Toolkit for Designers Working in Business Contexts

Smile. You've got plenty of reasons to be happy!

My personal Design Thinking toolkit as a designer working as a manager in a business context, includes sense of humor and happiness and a positive attitude.  As Richard Branson, Virgin CEO, in his recent post , I believe too that happiness is a great measurement of success.

First inconvenient is that some colleagues believe that being happy is just the opposite of being "professional" because  they associate value creation and professionality with being serious and arrogant: I believe just the opposite (and thank God my boss thinks the same). Being happy and smile means that you are confident about what you do and the responsibility that you are assuming. It means that you care and respect  your audience. It means that you are focus in what you are doing. It means that you are going to accept errors and unexpected situations nicely. It means that you are stating that it's ok to make mistakes, we'll solve them. I'll go further: 

I don't know of any inspiring, visionary leader with no sense of humor...Think about it.

Being transparent about your emotions isn't a weakness, quite the opposite: Emotional intelligence is widely recognized as a leadership quality, and being confident about your emotions is part of it, but leaders are expected to maintain a poker face. I rather laugh and try to make sense through laughter. 

An a piece of advise: Don't mess with a happy person...don't get it wrong...It's a very common misunderstanding believing that "happys" are weak...no, no, very wrong! Acting appropriately at the appropriate time...


Designers and innovators need mental peace (and space), time, pace and a crystal clear state of mind to look upon our world, as Proust would say, with fresh eyes and develop new ideas  and insights... But creativity is a live learning, an exhausting and arduous process and it can be a long and sometimes dangerous journey if you have gone through learning the trial and error lessons! 
I'm not going to focus this post in the difficulties but in the joy of overcoming the obstacles that gave designers the opportunity to design their way out of them and learn some valuable lessons in return. 

These are My Top Tens reasons to be happy and have a positive Design Thinking Attitude:

#1 reason to be a happy designer:  
The first and best victory is to conquer self. –Plato. 
This is a hard one but totally possible. It needs perseverance, will, empathy, modesty, forgiveness, acceptance, thrownness... This knowledge gained extends to everything you'd do. A creativity driven life needs a clear mind, free from past regrets so new ideas and insights would have space to grow.
(Ha,ha,ha...but this part was soooo difficult)

#2 reason to be a happy designer: 
Learning not letting yourself get frustrated by people. Sometimes don't fitting in a common stereotype can be so much fun! (Ha,ha,ha)

#3 reason to be a happy designer: 
Having achieve the ability to function in a hierarchy organitization while being a heterarchy at heart! (Ha,ha,ha) Haven't they noticed?

#4 reason to be a happy designer: 
Perseverance in following your intuition and imaginatively thinking and take the risk of predicting a solution. (Ha,ha,ha)

#5 reason to be a happy designer: 
Be human, be empathic. Liking and trusting people, no matter what!!!! (Ha,ha,ha)


#6 reason to be a happy designer: 
Learning the difference between being nice and being weak...and leaning to confront the great amount of people that haven't yet learned the difference. Being tough or elegant when needed (Ha,ha,ha)

#7 reason to be a happy designer: 

Cultivating patience: Learning to wait the right time, the right moment is an art. (Ha,ha,ha)

#8 reason to be a happy designer: 
Courage to fight for your ideas, your believes, yourself...Yes! (Ha,ha,ha)

#9 reason to be a happy designer:
Deep beliefs and a smiling Know-How...why not? Making sense through laughter is not weird, isn't it? (Ha,ha,ha)

#10 reason to be a happy designer:
Taking risks, failing, even making a fool out of yourself is ok...so what???? Let's try one more time...(Ha,ha,ha)


And the happiest AHA moment: 

YES!  "I made it and I'm still ME ! Isn't it amazing?" (Ha,ha,ha, ha,ha)

Let them think you are a fool and laugh! 

Happy New Year!

My inspirations:

Richard Branson: happiness is a great measurement of success 
Ranjan Malik: the fool and his kind of innovation
Reena Jana writing about John Maeda & The Art of Leadership

Jerry Seinfeld: How to Write a Joke

GK VanPatter Data Analytics meets Scrooge?

