Hi! I’m Shilpi Kumar.

Leverage your strengths, and embrace your weakness. Make collaboration actionable, and seek innovation effectiveness.

 
 
Shilpi-Kumar_profile-red-bg.jpg
 
 

As a speaker and facilitator, my value comes from how empowered my audience feels after the session. Even if it’s just finding their voice in the crowd.

So it is important to me that I design my speaking engagements to spark inspiration, provoke new thoughts and prove useful in building a strong mindset. In combination with these talks, my team and I also customize and curate activities and workshops most relevant to your team and organizational needs.

 
 

 

Founder of Khoj Lab ~ A design-led research and innovation management consultancy for organizations, globally.

I am currently an adjunct faculty at the Institute of Design, IIT Chicago.

View my profile

I speak and facilitate at Lunch&Learns, Meet-ups and other such engagements with change-makers & future leaders.

 

 

EDUCATION

Master of Design Methods (MDM), Design Research & Strategy
Institute of Design, IIT Chicago, USA
Master of Design (MDes), Industrial Design
Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay, India
Bachelor of Architecture (BArch), Architecture
Department of Architecture, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India

 
 

EXPERIENCE

GE Transportation - Lead Senior User Experience Researcher
Herman Miller - Senior Researcher
Iota-Partners - Independent Consultant
Zonta International, Chicago - Design Strategist
School of Architecture, MSU, Mississippi - Assistant Professor
INBAR, Beijing (New Delhi) - Industrial Designer

 

 
 
 

 
 

FOR ORGANIZATIONS

Choosing Design-Led Leadership in Ambiguity

Topics:

  • Crafting Tomorrows: design’s evolving role in future thinking.

  • We’ve got a bottleneck situation! bumps, barricades, blindspots. 

  • Find Innovation Flow: manage ambiguity, reduce complexity, and eliminate uncertainty.

  • Risk management through Design-led leadership 

  • A “Heads-Down Culture” might work for an organization but chokes the innovation game in business growth

  • How your organization can adopt lean methods to manage waste - start by leveraging existing capabilities

FOR EDUCATORS

Reassessing the ‘Role of Design’ in Business

Topics:

  • Combining Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile approaches to reduce uncertainty

  • What is NOT Innovation? Unleash your natural human instincts and grow!

  • Introduction to the phenomenon of Humanity-Centered Design

  • Insight-led approach to business growth management - Design Research vs Market Research

  • Design Thinking and its six key principles 


 
 
 

FOR TEAMS

Using Methods & Mindsets to Bring Alignment

Topics:

  • Create conditions for innovation ~ An introduction to the Five Mindsets

  • Alignment on the innovation journey. “Where are we on the Innovation Maturity Model?”

  • Identify bottlenecks, prioritize issues, and strategize your ideas - leverage existing pathways and resources to implement change

  • Leadership in Collaboration - The Use of Design Methods 101

  • “How might we” measure key metrics for innovation performance?

  • The rise, fall, and confusion in the role of a “Product Manager”

  • Tackling the hard part of innovation - implementation

  • Framing research for innovation ambiguity


FOR PERSONAL GROWTH

Becoming a ‘Catalyst for Change’?

Topics:

  • Establishing trust and meaningful connections with stakeholders

  • Five qualities of a good Innovation Catalyst

  • Unpack seven myths of innovation killing great ideas

  • ‘Innovation’- the reason you are still in business. ‘design’ will be the reason you’ll make it big!

  • Try the rapid customer experience modeling

  • Maximizing the impact of research in organizations

  • Design-led approach to leadership

 
 
 
 

3-4 hour WORKSHOP

“Creating the Conditions For Innovation ~ An Introduction to the Five Mindsets”

FOR INDIVIDUAL ORG. / MIXED GROUP

In this session, we introduce a new framework called the ‘Five Mindsets’. These mindsets emerged from research conducted by Khoj Lab with leadership from various industries, business models, regions, countries and users.

Diagnose bottlenecks, prioritise issues, and take action. This workshop is designed to help you broaden your spectrum of innovation opportunities, and most importantly find flow.

 
 
background---workshop-section.jpg
 
 

Speaking at Creative Mornings, Chicago: Theme: “Now” - How to gain confidence and navigate ideas through the organization as a catalyst for innovation.

HI AGAIN, HERe’S A LITTLE MORE ABOUT WHAT I BRING TO THE TABLE

Over the last 15 years, I’ve stepped into multiple professional roles as a Team Leader, Design Strategist, User Experience Researcher, Industrial Designer, and Design Educator. I have worked closely with operations and strategy teams to define and integrate business processes through a holistic and insight-driven lens.

Using a Design-led approach helps innovation and strategy teams discover new value, bring alignment with stakeholders, and develop ideas for easy and quick adoption by users.

I am a torch-bearer for inclusive and sustainable techniques in innovation management:

  • Diverse perspectives: My power tool is to include people from across the organization who help find and resolve bottlenecks.

  • Leverage existing organizational capabilities and expertise: I provide guidance and tools to align initiatives where the market is heading and what customers need.

 
 
 

 

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

Bringing new perspectives to experts in the field

 
 

Jessica DeMeester

Senior Consultant, Strategic Design & Innovation at Doblin I Deloitte

 “Working with Shilpi within Khoj Lab was the most welcome and familial experience I have had to date. Shilpi is a brilliant leader, but does so through listening, humility, and lifting other's voices. It was inspiring working with women from around the world and I am forever grateful for the opportunity.”

 
 

Anirvina Karnala

Business Experience Designer at HCL Technologies

“Working with Shilpi at Khoj Lab was a unique experience to say the least. I was able to learn a lot under her guidance and mentorship. Despite the remote-working barrier, Shilpi made sure that I was comfortably acclimated to the new working conditions! I thoroughly enjoyed working with her and it was quite insightful for me as a visual designer; she is quite receptive towards inputs from several sources and was able to derive new streams of thought - there was a constant element of surprise working with her. I would definitely be incorporating some of her practices into my working style!”

 
 

Ryan Anderson

VP of Global Research & Insights at MillerKnoll

“I had the privilege of working with Shilpi on a number of research and exploration projects during her time at Herman Miller, and having her as a direct report for several years. She is a gifted thinker, has an energetic and contagious curiosity, and is a very skilled practitioner of human-centered design research. Her work made a very significant impact at Herman Miller.”