Over at Social Edge, former Acumen Fund Fellow and current IDEO employee is leading an online discussion about designing for social impact. This is a natural topic for Jocelyn, whose blog - Design and Reach - covers these topics. Beyond her blog, Jocelyn has - in her IDEO capacity - worked with The Rockefeller Foundation to develop a very handy workbook and guide for companies looking to design for social impact. Finally, she wrote a guest post about the project over at NextBillion.net, the Acumen Fund / World Resources Institute blog exploring development through enterprise and base of the pyramid strategy.
The Social Edge-hosted online discussion is underway. Jocelyn has introduced it as follows:
Design and innovation have been increasingly recognized as important factors in the success of social enterprise. At IDEO, we believe in the power of design thinking, a human-centered approach to innovation and problem solving. We have seen firsthand that social entrepreneurs can incorporate the principles of design thinking to develop product or service offerings that better connect with the needs of their customers, move more quickly from design to implementation, and communicate the benefits of their offerings in a compelling manner.
Design thinking is applied to more than just products; it can be used to design programs, services, experience, spaces, or just about anything you can think of. Three aspects of design thinking that are especially relevant to social entrepreneurs are empathy, prototyping, and storytelling.
Check it out, register and chime in.
Tags: design, SocialEdge
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