Maria Popova Brain Pickings Simone de Beauvoir on Ambiguity, Vitality, and Freedom

“The drama of original choice is that it goes on moment by moment for an entire lifetime.” by Brain Pickings

A Design Thinking Attitude

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) philosopher 

My favourite definition of Design Thinking it's got to do with finding the insight among chaos.My favorite insight  about Design Thinking is Martin Heidegger's THROWNNESS concept.

Design Thinking requires a set of professional skills grounded in operating in unstable contexts. Design Thinking mindset it's got to do with being able to coop with wildly different people from yourself and dealing with situations that are radically new... It's got to do with feeling comfortable with unexpected, unstructured and unpredictable; Design Thinking is about finding meaning and understanding out of human attitudes and mindsets that an unstable situation brings up.

Design-Thinking-Thrownnes is got to do with developing a survival intelligence applied to a constant evolving enviroment, totally focus on "think in order to act" versus think to "think some more"

Design Thinking it's got to do with THROWNNESS (German: Geworfenheit): It is a concept introduced by German philosopher Martin Heidegger to describe the interactions of the subject with its surroundings in the everyday life, that causes it to act upon instincts, immediate reactions to other people's language and actions, "flow with the situation," and immediate interpretations.
Once one accepts that not to act is also an action, Heidegger notes that one is 'thrown' into situations without being able to reflect on them first, for to reflect on them (not act) is also something that can be interpreted as an action. One therefore must rely on instinctual interpretations, and go with the flow.

Design Thinking is got to do with assuming that you are THROWN into a situation where you haven't been invited in most of the cases: It's about being ALWAYS AN OUTSIDER and feeling comfortable with it.

Design Thinking is about staying calm and focus under pressure: It's about listening to your instincts among the chaos and saying YES and NO clearly to you and the rest of the world.

Design Thinking is about finding synchronicity and serendipity. It's part of that Thrownness Mindset that needs to be on constant "alert mood", because it knows that sooner or later that knowledge is going to be needed: It is another kind of survival instinct.

Design Thinkers is about empathy: They know that they need to gain their audience trust in every single situation, therefore they need to figure out how to connect with people and creating meaningful connections.

Design Thinking is got to do with honesty. Experienced Design Thinkers know very well how to do their jobs...and one of them is understanding people and their social and emotional relationships in order to manipulate...but totally focus on an honest goal (Maybe this could be a nice definition of empathy: Being able to truly understanding other people's insights and weakness, and being respectful and honest about the use of that knowledge)


Design Thinking attitude is got to do with all written above. It's also the impossible search of understanding the DNA of millions of people...and  secretly say to oneself "I told you!"

This is a great video by Fred Collopy (Case Western Reserve University) and their project "Managing as Designing"

Mi Yo Virtual (Españoles Por El Mundo... De Las Ideas II)

Mi Yo Virtual ha tardado algunos años en decidirse a salir ahí fuera. En primer lugar porque yo no estaba segura acerca de la conveniencia de hacerlo (exceso de exposición, falta de privacidad, bla, bla, bla). Después porque estaba tratando de encontrar una estrategia que se ajustara a mi modo de pensar ... Cuando me quedé sin argumentos, tuve que reconocer la realidad: sencillamente me daba miedo dejar por escrito -con luz y taquígrafos- al alcance de todo el mundo -literalmente- qué me gusta, qué me mueve, cómo y qué pienso.

¿Por qué no hacerlo? ¿Mi Yo Virtual va a ser diferente a lo que soy en mi vida real?, ¿Acaso va a tener vida propia y va a decidir qué cuenta de mi sin consultarme?, ¿Va a opinar de forma diferente a cómo pienso yo?, ¿Va a ser alguien que no soy yo?

Me tranquilizó pensar en estas preguntas tan simples, porque claramente la respuesta es NO. 

