Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation
Summary
Kevin will share the ambitions behind his first book, Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation (The MIT Press). The writing journey unpacked a series of unique multidisciplinary leaps across his lived personal and professional experience. For anyone curious about a wide range of things, Kevin offers a story of how he made his curiosities work for him and create value for others. Kevin will share visual anecdotes that illustrate how design changed his life, and how he observed design transforming organizations as well. Kevin's arguments crack through the glass ceiling of ambiguity that multidisciplinary teams may face when it comes to understanding design against newly emerging realities. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) serves as an important underpinning in Kevin's story as a Black man who's experienced exclusion. He'll introduce us to the leadership tact necessary to set a new tone to ensure our future design & innovation teams actually mirror the composition, needs and values that exist within an increasingly connected world.
Key Insights
-
•
Kevin’s multidisciplinary career blending engineering, business, and creative design drives his unique approach to strategic innovation.
-
•
Personal lived experiences, including family history with racial violence, deeply influence Kevin’s perspective on diversity and inclusion in design.
-
•
Leadership styles range from gatekeeping, which enforces compliance, to servant leadership that empowers teams and fosters innovation.
-
•
Servant leadership encourages risk-taking by balancing a portfolio of bets and embracing failure as a learning tool.
-
•
Diversity and inclusion should move beyond cultural fit to actively seek people who challenge and push methodologies.
-
•
Creating space and bandwidth for designers and teams to collaborate and do deep creative work is critical for innovation.
-
•
Multidisciplinary innovation studios, including client embeds, can successfully incubate and spin off new business ventures.
-
•
The popular Venn diagram of design, business, and technology is insufficient without unpacking broader societal, regulatory, and ecological trends.
-
•
Executives increasingly demand integrated innovation partners, not just consultants whispering advice.
-
•
Measuring success with specific, measurable, action-oriented, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals improves clarity and drives progress.
Notable Quotes
"Everything is the way it is by design."
"No matter the spaces that we navigate, who’s at the table absolutely matters."
"The dominant frame became the personal narrative to contain the perspectives I wanted to serve up."
"I had to go back to school to solidify my creative foundation while not abandoning business and tech."
"We invited BCG’s clients to live with us in multidisciplinary innovation studios for 12 to 18 months."
"The four superpowers of design include giving experts breathing room to do the deep work necessary to bring substance."
"Servant leadership means divvying up the work and giving team members runway to lead parts of the vision."
"Gatekeepers expect compliance, whereas servant leaders want to make the vision smarter with the team."
"I can’t tell you how many times recruiters ask, can I have a beer with this person, instead of focusing on true inclusion."
"We’re serving a hyper-connected, multifaceted, intersectional world, and even the planet is a stakeholder."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Every project and initiative we launched has been a Trojan horse navigating through dark matter."
Sofía Delsordo Kassim VeraPublic Policy for Jalisco's Designers to Make Design Matter
December 8, 2021
"We are like three legs of a chair: product, engineer, and UX all contribute to stability."
Product and Design at Bloomberg: A 15-year Evolution
December 6, 2022
"Research is a group project and learning is a group project—you don’t have to be an expert but find those who are."
Liza Pemstein Jane DavisScaling Research Via an Ops First Model at Clever
March 27, 2023
"Openly sharing stories helps us learn from those who came before us and carve new paths."
Kara KaneTheme One Intro
November 16, 2022
"Think of AI not as a magic eight ball, but as a highly educated intern that can help with routine tasks."
Mark Interrante Harry MaxAI for Prioritization (3rd of 3 seminars)
July 11, 2024
"A good two-factor system offers multiple methods, like authenticator apps, calls, and texts, with generous timeouts."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
October 3, 2023
"Most product managers are wide, most UX and engineers are deep — that’s just the nature of the roles."
Rich MironovHow Can Product Managers and UXers Help Each Other (and Why are Product Folks so Annoying Sometimes)?
December 6, 2022
"The more ideas you make, the quality of your ideas also goes up."
Juhan SoninDesign Now! The Agenda for Action
September 4, 2025
"Pink the pink plastic glove was too big for the average woman’s hands."
Mansi GuptaDrawing from Feminist Practice to Make Inclusive Design Operational
September 9, 2022
