Upstream Thinking:
Local Leader in Design Thinking Innovates for Global Good
[For Immediate Release: Austin, TX, April 11, 2017:]
For nearly a decade, Austin-based Upstream Thinking, a mission-driven, innovation consultancy, has been working globally to solve complex issues in public health, education, government, media and technology. Known as design-thinking pioneers with an approach anchored in behavioral science, Upstream has been quietly leading behind-the-scenes to create effective strategies that solve problems with impact for both local/regional and international organizations ranging from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Tribune Publishing to LiveSTRONG Foundation and the City of Austin.
Founded in 2008 by designers Tim Sweeney and Jeff Mulhausen, the firm has since grown and now has five partners, with the addition of Paul Kramer, Paul Noble-Campbell and Melissa Young. Their shared vision: solving some of the world’s most pressing problems using the principles of design-thinking and human-centered design.
Upstream's approach to innovation is collaborative and rigorous. Upstream tackles systemic challenges by creating new strategies, behaviors and customer experiences in the following areas:
HEALTHCARE
- Lowering HIV transference rates in Africa by applying design thinking as a vehicle to affect behavior change for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Reducing infant/maternal mortality rates in India for the Surgo Foundation
- Empowering diabetes patients to take control of their disease for Dexcom
- Creating a strategic framework for cancer care experts to identify barriers and contribute ideas to make cancer care more patient-centered for the LiveSTRONG Foundation
- Improving experiences and recovery outcomes for surgery patients at a local hospital
EDUCATION
- Developing a long-term roadmap to integrate technology and academic innovation to enhance teaching and learning for AISD (Austin Independent School District)
- Creating and co-teaching the Design Thinking for Business Innovation curriculum for the University of Texas at Austin MBA program at the McCombs School of Business
- Creating and facilitating a recurring three-day “Design Thinking Bootcamp” for Continuing Education Students at the University of Texas at Austin
- Co-creating a design process for developing a strategic plan for NEISD (North East Independent School District) in San Antonio
COMMUNITY/GOVERNMENT
- Building a unified vision and implementation roadmap for the Austin Innovation Zone in collaboration with the City of Austin’s Mayor’s Office, Senator Kirk Watson and the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin
- Addressing rising homelessness with the Downtown Austin Alliance, ECHO (Ending Community Homelessness Coalition) and the City of Austin’s Office of Innovation
- Reducing stress and fatigue levels in EMS workers for the City of Austin’s Office of Innovation
MEDIA
- Identifying new value propositions for the changing needs and demographics of digital vs. print readers for Tribune Media (newspapers/online)
TECHNOLOGY/CONSUMER GOODS
- Helping Philips Commercial Lighting division transition from a product-based to service-based business, breaking sales records with disruptive new concepts and offerings
- Designing tools and strategic frameworks for customer service innovation across product, service and marketing for Rackspace
COMING SOON/2017:
- Establishing new product and delivery models for Tribune Media
- Addressing HIV-risk behaviors in women in Tanzania for the Gates Foundation
- Empowering NGOs in Sub-Saharan Africa to implement new approaches to reduce female-to-male HIV transmission for the Gates Foundation
- Developing strategies to manage HIV risk behaviors in South Africa for the Gates Foundation
So, what is design thinking?
Design thinking is a human-centered approach to creative problem solving that is optimal for diagnosing challenges and creating solutions to systemic problems. By reframing challenges through the eyes of the customer or beneficiary, organizations can deeply understand their needs, as well as any barriers, while discovering opportunities to better serve them.
Design thinking utilizes visual tools and approaches such as qualitative research, co-creation, challenge framing, system mapping, customer personas, service blueprints, journey mapping, and business model canvases to communicate insights, discover opportunities and conceptualize solutions. This approach empowers teams to define opportunity spaces and co-create new systemic solutions by prototyping, testing and refining with stakeholders.
By placing people at the center, design thinking transforms systems and organizations, improving alignment of vision, strategy, public policy and social and economic impact.
Here’s how a few clients describe the impact working with Upstream has had on them:
“Upstream didn’t stop at the edge of what they know and pushed us to go beyond the edge ofwhat we knew. We showed them all the previous work we’d done and they absorbed the info and synthesized it at a much higher level than I’ve seen anywhere else...
Even though the initial work was completed in 2014, Upstream’s approach helped us establish a framework and create an infrastructure that's translatable and adaptable, helping us talk about the problems we continue to face, so the work continues to be relevant. As an example, the framework is now being studied and explored by new team members like our UX Director as recently as just last week.”
– Andrew Ladd, Vice President, Consumer & Integrated Marketing for Tribune Publishing/Tronc
“Upstream partnered with us to design a Technology Plan that became part of the larger Strategic Plan for Austin ISD. The work that Upstream helped facilitate has become part of the fiber of who we are and what we do. We are now a team of 21, and call ourselves ‘Technology Design Coaches,' because design thinking is a core part of everything we do.”
– Erin Bown-Anderson, Director of Technology Integration for AISD (Austin Independent School District)
“Upstream helped us articulate the design process and identified the needs of users, both within and outside of Dexcom, which created a vocabulary and a toolbox that has helped us build an internal design team now consisting of 10-15 individuals. One project involved Upstream helping us to envision, design and convert a medical device into a much more user-friendly, discreet, smart phone app.
At Dexcom, we've always put the patient first, but Upstream helped us keep the patient first, while providing a very human product as a result. There isn't necessarily an ‘Upstream-branded’ formula, but there is an ‘Upstream approach’ – and it's grounded in humility and a deep understanding of both our business and the industry.”
– Apurv Kamath, Senior Director, Strategic Product Management, DEXCOM/Continuous Glucose Monitoring
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Design Thinking Bootcamp @UT:
This month (April 26-28th, 2017) and later this year (August 23-25th, 2017), Upstream will teach and facilitate its popular, three-day “Design Thinking Bootcamp: How to Find Creative Business Solutions with Design Principles and Practices” at The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Professional Education. The course is ideal for action-oriented, open-minded thinkers, doers and leaders who want to drive innovation, tackle strategic challenges and collaborate and learn how to use design-thinking for disruptive, original and innovative outcomes; customer behaviors/problems/decision points; generate ideas and prototypes and design experiences for a customer-driven world. The outcome of design thinking can be solutions, systems, services or experiences.
More here: Design Thinking Bootcamp Video
PR CONTACT: Mary Anne Connolly MACMedia [email protected]
+1(512)338.1692 w
+1(512)587.7153 c
Upstream Thinking
515 Congress Avenue
Suite 2000
Austin, TX, 78701
+1(512) 234.3757
[email protected] upstreamthinking.com @UpstreamThought on Twitter @UpstreamThinking on Facebook
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9A9Ir3vrGw autoplay:1]