Luego, ¿cuál es el autentico freno para no desarrollar El Yo Virtual? (si uno quiere hacerlo)

Mi Yo Virtual es una declaración pública de lo que soy, aceptando claramente que no deseo el anonimato y que he aceptado completamente mis peculidaridades, mi ideas y mis teorías propias. 

Mi Yo Virtual es un compromiso público conmigo misma y mis intenciones. Es un acto de valentía de alguna manera. Es también un alivio.

Mi Yo Virtual me complementa y me impulsa a profundizar un poco más cada día en el conocimiento que me interesa. Mi Yo Virtual está moviéndose por el mundo de las ideas en mi nombre, con los límites que elige, recogiendo lo que le gusta, opinando cuando quiere, conectando con las personas que la inspiran  y teniendo la oportunidad de estar en contacto con profesionales de gran talento.

A Mi Yo Virtual le gusta expresarse a veces en español (lengua materna) y a veces en inglés (no soy nativa): me ayuda a ampliar la conexión practicamente con todo el mundo. (Por cierto, me gustaría dar las gracias a mis seguidores de habla inglesa por su paciencia y generosidad).

Mi Yo Virtual me ha enseñado que, 

dirigiéndome a mis interlocutores (el resto del mundo) con autenticidad, respeto y empatía, recibo exactamente lo mismo que doy.

Estoy reconociendo en mi que necesito comunicarme (antes yo veía esto como una debilidad) y mi necesidad de intercambio no es particular, es universal.

Y por último compruebo en mi misma y en los demás la tolerancia ante lo distinto y que la necesidad de entender crea vínculos invisibles con personas desconocidas difíciles de describir. Creo que me hace más humana.

En definitiva: Mi Yo Virtual me ha enriquecido personalmente de tantas formas distintas, que todavía lo estoy procesando...

Os lo recomiendo.

My inspirations to write this post:


What are you doing when you feel more beautiful? by Jacqueline Novogratz
Grupo: NextDesign Leadership Network
"A Brief pause" by Ethan Kaplan
Mindfulness and Stammering

University Presidents Will Soon Find Social Media Presence a Must

Experience Design: Brands, Designers & People

Madrid, sept 2012

Designing emotions.

Designing for human complexity.

"What are the motivations of a designer?, Why designers always want more?, Why designers feel responsible for their audience?, Why designing appears to be so easy?, Is there anything in this world that is not designed?

I was asking myself these questions after a month of intensive and exhausting design work.

Experience Design is an multidisciplinar, synergistic, empathic, "humantific" and aesthetically activity that also requires a complex management of oneself and the expected and unexpected environment to create an emotional connection between everyone involved in the experience itself: The brand, the audience, the designer and the team.

Experience Designers need to understand and love their audience and need to be empathic from the heart: Empathy is a magical bond that can not be faked, otherwise there will be no emotional experience, just an exchange.

An Experience Designer also needs to developed managements capabilities with an strong focus on PR Communication skills:

Clients: Communicating complex ideas and insights to an audience/clients not familiar with creativity processes and creativity professionals.
Audience: Communication skills that would strenghten relationships between people that live the same experience and the brand

Designers need to control and manage the uncertainty of designing experiences for people as complex and unpredictable as oneself. 

Designers not only need to be able to deal with uncertainty: they need to enjoy it and include it as a vital part of their creative process. 

Experience designers have to be able to stay firm, confident about their critical thinking methodology applied in the process, and sure that the innovations that they have proposed are going to work out: They have to find out how to be able to transmit self-confidence in every decision. 

Designers have to learn how to feel comfortable working in an enviroment willing to transmit you their fears and insecurities in every stage of the process. It´s time to take control, it´s time to transmit your confidence, t's time to build trust.

Designers have to be confident leaders that create delusion in their teams; They have to pretend that what they do it´s not that difficult: If it would transcent to the rest of their team the real complexity of their management of unpredictability that involves any activity involving people's emotions, NO ONE WOULD TRY TO INNOVATE.


Management of complexity, unpredictability, and uncertainty inherent in any innovation or new model creation is what defines a XXI century designer.

When everything it's over, an experience designer reaches a nice sense of accomplishment, but onces again observes that nothing would have been possible without the participation and generosity of every person involved, and confirms that we better be humble or we will be anything at all.

