E72 Understanding Design Thinking with Bruce Gay
Are you familiar with Design Thinking? Are you utilizing Design Thinking to run your projects? In this episode we chat with Bruce Gay, Founder of Astrevo to understand the fundamentals and benefits of Design Thinking as well as touching on several other topics.
Bruce is a leader in the PM Industry and is an active community builder. He is a PMI Volunteer with PMI Pittsburgh, leads a Healthcare PMO, teaches part time at Norwich University and started his own firm, Astrevo. 
In our discussion Bruce shares that Design Thinking allows groups of people to take time and look at their customers needs to deeply understand a problem and to start to brainstorm and down select solutions to solve those problems. The benefit to using Design Thinking is you get closer to your customer’s needs and pain points to help you identify defects earlier in the process which is less expensive than defects found later in the process.
We also hear Bruce’s perspective on trends in the industry and a few of his favorite books he recently read. We also learn about Bruce’s Project Management Insights monthly list of updates and insights within our industry.
To subscribe to Bruce’s Project Management Insights visit www.brucegay.com/signup.
To learn more about Astrevo visit www.astrevo.com
To connect with Bruce on LinkedIn visit – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucegay/
Thanks to our sponsor THE PMO SQUAD. Visit www.thepmosquad.com to learn to Empower People to Deliver Results and assist your PMO as you evolve in the new post-COVID business world.
Check out all prior episodes and upcoming guests by visiting www.projectmanagementofficehours.com.
UPMC Enterprises is the commercialization arm of UPMC, a Pittsburgh-based health care provider and insurer. As a healthcare innovation lab, UPMC Enterprises invests in two core areas: translational science (which conducts laboratory-to-human research, applying research to human subjects) and technology solutions to empower both medical professionals and patients. Since 2018, UPMC Enterprises has launched 5 companies, supported 30 internal research projects, and invested in a variety of healthcare-related companies.
——
Astrevo was formed out of a desire to share knowledge of practical problem-solving approaches that managers can deploy with their teams to better understand customer needs and achieve success. Astrevo provides training, coaching, and consultation services to help teams focus on what is important: less time managing projects, more time focusing on outcomes and customers.
What makes Astrevo unique? Its 3 key principles:
(1) Experiential Learning – Embracing a growth mindset supported in hands-on learning.
(2) Creativity – Tackling problems from different perspectives and with new techniques.
(3) Collaboration – Working with others to solve hard problems.
Bruce Gay, PMP, helps individuals improve their project management skills, become better leaders, and achieve professional greatness. He has over two-and-a-half decades worth of experience managing large, complex programs and customer relationship across multiple industries. In his current role, Bruce manages a PMO and is responsible for operational and delivery excellence for a 100+ person R&D organization comprised of software engineers, product managers, machine learning and NLP scientists, security experts, and cloud engineers. For the past 15 years, Bruce managed product teams that incorporated UX Design and Design Thinking methodologies into their product development processes.
Bruce’s public speaking experience includes presenting at both regional and international professional conferences such as PMI Global Conference (Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia) and PMI EMEA Congress in Dublin, Ireland and LearnFest Caribbean in Jamaica. Bruce is an adjunct professor for Norwich University (Northfield, VT) teaching courses in a Project Management certificate program. Bruce creates and delivers educational courses and workshops that help students grow as leaders. Bruce received a Master’s in International Affairs from The George Washington University and has been a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since 2005.
Currently, Bruce lives in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife, two daughters, and his dog. Bruce is an active volunteer with the PMI Pittsburgh chapter and is their Director of Corporate Sponsorship. Bruce shares his experiences and ideas around Design Thinking and project management on twitter: @brucegay and on his website: www.brucegay.com.
ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE HOURS SERIES
Project Management Office Hours is intended to provide Project Management professionals a place to drop in and discuss Success Stories, Best Practices, and Lessons Learned. Project Management Consultant Joy Gumz has shared with us, “Operations keep the lights on, strategy provides the light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.”
Each of us has a unique story to tell, but collectively we share a message that organizations who embrace Project Management Best Practices perform better than those which don’t. Organizations which align Projects to Strategy perform better. Organizations with Engage Executive Sponsors deliver better results. Organizations which measure Project Management performance outperform those which don’t.
During our Project Management Office Hours, we hear directly from Industry leaders how to make an impact in our profession. How we, collectively, will Advance Project Management Best Practices, One Listener at a time!
ABOUT YOUR HOST
Joe Pusz started THE PMO SQUAD to bring real world PMO Leadership experience to the consulting space and to advocate for Project Management through his blog PMOJOE.com. The old saying is “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Following this mindset Joe left Corporate America in 2013 to start THE PMO SQUAD and work with fellow Natural Born Project Managers to advance Project Management Best Practices.
ABOUT OUR SPONSOR
THE PMO SQUAD focuses exclusively on PMO and Project Management consulting. Corporate America is full of Accidental Project Managers running projects who haven’t been trained to be PMs. To help solve this problem THE PMO SQUAD is on the Leading Edge with PMO As a Service. PMO As a Service allows our clients to focus on their respective core competencies while THE PMO SQUAD delivers Project Management expertise. Contact Joe at 678-591-7868. Follow The PMO Squad on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Where do PMO Leaders go for Information, Learning, Networking and Services? The PMO Leader community has “Everything You Need to Become a Great PMO Leader”. One PMO World, One Community! Learn more about The PMO Leader – www.thepmoleader.com
