assume that offering people a gym where they have limited access times, but greater social safety – just like at home!”
Now, how could you make small bets to test this hypothesis? How could you invest $500-$1000 exploring if this is true and if this would be profitable to your business?
Typical small bets involve creating a simple landing page and testing sign-up rates, emailing members to gauge their sign-up, or even running simple social-media campaigns to explore the data behind this.
Simple – and a quick way to garner insights to help you adapt!
DFNZ catch up with Margi
Design Factory Global Network week
Tool time - exploring Miro
Problem-solving outside the walls – Ruby’s experience with Affinity Maps
One of the big challenges in teaching problem solving and human-centred design is helping people take the skills they learn in a workshop and apply them to the nitty-gritty real world. So, we get excited when we see people in our community take a bold leap and give a tool a try.
With that in mind - meet Ruby Day! Ruby is a Principal Academic Staff Member for the Centre for Education and Foundation Pathways at Wintec. She has a deep passion for helping teachers of adult students become better at their craft and has a focus on helping other Wintec educators grow their teaching capabilities.
On top of this, Ruby is currently doing her Masters of Education and is in the stage of writing her dissertation. As she’s exploring the role of peer-coaching in teaching development, Ruby had conducted a focus group, and participants had written reflections, recorded coaching conversations, and collected data observing each other’s practice.
In short, she had a lot of information to make sense of and needed a way to analyse this data efficiently and reliably.
“I had masses of data, and I remember thinking - "How am I going to make sense of all of this?” I had a focus group and coaching transcripts, written reflections, observation data, and I needed to see it all in one place,” said Ruby.
As a friend of Design Factory NZ, Ruby was trained in a range of problem-solving tools and decided to use an Affinity Map to solve this challenge. This simple-yet-powerful approach involves transferring all data to Post-It notes and then physically moving each bit of information around to identify its relationships with others.
“Having run workshops in design thinking, I was influenced by the empathise stage of this process. I wanted to be open to seeing what the data produced rather than fitting the data to my pre-existing understandings. The ‘affinity mapping’ tool is essentially a method of thematic analysis, and I could see that this aligned with my methodology. With the affinity mapping tool, the commonly referred to units of codes (in research) are referred to as themes, and the big-picture themes are called insights.”
"Needing somewhere to focus, I went to my parents’ home in Raglan and took over their spare room. I pinned up paper and started writing on my Post-It notes - it took me two days to transfer everything!”
Ruby colour coded her data, allowing her to see how different insights from each participant related. Then, she stuck it all up on her wall - and started moving the Post-It notes around.
“Immediately, I began to see relationships and themes emerging. It was great to be able to move the data into clusters and group themes together - while keeping the original quotes and information visible. I could see everything - and it just made sense!”
Although the set-up process took Ruby a few days, she discovered the Affinity Map accelerated the writing process. After discovering her insights, she could turn and look at her map while writing - avoiding having to access a spreadsheet with her data in cells.
“I found this really fun - I actually enjoyed doing the data analysis! It was easy, and it was simple - as I was doing it, I thought - “It’s got to be harder than this!”
Ruby encouraged others to try out the tools they learn from Design Factory NZ workshops and seek to identify a best-fit approach that works for them.
“If you’re evaluating a programme, or an idea, and have a whole lot of insights, then an Affinity Map is a powerful way to identify the key themes. It’s a powerful and fun evaluative tool.”
The Design Factory NZ has a range of workshops and training programs for businesses, non-profits, government and educators, which offers an easy way to grow your problem-solving toolbox. If you’re interested in discovering how your organisation can grow these capabilities and learn more about Design Thinking, please contact us at designfactorynz@comms.wintec.ac.nz.
Tool time - How to design a conversation
Z Energy and DFNZ
Z Energy is a company taking innovation seriously. Recognising the energy landscape is changing rapidly, Z Energy developed the Innovation Refinery – a catalyst for innovation at Z. This small group of designers, researchers, creatives, and builders have been testing, exploring, and experimenting with helping create the future of Z Energy for New Zealanders – and over the past semester, they partnered with Design Factory NZ for a Level 7 student project.
Four Wintec students – Jordan (Bachelor of Communication Studies), Holly (Bachelor of Sport and Exercise), Ollie and Ammol (Bachelor of Engineering Technology) – met with Z Energy’s Pete Robson and team and were introduced to their complex challenge – “How can Z Energy meet its customers wherever they are to help them transition to a low carbon future?”
This gnarly challenge – and it is a big one – was the focus of the four students, who dubbed themselves Team Low’n’Go. Following a five-step design thinking framework, the students launched into their empathy stage with extensive secondary research from around the globe, and 26 face-to-face interviews with industry experts, local businesses, and members of the public.
