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The duo founded JourneyCX, a consultancy that modifies the “lean startup” process to help elephantine organizations master the culture shifts needed to become innovation idols

Hackathons and innovation labs have quickly made their way from Silicon Valley into corporate boardrooms, championed by business leaders who realize that they must “innovate or stagnate”. Millions have been invested into initiatives with the intent of creating new technologies, increasing profits, and attracting top talent. Although hackathons and labs are encouraging signs, too often innovation strategy stops here.

“Innovation” is one of the hot buzzwords for both startups and large enterprises; as customer needs and demands change more quickly, the ability to be agile and proactively offer solutions that meet these demands has become key to survival as a business in 2016. It’s an issue that Chenny Xia and Jessica Fan — two Next 36 alumni — are addressing with Journey, a Toronto-based design consultancy helping large enterprises make innovation part of their client’s DNA. 

As a spirited young entrepreneur, you are ready to take on the big challenges of the world. As you embark on this new adventure, you find yourself asking,  "how exactly do I uncover user needs?" In my role as a design strategist and startup founder, journey mapping has been an indispensable tool to get into the heads of users and uncover new opportunities.

I recently ran a Crash Course in Design Thinking for Innovation for students at Western Canada High School, helping them gain the confidence to tackle real-world challenges through design.

Teaching organizations how to think like a designer is a daunting task, yet it is an exciting challenge we are facing more each day. As our work becomes increasingly synonymous with innovation and smart business, designers play a greater role in changing the DNA of organizations.