And the designer moves on quickly to the next project and looks forward to the next challenge... By the way, I read that now Tim Brown of IDEO, talks about designing DNA .. . I am in! ;)

What drives designers?

It's all about people 

El Diseñador de Experiencias, Su Público y La Marca

Madrid, septiembre 2012

Diseñar emociones, diseñar para las personas

"¿Qué mueve a un diseñador?, ¿Dónde encuentra la satisfacción el diseñador?,¿Por qué los diseñadores siempre quieren abarcar más?, ¿Por qué el diseñador se hace responsable de su público?, ¿Por qué un diseñador se atreve con todo?, ¿Por qué diseñar parece tan fácil?, ¿Hay algo en este mundo que no se diseñe?, ¿Se puede diseñar de espaldas a las personas?".

Todo esto me preguntaba después de un mes de trabajo intenso y agotador.

La respuesta que me doy a mi misma es que el diseño de experiencias es una actividad multiciplinar, transversal, sinérgica, empática, "humantífica" y estética que además requiere una capacidad de gestión compleja de uno mismo, del entorno, de lo previsto y de lo imprevisto con el objetivo de crear conexiones emocionales entre todos los implicados en la experiencia: la marca, la audiencia y el propio equipo. 


El diseñador necesita conocer y querer a su público y lo tiene que sentir de verdad, de corazón: es un vínculo empático que no se puede fingir y que ha de ser honesto, real, porque de lo contrario no habrá experiencia, solo un intercambio.

El diseñador necesita controlar y gestionar la incertidumbre que supone diseñar con objetivos concretos para personas tan complejas e impredecibles como uno mismo. Y necesita ser capaz de disfrutar con esa incertidumbre hasta el punto de que forme parte del propio proceso creativo. 

Un Experience Designer necesita desarrollar capacidades de gestión y comunicación interpersonal:

Clientes: Necesita comunicar ideas e insights complejos a unos clientes no familiarizados con la creatividad y sus procesos. Audiencia: Necesita see capaz de desarrollar habilidades comunicativas que faciliten la creación de lazos afectivos entre las personas que comporten la misma experiencia y la marca.

El diseñador ha de ser capaz de mantenerse firme, seguro y confiando de que las innovaciones que ha ideado van a funcionar porque es el resultado de un critical thinking objetivo y metodológico y tiene que conseguir transmitirlo al equipo en todas sus decisiones.

Además, tiene que  aprender a sentirse cómodo trabajando en un entorno a veces adverso, dispuesto a transmitirle sus miedos e inseguridades en cada fase del proceso. No es el momento de dejarse llevar: es el momento de crear confianza.

El diseñador tiene que ser un líder confidente que convence al equipo que le rodea de que lo que hace no es tan complicado, hacer que parezca fácil lo difícil: si transcendiera la complejidad real de su gestión y la variable impredecible que implica un proyecto en el que pretendes formar parte de la vida de otras personas apelando a las emociones, NUNCA SE CREARÍA NADA NUEVO porque ningún jefe se atrevería a validar el proyecto. Es por eso que una de las capacidad imprescindibles para que un diseñador tenga a su alcance proyectos de mayor envergadura y alcance social es precisamente su capacidad de convencer con argumentos racionales y en su propio lenguaje a su audiencia, sea la que sea.

Es la gestión confidente y tranquilizadora de la complejidad y la incertidumbre inherente a cualquier innovación y creación lo que define al diseñador del siglo XXI.

Cuando todo ha acabado, lo que le quedada al diseñador es la constatación de que la gestión de la complejidad ha sido emocionante, pero NADA hubiera sido posible sin la participación y la generosidad de todas las personas implicadas, y la certeza de que, o somos humildes, o no somos nada.

Y el diseñador pasa página rápidamente y comienza a proyectar otros diseños que implique volver a empezar con el reto de idear y gestionar lo aparentemente imposible...Por cierto, he leído que ahora Tim Brown de IDEO, habla de diseñar también el ADN...yo me apunto! ;)


¿Qué mueve a un diseñador? 

