Design Thinking with Fusion 360

JARED VANSCODER: All right. So we will officially get started in, I don't know, a minute and 30 seconds-- something like that. But before we get started officially, I wanted to throw out again-- so the hashtag, top right-hand corner, DTWITHF360, please take pictures of this session, take pictures of your work, take pictures of the progress. Post it to social media of your choice, whether it be Twitter, Instagram. I've heard nobody uses Facebook anymore. Maybe I'm in the dinosaur generation. I don't know.

JEFF SMITH: We're old, Jared.

JARED VANSCODER: We are old, yeah. But please, document the process. Document your results. Post it out. While we're getting started here-- so a quick little session. Jeff and I have done something like this for the past three years. We started with 18. Last year, it was about 30 something. And as of last night, there was 80 people signed up for this session. So please help us spread the word. Hopefully, in an hour and a half, you're going to walk out of here feeling a lot more energized. You won't hear us talk as much. You will learn something, but it probably won't be from our mouths. It'll be from you doing.

JEFF SMITH: Yes.

JARED VANSCODER: So have fun, ask questions, and just kind of go with the flow. If you feel a little uncomfortable, that means we're doing our job.

JEFF SMITH: Yes. This is much less us talking, much more are you doing. We just shepherd the process. So it's actually a quite easy class to teach.

JARED VANSCODER: Yeah. It's a good instructional method, is let them do the work.

[LAUGHTER]

OK.

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

JARED VANSCODER: So yes, we'll get started. I do apologize. I forgot my USB-C to USB everything else adapter. So I am going to have to stand up here just a little bit to switch slides, and then I will obviously be out amongst you guys ASAP.

So who are we? Who are you?

JEFF SMITH: So I'm Jeff Smith. Some of you may have seen me as an education manager in the past. I just left that role. I was with Autodesk for about four years in that role, and I just switched over to a cloud adoption specialist. So I'm still working with Fusion. I'm just helping customers who have bought Fusion, as opposed to helping faculty that are using Fusion and students that are using Fusion.

My background's industrial design. I did industrial design for 20-some years. I also taught for about eight years as adjunct faculty. If you want to follow me on Instagram, that's my Instagram up there, below my head. I do lot. I do a lot of drawing I'm a very drawing-based guy. So I hope you enjoy our session today.

JARED VANSCODER: Awesome. Yeah. So I'm Jared. I'm currently on the education team. I'm a program manager, so I work with a handful schools throughout the United States. They use Fusion 360 design and engineering programs. My background started in manufacturing. I worked in architecture. I was in the Air Force for a while. I did a couple tours overseas. Got my BS in ID-- industrial design. Started teaching high school, which was kind of a weird experience, but it changed my life. Went out and got my master's in edtech. And one of these days, I'll actually finished my PhD, but that's us.

So any quick questions real quick? So this is our hashtags. You can follow him. He's Instagram famous. I'm not famous on any social media, and I'm fine with that, so--

[LAUGHTER]

All right. So--

JEFF SMITH: Reluctantly Instagram famous. Reluctantly.

JARED VANSCODER: Reluctantly.

JEFF SMITH: Yes.

JARED VANSCODER: Yeah. Yeah. Jeff is a world-famous sketch artist. So if you want to see some amazing sketches, go check out his stuff. So design thinking. I'm going to move out a little bit here. Kind of an awkward term. Been around for a while, but who's familiar with designing thinking? Who's done it, practiced it, been to a session? Raise them high. Be proud. OK. A couple. All right. Who has read it in Times or Forbes and been like, oh, that's interesting? A couple of people. OK.

Has anybody ever done formal training like LUMA training, or been to d.school, or anything? A couple. OK. Very cool. Well, come on up. Teach the class.

[LAUGHTER]

All right. So as designers, Jeff and I have been through this process millions of times with projects and clients. And yeah, it's a process that we use. It wasn't until some people up in San Francisco decided, hey, let's write this down and start selling it, that it became design thinking. And before I was a high school teacher-- before I came to Autodesk, I was a high school teacher. And I had to figure out, how do you teach this to 14- to 15-year-olds? How do you teach to run through this somewhat sophisticated process to kids that can't get off their phones and all they want to do is-- I won't even go into that.

