DESIGN: Chicago

Design as Strategy

Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering, Kellogg School of Management, Segal Design Institute, MMM Program and Master of Product Design and Development Management Program hosted the annual DESIGN: Chicago™ seminar April 9, 2015.

At this year's event, professionals from Doblin Inc., Audi, frog and IA Collaborative spoke about how design can be used as a strategic tool across industries. Below are video recordings of the presnetations along with short bios on each speaker.

Kathleen Brandenburg

Founder, IA Collaborative 

Kathleen Brandenburg is the founder and chief design strategy officer at IA Collaborative, a design and innovation consulting firm. She was named one of “The 50 Most Influential Designers in America” by Fast Company Magazine, which described her as “one of the country’s premier practitioners of immersive design.”

Brandenburg works with clients, such as Nike, Samsung, and GE, to uncover and translate deep user insight into innovative brand, product, service, and business models. She specializes in helping companies define and achieve their visions through design innovation. IA Collaborative’s proprietary User-Driven Design™ process and approach has resulted in great success for her clients and yielded several design awards including the International Red Dot Design Award for the design of the DibKit, a diabetes management device.

Brandenburg holds a master’s in design strategy from the Institute of Design at IIT, where she serves as a lecturer. She also lectures at the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Teaque Lenahan

Executive Director of Innovation Strategy, frog

Teaque Lenahan is the executive director of innovation strategy at frog, a global product and strategy design firm. Committed to helping clients create real growth, build conviction, and harness change, Lenahan drives client growth and co-leads the frogLabs exploratory innovation platform. For more than 20 years, Lenahan has helped clients such as Samsung, AT&T, SC Johnson, Nike, Target, and Honda innovate their strategies, products, services, brands, and organizations. He is a frequent lecturer for the design + innovation program at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, where he serves on the advisory council for the MMM program. Prior to joining frog, Lenahan was an associate partner at gravitytank, crafted brand strategies at Prophet Brand Strategy, and designed processes and organizations at Andersen Consulting (Accenture). He holds an MBA in marketing and strategy from Kellogg.

Jeri Ward

Vice President and Chief Communications Officer, Audi of America

Before becoming Vice President and chief communications officer, Jeri Ward was the director of customer experience for Audi of America, where she built customer loyalty and ensured that the organization understood and responded to the voice of its customers. After Audi enhanced its brand, product line, and dealership network, Ward emphasized creating customer delight at the dealership as an important frontier. She works collaboratively and proactively with internal constituencies and with dealers to identify opportunities to continuously improve the retail and ownership experience. Prior to joining Audi, Ward worked at General Motors and at Ford Motor Company as the Ford Edge Consumer Marketing Manager. Advertising Age included Ward on its 2009 “Women to Watch” honoree list of innovative and accomplished female marketers of the year. She has a master of business administration and master of engineering management from Northwestern.

Larry Keeley

Co-founder and President, Doblin Inc. 

Larry Keeley is the co-founder and president of Doblin Inc., a leading consulting firm that focuses on effective innovation. He is also the author of Ten Types of Innovation, a book that helps leaders identify new innovation opportunities and accelerate existing ideas. BusinessWeek named Keeley one of seven innovation gurus changing the field, specifically citing Doblin Inc. for having many of the most sophisticated tools for delivering innovation effectiveness. More recently, the magazine selected Keeley as one of the 27 most influential designers in the world. Keeley teaches graduate innovation strategy at the Institute of Design in Chicago, where he serves as a board member. He lectures at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, the University of Chicago, and other business schools worldwide. He is also a distinguished fellow at Northwestern’s Segal Design Institute. Keeley previously served as a board member for Chicago Public Radio, where he helped build it as an innovation engine for public radio across the United States, fostering “This American Life” and other path breaking new radio programs.