Design Thinking 101

Ela Ben-Ur joins me in this episode to talk about the work that she’s done to make design thinking accessible and easy with the Innovators’ Compass. Ela spent 13 years at IDEO, and has taught courses from product design to life design at pioneering Olin College as an assistant adjunct professor since 2007. As you’ll discover, Ela has a breadth and depth of knowledge and experience with design thinking. She has seen its evolution over time, as well as how it functions in a variety of contexts. She’s here to share what she has learned over the last 20 years while teaching design thinking, and while working to make the Innovators’ Compass an accessible way for anyone to get started. Ela had a lot of free time during her childhood due to family circumstances, which she’ll explain in more depth in our conversation. This led to her seeking out places where people figure out how to get through challenges, which in turn explains her choices to study at MIT and work at IDEO. Through these experiences, she arrived at h