The Design Advantage
Westin Hatch (MMM ’14) shows how the MMM program’s approach to human‑centered design sets leaders apart in a crowded business landscape.
Westin Hatch (MMM '14) vividly remembers the moment he realized the world had design all wrong.
Westin was a customer experience strategy manager at a major global consultancy firm when he invited a graphic designer to join him and interview users about their pain points for an important project. The colleague’s reply? “Why would I do that? I’m a designer.”
“That was when I realized that the world is kind of on its head when it comes to design,” Westin said.
That experience helped Westin appreciate the value of the broader, human‑centered definition of design he learned in Northwestern's MBA + MS Design Innovation (MMM) program—a dual-degree program between Northwestern Engineering and the Kellogg School of Management.
"People think of designers as people who just build colorful buttons and user interfaces, or an industrial designer who builds cool hardware," he said. "They don't think of a designer in the broadest sense of the term that we learned in the MMM program."
That broad sense is built on human-centered design, a framework to create products, services, and systems by starting with intensive end-user research to uncover hidden pain points and true needs.
That is what Westin does as vice president of professional services for Glia—a leading AI platform for banks and credit unions. In Westin’s role, he guides banks and credit unions in transforming their operations with AI.
It’s a job where he relies heavily on what he learned in the MMM program.
“Many companies are being told by their board that they must implement AI. There is a real fear of falling into irrelevance in the era of AI,” he said. “The result is that most companies are applying a scatter shot approach applying AI wherever they can and seeing what sticks. This approach has a high rate of failure. As we learn in the MMM program, we must understand people and work backward for how AI can help them. This approach yields the highest rate of business innovation.”
It is from this perspective that Westin and his team of roughly 30 professionals approach their work. Looking through a MMM lens, they dive deep into their customers’ pain points and apply Glia’s AI products in the right places to prompt the best return.
The current state of AI provides an ideal environment for those with a MMM focus, Westin said.
“AI is rapidly becoming better than humans at many cognitive skills,” he said. “However, the one area AI will not be able to surpass humans is in creativity. This is because large language models are probabilistic algorithms fed by human data or derivatives of human data. They cannot make illogical connections. This means there is tremendous opportunity for anyone who has the MMM skillset as these skills in creativity, design, and innovation as well as business operations will only become more important—not less—as AI improves.”
But to truly be successful, Westin said, the organization itself needs to be steeped in the right mindset. That means having a fundamental understanding of how vital human-centered design is to the entire operation.
“The word ‘design’ means a gazillion different things to different people," Westin said. “You have to work within a culture that accepts design and design thinking."
Prior to Glia, Westin spent seven years at software company Qualtrics, where he left as transformation officer.
What he learned there, and continues to reinforce to his colleagues at Glia, is that the key to transformation rarely is technology for technology’s sake. True transformation—and impact—comes from understanding why and where the right technology may be the solution.
Developing that mindset and knowing how to apply it to businesses is what he sees as the MMM program's greatest differentiator
“MMM is not your typical MBA. It's a good conversation starter. It helps you to stand out from a crowded space of people with MBAs,” he said. “At the end of the day, the fundamental purpose of design is to make the world a better place by applying technology to fulfill what people are trying to do.”