What is Human Centered Design?

Leaders—you’re here because you need to solve a problem, restructure a program, maximize your impact, or engage your stakeholder groups better. Maybe you are gearing up to start a strategic planning process and want to do it differently this time. Maybe your organization is stuck or has new people in key roles. Perhaps your organization’s board function is less than ideal. Or maybe you have a creative idea to share with the world, and just aren’t sure if it has legs. In all of these situations, BOOSH can help you make change using a Human Centered approach.

Too often, we see organizations trying to do the right thing by either randomly trying solutions that have no evidence to support them, or collecting only quantitative data that they think will help them uncover next steps. We believe data is only as helpful as the insights it provides; insights are explanations of the WHY behind people’s behavior, needs, motivations and desires. Insights go beyond data to help you reframe opportunities and solutions to meet people’s needs in new ways.

Human Centered Design, sometimes called Design Thinking, is a methodology for developing evidence-based ideas and solutions. It ensures you are surfacing and centering the right people’s insights and opinions as you make decisions and test solutions. We think it’s a critical approach for leaders who are serious about building impactful organizations.