When the s**t hits the fan. 4

When the s**t hits the fan. Opportunities in crisis. 3

When the s**t hits the fan. Opportunities in crisis. 2

When the shit hits the fan. Opportunities in crisis.

Rosa is a Product Innovation and Strategy Consultant who works with SMEs, NGOs, and disruptive start-ups to develop innovative products, experiences, and strategies. She has received numerous awards and global recognition for her work.

Rosa van Wyk – Product, Innovation & Strategy

For the past 15 years, I have facilitated ideation processes for large enterprises and disruptive start-ups.

The workshops are developed to take siloed knowledge and insights each stakeholder has often been sitting on for years and map them together through engaging collaborative and co-creative exercises.

It’s a process of discovery. By connecting insights to research and data to human behaviour, we can visualise a journey to see the gaps and identify real opportunities for innovation and transformation.

Leaning on my anthropological background, combined with professional experience in branding, product innovation and development, solutions design, and, operations, I am uniquely placed not only to help teams ideate but to develop an actionable production plan and go-to-market strategy. 

I live for that buzz at the end of a session where we sit back and take stock of how complex the problem once felt, but how clear it now is mapped out in front of us.

Rosa is a sharp-minded, personable professional with a wealth of skills under her belt... I would not hesitate to work with Rosa on pretty much any project!

I design and facilitate custom ideation workshops built around co-creative processes to identify opportunities for innovation and transformation...

Rosa van Wyk – Ideation

Ideation

Clients hire me to support them with strategic planning and decision-making on a wide variety of projects, products, and campaigns. 

I approach strategic planning like mapping a route in the mountains. 

In the mountains, it’s terrain, weather, fitness, and obstacles, in business, we’re talking technological advances, cultural shifts, the economy, competition, and other industry trends or company-specific needs.

To begin, we need a clear vision of where we’re going (if we don’t have that, then one of my Conscious Design Thinking workshops is the place to start).

The next step is to understand all the expected and unexpected factors that might affect achieving this vision. 

I then facilitate a process of prioritisation. The output of which is an effective strategy to get where we want to go, with clear KPIs and checkpoints along the way. 

Aside from the core Strategic Planning process, I'm also available for the following stand-alone services: 

Rosa has a unique mix of skills and qualities: she is incredibly creative...with a strong strategic sense and ability to see the big picture. We cannot recommend Rosa enough!

For over 15 years, Rosa has provided strategic planning for projects, products, and campaigns in Fintech, Health, Luxury and UHNW, Commerce, and more. 

Strategic Planning

To be honest, I’ve never felt entirely comfortable with this term. Are we (designers) really better positioned to think through complex business problems just because we’re, well, designers? Is design thinking not just common sense repackaged? And what about our bias?

I’ve been mulling this over for a while now, and here is where I’m at:

Design enables us to visualize ideas and map connections in a way that stimulates creative thinking. It helps us make the invisible visible and is a valuable tool for a more human-centered approach to decision-making.

On the other hand, my training in ethnographic research methods taught me to always cast a critical eye on how research is conducted and data is collected, on the unconscious stereotypes we all have, and, in general how this influences what we think and do. 

Designers often don’t dedicate enough attention to this potential bias, and in my opinion, without that critical vision, the output of design thinking sessions can be at best a bit meaningless and, at worse, full of prejudice. When we're talking about UX, the output is a bad user experience, but when we're working with enterprise-wide innovation, this can be catastrophic. And, with the increased everyday use of AI tools, robust strategies for avoiding potential bias becomes even more critical. 

Over the years, as I’ve facilitated different workshops, my unease with the term and standard processes that lack any meaningful self-reflection led me to develop a framework for Conscious Design Thinking.

Designed to enable clients to reimagine what’s possible, create transformative user experiences, and develop products and services that are centered around the needs of real people, the Conscious Design Thinking Framework is influenced by Anthropological methodologies and includes:

Data collection and analysis that is sensitive to potential bias and incorporates the flexibility needed to enable users to answer questions truthfully

Research methods that are conscious of the role of the researcher

Validation of ideas, thoughts, and concepts with actual users at multiple phases of a project

Structured space for self-reflection throughout the process for all key stakeholders

Guidance on how to sensitively incorporate AI tools into the research and innovation process to go further, deeper, and faster 

The Conscious Design Thinking Framework is influenced by Anthropology and includes guidance on AI tools in research, user validation, research strategies...

Rosa van Wyk

What I do

When the s**t hits the fan. 4

When the s**t hits the fan. Opportunities in crisis. 3

When the s**t hits the fan. Opportunities in crisis. 2

When the shit hits the fan. Opportunities in crisis.

Rosa van Wyk

Contact

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