The workshop focused on using design thinking to develop solutions for three personas: Nora, a 62-year-old nurse preparing for retirement; Erin, a 28-year-old editor focused on her career and future family; and Ryan, a 32-year-old developer planning for life milestones. Participants worked in teams to identify challenges, measure success criteria, hypothesize solutions, and storyboard a concept. The goal was to apply human-centered design approaches to address each persona's needs through a potential product or service. Teams then presented their storyboards to the group.

1. Irish Life Executive
Design Thinking Workshop
Irish Life – Executive InsurTech Innovation Program
CROKE STADIUM – DUBLIN, IRELAND – NOVEMBER 8, 2018

2. Photos from
this workshop

3. Design Thinking & Innovation Program - 12.2018

4. Ideate on potential
solutions and success
criteria
Today’s Workshop Goals
Build some empathy
and identify consumer
challenges
Create a hypothesis
that can lead to a
testable concept

5. Workshop Personas

6. X
Challenge: Support Nora as she prepares for retirement and focuses on her
health and wellbeing
Nora Sweeney is a 62-year-old nurse at
University Hospital Galway, where she has
worked for 31 years. Norah is married to
Tom, a retired attorney with whom she has
four children who range in age from their
mid-twenties to their early thirties. Her
oldest daughter, Carrie, lives nearby with
her husband and two young children. Her
two youngest children are unmarried and
living in Dublin focused on their careers,
while her middle son, Wyatt is recently
married and living in New York with his
wife. Nora is looking forward to joining her
husband, Tom, in retirement in a few years
and collecting her pension.
Nora and Tom plan to sell the home they
live in now and move full time to their
seaside holiday home in Dingle. As a nurse,
Nora is active and, as a breast cancer
survivor, extremely health conscious. She
walks several miles every morning before
work, cooks healthy meals for her and
Tom, and enjoys caring for and spending
time with her two young grandchildren.
Her main concern in life right now is to
keep herself and Tom healthy and active so
that when she retires in a few years, they
will both be able to fulfill their dream of
traveling throughout Europe and North
America with their grandchildren and
spending time with their son and his wife
in New York.
Nora Sweeney

7. X
Challenge: Help Erin navigate the challenges of growing her career without
compromising her future family planning
Erin Healy is 28 years old. She lives in
Dublin and works in the editorial
department at Storyful, where she sources
and seeks out writers and other content
producers for the Storyful platform. Erin
studied English Literature at Trinity
College Dublin and spent a year abroad
studying French at Ecole Normale
Superieure in Paris. In her spare time, Erin
freelances as a food writer, works on
perfecting her French, and likes to try out
new restaurants in Dublin with her
boyfriend and her roommates–friends
from University whom she rents a three-
bedroom apartment within the Rathmines
neighborhood of Dublin.
In addition to her career, Erin’s main focus
is to become fluent in French and publish
more writing so that she can eventually
move to Paris and be a full-time food
journalist. While Erin does have a
boyfriend who she has been dating for six
months, she enjoys living with her
roommates, loves their apartment, and
does not see herself getting married in the
immediate future. She is currently more
focused on her career and achieving her
professional goals. She would, however,
eventually like to get married and sees
herself having children later down the
road.
Erin Healy

8. X
Ryan Lacy is 32 years old and works as a
Solutions Architect at Abitran in Cork. Ryan
and his girlfriend, Anne, a social worker,
recently bought their first townhouse in
Cork City. Ryan was recently promoted and
feels confident in the path his career is
taking. Three years into his job at Abitran,
this is the first time in his career he has
been at a job longer than two years. While he
doesn’t see himself at Abitran forever, the
company recently sent him to a leadership
training seminar and he can see himself
staying put for at least a few more years.
When Ryan is not working, he and Anne love
to cook, run, cycle, and travel. Throughout
their five years together they have traveled
to 13 countries across the globe, including
Vietnam, Chile, Japan, Egypt, and Indonesia
and run two marathons in two different
countries.
While Ryan has enjoyed the last few years
with Anne traveling the world, as a couple,
they are ready to settle down somewhat.
Ryan plans on proposing to Anne in the next
six months and sees them getting married,
having children, and buying a house in the
next 2-3 years. As such, he is less focused on
travel right now, and more focused on saving
up money for their future together (and
buying a new road bike).
Ryan Quinn
Challenge: Guide Ryan while he plans for some significant life milestones and
builds towards substantial financial goals

