Strategic Design Meets Global Markets: The CO:Design Workshop Parsons x JAPAN
Strategic Design Meets Global Markets: The CO:Design Workshop Parsons x JAPAN The CO:Design Workshop Parsons x JAPAN brought together MS Strategic Design and Management students and companies from Japan’s Chugoku region (Hiroshima, Okayama, Yamaguchi, Shimane, and Tottori prefecture) to explore opportunities for U.S. market entry through strategic design. Organized by CO:Design & Strategy, a business design firm co-founded by Parsons MS Strategic Design & Management alumni Sachino Taki and Anne Nestler, in collaboration with Parsons School of Design and supported by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), a Japanese government agency that supports small and medium-sized enterprises in global business expansion,…
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What Design Actually Looks Like Inside a Consulting Firm
We hosted two Bain designers for a workshop last week, and here’s what we learnt from them. MS SDM alumni Carlos Salom and Anamika Gopi partnered with the Creative Consulting Club and came back to Parsons to give us the 101 on what it’s like to work as a strategic designer at a top consulting firm. As current consultants on Bain & Company’s AI, Insights & Solutions (AIS) team, they designed a workshop that walked us through team structures, essential skills the role demands, sanitized case studies, as well as an interactive skills tracker for students. More than anything, the…
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Leadership at Scale: Hearts, Trade-Offs, and the Human Future of AI
In conversation with Lara Abrash at the Parsons School of Design with Strategic Design & Management Community Some evenings feel like programming. Others feel like perspective shifts. This one felt like the latter. The School of Design Strategies recently welcomed Lara Abrash, Chair of Deloitte US, for a candid, in-person conversation with students from the MS Strategic Design & Management program and members of the Creative Consulting Club. What unfolded was not a rehearsed keynote or a corporate script. It was an honest exchange about leadership, reputation, innovation, AI, and the responsibility that comes with influencing systems at scale. The conversation began…
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Key Takeaways from Industry Talk with Megan Staake: Insights for Strategic Design Students
The conversation with Megan Staake, a Principal at Boston Consulting Group’s design and technology division, offers valuable insights into the practical application of strategic design in enterprise environments. Her journey from graduate school to leading complex product development initiatives provides a roadmap for students navigating the intersection of design thinking, business strategy, and technological implementation. Understanding Strategic Design in Practice Strategic design extends far beyond the conceptual frameworks taught in academic settings. Megan’s experience reveals that successful strategic design requires thinking about scalability from the very beginning, not just creating compelling prototypes or minimum viable products. The difference between academic…
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From SDM to Adobe: Tanvi’s path, portfolio strategy, and job search playbook
Tanvi returned to share what her job in experience research looks like, how she structured a portfolio that got attention, and the habits that kept her job search moving. It was honest, specific, and very usable for anyone aiming at product teams. Five takeaways to act on this week Apply fast on the company website. Use LinkedIn to find roles, not to hit Easy Apply. Treat your portfolio like a set of short books. Make each project easy to pick up and hard to put down. Prepare real stories for behavioral interviews. Memorize points, not scripts. Curate 4 to 6…
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Insights from Soumil Panwar: Navigating UX, Strategy, and Career Growth
We recently hosted Soumil Panwar, Senior UX Designer at Optum in Dallas, for an engaging alumni talk. Soumil, a Parsons SDM graduate (Class of 2023), shared his career journey, portfolio strategies, and reflections on navigating the UX and product design industry. Below are the key highlights and insights. Career Journey into UX Soumil’s design path began in India, where he ran his own design agency before moving into UX through client projects in software. At Optum, he started with execution-focused UX tasks but gradually expanded into leading UX research, managing teams, and bridging product strategy with technical feasibility. His journey…
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MS SDM Panel Discussion
Be comfortable being uncomfortable: Reflections from the MS SDM Peer-to-Peer Panel Starting a new academic year invites fresh questions about what strategic design looks like in practice. We opened the semester with a Peer-to-Peer Panel designed to meet those questions head on, pairing an opening conversation with Professor Edward Cardimona with a student panel that traced real paths through the first year of MS Strategic Design and Management. The brief for the session was simple, be specific, be honest, and share what actually helped. What emerged was a clear through line, growth follows discomfort, and strategic design is a practice…
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From Non-Linear Paths to Strategic Success: A Bain & Company Designer’s Journey
An in-depth look at how Carlos Salom turned a “non-linear” career into his greatest strength and landed at one of the world’s top consulting firms.Last week, our Strategic Design and Management community had the privilege of hearing from Carlos Salom, a recent SDM graduate who now works as a strategic designer at Bain & Company. What unfolded was an honest, practical, and inspiring conversation about navigating career uncertainty, building authentic stories, and leveraging the unique skills we develop in our program.Carlos opened with a striking visual timeline of his journey, describing it as “very non-linear path”. What initially seemed like…
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Carelab – Visiblize-ing Care Festival
Participate in the Visibilize-ing Care Festival The Visibilize-ing Care Festival, organized by the Parsons CareLab, will be a multimedia, multidisciplinary festival that will kick-off in Fall 2025. Students, faculty, alumni and staff are invited to showcase projects that creatively and critically explore all forms of care – between individuals, within communities, families and organizations, in cities, across the world, in relationship to our environment, and with ourselves. Attend Information Session: Wednesday, April 30th at 10am – 11am EDT. Link: Zoom Meeting | Password: 354360 RSVP here, if you would like to attend and/or be informed when the application is open in Fall 2025. Learn more about the Parsons Carelab here.
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Parsons Festival 2025: Narwhal Tank Impact Ventures Showcase
Join Parsons School of Design’s Entrepreneurs Lab, in partnership with The Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative, for the first-ever Narwhal Tank, a unique venture pitching event designed to showcase The New School’s most impactful student and alumni ventures from across our ecosystem that are addressing pressing social and environmental challenges. Developed to create more just and verdant societies, come to support our budding entrepreneurs, give audience feedback, and help vote on the awardees “most likely to create impact.” ORGANIZERS: Parsons ELab: Founded in 2014, Parsons Entrepreneurial Lab is a design-led research lab dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship. Nurtured within the School of Design…
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