Introducing design thinking and Mural to HR

Written by 
Amanda Kilmer
 and 
  —  
September 6, 2019

MURAL took our show on the road to Chicago in August, and worked together with LUMA Institute and other Design Thinking champions to introduce this trend to an underdog department within companies: The Human Resources/People + Culture teams.

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Our CEO, Mariano Suarez-Battan, giving a keynote address at the Warwick Allerton Hotel in Chicago, IL

Being part of MURAL’s inaugural People + Culture team myself, I was balancing between participating in the conference as an attendee as well as joining in on the Sales + Marketing initiatives back at our booth. It was an intense feeling of refreshment to be around people who have faced and are facing the same challenges we are at MURAL: How to rapidly scale a team that embodies the company’s culture and values; how to hit your OKRs and targeted metrics; how do we drive employee engagement, to name a few.

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The MURAL booth at the DTxHR conference


Sitting in on sessions I noticed nearly everyone was handwriting their notes in little black books or on note pads. So, what better time to pull out my computer and take notes on MURAL… which is exactly what I did. People around me started to get curious; some asked me about the tool and it was a great opportunity to demo it in real time.

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Thought-provoking problem statement from Jenny Price's sprint session

It was a prime place for us to showcase our way of approaching problem-solving, acting as experts in the field. Also, we were one of two sponsors with a booth and the impact of us being strategically placed (smack in front of the elevators, next to the food and drinks!) definitely had its perks. There was also a small and intimate feeling as the conference was held in the same hotel that most of us were also staying in - almost felt like a mini-retreat, in a way.

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The canvas our team put together for the conference. Explore it here.

🚨 Spoiler alert 🚨: I was not a newbie to Design Thinking, nor to applying it to my company’s People + Culture team before this conference. I felt like I had the inside scoop and had to wait for someone else to spill the tea. But, it only makes sense that the human-centered way of solving a problem is used by the people who are working with humans inside a company. By humanizing our approaches to our work, that is when foresight comes with the ability to navigate potential problems.

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Has your HR/People + Culture team embraced Design Thinking already? If not, are you interested? Either way, I'd love to know.

Feel free to send me a message at amanda@mural.co and let's chat.

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About the author

About the authors

Amanda Kilmer

Amanda Kilmer

Former Employee Engagement Manager at MURAL.

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