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Virtual Book Launch
April 14 • 10–11:30am PT/12–1:30pm CT • Online
Karen & Douglas, authors of the new book Start Within, have prepared an extra special virtual book launch experience. While this will be online, this is NOT a webinar or a boring meeting. They are gathering the innovation and business ecosystem to celebrate the launch of Start Within with a highly engaging virtual event. Come prepared to participate.
During the experience, everyone will participate in helping 3 lucky attendees refine and adapt their big idea to bust assumptions and make the idea more robust.
Apply today to get your idea considered to be included in the workshop. Winners will be announced on Thursday, April 9th.
We will donate a portion of proceeds to the World Health Organization.
Karen Holst
Karen Holst is a product leader with deep expertise in human-centered design strategies, creative problem-solving, and product innovation.
Boiling down her 20 years of experience into disciplines, her work has covered the gamut from business strategy and entrepreneurship to strategic partnerships and marketing communications. Karen loves to create technology with a broader impact.
Karen's work proves she thrives in the unknown. From co-founding a startup to launching new technology within a government agency, her secret sauce is the ability to take complex information, fragmented across disciplines, and make sense of it all.
In the projects and roles she has taken on, the playbook was undefined, but the mission was clear. Karen rolls up her sleeves to get work done "in the weeds" and rises above it to bring teams along, seeing the "big picture." She is a natural observer and dot-connector, bringing together intersectional ideas to make an impact.
DOuglas Ferguson
Douglas is an entrepreneur and human-centered technologist with over 20 years of experience. He is president of Voltage Control, an Austin-based workshop agency that specializes in Design Sprints and innovation workshops.
Prior to Voltage Control, Douglas held CTO positions at numerous Austin startups, where he led product and engineering teams using agile, lean, and human-centered design principles. While CTO at Twyla, Douglas worked directly with Google Ventures running Design Sprints and now brings this experience and process to companies everywhere.
He recently published his first book, Beyond the Prototype, which offers a six-step plan for companies struggling with the shift from discovery to launch.
Douglas is active in the Austin startup community, where he serves on the board of several non-profits, mentors startups, and advises early-stage ventures. He spends his free time patching up modular synthesizers, playing guitar, and taking photographs. He graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
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"Douglas Ferguson has long been a top design sprint facilitator. In Beyond the Prototype, he delivers a practical guide to what comes after. If you've ever experienced the dreaded "post-sprint slump," this is an absolute must read. It will just completely up your game..”
—Greg Satell, Author of Cascades & Mapping Innovation
"Design Sprints have helped to evangelize design thinking. Douglas' pioneering work and subsequent tips are captured here. It's the perfect guide for the next wave of facilitators and teams looking to harness the power of user-centered prototyping."
— Jay Melone, Partner, New Haircut