S2E1: Abbie Walsh - How diversity and design can be a catalyst for change

We’ve partnered with ProtoPie, the future of interactive product design, to help you navigate through uncertainty and overcome the challenges today's unprecedented conditions have brought to the industry. Join us for Season 2 - Designing for a new level of uncertainty. How can diversity in the design process help organisation future proof products and services in this unpredictable world we live in? Abbie Walsh talks about her diversity journey and how she’s helped organisations identify and overcome the biggest barriers to create an inclusive working culture using service design as a methodology. Abbie talks about her experience as a gay woman in the design industry and how she overcame difficult challenges during her personal and professional life. She discusses the importance of creating spaces in organisations for people from minorities to have a voice and talks about the power of having diversity in design teams. She also talks about a service design methodology called Living Business. A practical way to identify organisational blockers for change and a process to become truly flexible in these uncertain times. About our guest We talk with Abbie Walsh, Chief Design Officer at Accenture Interactive (former Fjord) and recently recognised as one of the women who have shaped the Digital Industry in the UK by The Drum. Abbie has a strong voice for diversity within the industry, which she believes is a good step towards tackling unconscious bias in design. Before joining Accenture, she was at the BBC where she worked on the BBC iPlayer. What you’ll learn How can diversity be a tool to help designers and organisations to face what Covid-19 has brought to the world? What are the common problems organisations have about diversity and inclusion and how can service design help? What benefits does diversity bring in the design process? What is unconscious bias and how does it affect the design process? How can organisations become flexible enough to be able to respond to fast changes and challenges? How can companies keep being a people oriented organisation in the middle of a pandemic? Show notes 25 From 25: women who have shaped the digital industry Living Business: Rewiring your organization to unlock your people’s potential