We have reimagined innovation velocity by infusing user centered design thinking into the innovation cycle to provide rich insights that validate our business strategy in real time. Through this approach, we are able to leverage the quantitative tools that have been built up over centuries in business and apply them to the qualitative skills of design thinking for an increased success-to-failure ratio.

To bring this vision to life, we assembled the Innovation Lab with three complementary parts comprised of a physical space, a digital portal and cross functional team. In the physical space, we co-create proof-of-concepts with our customers and users for an enhanced user experience. The digital portal allows any employee to pitch an idea that can be promoted by our executive leadership and explored by our cross functional innovation team.

We validate our ideas by walking industry conference floors, organize design critiques and ideation sessions, and run usability test in the field and more until we have a level of design and experience that we are proud of. From start to finish our efforts range from rapid concepts that support sales conversations up to multi month proof-of-concepts that feel real and have been validated as scalable solutions in our global industry that is steeped in history and nostalgia.

At GE Transportation Digital Solutions, our Innovation Team is led by user experience practitioners who leverage the power of qualitative and quantitative decision-making frameworks. The submission illustrates a comprehensive innovation vision with a user-centered validation philosophy that maps back to the overarching global business strategy.

The future of User Experience will be fundamentally shaped by how well designers are able to think at a higher level. It will no longer be adequate to build a delightful user experience through qualitative findings. Designers will need to understand and hone the direction of a solution by the quantitative value it provides to the business strategy and ultimately the market opportunity. Only through mass adoption will a company, product or service be able to impact society at large in a meaningful way.

Our team has created an innovation cycle that keeps pace with the demands of a digital world and the exciting period of rebirth for an industry steeped in history and nostalgia. By infusing user-centered design thinking into our innovation framework and validating against business strategy, GE Transportation will leap the industry in a unified direction with end users at the center. The future of User Experience will be dependent on system level thinkers who harmonize the qualitative insights of design and the quantitative opportunities of business strategy to fundamentally shift our society for the greater good.