A message from Karel Vredenburg

Karel Vredenburg
Director, IBM Design Leadership & Academic Programs

“I’m so grateful to all of the 255 designers who were part of our COVID19 Design Challenge for your commitment, passion, talent, creativity, collaboration, and hard work.

It’s been an honor to lead the challenge together with Srini Srinivasan, the president of the World Design Organization and with Rebecca Breuer, the executive director of Design for America.

When we kicked off the challenge, designers from each of our three organizations mobilized incredibly quickly into 21 teams across 33 countries, and 17 timezones. Individual teams met separately, the team leads and coaches met with our leadership and advisory team, and the project teams carried out Enterprise Design Thinking remotely using Mural, created amazing outcomes that they played back in concept form and then final prototype form, and all in three weeks. Thanks so much to the team leads, coaches, advisors, and team members for your teamwork and amazing outcomes (there are too many of you to thanks individually here so please checkout the Contributors page to see the names and photos).

Then it was up to our dedicated and hardworking Integration team to ready the projects for the website and our awesome website team to design and build the website. Thanks to Dolly, Rob, Deb, Lili, Natalie, and the incredible Andréa for your work in readying projects for the website. And thanks Andréa for the many many additional ways you contributed to the challenge. I’m particularly indebted to Lara for her creativity and leadership in designing and building the website together with the amazing team comprised of Glory, Soo Yun, Rob, Cyndi, and Robin.

The interactions and creative collaboration with the amazing individuals and teams has been an incredible experience but it’s ultimately all about the impact the work will have on motivating safe behaviors through our awareness, communication, and healthy habits and the support provided for essential workers, vulnerable communities, and remote learners. I’m so proud of the work the teams have done and I sincerely hope that we have collectively made a dent in the universe and addressed key challenges in a COVID-19 world.

Thank you my friends and colleagues. And I welcome those of you visiting the site to join with us by partnering on projects requiring further development. And stay tuned for the news of the next design challenge we’ll be running.”

Brendan Hutchieson
Founder & Director, Play&Co Creative Group
California, United States

“Having worked in the design industry for close to 2 decades – across several continents and for a mix of start-ups through to global corporates; the Covid19 Design Challenge was a refreshingly insightful journey. 

I was motivated to contribute by the excitement of having an immediate impact through design practice and the chance to collaborate with a world-class team.

This was my first time using Enterprise Design Thinking as a process, and the results were, quite honestly, overwhelming.  Three notable observations are:

1. The ability to craft a rapid ‘designed’ response to an urgent societal issue.

2. Tapping a global pool of world-class designers from a broad range of backgrounds to collaborate (without ego), conceptualize and prototype real-world solutions that are immediately actionable.

3. An implicit, yet deep, sense of collective empathy at the core of this initiative.

I’m looking forward to seeing our work out in the world, making a positive difference to a global issue (by design).”

“My Name is Katharine Tessier and I run a Industrial Design and Transmedia Production practice in Toronto, Canada.

As the lockdown began and I watched my community and my everyday life change dramatically, all I could think about was “What could I, as a designer, do to help?”

As an industrial designer I’m trained to respond to problems and take part in determining solutions. When the call for participants in the COVID19 Design Challenge came to ACIDO through the WDO there wasn’t a moment of hesitation.

The co-creation experience using the Enterprise Design Thinking process opened up a whole new world as I co-created with people from the U.S., Mexico, and Brazil. It was an incredibly rewarding experience. I’m honoured to have been able to participate and put my skills towards something much needed and very meaningful.

With Gratitude,
Katherine.”

Sasha Alexander
Director of Program, Industrial Design,
Western Sydney University
Sydney, Australia

“The instantaneous impact of COVID19 on all our lives moved routines to disruption in a blink with our university moving over 1400 subjects online in about 10 days flat and our mobilization announced the same week the #COVID19DesignChallenge commenced. Both challenges required personal resolve, collective optimistic mindset and multi-organizational strength in the belief that no challenge was insurmountable when tackled co-creatively, framed consultatively, and advanced cooperatively.

