Kandis O

What do you do when your coworker commands all the attention? When upper management sees this one person as the main strategic problem solver and the rest of the team as dispensable task monkeys? Or what happens when a company going about layoffs in the most stressful and embarrassing way possible? We talk with Kandis O'Brien, co-founder of the SIX, an experience design and innovation company.This episode is brought to you by:Bespoke Post: With a new line up of essential Box of Awesome collections for guys, Bespoke Post is guaranteed to upgrade your life. Use code 'Rocketship' to get 20% off your first box.The Product Institute: Product Institute is a subscription-based, online learning hub for product managers. Use the code ROCKET at checkout, you can enroll for just $999/year.Blinkist: Rocketship.fm is now on Blinkist! Listen to 12 minute episodes with no ads! Get seven days free when you check out Blinkist today.4Books: 4books makes sure we don’t stop reading and learning just because we have less time. 4books is an app with a mission: to let you improve your personal and work life by making it easy and fun to learn from the world’s most brilliant minds. Go to your AppStore or Google Play and download 4books today.WIX: When your agency partners with Wix, you unlock an entire digital ecosystem for creating, managing and growing your business online. Head over to Wix.com/Partners and reimagine what your agency can accomplish.BetterHelp: Unlimited Professional Counseling via Online Chat, Video or Phone Anytime, Anywhere. Get 10% off when you visit betterhelp.com/rocketship.***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.  Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kandis O’Brien the co-founder of The SIX, a strategy and innovation consultancy that empowers enterprise clients like Google, Salesforce and Cisco and pioneering startups like Alucio to ideate, collaborate and execute quickly and efficiently for sustainable growth. Kandis is passionate about helping organizations build better products, services and organizational cultures. She helps to leverage human-centred approaches including Design and Vision Sprints. She is also the organizer of Design Sprint NY City, the official Google Design Sprints Global Chapter community for practitioners and facilitators.Show Notes: How is Kandis O’Brien dealing with the Covid’ pandemic impact on work and routine - [1:30]Work- Life Balance? Absolutely not! But people have found ways to be kind to each other and to be more flexible about schedules and interruptions - [5:05] Running the NY City Marathon- [6:56]What led Kandis to enter the world of Product Management? From Marketing to Product - [7:54]Kandis Experience in her company The SIX - [10:55]What have you learned about your leadership style – strengths or weaknesses – and how do you use those insights to be better? - [13:40] What is the most common problem, you see on a daily basis? - [16:00] Customer and market insights to make strategic decisions - [18:54]What MVP is going to allow you to deliver value quickly, to test your assumptions and to gain directional Insight? - [21:17]Difference between B2B Products and B2C Products - [23:33] Designing digital products vs physical products - [28:00] Redesign Your Organization for Innovation - [31:59]Kandis Bucket List - [36:00] Q&A: How does Design Thinking and Sprints help build scalable Products? Do these techniques apply to Platform Products? - [37:17]

How can you, as a facilitator, create new and exciting possibilities for your workshop participants?The answer lies in provoking your audience to listen to each other and feel heard. Provocation is a strategic tactic to make workshop participants feel uncomfortable – but in a good way. It drives them out of their comfort zones and allows them to break free from their shells so they can take action and evoke new thoughts and ideas that may have been left uncovered.We know that provocation can have many positive benefits, but how can facilitators use provocation to amplify their workshop? You’ll discover the answer on this episode of workshops work, where I’m joined by Diana Ying Liu and Kandis O’Brien from The SIX, an innovation and strategy consultancy that helps “leaders and their teams get their groove on.”We deep dive into how you can provoke compelling conversations in your workshop sessions, why you need to have the right executive sponsor in the room, and so much more!Find out about:How Diana and Kandis define the role of a facilitator vs a consultantHow to use provocation to create friction and encourage people to step outside of their comfort zonesThe different levels of provocationExercises to help people ‘loosen up’How to make people feel comfortable and safe enough to shareThe importance of understanding the culture of the organisation and the problem statement of the sessionThe advantages of having pre-interviews before the workshopDon’t miss the next show: Subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player.Click here to download the free 1-page summaryFeeling inspired by the conversation in this episode? We can have our own – take a seat at my virtual table as part of a Mastermind Group.A huge thank you must go to SessionLab, the sponsor of Workshops Work. Claim your free two months of SessionLab Pro now – this deal is exclusive to Workshops Work listeners!Questions and Answers[01:13] Diana, when did you start calling yourself a facilitator?[03:50] Do you bring in your own facilitators to your sessions?[10:16] How do you use provocation as a tool to create friction?[14:04] How do you define the right degree of provocation that is relevant and absurd at the same time?[18:15] How would you react when/if the leadership disregards a team member’s idea?[39:14] What makes a workshop fail from the perspective of a consultant vs a facilitator?[46:09] Do the pre-interviews create a level of trust or do you still need another layer of trust creation at the start of the workshop to play around with provocation?[53:16] What would be your golden nugget about provocation from our discussion?LinksThe SIX websiteFollow The SIX on InstagramConnect to Diana Ying Liu and Kandis O’Brien:Diana’s LinkedInKandis’ LinkedInSupport the showCheck out the podcast map to see the overview of all podcast episodes: https://workshops.work/podcast-map