What if the reason your idea isn't working isn't the idea itself, but the questions you're asking before you build it?

About This Episode

Tracy Brandenburg has taught design thinking at Stanford's d.school, built three programs at Cornell, and helped student entrepreneurs go from "I already know the answer" to actually talking to real humans and learning something.

Tracy unpacks what design thinking really means, where it comes from, and why it might be the most practical tool a social entrepreneur can have.

Tracy started as a cultural anthropologist, showed up at Stanford not knowing why she was there, and ended up running design thinking workshops on her living room floor with popsicle sticks and craft supplies. From there it grew into JetBlue airport fieldwork, Cornell university programs, and now work with student entrepreneurs at Denison University's Red Labs.

The conversation covers the full arc of the design thinking process, from building empathy and asking better questions to prototyping, pivoting, and integrating what you learn. Tracy is honest about what students consistently struggle with: getting out of the classroom to talk to strangers, and letting go of an idea when the feedback tells them to.

There's also a genuinely fun tangent about designing your life the same way you'd design a product, and what a pirate surf camp in Costa Rica has to do with finding your calling.

Episode in a glance

00:00 Introduction to Design Thinking and Its Impact

01:30 How an anthropologist ended up at Stanford's d.school

03:26 Empathy as the foundation of design thinking

05:44 From living room workshops to university programs

08:35 Getting students to talk to strangers and what actually helps

12:30 Applying design thinking with student entrepreneurs at Denison

15:15 Why pivoting is the hardest skill to teach

17:34 Designing your life like a prototype 2

21:54 Reimagining the Rust Belt with design thinking

24:20 What Tracy wants to build next in social innovation

About the Guest

Tracy Brandenburg is a design thinking trainer, anthropologist, and social innovator who has taught at Stanford's d.school, pioneered three design thinking programs at Cornell, and currently leads design thinking work at Denison University's Red Labs. She is also the founder of Reimagining the Rust Belt, a social innovation project in her hometown of Middletown, Ohio.

Connect with Tracy and her work:

→ tracydesign.rocks

→ LinkedIn