These interviews identified a range of key insights to move forward with, including – “How might Z Energy role-model a low carbon future to its stakeholders?” and “How might Z Energy help people adopt a low carbon lifestyle that is within their capabilities?” Team Low’n’Go ideated a range of possible solutions to these challenges and worked with Z Energy to identify the top ideas to prototype.
Their final solution? A comprehensive programme, dubbed Z Nexus, targeting primary school children and families together to help them imagine how they can participate in a low carbon future.
Z Nexus starts with Zed-Ed, a travelling road-show moving around New Zealand primary schools. This low-energy truck would offer a range of activities for students to engage with – including VR images of futures, games, and activity packs to help primary students discover how they can participate in a low-carbon future now. Students are also encouraged to share their latest learnings with their parents and invite them to come along to the second stage of Z Nexus – the Z Hive.
The Z Hive is a low-carbon facility offering a one-stop shop for an experience of the future road trip. Each Z Hive has places to fast-charge EVs, the opportunity to rent electric bikes and scooters for local travel, fresh local food to enjoy, quiet pods for rest and recovery, gaming lounges, children’s playing areas, and an EV car rental opportunity. EV’s can be hired and returned at any Z Hive around New Zealand, offering an EV experience to people without EVs.
These concepts were prototyped in storyboards and site maps then tested with members of the public, businesses, and Z Energy experts. User feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with participants enjoying the range of opportunities offered in Z Nexus and allowing access to a low-carbon future even if they themselves don’t own an electric vehicle.
Pete Robson from Z Energy commented, “Their recommendations were great - in Z Nexus, Z Hive and ZedEd, we now have a raft of validated product development opportunities for us to consider and ruminate on.
Will all the ideas get implemented? Probably not.
Have the students offered Z Energy a different perspective that we could never have got to ourselves? Absolutely! And that is the amazingness of diversity.”
Over the past four years, we’ve worked with a range of industry partners like Z Energy, including Opus International, Hamilton City Council, Habitat for Humanity, and Longveld. If you’d like to explore partnering with students to solve a complex challenge your organisation is currently facing, reach out to designfactorynz@comms.wintec.ac.nz.
Meet the team – Rebekah
If you’ve ever participated in a Design Thinking journey, you may remember a sense of nervousness when you arrived at the Prototyping stage. Suddenly, you’re being asked to make your idea - to turn the intangible into reality.
It can be a daunting time, and that’s one of the many reasons we’re thrilled to have Rebekah Harman as a Design Coach at Design Factory NZ. Rebekah joins us with a Bachelor of Design and Master of Design (Textile Design), and has a deep passion for helping people discover easy ways to build solutions in rapid ways.
“I was one of those kids who was always designing and building things in my spare time,” says Rebekah. “Design was my favourite subject at school, and I loved problem-solving with materials. I went to Massey and thought I was going to study Graphic Design - but then I saw textiles! It was love at first sight!”
Hailing from Christchurch, Rebekah studied in Wellington, worked in Bristol, taught in mainland China - and conducted her master's study in the New Zealand wool industry. Her passion for problem solving and textiles combined as she explored ways to lower energy consumption and chemical use in dying wool yarn for carpets.
“This was an incredible project that combined designing new processes, understanding needs of users, deep research, and managing industry, government and university stakeholders. I learnt a lot about wool - but so much more about communication, relationships, and the importance of team in any co-design journey.”
As a Design Coach, Rebekah works with students and industry during their problem-solving journey, focusing on teaching the skills of meaningful empathy with end-users and creating testable prototypes. Her experience working in retail has also provided her with a helpful perspective on designing and testing for value - not just creating good ideas.
“It’s a harsh truth - but not every good idea you think of meets the need of your users,” says Rebekah. “Sometimes, we fall in love with our ideas, but we need to test them first. It’s far cheaper and faster to quickly test these ideas with real-world users, make quick adjustments, and discover what works. It’s important to put time, energy and money upfront - and save it there - rather than wasting this on an idea that doesn’t work.”
Rebekah enjoys seeing businesses and community groups come to Design Factory NZ for workshops and design sprints and learning a structure to solve problems. In a world where every business describes itself as innovative, Rebekah loves seeing businesses get a simple framework that they can use to bring innovation into their day-to-day operations.
“I love seeing students and industry come in, gain confidence, and be exposed to a new way of thinking and problem-solving. I love seeing the moment in their eyes when they recognise that there are different ways to achieve the results they’re looking for - and when they overcome the self-imposed barriers that have been limiting them."