[LAUGHTER]

So I broke it down into four steps, OK? Because it is a process. And this is how I explain it. Jeff can build on this, but I call design thinking a process focused on one common goal, OK? And that goal is make the lives of the people you're designing for better. And I think the people part is what sets it apart, OK? Because you can design for space. You can design for industry. But when you're designing for people, you need to take a little bit more consideration into building empathy, understanding how the people react with it. And that's what we're going to go through today.

JEFF SMITH: So to build on what Jared's saying, the process and the steps that we use as designers has been translated into design thinking. When I learned it, there wasn't a term for it, right? So that process of exploring-- and Jared touched on it earlier-- if you're uncomfortable and you're not used to it, then you're doing it right, right? It's getting more ideas out on paper and learning to not be married to an idea.

Most people put an idea down. I'm done! I win! Right? That's not what design thinking is about. It's about getting as many out as possible, and then building a pyramid to the best one through selectively getting rid of ideas. And you have to get a big base-- or a big foundation-- to get the best one.

JARED VANSCODER: Yeah. And another thing I learned when I was a teacher is sitting up here and preaching to you guys, you're going to last, like, three minutes.

JEFF SMITH: Yeah.

JARED VANSCODER: Right? And it's funny. As a high school teacher, I was trained to sit up there on the stage, and write crap on a whiteboard, and put the projector, and do all that stuff. And it doesn't last. We're all kids. We're just a little bit older-- a little more gray hair in my beard. So we're not going to do that, all right? Jeff and I aren't going to sit up and preach to you. We're going to run you through the process, and you guys are going to work through this process, OK? So you ready?

JEFF SMITH: Let's do it.

JARED VANSCODER: You guys need some espresso. Starbucks run, quick.

[LAUGHTER]

All right. So we're giving you a challenge, right? And we've done this in the past. We've done some different products and redesigned this, but all of you face this problem.

JEFF SMITH: Today, you face this problem.

JARED VANSCODER: If you don't face this problem, you snuck by the lady at the door, and you need to leave because you're not allowed here. You all have one of these, right? Everybody should have one of these. This is your challenge for today, OK?

JEFF SMITH: Who likes this, that has this thing hanging on there? I don't like this thing. I can't stand it. It drives me nuts at a conference.

JARED VANSCODER: All right. So keep that in mind. This is your challenge. And it will make a little bit more sense here in a minute. All right. So let's run through the process real quick. So how this is going to work is we're going to go step by step. We'll talk for a minute, and you guys will do, right? And then we'll talk for a minute, and you guys will do. Most of this is you guys doing this.

Jeff and I will be walking around. We've got some folks in the back walking around. We've got some fabulous students, some Autodesk employees. You guys are in charge. You tell us what you need, OK? So step one, understand the problem, OK? You have to really understand the problem before you dive deep into it.

Identify your stakeholders. Who is really involved, right? With this challenge, there's one main stakeholder, but there's other people involved. Identify those people, OK? How are they involved? Observe, listen, and question. I used to have my high school kids keep a notebook, and the notebook. It was called "things that suck." And they literally identified things throughout your day that make you miserable, right? Because those things-- those problems-- are opportunities. Those opportunities turn into products.

The next one is important. Uncover emotions. When objects, or products, or experiences make you upset, think about it. What about it made you upset? And when you're working when you're designing for somebody else, listen to them, right? What makes them upset? What makes them happy? What puts a smile on their face? What puts a frown on their face?

And then dig deeper. I used to have this ask "why." So actually, I did this process, I did this before I had kids. And then I had kids, and I wish I would have taken this off. Because those of you who have kids, you know, like, why, why, why, why? Do that. Dig deeper, OK? That's actually why kids do that, is they're trying to gain some more information.

Build empathy. Walk in their shoes. For this challenge, it's pretty easy. You guys are literally in those shoes. You are the customer. Mimic their situation. Let go of biases. That's really important. And then gain a deep emotional understanding, OK? That's how you truly embrace the problem.

All right. So first part of the challenge. You need, in your teams, to define the problem. And your team is this long row, OK? So we apologize for that, but you are going to work with people in that long row. You can move wherever the Sam Hill you want, right? This room is yours. You can be in a corner, you can stay here, whatever you want to do. But the people in this row is your team.

JEFF SMITH: But time is sensitive. We have to roll, and we are going to be pretty militant on time.

JARED VANSCODER: Yeah.

JEFF SMITH: So when we say five minutes, you got five minutes. Don't waste time, right? You are all wearing this product. You know the pitfalls, but you also need to think about the different reasons you have this product on, right?

