The Practical Way

The nature of work has radically changed.

Let’s admit it. The nature of work has fundamentally changed. Organizations face even more complex challenges, are trying to solve even more ambitious problems.

There is a better way to work.

We need more flexible, adaptable frameworks for collaboration and problem solving that cut across silos, diffuse politics, unlock hidden ideas and creativity across your organization, and jumpstart innovation.

This isn’t rocket science, or magic.

We need to get practical and adopt simpler ways to do these hard things—design, strategy, innovation—all essential to the future of work and making an impact.

We’ve worked hard to make it practical…

To be successful, you have to not only know the methods, but know how to engage stakeholders and navigate organizational structures and culture to move the work forward. We’ve adapted, experimented, developed, and refined our practical practice to do just this.

…and we want you to benefit from our practice.

We have a passion for teaching and growing others, and we believe strongly in sharing the practical methods that really work to help everyone level up. This is why we created Practical by Design—to do just this. Our courses, coaching, and content can help you transform your work, your organization, and your customers.

Introducing The Practical Way

We’ve based our practical practice on some foundational principles:

It’s only practical if it’s actionable
An approach isn’t useful if it isn’t actionable—leading to a direction, decision, or plan.
Developed for real-world problems
We developed our methods on the job in real work contexts, and know they work in the real world.
Anyone can develop a practical practice
We believe anyone can learn these practical skills and build their expertise—it’s not just for designers or strategists.
No theory, guruism, or academics
This isn’t design school. We are here to teach you down-to-earth, practical approaches that really work in the workplace.
Throw the jargon out, focus on what works
We focus on approaches that make a difference and actually work, and not what’s “hot” or trendy.
Cross disciplines to maximize impact
Cut across disciplines to pull the best of the best practical methods that really help make an impact.

These principles guide our ethos for getting things done, the practical way. And we can’t wait to share them with you.

Our vision for Practical by Design

We envision a new way of working—an adaptable, flexible, scalable framework for enabling creative ideas to flourish, organizations to tackle wicked problems, and create better experiences for customers. We have a vision for you, your organization, and your customers:

For you: Learning pathways for career transformation

Practical by Design is a place to learn and grow your capabilities. We know the best way to learn is hands-on, which is why all our courses focus on applying the methods directly to your work. But what if the work you have isn't what you want to be doing? We envision a way to quickly assess your skills, interests, and develop a personalized learning pathway that helps you go from A to B to Z in your career. Follow a path of related skills to build upon your existing foundation, and grow your capabilities, one practical step at a time. Our first couple courses are just the beginning of this growing library of practical stepping stones for career transformation.

For teams: Support to tackle tough problems

Learning is better together, and it’s best to learn on the job. We want to support your team as you tackles the next big project, work through a sticky challenge, or transform your team’s practice. Take a class together, or engage us for coaching or speaking to help you better apply our practical methods to your work context.

For organizations: Build new capability and culture

As our learning library grows, we envision being able to provide customized, tailored development plans for your team or organization that can help transform your workforce capabilities and implement new practices and culture.

For customers: Help you better help your customers

Our practice will help you better serve your customer’s needs and goals. We bring you the most leading edge methodology, pulled from across the design and innovation world, but made practical and actionable for you to leverage and improve customer experience. We want you to be successful in making an impact, better fulfilling your brand’s promise, and tackling the wicked problems your customers need your help to solve.

And personally…

The practical way doesn’t just apply to work. We’ve taken our practical practice home to our lives and hobbies too. We envision a special track to support you personally in aligning your life to your values, finding your guiding purpose, and developing positive habits that lead to a better life balance, greater satisfaction, and happiness.

We invite you to join us on the practical way—the new way of working that we all need. Let’s get practical!

— Erika & Morgan, 2023 and beyond

Check out our courses!