It’s my job to study how people, you and me, are changing as a result of our relationship with technology. It’s also my job to then reverse-engineer those insights into opportunities for innovation. There are immediate areas of where human-centered design can solve problems you are facing right now. There are many more areas where human-centered innovation and iteration can help you create competitive and critical opportunities for the future.

Everything from customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) to education and government to finance and health and everything in between will benefit by looking at the evolution of people and how they are different that what you assume today, how they rival conventions and how and where their path and your path broke away from one another.

It’s not just about Millennials or Centennials, or any specific generation for that matter. It’s about understanding shared behaviors, interests, preferences, expectations and values and how they are changing and evolving. I look at this through a lens of connectedness. I call it Generation-C (connected) and it spans all demographics. Millennials and Centennials aren’t the only ones who are behaving differently than the norm. If you think it’s just the kids communicating differently, binge watching shows, vomiting rainbows, living their best life on Instagram, dating (if you can call it that) on Tinder and Bumble, you’re missing the bigger opportunity. We are all changing and regardless of age, we share more in common that organizations give us credit (to their detriment, not ours).

My team at ODE Management asked me to share my thoughts on the topic as a way of helping with speaking opportunities. I think it’s an important topic and one that is bigger than a targeted email newsletter.. I wanted to share it with you here and get your thoughts to start a bigger conversation.