Episode 17 - TALK Curtis Michelson

Innovation, Design Fiction & Team Fine-Tuningwith Curtis Michelson   In this episode of Design Office Hours, I'm joined by Curtis Michelson—innovation strategist and facilitator—for a wide-ranging conversation on how real innovation happens inside organizations. We trace Curtis's journey from early environmental activism and the dot-com boom to his current work helping mid-sized companies unlock internal capacity for change. We talk about what it means to lead innovation efforts when the pressure is real, resources are limited, and the solution isn't another chatbot. We cover: – Designing corporate innovation beyond trend-chasing – Using AI tools in workshops—when to accelerate, when to hold back – A gamified approach to mapping value networks and future ecosystems – Meta-prompting and fine-tuning teams instead of models – Small gestures that spark big cultural shifts – And reflections on creative restraint, analog experience, and boundaries   Whether you're navigating change from the inside, running strategy sessions, or simply curious about how to design better futures—this one's for you.   For the DOH Library, Curtis recommends the 3x reads below: 'Navigating The Age of Chaos We might have touched on 'BANI' (brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible) in our conversation. This book is an exploration of that state of affairs and how we can cope and respond to it.   Reshuffle Sangeet Choudary's latest, which penetrates the cheap, easy arguments on AI and gets into how AI will radically reorient business models and organizations. In other words, the world will not be cheaper, faster, but very different.    The Art of Noticing Rob Walker's book on how to 'pay attention' - a nice echo of our riff on Sorkin's 250 observations.' And as mentioned in the episode: Two Hundred Fifty Things An Architext Should Know https://www.readingdesign.org/250-things 🎧 Listen now, and send me your takeaways.   Got a question or a topic for a future episode? Email: [email protected] Follow: IG @designofficehours Follow: YouTube @DesignOfficeHours Submit: peterboeckel.com/designofficehours