When asked what she loves the most about working at Design Factory NZ, Rebekah answers in a flash:
“He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata.
What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people; it is the people; it is the people.
The people I work with, the students who come in, the businesses – it’s fun and invigorating.”
If you’re interested in learning more about prototyping and user-testing with Rebekah - feel free to reach out to designfactorynz@wintec.ac.nz for more information.
Postgraduate student interview — Grayson
1. Who are you, Grayson, and what is it you do in your job?
Kia ora! Talofa! I am Grayson, and currently undergoing a Master in Applied Innovation through DFNZ at Wintec. I was born and raised in Hamilton and spent some of my childhood in Auckland with my Nana and Samoan Grandfather. I work for Early Education Waikato as an Early Childhood Teacher working predominantly with the pre-school age group and occasionally with toddlers. My work this year is focused on a comment that has followed me throughout my career as an ECE teacher, which is “We need more men in ECE”. This is true. Men bring very valuable and important energy or mana to the lives of young children. This is a very entangled problem space in this profession, but I hope to make a change here by drawing upon Puuraakau methodology (a traditional Māori form of learning and passing on pieces of knowledge and wisdom through storytelling) by creating a children's storybook that will speak to the knowledges of mana tāne (the holistic essence of men) from a Māori worldview; and reawaken the kind, caring, and nurturing abilities men have and tackle the stigmas around men working with young children. I draw inspiration from my Samoan Grandfather, who instilled in me a love and respect for people, and my father who broke typical gender roles and showed my younger sister and I kindness, care, and nurture while our mother would work late nights to keep the house going, our puku’s full, and our minds educated.
It can be challenging working in Early Childhood Education (ECE) at times with wiping snotty noses and tantrums, BUT! After working in the Early Childhood Education sector for over four years and having recently completed my bachelors in teaching (Early Childhood Education), this work is so MUCH more than this. Each time you wipe away the snot or support the child to navigate their emotions and make them feel valued and respected during a tantrum, you are showing them the kindness and warmth they deserve as people fresh to this world. I have come to realise the important and meaningful work that is entailed in this profession. It is the profession that lays the foundations of our rangatahi (future generation) where they learn important life skills such as learning how to hold a pencil, recognise letters and numbers, and more importantly, to develop their social skills, so they know how to make friends, work alongside other people, understand diversity, and how to contribute to this world and thrive in it as competent and confident learners. We all had to learn these skills at some point, right?
2. Why did you approach DFNZ to explore studying with them?
I chose the Design Factory New Zealand as I had just finished my Bachelor in Teaching (Early Childhood Education) and wished to further my learning and to make an innovative contribution to develop further this profession that I thoroughly believe in. DFNZ provides a platform to do this with its course programme, supervisor team, and its international network.
3. What has your experience been like so far?
My experience has been enriching and challenging; if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. In DFNZwe strive to create positive change for our communities through engaging with people who are willing to share their valuable stories and perspectives, and developing a best fit innovative solution based on the contributions of those people.
4. What value does this provide to you and your employer?
My work brings value in the sense that it contributes towards the development and seriousness of the ECE sector. More importantly, this work benefits our tamariki attending ECE services across the country. It might contribute towards achieving more diversity in Aotearoa New Zealand’s ECE teacher team, which should reflect the diversity found in our rangatahi.
5. What would you say to anyone else considering study with DFNZ?
The DFNZ is enriching, engaging, and provides the tools and support to build a pathway for those to travel along who have aspirations to create meaningful change that benefits our communities.
Meet the team — Mira Cornes
We have a high tolerance for chaos, uncertainty and spontaneity at the DFNZ. As a centre for co-creation and innovation, we believe it’s important to be able to swerve and rapidly iterate – exploring opportunities as they arise.
However, chaos without order quickly descends into confusion. That’s why Mira Cornes, the DFNZ Co-ordinator (or Chief Stuff Sorter-Outer), is essential to the ongoing growth and success of our work, and playing a key role in ensuring the ideas we create turn into reality.
Mira has an eclectic background, beginning with studying Sport and Exercise Science at Wintec (part of the very first cohort!). Her passion for PE was matched with an equally strong desire for travel, so after graduating, she travelled around New Zealand before a five-year stint in The Netherlands. There, Mira refined her organisational skills working at Nike Europe, scouting and organising new outlet stores across Europe.
The pull of New Zealand was strong, and Mira returned to Hamilton, eventually finding her place as an Academic Administrator at DFNZ. From our earliest days, Mira has worked behind the scenes making sure calendars are aligned, students’ schedules align, key documents are completed – and a thousand other things.
