Alumni Stories – Jennifer Allison
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Jennifer Allison. I work at XperienceLab as a consultant. I’m a business designer and experience architect.
What project/job/event/research are you currently working on? Please tell us a little about the impetus, content, expected impact of this work.
I’m currently working with a large biotech company to help drive commercial transformation. Our focus is on customer efficacy and commercial efficiency. Our close-knit team is working hard to infuse human centered design practices into their customer strategy, business planning, sales effectiveness and revenue/product optimization. This work spans complex systems of people, products, interfaces, services, and spaces; all of which intertwine into experiences that their customers and employees encounter on a daily basis. Our end goal is to have helped them envision and then implement customer and employee interactions that exceed the holistic set of human needs.
In what ways did the work/research you did at parsons prepare you for that transition and the work you’re doing now?
The work I did at Parsons was integral to my transition after graduation. My Master’s Thesis was design thinking virtual team dynamics and this actually led straight into consulting work for a an enterprise level company in the food industry. They were about to merge for the second time within two years and needed a human centered design strategy that would help with holistic change management, balancing the intricacies of blending three different organizational cultures, and transitioning it all into a virtual work environment.
List any awards, recognitions, etc. that you’ve received since leaving Parsons.
I haven’t received any official awards per se, but I was humbled to be mentioned as a ‘top designer’ in the InVision blog, ‘What’s on your bookshelf? Part 1’ last year. I also get nominated for Excellence Awards now and then by my fellow team mates at XperienceLab. Does that count?
How has the MS-SDM program challenged you to grow as a strategic designer?
Before the MS-SDM program I viewed design as problem solving for a specific discreet need. During the MS-SDM program I learned how to apply design thinking to complex problems, and I learned how to become more comfortable with the ambiguity of it. Having the ability to do strategic design work on real projects, with real clients, with real deadlines allowed me crucial hands on experience in developing as a practitioner; without the external pressures of being tempted to give clients only what they want in the immediate term. In other words, having the freedom to fully embrace the design thinking process, as it’s meant to happen, solidified the value of how powerful human centered design can be as a form of business intelligence. This experience allowed me to build full trust and confidence in the end-to-end process of human centered design.
If you were to give one piece of advice to current students, what would it be?
If you ever get lost along the way, remember that empathy is the foundation of human centered design. Let this belief boil from your core and it will steer you in the right direction.
What book are you reading right now?
Managing As Designing by Richard Boland and Fred Collopy, Mindfulness by Mark Williams and Danny Penman, and right before bed I read one page of 365 Tao by Deng Ming-Dao