It's all about people.

Why World Leaders Will Be Designers

Otto Neurath. (Vienna,1882 - Oxford,1945)

The answer is simple: There are no suitable words to explain the world...and new ways of understanding are needed... And all possible ways of understanding lead us to a holistic comprehensive view of humanity that involve visual communication and designers.

Facts are overwhelming but: Why is not happening yet?, What impediments do designers need to overcome to be taken seriously?

While reading Otto Neurath's "From Hieroglyphics to Isotype" (1943-45), I came to this quite simple yet visionary explanation:

"What are the origins of the critical and obstructive attitude shown by some people as soon as the question of pictures arises and especially if pictures are systematically used to covey information?

In the middle ages, from which our civilization has inherited so much, those who were literate were particularly word-minded while the lives of the illiterate masses are circumscribed by impressive buildings, sculptures and paintings. As literacy spread and became general and environment grew up in which there was a rather puritanical attitude towards pictures. British parliamentary papers very rarely contained pictorial material. Neither orator nor journalists, both men of words serving topical purposes, nor even writers of more permanent literature in prose or verse were in the habit of using illustrations, although these were sometimes added afterwards by other people. Perhaps it is this tendency which has led to lack of appreciation of informative pictures and to a feeling that any kind of verbal communication must, of necessity, be of higher order than communication by pictures.[...] I think that the day of "eye-consciousness" is rapidly approaching. Communication of knowledge through pictures will play an increasingly large part in the future."
In other words: 

This is a world ruled by exclusively word-minded leaders...turning into hollistic-minded by necessity.

Have to give in...



Otto Neurath was an Austrian philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist. Before he was to flee his native country in 1934, Neurath was one of the leading figures of the Vienna Circle. During the 1920s, Neurath also became an ardent logical positivist and championed 'the scientific attitude'.

What Do Customers Want? Brand Experience and Branded Content

Customers ar collectors of Experiences

2012. We all are consumers of experiences.

Welcome to the Social Media Revolution

The common denominator of all of us is that we share our lives within our circles
of trust as never before. Being social it's about sharing. And we like it.
By sharing our experiences, we fulfill personal, professional, ideological needs: photos, ideas, trips, video, family, events that tell our story  and reveal who we are, what we know, where we want to go, our dreams, goals... And we learn from the experiences of others, too. 

Sharing our experiences enriches us individually: we are developing new social capabilities and  skills. Surprisingly, a tacit respect happens in most social media and groups.

After several years managing our personal social networks, we have literally put together a VISUAL overview of our life experiences. We could say that we have a global vision of our lives like never happened before in the history of human kind. 
It's an opportunity to personal growth: The natural next step is to analyze the pieces of our lives -the collection of our experiences-, to improve it: "What  experience am I missing? What experience I would like to accomplish? How could I complete this aspect of my life?, Always going on vacation to the some place so the same photo year after year? 

We have reached a point when everyone is a designer of their own life: to keep on building oneself up, we need content that would add value and complement our expectations. We are some kind of collectors of experiences that want to enhance our life project. 

We need contents to feed our social media.

Social Media is about people. 

CONSUMERS ARE ASKING FOR BRAND EXPERIENCE AND BRANDED CONTENT BUT WE - brands- ARE NOT BEING TRUST WORTHY AND WE ARE NOT BEING CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING  WHAT COSTUMERS NEED.


And brands.
Everyone living on this planet  is a consumer since birth:  We all have brands that are meaningful to us and are part of our circle of trust, because they deserved it  because they have met the prerequisites required for any relationship based in confidence:

• It is a reciprocal relationship
• It will not betray my trust
• It 's authentic
• It gives me love-value
• We share the same values ​​
• It respect me and wants to know me better
• Optimism and hope
• A BRAND that brings to my life what I need.

And what happens when someone in whom you've trusted, betrays you in any of this points?

