Alumni Stories – Cody Fleischfresser
Who are you and what do you do?
Hello, I’m Cody. I’m a futurist and design strategist. I believe in the power of strategy and technology that when driven by human-centered approaches have the opportunity to create a more sustainable, equitable, and beautiful world. I have worked in a few different industries such as health care, retail, financial services. I currently work for a Fortune 500 Financial Services company leading a consumer experience strategy team. In addition to my day job, I volunteer and serve on the board for non-profit organizations working on clean energy, digital literacy, and community media. Lastly, I am a part-time faculty in the SDM program teaching the ‘SDM in New Economies’ course. I really enjoy working with students (and other faculty) to better understand what the world and the economy will look like in the future, and how to use design to catalyze positive change in that environment.
My work in financial services is fun — it is highly regulated and highly complex industry, and the results of what you do matter to real people. There is a lot of opportunity to make it easier for consumers to understand how to meet their financial goals, to send their kids to college, and retire — real stuff.
My work at Parsons gave me the deep knowledge to apply design methods in ways beyond the superficial. Effective design strategy is hard work, and is much deeper than the post-it notes imply. I use different design methods and frameworks that I was able to master during the program everyday in my job to frame and understand incredibly complex problems at the intersection of a obfuscated industry and evolving consumer expectations and needs. The program also gave me the structure and support to pursue my individual passions and to use design as a leadership skill to make that path forward tangible and achievable.
List any awards, recognitions, etc. that you’ve received since leaving Parsons.
I’m just trying to do my thing. I’m not really interested in validation from the ivory towers. I’m more interested in what doors the SDM degree has opened for me, and there are a few opportunities to do projects or meet with people that would not have been available to me before.
The program helped bring a level of expertise and rigor to some of what I had been doing already. Being human-centered is easy to learn, but takes practice to internalize it in a way that enables more fundamental innovation to occur. The program challenged me to be more self-conscious and intentional towards the methods and processes, and gave me the comfort to improvise when needed to achieve the intended outcome.
If you were to give one piece of advice to current students, what would it be?
Realize how much power, agency, and responsibility you have. The world is being remade in front of our eyes. Act with urgency, intentionality, and with an eye towards creating the type of world you want to see. The times require us to be radical in our thoughts and actions.
I have been reading Ezio Manzini’s “Design, When Everybody Designs” as I am really interested in questions around design as a tool for empowerment. To use Manzini’s quote, “What can I do to trigger and support these new ways of thinking and doing? How can I use my design knowledge and tools to empower these grass-roots social innovations?”