“I love bringing order to chaos, and getting things done,” said Mira. “It’s great to look back at the end of a week and see the work that’s been done, and real progress has been made.”
As well as this passion for doing, Mira has a relentless quest to understand the purpose behind each activity and decision at DFNZ. With a focus on keeping our end-users needs at the forefront, Mira works to make sure our clients and students get the best experience from our efforts.
“I love seeing when people get the light-bulb moments with us. I can feel and see shift the body language, when they move from – “I don’t know what’s going on” to “Yeah! I’ve got this!” This is so key in business – I love seeing teams come in here and have their mindset shifted from “Let’s just get it done” to “How can we make our business purposeful and valuable for our stakeholders?”
As well as her energy and enthusiasm for order, Mira brings a fantastic sense of humour and a love of coffee into our space. She’s our DFNZ DJ, picking just the right Spotify playlist to get the vibe pumping, and has a deep sense of joy when she sees personal growth in others.
Next time you pop into DFNZ – lookout for Mira, give her a wave – and ask her for a coffee from our resident coffee machine, Mario. She’ll be happy to join you!
Why study postgraduate innovation?
One of our flagship programs is the Postgraduate Certificate and Master of Applied Innovation – a qualification built from the ground-up for the specific needs of New Zealanders who are passionate about leading change in their organisation.
Why might studying with us be a great opportunity for you or a member of your team? Here are five reasons studying at a postgraduate level with DFNZ is a great idea.
1. You direct the focus of your study.
Innovation is all about solving problems and maximising opportunities. Our postgraduate programs wrap around a business or organisational problem that you are passionate about and want to explore further, allowing you to focus your learning on a challenge close to your heart.
Our transdisciplinary approach lets you draw on tools and approaches from all disciplines, providing a deep and wide understanding and engagement with your real-world problem.
2. You keep working while you study.
We recognise that our students don’t want to drop out of their work to start studying – but want to keep applying their research to their day-to-day work environment.
So, we designed our postgraduate programs to fit in with your work, allowing you to continue developing your career (and earning a wage!) while growing your capabilities in an increasingly in-demand skill set.
The postgraduate study has monthly Community of Practice days and flexible
study alongside this, ensuring you get regular face-to-face contact with academic and industry mentors while studying at a time that works for you.
3. You gain access to a worldwide and world-class community.
When you study with the DFNZ, you gain access to a worldwide community of research and expertise. DFNZ is part of the Design Factory Global Network – a community of over 30 Design Factories around the globe.
What does this mean? If you have a particular niche challenge and require specific expertise, you can chat with innovators and academics at tertiary institutes worldwide. Our partners range from Stanford University through to Aalto Design, with experts providing access to their networks in Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Australasia.
Additionally, our coaches regularly interact with our network, learning the latest practices and engaging with the latest research created by the Design Factory Global Network.
4. You learn in a community.
One of our postgraduate students favourite part of their learning experience is their Community of Practice. This cohort of student meets monthly for a day of top-quality workshops, teaching, reflection on research, and opportunities to help progress each other’s projects.
Both study and problem solving can be lonely disciplines – so our Community of Practice ensures each of our students has a network of co-students, mentors and coaches who encourage and equip them to solve their challenges.
5. You choose your stream.
Innovation has many faces and many possible approaches for engagement.
In response to this reality, our Postgraduate Certificate in Innovation offers three streams for you to choose from, allowing you to refine your innovation process, and master a specific range of tools.
Our three streams are:
- Entrepreneurship (for those wanting to create a business out of their solution),
- Transdisciplinarity (for those wanting to master the skills of boundary-crossing to create new solutions), and
- Co-Creation (for those wanting to develop expertise in designing solutions along with the end-users).
After exploring all three streams, the students will discover which is the best fit for their project and further grow their capabilities in a specific discipline.
If you’re wanting to become a future-focused problem solver who masters an innovation process with theory and practice – the postgraduate programs in innovation are a great fit.
To discover more about studying with the DFNZ, check out the page links above, and email us at designfactorynz@wintec.ac.nz.
Postgraduate student interview — Dujon
Who are you, Dujon, and what is it you do in your job?
Kia ora, I am a Euro-Jamaican Kiwi, married to a Zimbabwean with two kids, living in the heart of the Kīngitanga, Ngaruawahia. I am a community advisor at Hamilton City Council
which means I'm in the best team ever, working across multiple sectors as a Community Development Practitioner.
I fell into youth work as a teenager wagging boring classes to teach dance at other schools. Since then, I've worked in various roles from school teacher through to event manager, radio technician to an arts consultant, and peer educator to health promotor. The common thread between them has been pushing the boundaries, youth development, and a whole lot of fun.
