Alumni Stories – Marie Saasen

 

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Marie Saasen and I founded the design thinking consultancy Studio Saasen. I help organizations big and small with implementing an iterative, human-centered work process. I am based out of both Oslo, Norway and Bristol, England.

What project/job/event/research are you currently working on? Please tell us a little about the impetus, content, expected impact of this work.
My biggest client right now is a large telecom company. I work closely with an innovation team, guiding their process and helping them get familiarized with design thinking all the way from accessing user insights, through ideation, to sketching out concepts. We’ve run a series of workshops, traveled between countries to engage with the users, both through interviews and co-creation sessions. The focus of the initial project was to help build an effective internal process that facilitates continual communication with users and absorbing of learning to secure gradually better concepts. This process focused project has now been prolonged as both the team and their leaders has seen the benefits of working the design thinking way. Now that the team is flexible and confident in the innovation process, I focus more on strengthening their repertoire of strategies and helping them more actively with the concepts. The aim for our collaboration is twofold; the first is to have this initial work function as a kind of sample study to help grease the wheels for implementing a quicker, more iterative and human-centered approach into this enormous organization. The second is to create something awesome that the users will experience real benefit from.

In what ways did the work/research you did at parsons prepare you for that transition and the work you’re doing now?
In my studio project I ran a study with 32 of my Parsons peers, where I had them do a design challenge where they explained their problem solving aloud while they were working, all in front of a camera. What great sports, it was such fun and I am so thankful. What I did after all the sessions was to look at all the film, and apply codes for the creative strategies that they used. The codes was determined by a comprehensive review of the relevant literature, and codes for the outcomes of the strategies used, for example every new idea, the elaboration on an idea, and the range of different categories of ideas (for example wheel and trampoline would be two different ideas and two different categories, whereas bike wheel and tractor wheel would be different ideas but within the same category). Long story short I apply learnings from this study every day, for example the study showed that analogical thinking, meaning seeking inspiration from different areas and incorporating that into a new concept is related to more original ideas. This really advocates for the diverging and “wild” phase of ideation. Using strategies for visualization, either visually by drawing, three dimensionally by building something or through hand and body movements, were related to more elaboration on the ideas. More elaboration can be crucial to secure that whom ever we are talking with connects with and understands our thinking. Parsons also sent a brilliant intern my way this summer, so being part of the Parsons network has benefits that keep on giving. Every now and then current or past Parsons students reach out to me for mentoring and I always love helping,  I consider it an honor to be able to. The Parsons spirit encapsulates paying it forward and believing that the best ideas are crafted when people´s thinking collide, and those are guiding stars I run my business on today.

List any awards, recognitions, etc. that you’ve received since leaving Parsons.
From what I understand you generally have to apply yourself to win these prizes, no? As a Norwegian I’m far to modest to do that, otherwise I coulda woulda shoulda won some. No awards other than the every day winning feeling of having created something that is able to support me and that brings meaning to my days. On a more serious note, I want to urge possible young readers not to beat themselves up if they lose, or if they haven’t got any fancy awards to show for. If you work hard, put your heart into whatever it is that you make, and really care about the people you are working for and with, you are going to sleep soundly each night. If you are concerned with fame and fortune, what can I say? What goes around comes around, golden work, golden bounties. At some point. Either way, might not be true, but if you think it- you’ll be happy all the same.

How has the MS-SDM program challenged you to grow as a strategic designer?
The peers at Parsons is alone worth the ticket. What a treasure chest of bright, eager and caring people. I still think about some of the classes and I smile, laugh, and sometimes, even a tear in my eye appears. As a strategic designer some of the greatest value lies in the fact that there are people from so many different backgrounds that take this degree. That makes for continual practice in perspective-taking and stakeholder discussion and analysis. If you, reader, are considering taking the degree online or on campus, I would urge you to do it in New York City if you can. Living in NYC is an education in it’s own, especially in terms of learning how to be strategic with your time, energy and other resources. Both Parsons and NYC brought some pretty personal life lessons for me, both in terms of what I want to do with my life, and how I understand other people. Being able to connect with and understand the person across the table, is I think, at the core of being a strategic designer.

If you were to give one piece of advice to current students, what would it be?
I’ll pass along some words of wisdom from someone far brighter than me. It’s something I try to keep in mind myself as an eager talker, and something I think many people could benefit from chewing on a bit: “When you talk you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you might learn something new” Dalai Lama

What book are you reading right now?
Right now I’m reading Algorithms to live by: the computer science of human decisions by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths. It’s okay plus I’d say. The book before that was a fun feast for my ears, I use audible, and that was the autobiography by music manager Shep Gordon called “Supermensch”. What a life, what an eccentric, sweet, thoroughly unhealthy, and unusually creative man. I urge you to find inspiration where you can, if say, you have a book on curriculum that makes you drowsy- find a better book where you can learn about the same concept. Or better yet, find another one that introduces you to a conflicting theory. Being able to co-design my reading list was something I got to enjoy in the class with my favorite teacher at Parsons. He taught me, demanded, that I’d find alternate sources of information and inspiration, and this skill is something that brings me joy, and not to mention- far greater punch in my enquiry, argumentation, and problem solving today.