Using the human-centered design thinking process, I identify growth opportunities and collaboratively plan and encouragingly push towards a successful implementation of ideas.
See how I used Airtable to solve business critical problems and scaled creative operations to a 400+ person North America business at IDEO.
I had never used Airtable before I arrived at IDEO, and it was when I realized that not only did we have multiple systems to do our job, but that my team wasn’t using those systems consistently, when my curiosity led me to 2am binging of Airtable tutorials and counting down until the next “What’s New (in Two)'s”. And then, embracing IDEO’s “build to learn” motto, I started creating and within my first three months, I designed and led the adoption of new systems and processes using the platform.
Lisa has a relentless curiosity and compassion for designing systems that help people work better, leveraging tech-enabled solutions in powerful ways.
- Margaret Kessler, IDEO Partner
She always considers and works with the stakeholders in what she's designing, which is essential to her solutions being effective and "sticking" in an organizational context.
- Brian Lange, former IDEO colleague
Once the datasource was established in Airtable, it was very easy to create bespoke but interconnected interfaces for different teams across IDEO North America to meet their unique needs. While Airtable was only being used in select teams before my arrival, since the creation of these interfaces, Airtable became adopted by the entire North America business unit.
This interface enabled IDEO teambuilders to collaboratively staff projects with designers who was the best fit for the requested roles. Before the Interface, Teambuilders were using multiple platforms and needed to manually update all of those platforms to reflect any changes they made, which was not being done consistently so certain platforms would show out of date data. With the implementation of the centralized interface, Teambuilders had access to the most updated and accurate data source. Watch the video for a quick overview of the different elements of the interface.
See the workflow of an IDEO teambuilder identifying and adding a designer to a project.
This interface enabled the 10+ craft leaders to access live updates to their designers' staffing status and using this information to make utilization and prioritization decisions. Before, they were referring to a google spreadsheet that was not consistently being updated. This centralized interface gave leaders access to the most accurate and updated data source to make business critical decisions.
This interface enabled the 200+ North American designers to access their teambuilding status and proactively engage in the process. Before, designers only had their private slack channel to refer to any projects they were being considered for. This one-stop-shop centralized all relevant data for each designer.
This interface enabled Community Coordinators to see what the designers in their assigned communities were up to so that they can appropriately engage them in community events. Before, they would have to ask teambuilders, designers or craft leaders individually to collect this information. Having access to this centralized view increased their efficiency in utilizing this data.
This interface enabled the Business Development teams to access their teambuilding request status and see the talents that exist within the company to help them better scope projects. Before, Business Development teams only had private slack channels to refer to their request status and for those who was juggling multiple requests having this centralized view increased their productivity.
Before, the teambuilding process was ambiguous, but since the creation of these interfaces its process became more transparent and created a space for designers to proactively engage by reviewing and commenting on open and potential requests.
Not only did Lisa serve as the voice of a large, North-America wide change in process, but she created a POV character that many colleagues still recognize and reference (over a year later!).
- Meridith Halsey, former IDEO colleague
She created automations that significantly improved our productivity.
- Edirin Davis, former IDEO colleague
With 200+ designers and directors to manage and communicate with, automations were key to enable teambuilders to efficiently and effectively staff designers onto projects. This video shows just one of many types of automations that were set to help teambuilders maintain an accurate database to support a productive workflow.