As a community advisor with a youth focus, I support and lead various projects that are action-orientated and equity-focussed. My role in our sector is strategic. I am paid to be the most connected person In Hamilton when It comes to the youth sector, so there is a heavy emphasis on strong relationships across multiple sectors, including a bunch of navigating and connecting. Having oversight means I can push, pull, and leverage opportunities for better youth outcomes alongside other individuals and collectives.
My role involves everything from facilitating sector meets (more like parties), steering regional initiatives, supporting youth events, and reimagining civic engagement. Also, some wider work outside of youth includes the Innovating Streets (NZTA Tactical Urbanism) project and various suburban development projects.
Why did you approach DFNZ to explore studying with them?
I supported a stakeholder who presented a 'wicked problem' to DFNZ's Level 7 programme. I watched the students take a crash course in the DFNZ way and prototype great solutions for her proposed problem.
Also, I met Margi Moore through a regional youth employment group I sit on. We were figuring out ways to approach unsolved issues around youth employment and youth disengagement from education and training. She added valuable insight into the project and I grew interested in studying with the DFNZ.
What has your experience been like so far?
The experience so far has added immeasurable value to the way I think, approach, and see the world. Learning about the overarching ideas of transdisciplinarity threw a spanner In the works of my dualistic brain and has really helped me to reframe and widen my view on society and opportunities for change. I have moved from 'either, or' to 'both and more' when viewing problems, solutions, and aspirations.
I consider myself to be inclusive and progressive but learning theoretical and practical tools around systems, research, people, work etc has firmly placed me in the learner’s seat, from where I've been able to learn fresh ideas and consolidate that with my existing knowledge base.
The DFNZ experience is complimentary. It enhances insights and improves approaches. I've found it super helpful working in tricky spaces where there are lots of moving parts. Being able to toggle with power dynamics and see beyond the smoke has revolutionised my work.
What value does this provide to you and your employer?
As I learn, it impacts my current work. My 'business as usual' becomes business as unusual as the yearning to improve and implement learnings from the postgraduate certificate becomes a reality. The ability to apply learnings to real-world projects is the game-changer for me, and I've taken the opportunity to test out a lot of the content in small ways already with positive results. Leaning better forms of collaboration,
learning different ways of thinking, and trying fresh methods and approaches can only ever be good as it improves relationships and creates more opportunities to work together on multi-sector problems.
I have whole-heartedly embraced the fresh content, and although I have much more to learn, I am very confident to push the boundaries and push the needle on some much-needed social Issues through the tools I have been learning through DFNZ.
What would you say to anyone else considering study with DFNZ?
If you have time to invest in yourself, do it!
Meet the team — Elna Fourie (DFNZ coach)
We’re incredibly fortunate to have one of the brightest people in the Waikato working as one of our DFNZ coaches. Elna Fourie has been an integral part of DFNZ since joining the team in 2017, bringing a unique blend of experience and her heart for student success into all our programs.
Behind Elna’s bright smile is a rigorous academic mind with a passion for developing best-practice in coaching and design thinking. Coming to DFNZ with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Media Studies, a Masters of Arts, and a Graduate Diploma in Human Relations, Elna crosses the boundaries of business and creativity and helps students understand the need to create both desirable and viable solutions.
“I love talking to people and understanding what the challenges really are,” says Elna. “Once you’ve really understood and felt the problem - that’s when you can truly start discovering the opportunities that await. It lets you connect with what you’re creating.”
Elna is also a Senior Academic Staff member at the Wintec School of Media Arts, where she teaches communication and professional practice. This has also sparked her love for entrepreneurship and business start-up, focusing on teaching students how to make a living from their craft.
“It’s so exciting seeing the students understand how they can live and work doing what they love. There’s a moment where their eyes light up, and they begin to grasp how this is within their reach.”
Within DFNZ, Elna has pioneered research about the soft skills students need to thrive in the future workplace. After many discussions with industry leaders and researchers from around the globe, Elna has developed the Personal Development Plan (PDP) for our Level 7 students to intentionally cultivate their communication, leadership, and teamwork skills in a self-reflective process.
“We’ve seen students really come out of their shell and begin to practice their leadership. It’s fantastic to see students discover more of their potential and create a solid foundation for their future work.”
Having coached on a range of DFNZ projects, it’s tricky for Elna to pick a favourite. However, she highlighted one particular engagement where DFNZ students perspectives were deeply changed through empathy conversations.
“The students were working on a challenge exploring accessibility in towns and cities for people with limited mobility. They travelled to Huntly and interviewed a gentleman whose mobility was restricted to life in an electric wheelchair. After talking to him, he offered them to travel the streets in it - to gain his experience. The students left deeply moved, and with a renewed passion for solving this challenge.”
