Ep. 48: Design Thinking for the Blockchain with Dan Elitzer of IDEO CoLab

How can the crypto community embrace design thinking? By thinking in terms of prototypes. Rather than waiting until a product is perfect, develop a test version and let it out into the wild. Allowing the community to engage is the best way to learn what works and what doesn’t—and work up to your vision. Dan Elitzer is the Blockchain and Digital Identity Lead at IDEO CoLab, IDEO’s research and design network tasked with shaping how emerging technologies will affect our world. Dan has spent his career immersed in entrepreneurship, serving as a consultant to organizations like Community Wealth Partners and KickStart International before becoming the Finance & Operations Officer for the Grameen Foundation. While earning his MBA, Dan co-founded the MIT Bitcoin Club and MIT Bitcoin Project, an initiative to establish MIT as a center of digital currency innovation. Today Dan joins us to share how IDEO came to explore emerging technology in the blockchain space. We discuss his introduction to cryptocurrency as well as IDEO CoLab’s current projects. Listen in for Dan’s advice around the application of design thinking to blockchain technology and his definition of success in his role at IDEO.