9. Workshop Personas

10. Workshop
Agenda
60 minutes
1 Problem-solving brainstorm 20 min
2
Success measurement 10 min
3
Form a hypothesis 5 min
3
Storyboard a Solution 20 min

11. TRIZ - Inverted Problem Solving
EXERCISE #1

12. • Read your team’s assigned persona background and jump into their shoes
• Consider the negative end-results your persona can face, and write each
outcome on its own post-it note
• [ INDIVIDUALLY ] Come up with as many as you can. Remember, one
post-it per bad outcome (3 min)
• [ TEAM ] Share your post-it notes within your team and group like post-its
into themes or categories. Label each grouping/theme (5 min)
• [ TEAM ] Select the most compelling problem-space/theme for the next
exercise (2 min)
What would be the worst outcomes for your persona?

13. • [ INDIVIDUALLY ] Write down ideas to solve for your selected problem-
space. One idea per post-it (3 min)
• [ TEAM ] Share your post-it notes with the group (5 min)
• Each group member will now vote for two (2) solutions by marking the ones
they like best with a circle sticker. Select the three solutions with the most
votes. (2 min)
Now, let’s fix the problem we selected

14. Measuring Outcomes
EXERCISE #2

15. • [ TEAM ] Organize your work space so the main problem-space you are
solving for and the top solution ideas are side-by-side.
• [ INDIVIDUALLY ] look at each solution and write out a measurable
outcome that would indicate that the solution was a success. (e.g. If I’m
trying to improve employee performance, a new “program” may improve
peer review scores by 20%) (3 min)
• [ TEAM ] Share and place outcomes against solutions (2 min)
How can we measure that we’re successful?

16. Form a hypothesis
EXERCISE #3

17. [ ] is a [ ] who is
trying to do [ ]. One of the issues she/he
is running into is [ ].
If we [ ], then we will be able to help
[ ] achieve [ ].
Now with your post-it notes, you have a problem area, potential solutions, and outcomes to measure success.
[ TEAM ] - Fill out this Problem Statement Template (5 min)
Construct your hypothesis
PERSONA NAME PERSONA DESCRIPTOR
TASK
PROBLEM YOU ARE SOLVING FOR
TEAM SOLUTION
THESE OUTCOMESPERSONA NAME

18. Storyboarding Solutions
EXERCISE #4

20. • Now we’re going to sketch some ideas that could help us with our
problem statements
• [ INDIVIDUALLY ] Sketch a concept for a product or service that could help
you address your persona’s problem. (5 min)
• Solutions should be something you could buy, use, or participate in—not a
lucky break
• For example: You could sketch an app that sends you encouraging messages
to keep you engaged in your hobby. Or a service that provides financial
advice for groups of people, not just individuals
Sketch or brainstorm some solutions

22. • [ TEAM ] Quickly share your concepts. (3 min)
• [ TEAM ] Select a scribe and begin storyboarding one (1) concept selected by
the group. Name the concept and make sure you can describe its value (5 min)
• Draw a step-by-step storyboard of how people would use the product or
service, and what the outcome would be for them.
• Specific drawings of the product or service are not needed. This is about
how it’s used and how it helps, not what it looks like
Work together to storyboard your best concept

23. Team Presentations

24. Share our storyboards
OUR PERSONAS
Nora
Nurse, 62
Erin
Editor, 28
Ryan
Developer, 32

25. Thank you
Josh Levine
Founder, CEO
- jlevine@cakeandarrow.com
- @neatpace
Nabil Rahman
Head of Product Strategy
nrahman@cakeandarrow.com
A Guide to Human
Centered Design
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go.cakeandarrow.com/
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