• kick him/her off our circle of trust
• Share the betrayal with whom would like to hear it
• Prevent to our friends from him/her
• Won't give a second chance 

What do costumers want?
We want brands to be meaningful to us and capable of adding real value to our lives ... brands trust worthy that won't betray us and smart enough to see that engagement is possible only in a  WIN-WIN relationship ... like in all relationships that work ;)

Illustration by Mae y sus preciosos vinilos

¿Qué Quieren los Consumidores?: Brand Experience + Branded Content

Los consumidores son coleccionista de experiencias

Todos somos consumidores de experiencias y de contenidos. El problema es que no conseguimos confiar en las marcas.

Bienvenidos a la revolución de las redes sociales

No hay más que observar qué hábitos tenemos TODOS: el denominador común es que compartimos nuestras vidas en círculos 
cada vez más amplios de confianza a través de las experiencias que vivimos. Tenemos todos los medios a nuestro alcance para hacerlo y las estadísticas nos dicen que nos gusta cada vez más. 

Compartir experiencias nos satisface aspectos personales, profesionales, terapéuticos, ideológicos...porque si no fuera así, no lo haríamos. Además, socializamos con respeto en la gran mayoría de los casos.

Las experiencias y contenidos que mostramos a nuestro circulo de confianza a través de fotos, ideas, viajes, vídeos, me gusta,...van contando nuestra historia, nuestra vida: van desvelando quienes somos, a quién conocemos, a dónde queremos llegar, cuales son nuestros sueños y nuestros miedos.
Y aprendemos de las experiencias de los demás.

Las conclusiones obvias: la más clara es que estamos compartiendo nuestras experiencias porque nos enriquece individualmente, si no fuera así, no lo haríamos. Y añado que claramente se está desarrollando una "confianza" en la comunidad anónima que formamos todos. Es sorprendente el respeto tácito que existe en la mayor parte de la redes y grupos. Cada vez queremos más.

Después de varios años, ya manejamos nuestras redes sociales y ya tenemos una visión panorámica de nuestra experiencia vital. Se puede decir que tenemos una visión global y visual de nuestra vida, y también la de nuestros amigos y conocidos de nuestro circulo de confianza. El paso siguiente es analizar para mejorar: ¿Qué experiencias me faltan y quiero tener?, ¿cómo puedo completar este aspecto de mi vida que dejé a medias?, Llevo 3 años colgando la misma foto de mis vacaciones en XXX, ¿Por qué no cambio..?

Hemos llegado ya al momento en el que cada uno es diseñador de su vida, y lo hace a través de contenidos que le añadan valor y complementen su expectativas:  somos coleccionistas de experiencias que mejoren nuestro proyecto vital.

LOS CONSUMIDORES NOS ESTAN PIDIENDO BRAND EXPERIENCE Y BRANDED CONTENT PERO NO SOMOS CAPACES DE DARLES CONFIANZA NI DE ENTENDER QUÉ ES LO QUE NECESITAN.

Y las marcas. Todas las personas que viven en este planeta aquí y ahora, somos consumidores desde que nacemos y tenemos marcas que ya son parte de nuestro circulo de confianza porque se lo han merecido: se lo han ganado porque han cumplido los requisitos indispensables que requiere cualquier relación de confianza:

• Me corresponde: es una relación recíproca
• No va a traicionar mi confianza
• Es autentica
• Me aporta amor-valor-esperanza
• Tiene los mismos valores que yo
• Me conoce y me respeta
• Me infunde valores positivos

//Aporta a mi vida lo que yo necesito en cada momento//.

¿Y qué pasa cuando alguien a quién has dado tu confianza te traiciona en cualquiera de estos puntos? 

• Le expulsas de tu circulo de confianza
• Compartes la traición con quién quiera oírte
• Previenes al tus amigos
• No le das una segunda oportunidad ni a él/ella ni a su familia.

¿Qué quieren los consumidores? 

Queremos marcas que nos aporten valor real a nuestras vidas...desde una relación de confianza donde ambas partes reconocen que ésta es una relación de WIN-WIN...como todas las relaciones que funcionan ;)



Social Media is about people.




Imagen inicial: Mae y sus preciosos vinilos.