#COVID19DesignChallenge required an appropriate mission statement, segmented [yet cohesive] design research domains, and tools for engagement, permeable team boundaries, flat hierarchies, and without gender boundaries promoting unencumbered dialogue for success.

The importance of the institutional guidance of the World Design Organization (WDO) and IBM Global can not be underestimated in providing the means to engage with one of or ‘The’ most challenging chapters of our time, both exhilarating, daunting, and exhausting. The engagement both during and after will act as a turning point for many or all of the participants in making the world a better place which is a life-long work-in-progress.

I also commend the World Design Organization for establishing a focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals https://wdo.org/about/vision-mission/un-sdgs/ as a vision for the global challenge for the professions fortunately in advance of the COVID19 dilemma and more recent agile foresight to align with IBM Global and continued UN reporting and interactions supporting meaningful design futures.

As a first time engager with the Enterprise Design Thinking approach, I valued the immediacy of the communications, the value of a ‘live’ document, and simultaneous or staggered participation across multiple time zones (ours #team7asiapacific India; China; Australia), and as Lead working newly with an IBM Global Co-lead in Ms Wen Tang (Beijing) and other team members commend their talents and co-creative approach across this intuitive methodology introduced through IBM in cooperation with the WDO. Our focus on women in the digital age [this time in India] in responding to the #COVID19DesignChallenge has left us motivated for our future endeavours and hope to assist others as our collective outcomes gain momentum or are revitalized by others.

I still remain in awe from the depth of the uniquely and well-considered and framed team challenge questions, and the altruistic nature of all team members and cooperatively personal, compassionate, and professional approach of #COVID19DesignChallenge organizers, mentors, participants, and support from those outside the project whom have offered congratulatory praise with whom we have shared our honor in making a small yet significant contribution to others through Design.”

“I am Phoebe Cai, a UX designer from IBM Studios Shanghai. During COVID-19 pandemic, I read lots of news about how selfless the medical staffs are, they save lots of lives, etc. And I am also thinking about, as a designer, what I could do.

Thanks to Karel’s invitation, I was able to join the volunteer design challenge for COVID-19 to do something even small but might be helpful in this special time. We got 9 other teammates from China, India, Japan, Australia and Pakistan. I was the co-lead in our team and we tried to use EDT for coming up with some solutions for supporting medical staff during the pandemic.

Actually, I once thought of giving up because I was busy with my own work at that time. Seeing other teammates overcame time differences, culture differences and spent their spare time for this volunteer work, I think this is the motivation for me to insist on doing this. I am so proud of our team. After delivering our Phase 1 ideation, I am also in a dilemma whether I should continue working on this. Because most of our teammates decide not to move forward for the next step for personal reasons.

And why am I still working on this till now? 

Because I believe even small steps from us could have a chance to make things different. This is something meaningful and worthy to be given a shot.”

Dorothee Koppermann
Client Experience Leader, IBM Cloud Garage
Munich, Germany

“I’m Doro Koppermann – Client Experience Leader at the IBM Garage for Cloud and an IBM DT Coach, based in Munich. Being part of the COVID-19 Design Challenge as a Team Coach has been a great privilege. Working with such a diverse and international Team rarely happens in the Garage since we mostly work with one client at a time.

Meeting all these talented and inspirational women from Europe and Africa at a point where SARS-COV-2 had locked us down, seeing and learning how they all interacted with the situation with their localities, has been an eye opening learning to me. As our General Manager of Design – Phil Gilbert – said: “A User centered mentality is essential to create great things. It not only gives you more eyes to help you see the problem, but also more input to find a solution ...’ “ That is the perfect description of what this challenge has been. Even though we did not complete our project, we have been able  to generate the foundation for a great idea to carry on. It takes many small steps to create a great solution and I am convinced that this Initiative will create a positive impact for those who are affected by COVID-19 in whatever way. Let’s continue this great effort and kick that Virus!

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new” —Socrates”

“I’m Ruchi Varma, founder and CEO of HumanQind (www.humanqind.org), a social design enterprise harnessing kindness to co-create safe, equitable and compassionate cities with children.

