Greetings IXDA Members!

A big thanks to the IxDASF and FIT members who organized and participated in both the June 24th & 25th Drought Design Thinking Challenges. The companion events were both big successes!

On Wednesday, June 24, FIT, IxDASF and Spring Studio co-sponsored a design thinking challenge to begin framing the problem. Senior designers from the IxDA community joined local drought experts to better understand the problem at hand, define the target audience and brainstorm innovative solutions.

The next day, on June 25, FIT partnered with the Lt Governor’s Office for a full-day Design Thinking Bootcamp in downtown San Francisco. Senior design leaders from Spring Studio facilitated the event. Building on the previous night’s work participants applied design-thinking skills to the current drought challenge in California. Participants presented draft ideas to Gavin Newsom, Lieutenant Governor of California, and received feedback.

NEXT STEPS

Based on feedback from Lt Governor Newsom, four projects were selected to move forward. FIT is calling for volunteers from the IxDASF community to help continue these projects.

In mid-September, FIT will present the revised four ideas to the Lt. Governor’s office in Sacramento. Please note that you can still participate in these follow-up challenges even if you didn’t make either of the June events.

If you are interested in continuing on one of the four projects, please email the wrangler (Desiree Matel-Anderson of FIT) at desiree@fieldinnovationteam.org. Make sure to state in the email subject “DROUGHT DO TANK” and indicate which project you are interested in working on, your area of expertise and a rough idea of your time commitment. 

FIT will host bi-weekly conference calls and support the building out of ideas, however volunteers will be expected to spend time collaborating between the calls to take the steps to launch these incredible projects. 

Benefits of continuing on the project:

• Work with amazing people on a project that could impact millions of CA residents
• Have your project presented to the California Lt. Governor’s Office and potential action steps with the team
• Add a really cool project to your portfolio
• Apply to Singularity University's Global Grand Challenges to win cash & access to the SU Labs!
  

Attached is the executive summary of the challenge with details about the four selected projects and conference calls. The first conference call takes place on August 7 at noon. 

Please contact FIT (desiree@fieldinnovationteam.org) by Thursday, August 6th if you are interested in volunteering.

California_Drought_Challenge_Next_Steps.pdf

Best of luck in the challenge!