Thinking About Starting a Design Studio

Every day I hear about problems I’d be interested in solving. For example, I had a great conversation with someone innovating inside a high school. She was wondering how to take her students’ leadership to the next level. I had lots of ideas. 

I joined a brainstorming session about creating a more entrepreneurial culture in my home town. Business leaders and members of state agencies all have a vested interest in figuring this out. I had lots of ideas about how to make it happen. 

I’m constantly exposed to possibilities that I could see myself running with. It makes me want to start a design studio where I can incubate ideas and build experiences, programs, prototypes. 

But starting a business to do everything doesn’t feel like a smart route. 

In design thinking we prioritize understanding a user and their problems. Interview people, develop a deep knowledge of the challenges they face and the things they care about. Then, define a very specific problem and build a solution accordingly. 

Building a studio that allows me to run with ideas feels exciting because I have dozens of ideas on the back burner. But I know that focus at the early stage is key. 

Is there any way to remedy these two approaches which seem opposite? 

The only thing I can think of is leaning into the randomness of projects to make interesting content. If I created videos about each project, or about the process of vetting ideas, starting a company, etc… then the randomness could make the content compelling and also serve the long term goal of building an audience that would support future design work. In this situation though, I haven’t solved the problem, I’ve just chosen instead to focus on building on content business.

Anyways, I’m not in a huge rush to choose something, but I’m thinking a lot about it. I’m curious to hear your thoughts!

Other Updates

It’s finally getting nice out in New Hampshire! I walked into town and worked outside at the coffee shop this past week.

I’m looking forward to being able to play tennis outside again, and hopefully going on a few hikes. Golf season is also starting back up and I’ve played a few times so far. In general I’m trying to spend more time outside, walking, running, playing and staying active.

We have a busy few weekends of travel over the next four weeks. Primarily visiting family and friends, but most notably going to Third Nature Summer Camp and facilitating a creativity workshop at the end of May.

Thanks for reading!

Zack