Elna also loves working with our industry partners on workshops and professional development. She has a particular focus on helping individuals discover how to connect with their users and customers, to discover their experience and generate deep insights. Her tip?
“Talk to someone different - get out of your box. Whatever it is - strike up a conversation with someone who has a completely different perspective to get a new insight into how the world is different.”
DFNZ workshops — grow your skills
Since the Design Factory’s inception in 2016, we have been offering various workshops for New Zealand businesses, government organisations, educational providers, and non-profits. These workshops are designed with a range of goals, including:
- Introducing teams to Design Thinking;
- Helping businesses identify opportunities for growth;
- Learning to capture user insights and create meaningful action;
- Identifying critical issues challenging systems and designing new solutions for new futures.
Each workshop is grounded on human-centred design principles and framework and is customised for the client's individual needs.
We’re relentlessly hands-on, emphasising that discovery comes through doing, and learning comes from action. Our workshops see participants up and moving, interviewing people in the street, building testable solutions – and having fun!
So, to give you a glimpse of what these workshops are like – we thought we’d pull back the curtain on a few engagements we led in March. Each workshop was designed to meet the unique needs of each client and blended new frameworks with action-learning.
One of our coaches designed and delivered a two-day at Ara Institute of Canterbury. 30 participants were led through a design sprint, focusing on community events and engagements, to introduce them to the fundamentals of design thinking.
Two of our coaches also delivered a one-day workshop for Matamata-Piako District Council, focusing on helping 30 staff members understand challenges relating to waste, libraries, and social well-being. This workshop was designed to assist the staff understand new methods of engaging with the needs of their communities.
We also had the joy of facilitating a one-day workshop with the Impact Hub, focusing on encouraging 10 social entrepreneurs and businesses to utilise the 4D model in designing new business opportunities. This workshop enabled the participants to rethink their engagement processes and begin to explore their business through the eyes of their customers.
If you’re interested in exploring a DFNZ workshop for your business, we have a range of options from half-day through to two-day options. Get in touch with us at designfactorynz@comms.wintec.ac.nz for more information.
Postgraduate student interview — Suha
1. Who are you, Suha, and what is it you do in your job?
My name is Suha Wahab, and I am someone who is passionate about the health and wellbeing of people. I joined the DFNZ whānau last year in Semester 2. I am pursuing this study path to see a positive change within my current job and, hopefully, the world. I work as a Health Improvement Advisor in the healthy workplaces team. My job is all about implementing holistic health and wellbeing programmes in different organisations around the Waikato DHB.
2. Why did you approach DFNZ to explore studying with them?
I approached DFNZ because I saw a real, creative, and practical way to make a change in the Public Health Unit for the better. I was determined to study innovation and design at DFNZ for the opportunity to explore ways to overcome complex health problems for migrant and refugee groups in New Zealand. I also really liked the concept of a "Community of Practice" (COP) and the space DSF provided for students to learn and engage in a welcoming space that provides the facilities to cater to different ways of learning.
3. What has your experience been like so far?
My experience has been awesome so far! The COP days always go by so fast through the many rich interactions with other students from different disciplines, supervisors, presenters and systems thinking tools. The space provided is perfect for everyone's individual learning styles in the room to openly share and engage. I have learned a lot from these days and meeting with my supervisor, who supports me every step of the way.
4. What value does this provide to you and your employer?
It provides further training and development in engagements and opens up opportunities to think outside of the box to overcome complex issues. These issues are usually inevitable in any workplace, so learning new ways to overcome them will always help the employer and the clients/communities we serve. It provides practical ways to collaborate with different stakeholders too.
5. What would you say to anyone else considering study with DFNZ?
I would say … go for it! It is great for one’s personal development, research skills, confidence, and draws out creativity. Most importantly, this is fun and welcomes new ways of working without being judged.
Meet the team — Margi Moore (DFNZ Director)
If you’ve spent any time in the Design Factory NZ – you’ll likely have met Margi. The Director of DFNZ, Margi, has been the driving force of DFNZ since its inception in 2016.
Margi embodies our approach of being T-shaped – having a breadth of experiences and interest, and a depth of specialist knowledge – with a diverse career spanning photography, primary school teaching, academic education and management in the creative sector– before being introduced to co-creation as a framework of problem-solving and change.
“I’ve always believed that people should be at the heart of problem-solving – and co-creation captured this philosophy. I could see the potential this would have for our students from across Wintec to work with Waikato businesses and organisations, and wanted to help others learn this approach, and be able to engage with the complex challenges facing our world.”
