Monday night: The spacious room was bustling with people who had come to participate in the discussion on Service Design. Fannie Mae had graciously granted us the use of their facilities in support of their mission to create a successful human-centered experience for both CXD and the DC Service Design Network. SDDC founder, Fannie Mae’s own Aza Damood, welcomed the crowd with a few remarks and introduced Shilpi Kumar, the speaker for the evening.

Shilpi believes that innovation is a problem of flow, not lack of ideas. Learning to implement and execute an innovative solution is just as important as coming up with a brilliant idea. The adoption of the idea is what makes innovation different from an invention. In order to gain buy-in from every level of stakeholders, design needs to become part of the culture not just the process.

She demonstrated her ideas through an interactive activity that allowed participants to apply her methods to their own projects. Each person was provided a sheet that asked the audience to rate their project on the ambiguity spectrum based on market, business, and implementation risks. Shilpi encouraged the audience to initiate stakeholder buy-in using various strategies and tools for communication and mitigating risks. She challenged the audience to step outside their disciplines and see their project through the lens of those involved in the management and development processes. The participants in the audience learned to view their projects in this new light and co-create in design, lean, and agile environments.