What we’re about
PDT is a community of creative problem solvers advancing human-centered design literacy through high-quality events, lively conversation, and practice-based development.
We're made up of all kinds of people: practitioners who use human-centered design methods and mindsets every day, designers and researchers, design strategists, Agile scrum leaders, urban planners, and many more who use or appreciate Design Thinking.
One way to define design thinking is that it is a mindset, approach, and set of tools and techniques for problem-solving and innovation anchored around human-centered design. Design thinking is different from other innovation and ideation processes in that it’s solution-based and user-centric rather than problem-based. This means it focuses on the solution to a problem instead of the problem itself. Design thinking is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity, and rationality to meet human needs and drive business success.
Typically, we meet monthly, mostly virtually, and occasionally in person. Our monthly meetings, announced through MeetUp, may be webinar-style, or interactive and focus on some topic of interest to our community.
But we're about more than just meetup events.
You can find information about our upcoming events as well as links to recordings of past events on our website [PortlandDesignThinkers.com](portlanddesignthinkers.com).
We have an active, private Slack workspace – it is a thriving online discussion space for all things design thinking. Please join us there --[ https://bit.ly/2JuQ2V6](https://bit.ly/2JuQ2V6).
We also have a private LinkedIn group. Please join us there as well – https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13997019/.
PDT is a volunteer-run organization. We rely on sponsors and donations to help us offset these costs. If you or your organization is interested in sponsorship opportunities, please contact Deb Mrazek (dmrazek@curiate.co ).
Upcoming events (1)
See all- Timeless Human DesignLink visible for attendees
Portland Design Thinkers is excited to present Tom Briggs: Timeless Human Design
In a world that is drowning in data, humanity stands infatuated with the immediate. Culture mining offers design thinkers an antidote to the demands of 24/7, "ever-faster" technocracy. By acknowledging that there's nothing new under the sun and examining timeless historical lessons through a modern lens, we can discern a wiser path forward.
About our speaker:
Tom Briggs is founder of epigraph, a strategic design collective that blends culture, history, and data in service of disrupted and disruptive organizations of all scales across diverse industries. As a published and internationally cited design researcher, Tom Briggs is a Center for Creative Leadership graduate, altMBA graduate, and in the past has taught Introduction to Design Strategy at Oregon State University. An active mentor at Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, New York City's largest startup incubator, Tom enjoys helping values-led brands identify and articulate their distinctive purpose, values, and mission in order to better forge sustainable competitive advantage. A graduate of Gonzaga University, Tom calls SW Portland home with his wife, two boys, and standard poodle Rousseau.***
If you have any questions or would like to connect with other members of PDT, join our Slack community.PDT is a volunteer-run organization, and as you can imagine, organizing events can be expensive. We rely on sponsors and donations to help us offset these costs. If you would like to help, we accept donations through Venmo @PortlandDesignThinkers.
