Design Thinking : A Mindset and an Essential Skillset in the Age of Digital Transformation
As companies digitally transform, design thinking is being used as an innovation methodology across markets, industries, and regions. Core tenants of design thinking, such as a problem-finding approach, focus on the user and their experience, a fail-early and fail-fast mindset, and a collaborative working style are key aspects companies are using to help drive breakthrough and continuous innovation.
Companies are looking for design-minded intrapreneurs in their companies and for creative competencies across roles—from business to technology to product and service. This session will provide an overview of the market need for design thinkers, why it is relevant across roles in an organization, the different skillsets and competencies needed, and how to go about attaining them for your career.
Learn about additional resources that you can tap into to further your knowledge on this topic.
Speaker: Sam Yen, Chief Design Officer & Managing Director of Silicon Valley Labs, SAP
Speaker Bio:
In addition to leading User Experience & Design (UxD) for SAP, Sam has taken over responsibilities as the Managing Director for SAP in Silicon Valley in July 2015. Sam keeps his role as the Chief Design Officer of SAP. He will continue to drive a renewed commitment to design and User Experience at SAP. Under his leadership, SAP further strengthens its mission of listening to customers’ needs leading to tangible results, including SAP Fiori®, SAP Screen Personas, and SAP´s UX design services.
Prior to taking on his current role as Chief Design Officer, Sam was the Global Head of Design and User Experience. Before that, he led the SAP AppHaus, an innovation team building new solutions, establishing new markets, and reaching new users for SAP.
Last year, Sam was a fellow at d.school (Institute of Design at Stanford), where he created the d.forum, a global community of senior leaders driving design thinking within their organizations.
Sam came to SAP ten years ago when Hasso Plattner formed the Design Services Team, a multi-disciplinary group in the Office of the CEO, to accelerate the adoption of design thinking at SAP and improve SAP’s User Experience. This was the reason for Sam to join SAP and is still his passion.
Before joining SAP, Sam was co-founder of Covigna, Inc., an enterprise software company that delivered project management solutions. At Covigna, he led the design, engineering, and strategic customer engagement. Sam is a native of San Francisco and has a Ph.D. in Design Theory and Methodology from Stanford University.