Since then, Margi has travelled to Helsinki, Portugal, and Melbourne to be trained in best-practice design thinking through the Design Factory Global Network. These boot camps and conferences have proved powerful in bringing global leadership in co-creation right to Hamilton.
“It’s amazing to be learning from the top thinkers and practitioners in this field and then be able to share this knowledge with our students from multiple disciplines, our staff and businesses and community organisations in New Zealand. As a growing team in the Design Factory NZ, we’re being asked to share our findings and approaches back to the world stage – which is both humbling and exciting.”
Margi has led the development of Design Factory NZ from our first cohort of Level 7 students, through to establishing Level 6, 7, postgraduate, and the Master of Applied Innovation. Additionally, she has delivered and led workshops for a range of clients – including non-profit, local government, and leading industries.
If you are interested in learning more about training your staff and organisation in design
thinking, and learning a world-leading approach in dealing with complex problems, get in touch with Margi for a coffee and a chat at margi.moore@wintec.ac.nz.
The business value of empathy
When we’re explaining our design thinking process to business owners and managers, we can tell they’ve often got a question burning in the back of their minds.
“How will empathy help grow my business?”
The first stage of our design thinking framework is grounded on empathy - and that’s not a word that gets used a lot in business circles. Empathy is often used when we’re talking about feeling sorry for others or growing in self-awareness - but not in the design of new products or services.
However, this first stage of empathise is critical - because this is where we seek to understand the needs of the people we are solving deeply. If the business is the exchange of value (usually money exchanged for a solution to a problem), the better we can understand our users' value, the more valuable solutions we can create.
At this stage, we learn to set aside the assumptions we may have from previous experience and instead go out and talk to our end-users. We meet with them, observe them, and seek to both understand and feel their frustrations and their successes.
Once we’ve truly understood the problem they’re trying to solve - we can begin to design fantastic solutions that meet the deepest needs that they may not have even been aware they have.
Neat. But how does this impact my business?
At the Design Factory NZ, we love data. And there’s been world class-research exploring how this deep understanding of your users’ needs translates to real business success.
The Design Management Institute has been tracking companies that put empathy at their business's heart for decades. They show-cased that these companies have out-performed the sharemarket index by a whopping 219% over the past ten years.
McKinsey & Co have created a design index to rate how well businesses bring empathy and design into their new product and service processes. Companies that score high on the design index have a normalised annual growth rate twice that of their competitors and deliver significantly higher returns to their shareholders as well (you can read the full report here).
In addition to these bigger reports - we have countless anecdotal stories about the value of businesses meeting with their end-users. We’ve seen start-ups, law firms, local councils and non-for-profits all discover key insights from a day of empathy training - and then being gently pushed to go and practice this with their users.
If you’d like to discover more about how to gain a deeper understanding of your end user's needs and how to design conversations that get to the heart of their problems - Design Factory NZ is running a day-long design thinking dojo - specialising in empathy and understanding.
This training will:
- Explore the purpose and value of the empathy phase of design thinking
- Introduce a range of tools and strategies for the empathy phase
- Teach you to create conversation guides that unlock business insights
- Explain the markers of great conversations - and how to have them with your users
- Guide you with effective note-taking - so the insights can be used
- Introduce you to how design thinking can grow your business
If you are keen to learn more about how your organisation can make the most of this training opportunity, please contact us at designfactorynz@wintec.ac.nz.
What is the Design Factory NZ all about?
There’s a fairly common question we get asked in The Design Factory NZ. “What is it exactly that you all do here?”
Now – we know the very reason you’re reading this newsletter shows you’ve had something to do with us in the past. Maybe you’ve come along to an Industry Breakfast or a Gala. Perhaps you’ve had some professional development through on of our programs. Maybe you’ve participated at a Lunchtime Learning or an IdeaSquared.
So you’ve caught a glimpse of what The Design Factory NZ is like – but you really want to know what it is we do.
In short – we’re experts in helping people solve complex problems.
A complex problem is one where it’s tricky to define what the challenge is. Perhaps you sense that your business should be reaching a new market – but you don’t quite know who, what or how. Perhaps you want to re-think a service you’re offering, or create new value for your customers – but you don’t know where to begin. Maybe you want to hear the voice of your community, to really understand what their needs are, and how you can best help them.
That’s what we specialise in. We love to help people understand how to use co-creation and design thinking to understand their problems, and create powerful new solutions that make their business and the world a better place.
So – what might this look like for you?
