Alumni Story – Kathi Hendrick

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Kathi Hendrick (though at Parsons I usually went by Kat). I’m a Senior Innovation Consultant and Venture Lead at Peer Insight, a service design and innovation consultancy. I began my career as a new product development engineer for technical fabrics before shifting my focus to service design and corporate entrepreneurship.

Where are you originally from?

I was born and raised in Fair Haven, NJ. After graduating from undergrad, I spent a few years in Baltimore (one of my favorite cities) before moving to New York City. I currently live in D.C.

What project/job/event/research are you currently working on?

I’m usually working on a few projects at once. Currently, I’m spending a good chunk of time with a non-profit working on their customer experience strategy. I’m also spending some time supporting a team working on a project within the Fintech space. In the past, I’ve worked on projects ranging from helping a large energy provider design an Internet of Things-enabled service for their customers to partnering with a Fortune 500 athletic apparel company to explore and venture a products-as-a-service experience. Although the specific goals of each project vary, they all aim to apply a human-centered, test-and-learn approach to exploring and launching new growth opportunities.

I’m also making a point to carve out time to continue to read up on sustainable design and business models, as I believe it’s vital that we designers start weaving those considerations into the work we do.

In what ways did the work/research you did at Parsons prepare you for that transition and the work you’re doing now?

The program armed me with a portfolio of lenses to apply to problems and opportunities – to understand them, to frame them, and to explore them. I learned to take a more integrated approach, combining elements and approaches from design thinking, lean innovation, behavioral psychology, agile development, UX-design, brand strategy, etc. in bespoke ways based on the questions I need to answer or assumptions I need to validate. Designing a great product, service, or experience requires designing a great project strategy first.

How has the MS-SDM program challenged you to grow as a Strategic Designer?

I came into the program with a quant-heavy approach to experimentation, data gathering, and analysis. The program challenged me to consider that numbers often don’t paint a complete picture and that just because we can build something bigger, better, or stronger, doesn’t mean we should. Getting to know your end-users is paramount, especially considering how irrational and unpredictable they are. Often it only takes a handful of empathy-building conversations to uncover hidden motivations or latent needs that have the potential to reframe possible opportunities or solutions.

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

Start applying what you’re learning as soon as you can, be it through personal projects, pro-bono work, or through your current workplace. I believe design can be understood through reading but is only truly learned through application.

And, take advantage of the incredibly diverse and international network of students the
program attracts. On-campus students should make an effort to get to know the online
students, and vice versa.

What book are you reading right now?

I tend to read a few things at once. Right now the books on my bedside table are: Natural Capitalism, The Autobiography of a Yogi, City on Fire, and The Yoga Sutras.