When the world started closing down due to the pandemic and lockdown, one could only imagine the impact it will have on the lives of the vulnerable and marginalized communities. For every problem, natural or man-made, that pushes us towards isolation, disconnection and apathy, the answer always lies in the spirit of the community driven by human values. Without hesitation, I immediately  responded to the three words reading ‘Call for Designers’ on my facebook feed and joined this amazing collective for the #covid19designchallenge.   

Here, I have truly experienced the power of a global community. Firstly, it has been (and continues to be) a heartening experience to connect with my #team-4-asiapacific of designers (now friends) and mentors, who brought along their skills, experiences, stories, a curiosity to learn and strong drive to give back. The Enterprise Design Thinking process was a first for me, but quickly transformed us into a collective working on the issue of domestic violence, a pandemic within a pandemic. It’s been over 8 weeks now and working online has never been a limitation. Secondly, while countries and states closed borders, WDO-IBM-DFA brought together designers who transcended boundaries and were cultivating ‘compassion’ and ‘hope’ by design.  Thirdly, it has made me realize that it is a small world after all. With our early prototype, we continue to connect with people from Australia, India, Ethiopia, Southern Africa, United States, who are readily sharing feedback and strengthening our user research to respond to this global issue.

I truly believe that design can create a lasting impact in the lives of people and  what has transpired here at #covid19designchallenge is a testimony in itself.  As Desmond Tutu says, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put all together that overwhelms the world”.  I carry the empathy, care, warmth and learnings from this experience and continue to do my little bit of good.”

Lili De Larratea
Founder, Play Rethink
London, United Kingdom

“Coming from a background of sustainable product design, design thinking training and creative facilitation, I jumped at the opportunity of collaborating with other designers from around the world to tackle the issues derived from the pandemic. It not only gave me purpose but it also gave my worried mind a reason to focus on positive and productive ways to use my skills to help others. 

The tone and intention of the project were very clearly set up from the beginning and having access to IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking tools meant we were up and running in no time, ideating and collaborating within different time-zones, cultures and languages. There were many challenges and most of us could only give time during our evenings and week-end, outside working or studying. But the wide mix of people, availability and skills meant that there were always enough of us to keep going and to keep pushing our ideas forward.

My team started with around 19 people from different European and African countries and our meetings had usually around 10-12 attendees. We had to adapt throughout and work with what we could all bring to the table in the little time we had. Everyone’s passion and energy made it worth it and I looked forward to all of our sessions. For the second phase, most of the team had other commitments and had to drop out. At this point the WDO introduced us to a very talented and committed group of five students from Karnavati University, Unitedworld Institute of Design in India who, despite having final submissions, sacrificed their weekends to help us interpret the briefs we had developed into tangible and usable designs. 

I continued volunteering for the implementation stage. This meant reaching out to teams I had not worked with before in America and Asia and helping them gather and refine all the information necessary to upload their projects on the website. 

This has been a unique opportunity. The mix of cultures and experiences was incredible. The leadership from the World Design Organization, IBM Design, and Design for America was kind and understanding throughout. We were all on new grounds. The collection of projects on this website is a living proof of the power designers can have when coming together to tackle world wide issues with a united purpose and a clear structure. I’m thankful I took part.”

“As a European WDO Regional Advisor I was part of those who faced the COVID19 pandemic after China but before the USA. I immediately supported the WDO, DFA & IBM initiative by contributing to designing short, mid and long term questions that designers could address quickly.

Right after the #Covid19DesignChallenge call for interest, I was impressed by the high number of designers who answered with passion. Then it has been an incredibly intense learning journey for me to coach remotely a team of eleven thrilled designers coming from Europe and Africa; from Denmark, Netherlands, UK, France, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Ghana, Nigeria up to South Africa. With different cultures and confronted with various stages of the virus propagation, the team built three projects focusing on positive and sustainable communication concepts to help people physically distance.

Of course the IBM Enterprise Design Thinking process has been deeply helpful. So was the commitment of DFA and WDO experts and members to explore new ways of managing remote design research and quickly digitally prototype the most promising concepts. We went through diverse difficulties together but I am proud of the three projects that are ready to be pushed further on with the support of additional skills and stakeholders. I am ready to keep helping their development. And I am delighted to be part of the #Covid19DesignChallenge network.

