Design is about problem solving. The design process may seem unstructured, when in fact it funnels into design solutions based on clear thinking and direction. My approach is to lead teams through a design methodology which supports discovers, directs thinking and promotes innovation; a methodology with goals and a focus on the people who use your product, process or strategy. 

Design facilitation allows your team to synthesize their collective knowledge and develop a shared understanding of design research. 

I draw upon tools and techniques to efficiently and effectively drive the evolving design. It's a collaborative approach with the benefit of cross-training your team and focusing on your business goals. My approach includes stakeholders, users and customers in an effective, meaningful way. 

There are many benefits. Each team member and stakeholder bring his or her knowledge to the design problem, and through their involvement, gain ownership of the design decisions while understanding the rationale behind each decision. The shared input addresses a range of issues up front, while facilitation helps maintain focus and integrity. 

It's an investment. Throughout the process, your team learns customer-centered techniques--techniques which they can use on future projects.

Co-Discover

Go beyond assumptions. Discover your customer’s needs and desires. Discover opportunities for job improvement.  Intersect corporate goals with user needs and context of use.
Design cannot happen without understanding what and why. Some information exists, such as business goals, while other information must be discovered. Together we learn about customers or users to understand their objectives, context of use, knowledge and barriers to use.

Techniques and tools which can be used in the discovery phase include: project definition workshops, contextual interviews, audience analysis, field studies/ethnographic studies, surveys, shields and collages, bullseye diagrams, and storytelling.

Co-Think

Make sense of all that your team has learned about your customers.
Sometimes research findings and analysis can be overwhelming. I provide collaborative thinking opportunities through group analysis and synthesis of the research findings. Our goal is to lead the project team through the process so that the group reaches conclusions together.

Techniques to facilitate co-thinking include: product team workshops, affinity diagramming, user profiles / persona development, brainstorming, story and activity scenario development, card sorting, paper prototyping.

Co-Design

Something magic happens!  Transform findings into usable experience design.
Findings inform design decisions. They must also strike a balance between user, project and business goals. I facilitate collaborative design sessions with your team, stakeholders and users using the most effective methods for the project.

Techniques for collaborative design include: participatory workflow design, collaborative paper prototyping, walkthroughs, activity scenario revision, design specification, use case development

Blogged about:

on Methodology and Agile Usability Design Jez Humble January 2007
on Usability Grids Linking Usability Goals to Business Goals October 2006

What I can do for you