Winter 2020 Design Innovation Trek to San Francisco

Northwestern EDI ‘20 students recently visited Bay Area design studios and EDI alumni.

EDI students toured studios and heard from alumni and other design innovation professionals in the Bay Area.

Jean Jiang can imagine herself working in San Francisco. That is why Jiang, a current student in Northwestern's Master of Science in Engineering Design Innovation (EDI) program, was so enthusiastic about the program's recent trip to tour studios and hear from alumni and other design innovation professionals in the Bay Area. 

Jiang and the EDI ‘20 cohort visited Hopelab, Google, Lyft, D-Ford, Huge Design, and Mojo Vision, heard from professionals at LinkedIn, Slack, and Salesforce, and met-up with more than 20 Bay Area EDI graduates at Northwestern’s downtown San Francisco campus. 

Jiang recently took a few minutes to look back at the experience and share why it was one of the most impactful experiences she's had so far in the program.

What were you hoping to learn from the trip?

I wanted to learn about what life could be like in San Francisco, one of the many frontlines for innovation. As someone who potentially wants to move there after EDI, this was important to me. On a similar note, I was also hoping to meet people who have been in design and engineering fields and who could talk about their experiences as professionals in the workforce. 

What were two or three of the most important lessons you learned from the trip?

Visiting a range of different companies really showed me what I wanted in a workplace. It's given that work culture is important and you can kind of get a feel of it through a company's website or online reviews, but actually taking a physical tour, talking to people who work there and hearing their stories really does demonstrate a lot more about a company. This trip gave me more of a sense of where I wanted to be after the program. 

Also, having Q&A sessions with really cool people at Google and Lyft were really eye-opening because I got to learn about how things worked around those places from an insider. 

In short, having that in-person connection goes miles.

What were the most impactful sessions to you and why were they so important?

I enjoyed the session at D-Ford because it surprised me to find such a creative human-centered innovation space within a traditional company. It's clear that many companies are recognizing design as important and it's becoming an area of investment within their business model. 

I also loved the EDI get-together at Northwestern's San Francisco campus because I got to meet a bunch of EDI alumni there and learn about what life is like for them.

Why is it important for EDI to offer experiences like this to students?

Although EDI offers plenty of great experiences in the Chicago area already, I think it's also important to occasionally step out of this bubble and show students what else is out there. As I mentioned before, developing an in-person connection and taking actual physical tours definitely goes a long way in showcasing a company's culture. 

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

The San Francisco trip was definitely a highlight of my time in EDI so far! I don't think I would have been able to get to know such a diverse range of companies without EDI pulling those strings, and that was very rewarding. In addition, I think it was also a really good bonding experience for the cohort. We ended up staying over the weekend in an Airbnb and it was a lot of fun. I'm really grateful to EDI for arranging this trip and hope this continues in future years.