JARED VANSCODER: Yeah.

JEFF SMITH: So there's a security reason. There's a networking reason. What are all these reasons?

JARED VANSCODER: Well, I'm going to set a timer. And when the timer goes off, pencils down, people. Don't test me, right? I used to be a high school teacher. All right. So for the first section, here's what you're going to do. You're going to work in your groups. You're going to ask each other, do you like it, do you love it, do you hate it, right? This thing, the conference pass around your neck, what about it, OK? Let's figure it out.

Why? If you like it, why? Sean's weird. He said he liked it. Why do you like it, Sean? That was a rhetorical question. If you hate it, why? Why, why, why? Dig deeper. We got to go. We got to start. OK. Yeah. And then so your deliverable for this section is going to be at the bottom-- a problem statement. What is the problem? Who does it affect? How are they affected, OK? What is the problem, who does it affect, and how are they affected? Questions?

JEFF SMITH: [INAUDIBLE]

JARED VANSCODER: OK.

JEFF SMITH: OK.

JARED VANSCODER: Get in your teams. I'll give you about one minute to get situated, and I'll start a timer.

[CHATTER]

OK. I'm going to start the timer in 3, 2, 1, go.

[CHIMING]

All right. That is time. Pencils down. Pencils down. So we do have a finite amount of time, and we're going to burn through this. Hopefully, at this point, you have a problem statement. Rough is OK, but that problem statement is going to define the rest of the process. All right. So next, the fun part-- or at least my fun part-- yes, brainstorming, coming up with bunches of solutions. Ideation is coming up with ideas-- lots and lots of ideas, quantity over quality. Not going to read through this. Keep the considerations in mind, OK? Who are you designing for yada, yada. But go big, people-- lots, and lots, and lots of ideas.

JEFF SMITH: And it's not just words. It's not just drawing. Ideation is all of that. It can be words. It can be pictures. It can be folding paper. It can be anything. It's just getting an idea down so you can talk to it.

JARED VANSCODER: One of my favorites is the second bullet point, ask silly questions. What if you have unlimited budget? What if you have to do it for free? What if it's for 90-year-old ladies? What if it's for 2-year-old little boys, right? Random questions. Design for those folks. Hopefully, two-year-old little boys aren't in our conference, but--

[LAUGHTER]

All right. We're going to give you 10 minutes. Here's what you need to do. We're going to do a brainstorming session. At the end of your tables, there should be little notepads. There should be pens. There should be markers. There should be printer paper, OK? So we're going to come up with lots of ideas.

I'm not going to be a jerk and give you a requirement, but I will tell you, as a design student, they used to put a requirement as 500 ideas, right? You can't move forward until you have 500 ideas to go. You guys do what you can. Quantity over quality. Don't judge. Just move into it. Ask what if, right? Design for your user, and then do some quick sketches, OK? Nothing crazy, just quick. OK. 10 minutes. Ready, set, go.

[? [CHIMING] ?]

All right. Time. I hate to stop you but we got to move on. You guys look like you have tons and tons of good ideas. I saw some awesome sketches, lots of writing, lots of labeling. Don't worry. Keep those handy. We're going to move on for a second. All is not in vain.

JEFF SMITH: Focus to us, guys.

JARED VANSCODER: All right. Next step. Next step is developing those ideas, OK? Now, in this class, we're not going to prototype. You can if you want, but we didn't necessarily bring prototyping supplies. But by all means, do whatever you need to do. Prototyping, OK? So building it out, refining. I love this slide. I won't read it. I'll let you look over it real quick, but failure is good, OK? Failure is a good thing.

All right. So in this phase, think with your hands, all right? Sketch. Sketch, sketch, sketch. Don't move straight into CAD. I like to think about it analog to digital, right? Start with your hands, then move into the digital world. Low to high fidelity, adjust and evolve. All right. For this next section, you're going to 40 minutes, but there's two parts of it. And I'm not going to regulate your time, so you guys are going to have to be big adults and figure that one out on your own. But you're going to get 40 minutes, OK?

The first part is you're going to take all these ideas and you're going to funnel. I'm not going to say filter. You're going to funnel, OK? You need one idea at the end of 40 minutes-- one developed idea at the end of 40 minutes, OK? So you need to funnel them down. You can take one idea and run with it, but I would highly suggest adding ideas, making it the best you can. Yeah. Don't be afraid to combine ideas. And then Jeff's going to talk about step two, which is the Fusion aspect of this.

