SydDT is a very open and interactive community. We’re willing to experiment and take risks. For our 15th meetup we decided we’d try to co-design a song from scratch with a three-piece band and the audience in the middle of the ThoughtWorks office.
Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a fun night. Couldn’t make it or just want to relive it? Watch it now.
The Story
Steve Mulligan (vocals & lead guitar/facilitator)
Jason Davey (drums)
Ben Nicholls (bass guitar)
SydDT #15 audience led by Steve (lyrics)
Kingsley Jones (MC)
Lucas Mara (whiteboard)
Zoe Rosen (not so steady cam)
Ben Pecotich (roadie, photographer & cheer squad)
James Cooper (cheer squad)
Kate Linton (ThoughtWorks sponsor & host)
Before this session our three players had never played together. All three are my mates – and several years before, I’d hired Steve and JD as part of my team – but neither of them had met Ben Nicholls before.
Steve gave a shout out a few minutes before we kicked off saying he’d brought his bass if anyone was up for playing. Ben jumped in.
Things kicked off with Steve using the double diamond to talk about the design process and to set the scene and guide the process.
He then led a discussion asking what was on everyone’s mind and how we were feeling. The band then jammed to create the sound that went each of the moods.
We had a vote to decide the mood to continue with. Leandro in the audience was just about to become a father for the first time and the theme of New Life won out over rebellion and party time.
Some more jamming to iterate the sound and then the iterative process of writing the lyrics. The audience contributed ideas and lyrics and the chorus and verses gradually emerged.
After a couple of hours of this collaborative co-design process and reflecting on how it was possible, Steve, JD, and Ben played a demo of Smiling in Your Sleep – a complete three-minute song.
It was a fun creative process and a unique experience.
One of the things I loved about this was we got to experience and participate in a design journey (and artistic expression) that often takes years – in a couple of hours.
I’ve worked with Steve, JD, and Ben on digital products in a banking context that literally took multiple years before they went live.
This experience compressed that into a short and tangible two hours. From the excited optimism at the start, the new relationships and dynamics, into the messy middle where you’re not sure how (or if) this will resolve… through to version one of a completed product.
A product that has brought together many people to collaborate. A product everyone knows is imperfect and needs more work… but a massive achievement to celebrate.
This is what design and innovation looks like in action.
“It’s impossible to innovate if it has to work. Innovation must always be accompanied by the phrase ‘this might not work.'”
Seth Godin
A huge thanks to Steve Mulligan, Jason Davey, and Ben Nicholls for guiding us through this experience – and taking the creative risk.
Note: I’ve published this write-up, photos, and video in April 2025 as we count down to 10,000 SydDT members (we’re at ~9,980) and prepare to celebrate our 10th birthday at our June meetup… I’ve been reflecting on the past decade.
Find out more about SydDT and get involved!
Meetup Announcement
Thursday, 9 February 2017 @ 6pm. ThoughtWorks, Sydney
Welcome to the first Sydney Design Thinking meetup for 2017. Join us for some thought provoking conversation with interesting people keen on design thinking. Grab your ticket now!
Speaker
Steve Mulligan
Steve has some interesting theories about ideation. Rather than talk about design specifically, he’ll demonstrate design thinking by crafting a different type of experience – a song. This includes discussing the role of empathy to inspire ideas for melodies and concepts, to combine ideas to test and refine, to one day perform, record, and publish. Its a different spin on design thinking.
He’ll be bringing a few music gadgets and a guitar… and might just need some help from the audience!
In days of old, Steve uncovered the dark secrets of the music industry. He wrote songs, recorded them, got on radio and a bit of TV.
Shortly after, by chance, Steve started working as an experience designer: he was fascinated by people and what they really do verses what they say they do and devised concepts to help them. As years passed, he became excited by the strategic use of design thinking – to help organisations visualise a customer-centric target state and to design and deliver propositions that make a difference to people’s lives.
He is also a founder of a startup that helps organisations do just that.
Event Sponsor
Thanks to ThoughtWorks Sydney for hosting us and providing refreshments.
