Purpose-Driven Community: Creating a Learning Space for Designers
Sponsor: OpenIDEO
Role: Chapter Founder & Organizer OpenIDEO San Diego
Focus: Design Thinking, Community Building, Facilitation, Mentoring
Industry: Design, Customer Experience, Education
In the heart of San Diego, a small but passionate group of design thinkers ignited a movement with a simple question: What can we achieve together? Founded in 2015, this chapter quickly became a beacon of innovation and collaboration, tackling societal challenges from education to transportation. Their work garnered global recognition and sparked community engagement, culminating in impactful exhibits at the Design Forward Conference. But beyond accolades, their true legacy lies in the careers they influenced and the leaders they inspired, proving that with common purpose and community, even the smallest group can create meaningful change.
OpenIDEO San Diego Chapter
What can a small group of motivated Design Thinkers do in a year? Turns out - quite a lot! I founded the chapter in 2015, kicking off with a Financial Empowerment Challenge and Higher Ed workshops that acted as a ripple effect through the city’s design community. As the chapter grew and new connections were made with other like-minded individuals and design organizations, the group became known as the go-to place to learn about and practice design for good in San Diego.
Format & Membership:
The group met on a biweekly basis. Strangers volunteering together for a common purpose - to design solutions to challenges facing the world and our city. The format was simple, we voted on challenges surfaced by the OpenIDEO platform or local community members and would spend a few weeks leveraging the double diamond process, workshopping solutions from research through prototyping.
A core group quickly formed, with new members joining as they became inspired by the current challenges, including local design and research leaders, business leaders, and educators. The group also attracted university students who were keen on putting new skills into practice. We all benefited from a broad range of talent and skills our diverse chapter members.
Applications & Impact:
The group tackled social challenges starting with Higher Education resulting in a design for educational change that made the “Top 25” list on the global OpenIDEO platform. We later contributed to local and global solutions for transportation, water & sanitation, food waste, and end-of-life care. Our work was featured locally in a custom-designed salon exhibit that engaged hundreds of people in a journey-mapping exercise at the first Design Forward Conference in 2016.
Our chapter set a foundation for community members to launch and expand their careers making an impact in San Diego and beyond. Many members have moved on to work more closely with the Design Forward Alliance and other notable organizations as board members and community leaders.
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