A Design Lab for folks without a Design Lab.

Inclusive Innovation Within, Among, and Beyond

Design within

A foundational design experience where participants learn the fundamentals by focusing on the most relevant topic: themselves! It all starts with assessing the current state, taking stock of what is energizing us, and also what is getting in our way, crafting prototype futures, and telling our unfinished stories. Working as a cohort, Design Within explores six design mindsets and over 20 design methods.

Design Among

Come together as a team to tackle a challenge or explore an idea using human-centered design to rapidly build and test a prototype solution. Deeply understand the need, define the scope, explore lots of ideas before narrowing down to a solution, and test that solution to gain valuable insight.

Design Beyond

Learn to coach others using design mindsets and methods, incorporating it into your existing interactions. Participants from Design Within or Design Among bring their skills and experience to those around them.

Cardboard Robots Community of Practice

Stay Connected and Grow

Join the community of practice of alumni from any of these design experiences to stay energized and hone your skills. Magic happens when we bring designers together.

Our Approach

We combine Design Thinking and Experiential Learning to create a human-centered approach to solving problems and exploring possibilities with a bias towards action. Healthy innovation is inclusive - through engaging and energizing collaboration we leverage the power of diversity. Our curiosity-fueled “build-to-think” model turns divergent thinking into testable prototypes. By leaning into human-centered design we craft experiences, products, and processes that address the needs of the whole person.

Why Cardboard Robots? A Cardboard Robot is a metaphor for how we do innovation. A robot is a very complex and technical system, that said, designers don’t invest in the expensive resources and time to build the first version. Instead, using an abundant, inexpensive, and easily malleable material —like cardboard— to build and refine iteratively over time to perfect the concept. We adhere to the same methodology for innovation. Using simple, accessible materials we can quickly built, test, and refine concepts to make sure we nail it when we get to creating and implementing the real thing.