When you meet members of LaFleur Marketing, you will quickly recognize that our values guide our team within client relationships and our community. As community engagement leaders and senior designers, Lauren Martelli and I have had several opportunities to share our design thinking experience with high school students in West Michigan.
Collectively, Lauren and I have more than 26 years of experience using design thinking. The design thinking process is a cyclical process that uses research, brainstorming, testing, and gathering feedback to provide creative solutions to problems.
We take a human-centered approach to finding creative solutions for real-world problems – putting human needs, capabilities, and behaviors at the center of the design thinking process. This also means we’re encouraged to use our skills to benefit the community. So, we were excited to take a subject we work with and are passionate about and teach design thinking sessions for high school students.
Promoting project-based learning
Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD) invited Lauren to speak as an alumnus at their Collaborative Designer Career Journey event, offering insights into the Collaborative Design program for prospective students. An education lead from the Mosaic Film Experience (Mosaic) was in attendance. Mosaic educates and empowers underrepresented youth to explore emerging and creative careers. Lauren shared about her career and her passion for community engagement. It quickly became evident that LaFleur and Mosaic shared organizational values.
We quickly formed a partnership and were asked to run workshops with local high school students to teach and empower the next generation of creatives. In our session, the Power of Design Thinking, we presented visual storytelling mood boards and gave an overview of how design thinking is used for creative problem-solving. The students received creative briefs for small groups to create mood boards and innovative solutions.
After hearing about our work with the Mosaic Film Festival, a KentISD career readiness consultant I work with on career day opportunities reached out to our team. The senior class at Byron Center High School was working on a design thinking capstone project. We were offered another opportunity to provide students with a deeper understanding of design thinking and present possible career paths in the creative industry.
A real-world design thinking challenge
The Byron Center students’ assignment was to partner with local businesses and use design thinking to develop prototypes and design solutions for a real-world business challenge. We teamed up with one of our senior strategists, Michael Zuidema, to brainstorm a creative problem for the students to solve.
As a data-driven agency, we are dedicated to researching and optimizing new tools and technology. Our team holds internal artificial intelligence (AI) schools where we test new tools and apply what we learn to weekly projects. So, we were eager to hear from the students about their research to learn even more!
Their challenge: How might LaFleur Marketing leverage AI tools to help us expand and grow our business?
After we presented the challenge, students interviewed us to understand LaFleur’s industry, the services we offer, and the clients we serve. We then held check-ins to provide feedback on students’ research and help them through any roadblocks.
Two creative ideas stood out amongst student groups’ possible solutions:
- Creating a one-stop dashboard or portal to house LaFleur’s AI tools and improve efficiency.
- Exploring a range of AI tools that help produce creative work and determining how they could be utilized by LaFleur’s content and design team.
Students finalized their solutions and prepared their presentations. To say we were impressed is an understatement! The students embodied design thinking with their empathy, ideation, prototyping, and commitment. We knew that picking a winner would not be easy.
Putting design thinking into practice
After much consideration, we chose a team that focused on incorporating AI tools into all aspects of our business. This group understood that for our company to be successful, all skill sets and teams must be considered. They provided a thoughtful solution that addressed all areas of our business.
The winning proposal was about creating an internal company portal called Spark that featured AI tools for all aspects of our business. These tools would assist with mundane and repetitive tasks so we can dedicate more time to our client’s strategic needs. Not only did the team consider all aspects of the business, but they also considered data privacy and security, which is very important for LaFleur and our clients. Here are a few highlights from their presentation:
- The students practiced the cyclical process of design thinking. They engaged the problem with empathy, gathering research and studying our business. They came to us with specific questions to explore how they could find solutions and clearly defined the next steps in their process.
- All student groups developed a prototype and gave a presentation, but this group went above and beyond in their deliverable. Their prototype provided the most tangible solution.
- The extra effort to create a name and logo for their solution shows they understood our industry. They applied what they learned and, with empathy and creativity, applied it to their creative process. What better way to sell an idea to designers and marketers? Design them a website that creates a memorable user experience!
- What impressed us the most about the winning group was their AI tool recommendations. Design thinking requires critical thinking, and their solution addressed creative team needs and all areas that help a business operate successfully. It was an impressive strategic approach that proved they embraced the cyclical process of design thinking.
Designing is about more than aesthetics; it’s designing to solve a problem. We love that Byron Center High School creates learning experiences centered around design thinking. Even more impressive was that this capstone wasn’t for an art or design class but for an English class!
Working and volunteering at a human-centered agency
We are so grateful to be able to give back to our community and are thrilled that KentISD and Byron Center High School are already talking about next year’s design thinking learning experiences. A big thank you to Mosaic Film Experience, Kent ISD, and the teachers of Byron Center for connecting with our community engagement committee.
LaFleur’s community engagement committee coordinates with local organizations to plan our monthly contributions. Over the years, we have built relationships and friendships with some fantastic organizations. We’ve also used this time to improve our employee relationships and culture. In the spring and summer, you might find us outside getting our hands dirty at Blandford Nature Center, WMEAC, or other organizations that need help with site maintenance and a green thumb. As fall approaches, we often help our friends at Schuler Farms harvest garlic before moving inside to help non-profits with holiday giving and packing lunches for those in need at Kids Food Basket.
Do you know an organization looking for volunteers? Contact our community engagement team; we’d love to meet you!
