Operations + Human Centered Design + Art with Alvin Schexnider — DT101 E116

Alvin Schexnider is an emancipatory designer and a business operations strategist who helps institutions become more effective, just, citizen-centered, and innovative. He has 15 years of experience in leadership across design, strategy, equity, and business operations in the government, nonprofit and for-profit spaces. Currently he is a part of Capital One's Equity and Design team as a senior equity design strategist. Outside his day-to-day work, he runs GraffitiVersal, an organization that makes resources to inspire, elevate, and catalyze change. GraffitiVersal’s latest release is called A Continuum of Freeing Design and Vigorous Futures, a card deck detailing an approach for designing for both equitable and just outcomes in the present, and for thriving worlds in the future. We talk about bringing human-centered design to operations and human resources. Listen to learn about: >> Alvin’s roundabout road into design >> Alvin’s experiences at the Greater Good Studio >> Using design at the Illinois Department of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic >> Alvin’s role as Senior Equity Design Strategist at Capital One Our Guest Alvin (he/him) is a designer, futurist, strategist, and illustrator. He's a right brain / left brained DesignOps leader, with 10 + years of tri-sector people management, who uses foresight and equity to build and vitalize impactful organizations. He leverages his 15 years of experience and leadership across strategy & business operations, multidisciplinary design (service design, human-centered design, equity design), and org change to drive concepting, adoption, and implementation of major initiatives. At present, he is a Manager, Design Practice & Equity Design on Capital One's Experience Strategy & Operations Team; previously, he was Sr. Equity Design Strategist in its Equity by Design Program. Before this role, he was Chief People Officer of the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS - agency budget of $9 Billion), focused on improving the experience of 14,000 staff while leading a department of 130 people, and before that, he was also Senior Operations Lead for IDHS focusing on strategy, bizops, and service design projects. Alvin began to build capacity in human-centered design as the first Director of Design Operations at Greater Good Studio, a human-centered design firm that works with global foundations, government agencies, and national NGOs. Outside of his day job, Alvin is also Founder & Organizer of GraffitiVersal — an emancipatory lab using design, art, foresight, & Afrofuturism for change. GraffitiVersal's Racial DeckEquity Cardset & Continuum of Freeing Design & Vigorous Futures CardDeck have been used at organizations such as: Meta, LAB at OPM, Univ. of Chicago, and Slalom Consulting. He's also the author of A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming (via A Kids Co.) and is currently writing & illustrating his first Afrofuturist graphic novel for middle schoolers through the Sequential Artists Workshop's Graphic Novel Intensive. Besides hanging with his partner and 2 kids, you’ll find him reading N.K. Jemisin or a Black Panther comic book. Show Highlights [00:39] Alvin’s love of art and storytelling started early, as a kid creating his own comics. [05:06] Starting college as a PolySci major with plans to be a lawyer. [07:18] The moment Alvin realized he didn’t want to pursue law as a career. [07:56] Moving on to business management studies, and his time in Beijing. [09:02] Starting his business career at Abbott Laboratories and returning to China. [13:21] Sidestepping away from for-profit into mission-driven and non-profit spaces. [15:14] Realizing he had a knack for business operations and systems thinking. [16:47] How his time as Director of Operations at Greater Good Studio transformed his thinking and started him on his own path into design. [21:07] Immersing himself in design spaces and in learning design. [21:57] Taking all he’d learned about human-centered design into his next job — COO of Erie Neighborhood House Services. [23:52] Getting recruited to work for the Illinois Department of Human Services. [27:10] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Alvin used design to help shape the department’s response. [29:19] Redesigning policies and spaces to keep staff healthy as essential workers. [35:27] Taking over as the head of HR for the department, and working on improving employee experience. [38:33] Alvin’s current role as the Senior Equity Design Strategist for Capital One’s Equity by Design team. [43:06] You don’t have to be an official designer to use design in your work. Links Alvin Schexnider on LinkedIn Alvin Schexnider on Medium GraffitiVersal GraffitiVersal on Instagram A Kids Book About Radical Dreaming (A Kids Co Publishing) by Alvin Schexnider - recently released! Wakanda Forever - A Film Review - Human Futures Magazine AIGA Chicago Podcast - Designing For: Equity Interview with Slalom Consulting Continuum Deck of Freeing Design & Vigorous Futures  Traveling through the spacetime continuum to escape racism Books Recommendations Kindred, by Octavia Butler We Do This Til We Free Us, by Mariame Kaba Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, by Ta Nehisi Coates Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need, by Sasha Costanza-Chock This is Service Design Doing, by Marc Stickdorn, Markus Hormess, and Adam Lawrence Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture, by Ytasha Womack Far Sector, by N.K. Jemisin Employee Experience: Develop a Happy, Productive and Supported Workforce for Exceptional Individual and Business Performance, by Ben Whittier Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, by Adrienne Maree Brown Good Services: How to Design Services that Work, by Louise Downe Drawn Together, by Minh Lê and Dan Santat Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like Designing for the Greater Good, Strategy + Design Thinking, and Measuring Design Thinking with Jeanne Liedtka — DT101 E1 Critical and Emancipatory Design Thinking with Lesley-Ann Noel — DT101 E57 5.5 Things Every Designer Should Know About: The Opioid Overdose Epidemic (Part 1) with Stacy Stanford — DT101 E102