JEFF SMITH: So some of you may be Fusion users, some may not be Fusion users. One of the reasons Jared and I do this class with design thinking with Fusion, Fusion is an assistant, right? It's a helper. It's a tool, all right? So as you funnel down your ideas, part of that is a democratic process. Sometimes you have to vote for them sometimes. They funnel up. Sometimes they funnel down. There's reasons why the best ideas will float to the top, right? So you've got to take your time and understand that that's job one right now, is get the ideas to that point.

Now, as a team, you've got to figure out how you're going to build this thing and do your pitch. Jared and I have had a lot of experience using Fusion, and using Fusion as a quick iteration tool. As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to drawer, so I think sketch first. But Fusion actually asked the question, do you need to draw first? Now, I'm going to tell you, as a drawer, yes, you got to draw first. But the speed at which you can put something together in Fusion is an asset, right?

And beginner users can do it. Advanced users can do it. And you've got a learning curve that enables that. So instead of doing real prototypes, we're going to use digital prototypes, and Fusion will be our tool. Now, in your group, you've probably got people that are Fusion leaders. So you need to figure out is going to be building, who's going to be prepping for your pitch, right? How are you going to communicate this idea? Because the Fusion file was great, but that's one part of it, right?

What are you going to talk about? Are you going to show anything else? Are you going to frame the context? So you've got to work as a group to figure out who's doing what. Because Fusion is one part of it, but so is the pitch. And how do you pull those together? How do you collaborate digitally? How do you pull that and get your pitch together under time pressure?

JARED VANSCODER: OK. So two parts. One is refine and develop a solution. Next part is get into Fusion and get to modeling. At least in every team, is there somebody that knows Fusion? There should be.

JEFF SMITH: Who knows Fusion?

JARED VANSCODER: Jeff and I have analyzed the group, and we should be good.

JEFF SMITH: OK. Good.

JARED VANSCODER: OK. Good.

JEFF SMITH: Sean knows Fusion. [INAUDIBLE]

JARED VANSCODER: You don't have to be an expert. You don't know have to be a pro. Just somebody who can get going. All right. Any questions? 40 minutes. OK Go.

OK. Thanks. All right. Unfortunately, time is up. So if I could get your attention for about 30 to 45 seconds, I'll show you how we're going to wrap this up and be done so we can get you out on time. All right. So the very last phase of design thinking is you got to share what you've done. You've got to tell a story. So you are going to create some type of presentation. Doesn't have to be PowerPoint. We don't care. We want you to post it.

OK. #DTWITHF360. What does it look like? How does it work? How does it solved the problem? So take some screenshots. We don't care if you take your phone and take a picture of the screen. Literally, post it, give some explanations. Tell what the problem was, even if you just copy and paste your problem statement. Explain the solution a little bit. How does it work? What does it look like? How does it solve the problem, OK?

DTWITHF360. Instagram, Twitter. I got them both up. We're going to be following them live. We get out at 10:00, so we've got 12 minutes. No one leaves until you post.

JEFF SMITH: [LAUGHS] You can't leave.

JARED VANSCODER: I'm just kidding.

JEFF SMITH: We'll take your badge.

JARED VANSCODER: Just kidding. OK. 12 minutes, and then we'll wrap up and we'll go. All right, folks. I'm going to stop you. If I could get your attention real quick.

JARED VANSCODER: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

JEFF SMITH: Ding, ding. Give us your attention guys.

JARED VANSCODER: I'm only stopping you for your own good. If I could get your attention for one minute because I don't want to keep anybody. I'm just going to talk.

JEFF SMITH: With us, guys. With us.

JARED VANSCODER: All right. So first of all, thank you, thank you, thank you so much, guys. Thank you for showing up at 8:30 this morning. Thank you for putting in the work. Awesome job. We really appreciate it. Thank you for posting, showing off your work. You guys are fantastic. We really appreciate it. Hopefully, you walk away with either a little bit of design thinking, a little bit of Fusion 360, or a lot of both. Thank you so much. If there's any questions you have, please let us know. Jeff and I will be here for a couple minutes, and then we're going to be in the expo hall for the next hour and a half.

JEFF SMITH: Yeah. We'll be at the design and manufacturing quad as well.

JARED VANSCODER: Thank you so much, guys. Appreciate it.

JEFF SMITH: All right. Thank you, guys.

[APPLAUSE]