Hello, I am Roupen. I’m a business designer living in NYC since 2014. I recently graduated with honors from the Strategic Design and Management Master’s program at Parsons, The New School.

What project/job/event/research are you currently working on? Please tell us a little about the impetus, content, expected impact of this work.
Alongside 2 partners from the ‘creativity meets business’ world, I co-founded a company called ‘Confetti’, a digital platform that aims to empower performing artists, create seamless connections with eager audiences and make live performance more accessible and meaningful. I am also currently a part-time faculty member teaching Strategic Management at The New School.

It was during my last year at Parsons that I started to focus on the interplay between dynamic business models and needs of end users. In fact, ‘Confetti‘ was my final year project and the work done at Parsons was instrumental in laying the foundation and blueprint for this project.

Specifically, I was able to:

• Apply user‐centered design to identify opportunities for innovation within the performance and live entertainment sphere
• Gather and translate multitudes of observations into concepts, with ongoing guidance and recommendations across the different phases
• Put to practice many of the design thinking tools we explored over the 2-years to advance the work
• Build and cultivate both an internal and external network to support my project work
• Develop prototypes to iteratively test design, scale, scope, strategy, structure and impact
• Practice an innovation culture of conducting experiments and adapting accordingly

List any awards, recognitions, etc. that you’ve received since leaving Parsons.
At Parsons:

• Commencement Speaker / Class Valedictorian
• Graduated with Honors
• President’s Scholarship Awardee
• The New Challenge Finalist

How has the MS-SDM program challenged you to grow as a strategic designer?
I chose the MS at Parsons as I was intrigued by human-centered business design and was looking to set myself apart from the typical consultancy journey. The program being highly idea-centric really sparked up my curiosity for disruptive innovation and reset my mindset into a user centered and empathetic one given that I had to work with creative teams across hybrid talents. By default, my peers and I were learning everything and everywhere, and were challenged to grow as strategic Designers.
The post-graduation support I have received from my program Director Rhea Alexander has been invaluable and has strongly reaffirmed my passion for a program that has set me on the journey I have been in search for. Aside from the functional set of tools and practical skills that the program bolstered, I graduated with a stronger entrepreneurial mindset and an eagerness to continue to invent and dream to change the world.

If you were to give one piece of advice to current students, what would it be?

Start defining the next steps of your journey at least half-way through the program. The industry is fast-paced and ever changing, and understanding the ecosystem you will belong to early on can better prepare you to secure the roles you aspire for. Really explore and understand your strengths and the parts of the process that you like, and identify the Pioneers that can allow you to grow in those areas.