I have never thought of myself as a risk taker. I am most comfortable with a clear routine, a sense of control and I like to organize most everything from my household to my work plan.
I have worked with both Diane and David before and although I do not consider myself to be a risk taker, I do look up to their ability to innovate, navigate unchartered waters and trust their instincts. It is amazing how much I learn through their actions.
This brings me to the point of this particular blog. I was reflecting this past week on the most valuable thing I learned in the few months I have been with The CAPTURE Project. I have learned a lot, but the clear front runner is learning to embrace risk.
I have often described CAPTURE as a “risky endeavour” because it is a project that strives to bring something new to the world of chronic disease prevention – and anything new, in my opinion, carries risks. Some of my colleagues feel this expression has a heavy negative connotation. I silently disagreed without being able to really put my finger on why…until I read “Embracing Risk to Grow and Innovate”.
In this article, authors Diego Rodriguez and Ryan Jacoby make an optimistic and positive case for risk using a designer’s approach. Designers, they say, are “hooked on learning. The more you try, the more you learn; and the more you learn, the greater the likelihood that you can design a new and better experience for a user. Designers want to have a meaningful, positive impact in the world, and they recognize that taking risks is the way to get there.”
As I read this (and the rest of their article), the parallels to CAPTURE were striking.
Rodriguez and Jacoby go on to describe how designers’ thinking process mitigates the risk they embrace. They list seven such principles and it is interesting how most of them apply to CAPTURE’s approach. Here are some of those principles and my thoughts on why and how they relate to The CAPTURE Project:
- Design thinkers use their informed intuition and personal evidence to reduce the likelihood that they embark on a journey of solving the wrong problem. I remember early conversations with Diane and David before The CAPTURE Project launched its initial consultations. Their original description – call it intuitive, experience-based or some other qualifier – of the knowledge cycle problem still stands and serves as the foundation for why this platform is being built.
- Design thinking starts with people and looks for evidence of desire. By committing to engage the chronic disease prevention practice community , The CAPTURE Project places high value in understanding what the community needs as a fundamental step towards mitigating risk with regards to the platform’s success.
- Design thinking encourages you to gather feedback long before an idea, concept, or story is ‘finished’. We have been gathering feedback since the project’s inception and plan to conduct user testing of the various features and functionalities of the platform precisely to help us improve the product before it is launched.
- Think big but start small(er). Rodriguez and Jacoby say that “limiting the scope of your initial efforts (without losing site of the vision you’re heading toward) is an effective way to prove viability.” The CAPTURE Project development strategy is using a phased approach to building the platform. By focusing our initial scope, we are making it easier to prototype the tool, obtain feedback and improve it further. It is our intent to expand the platform as we demonstrate effective usage and build a case for its value. As poignantly said by the authors, “In the end, it’s less risky to scale a viable proposition than it is to try and make viable an operation already at scale.”
I started off by saying that I don’t think of myself as a risk taker. I should modify that statement slightly. I may not be a risk taker, but I have learned to embrace risk. Acknowledging my need for control and organization, I find that the designer lens provides the structure I need to tackle a challenging and innovative initiative like CAPTURE so it becomes less risky for people like me. Thanks to the designers’ approach, a risk-taking fan is born!