If you’re a business or organisation – we run a range of top-shelf workshops and training experiences, designed to grow your team’s capabilities in innovation and problem-solving. These workshops start at half-day design sprints – right through to multi-day experiences. We’ve worked with organisations across a wide range of industries – from accounting firms to engineering outfits – and they’ve all come away inspired and informed.
We also offer industry the opportunity to partner with one of our undergraduate or graduate programs as our industry experts. During this process, you will share a complex challenge you are facing with a group of Design Factory students. The students will then become action-learners – learning and applying innovation theory to your challenge, working alongside your business to create a proof-of-concept solution in 16 weeks. We’ve partnered start-ups and large government organisations with our Design Factory students – and it’s always been an exciting learning adventure for both staff and industry.
Alternatively, you might want us to work on solving your problem with you. We provide design consultancy, where one of our Design Factory Experts works alongside your organisation throughout the process.
So – that’s what we do! We’re passionate about problem-solving, and love helping others along the way. If you’d like to learn
more about any of the above options – or are keen to partner with us for training, consultancy or as an industry expert – please get in touch with us: designfactorynz@wintec.ac.nz.
DFNZ — Postgraduate study opportunities
DFNZ in Thames
If you’ve never ventured to Thames before – you’re missing out. The coastal town is a beautiful holiday spot, with a rich and varied history of gold mining – including one gold rush that saw Thames briefly swell
to New Zealand’s second-largest city!
The Thames-Coromandel District Council are seeking to reimagine how the town might be in the future, and recently partnered with Design Factory NZ to help them with this process. Last
semester, two student groups formed to explore this challenge – and work through a co-creation journey with the people of Thames.
The two groups for this challenge (Get With The Thames, and the Thames Crew), were comprised of students from media arts, information technology, civil engineering, social work and communications. These Wintec students were all in the final year of their qualification, and decided to study with The Design Factory NZ to teach them design thinking, leadership, and communication – while earning the final credits for their degrees.
These teams were coached in using the Design Thinking Process to understand and create a solution to their challenge. Students interviewed Thames residents, business owners and the Mayor which helped them to create insights such as
- The need for more strong bonds between youth, business and the communities within Thames.
- That Thames is known for its rich history & abundance of little shops in its CBD.
- Residents said, “We want our street to look lush” “I'd like to see something more tasteful.”
- People are attracted to places with nightlife, artwork in streets and festivals.
While the teams created upwards of 200 ideas to solve this challenge, the top solutions were “The Thames Light Up” and “The LITTLE Big Space”.
The Thames Light Up is about adding more colourful lights to Pollen Street and the heritage buildings located in Thames Central Business District (CBD). This will add more vibrancy and colour in front of the business establishments, highlighting, and emphasising the rich history of Thames and attracting people to walk around and visit shops even after working hours.
The second idea – The LITTLE Big Space - utilised a council-owned building on Queen Street. This is proposed to be a big and flexible place for the community, business, youth and council to collaborate and connect with each other. It is a living space that gives the tools to come together and create solutions from the community, for the community. This space would offer the community a safe space to engage with each other in a way that benefits Thames. In short - The LITTLE Big space is a little space for big ideas.
These final prototyped solutions have been passed on to Thames-Coromandel District Council and we are looking forward to seeing how their work is integrated into the community.
Holograms and DJs — 2020 End of Year Gala
Our end-of-year Gala is always a highlight for the Design Factory NZ students, staff, and our industry partners – and this year’s event did not disappoint!
The DFNZ students – who spent fifteen weeks exploring their industry challenges, coming up with ideas, and creating and testing prototypes – had the opportunity at the Gala to present their final solutions to an audience of friends, family, and industry leaders.
The second semester’s student cohort worked in six teams, with half focusing on the challenge of revitalising Hamilton’s CBD. After interviews with Hamilton residents, business owners, and community leaders, each team developed key investigation areas to help lead them to their unique solution.
Final prototype ideas included the development of a holographic zoo and a holographic dining experience in the heart of the CBD, allowing experiences with exotic animals and situations that are not normal in the Waikato. Another team planned ‘The Mix’ – a high-quality DJ battle aimed at making the central city a desirable destination space for Hamilton’s youth.
The other three teams worked on the complex challenge of reducing food waste in Thames. After engaging with their design thinking journey, these groups showcased their user-centred solutions, including the development of a Leftovers Cookbook, an educational app for gamifying the waste reduction, and a Fridge Partner app – explaining what leftovers you have, and how you can re-use them as part of a healthy diet.
Students loved the challenge of presenting their 15-week journey in five minutes. They delivered engaging presentations that were enjoyed by both the audience at The Atrium, and the guests who joined us from around the world via live stream.
Our next Gala event will be held in June 2021 – watch this space to book a seat!
