One lesson from the d.school has followed Erica Estrada-Liou into every meeting she's ever run: always bring a prototype.
Exploring possibilities through prototypes—even rough ones made of cardboard and tape—shifts the conversation from abstract discussion to concrete progress, says Erica, giving people something to react to, push back on, and build from. The habit started when a d.school teacher handed her some materials and said they had five minutes to build something tangible rather than open a laptop.
That same bias toward making took her to Burma to learn from small-plot farmers, and eventually to co-founding d.light design in 2007, a social enterprise delivering affordable light and power to off-grid communities. When d.light's first product reached market, Erica returned to the d.school as a Design Fellow and co-founded the Social Entrepreneurship Lab.
Now, as Director of the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, she's bringing that approach to higher education, using design methods to help students, faculty, and administrators reimagine the university experience from the inside. And, she’s still collaborating with the d.school as a co-instructor of the Teaching and Learning Studio for educators.