Finally, beyond the short term targeted challenges I wish everyone can understand that designers are not just creative fire (wo)men to be called at last minute, but key strategic players to join from the beginning every teams aiming at transforming our living situations into preferable ones as Herbert Simon wrote in 1996.”

Robins (Robin) Jacob Varghese
Advisory Project Manager, IBM
Bengaluru, India

“Hello all. This is Robin, currently working with IBM in the capacity of Advisory Project Manager for APAC region primarily within the BFSI industry. Apart from my day job, my passion to indulge in the realm of design has opened opportunities to explore, learn and indulge in Design Process and Mindset which lead me to Design thinking, among other areas. It was during the time I was building up my EDT coaching experience when I came across the Invitation to lead/co-lead for #COVIDDesignChallenge  (a joint initiative by the World Design Organization, IBM Design, and Design for America) and was instinctively intrigued and instantaneously excited to join the initiative.

My initial reaction was not if I know enough to be part of a global program that was a call for designers, innovators, problem solvers, experimenters and creative thinkers, but rather on the fact that its in response to the COVID situation the world is presently under. Being in Customer Engagement and wearing multiple hats in the org over the years, I knew I had the foundations to get into this and support it laterally – a unique opportunity to work with talents from across the globe bringing in diverse mindset and knowledge which I believe would be a USP in the race to find solutions to arrest the current pandemic.

Having the honour of co-leading a team addressing the plight of the front-line workers (medical personnel) was delightful, exhilarating, meaningful and personal. Coming from a family of doctors and nurses, I understand the plight, emotional trauma, frustrations and weariness they go through, even on a regular day, and so this area was itself a strong motivator.

Our modest team of 12 from across the APAC region ( China, Japan, Australia, Pakistan, India ) seemed to have a perfect blend of designer, innovators, researchers and executioners. Although participation fluctuated from time to time and numbers dwindled towards the end of this effort, the Passion, Determination and Resolve among the core team was strong all throughout. This was the first time for a few from the team being introduced to Enterprise Design thinking and for me an opportunity to create a seamless, engaging and conducive experience. The aim was to create an unbiased and neural ground where everyone could fully explore the potentials and go above and beyond in collaborating to find solutions to our current problem.

What I’ve learned from this experience are:

1. Humanity is still and always a strong stimulus to bringing people together to work on a common cause – skills, language, time-zone etc are never a deterrent.

2. Enterprise Design thinking as an approach resonated with everyone involved in this collective which re-validates its authenticity and the value it brings not just in the enterprise setting but even beyond.

3. It continued to teach me to be(stay) humble, remove biases, encourage empathy, build relationships, be agile and stand persistent – help me build myself towards being a good Coach and Leader.

4. Build that mindset – essentially that’s all it took to re-calibrate my thinking and organize my day to make time for this cause, given all the uneasiness and fear of the unknown everyday throws at you.

The overall effect this initiative had on me has been overwhelming so much so that I continue to contribute time and effort towards this collaboration. It’s an experience that is gratifying in multiple ways and a chance to give back selflessly to a Global Need.

I believe for every change (positive) you make in your life, something else changes as well and for the better and it (would) create a chain reaction that is inadvertently enriching.”

“I am Human Centered Design Lead for a new design practice in Tyson Foods IT—I found this call to join through a friend’s post on LinkedIn. Getting to work with designers outside my day-to-day and get a chance to work outside my usual realm of design tech outputs was refreshing, but even more so, healing. As a single when it suddenly came time to distance and be at home, I lost most social interaction. With the additional natural desire to do something to help, this opportunity came at the right time.

In our process, we took a position of helping those who didn’t feel at risk (less likely to take precaution and silently spread) and focused on making an invisible virus and abstract actions more tangible. As the politicization of wearing masks and taking precautions increases, I feel even more that this is a valuable focus for designers. Im grateful for the space to explore it, for the chance to learn from new design friends, and to contribute to a body of ideas, and possibly, solutions.

I don’t think the call to reimagine how we work and live will slow much in the foreseeable future, and it’s encouraging to know many good-hearted designers are ready to answer it.”