Please join us in welcoming Rebecca Skinner, MSPH, to the Healthy Teen Network team!

Rebecca is a Project Coordinator in the Innovation and Research Department at Healthy Teen Network, where she brings more than seven years of public health experience and a deep commitment to advancing health equity. She is passionate about improving access to comprehensive, affirming sexual and reproductive health care and education for all young people. Rebecca’s background includes program and study coordination, survey design, community partnerships, research translation, and specialized experience in youth-centered research methodology.

We’re excited to welcome Christy Altidor, MPH, CPH, to Healthy Teen Network!

Christy is a dedicated public health practitioner with over a decade of experience advancing sexual and reproductive health and justice, adolescent well-being, and health equity. Her work is rooted in empowering communities to address health and social challenges through innovative, creative, and human-centered solutions. Across national, state, and local levels, Christy has built a career grounded in community engagement, policy, and systems change—always with a focus on expanding access to inclusive and comprehensive health education and services.

At In/Tend, we’re on a mission to enhance the sexual and reproductive health and well-being of all young people. Through human-centered design, we cultivate and empower teams to develop innovative solutions to real-world challenges. We aim to build a world that affirms every young person, ensuring they have the agency, opportunity, and access to prioritize their bodies, relationships, and futures.

We’re thrilled to introduce the second cohort of innovation development teams who are bringing creativity and courage to the In/Tend Incubator Hub.

Long lost sandbox

I used to have a sandbox in my backyard filled with gritty, commercial grade sand from the local hardware store. Ants and beetles would make their home in the decaying wooden frame, and weeds poked their way through the tarp separating the pit from the ground. Inside I had buckets, shovels, my favorite sticks and rocks, action figures, and Hot Wheels. I’d spend hours plopped in that sand creating worlds, potions, and magic out of nothing.

Then I grew up, and the sandbox became a square hole in the ground with old toys and no appeal for play—proving the worlds I created had little to do with sand and rusty Hot Wheels, and everything to do with my mindset and imagination.

It’s been a long road home to the metaphorical sandbox for me, and Human-Centered and Liberatory Design have become my new shovel and bucket.

We condition kids out of play far too young, and for many adults play is a distant memory. Instead of leaf and dirt concoctions in a bucket of water, we create deadlines and apply pressure to creation. It’s been a long road home to the metaphorical sandbox for me, and Human-Centered and Liberatory Design have become my new shovel and bucket.

• Liberatory Design: Helps interrupt power dynamics and increase opportunity for those who have historically faced mistreatment and barriers.
• Human-Centered Design: Puts real people at the center of the development process, enabling you to create products and services that resonate and are tailored to your audience’s needs.

Our jobs are like trying to blow out a birthday cake full of trick candles

My team and I were selected for the first cohort of the In/Tend Incubator Hub last October, and by November, we found ourselves in a tumultuous season of our professional and personal lives that made the idea of play laughable. The three of us work for a nonprofit called the Transformation Project that serves the youth community in South Dakota, no matter who they are or who they love. As the social landscape rapidly shifted, so did the needs of our community.

Anyone who works in the nonprofit world knows how hard it is to just breathe sometimes. We’re passionate about the people we serve, and we want to create quick solutions for urgent needs. Human-Centered Design in the context of the In/Tend cohort challenged us to shift this paradigm—to slow down in the mess instead of immediately trying to clean it up.

We were like three grown adults learning to use a sandbox again: First, it seemed pointless, then it was uncomfortable, and then we remembered how to have fun in it.

Mountains and anchors

In the first part of the design phase, we were asked to come up with a “how might we” statement, summarizing our main challenge in the form of a question. For our challenge, making sex ed for all the norm in rural South Dakota, coming up with this question was daunting. Asking “how might we?” implied the possibility of ever finding a solution.

But as we continued the process through critical reflection, interviewing and empathizing with our end users, defining our challenge, ideating on our solution, and testing our prototype, our “how might we” became less of a mountain to climb and more of an anchor keeping us grounded in the needs of our end users.

Subconsciously, this taught me how to anchor myself in my own personal convictions despite upheaval and uncertainty. As a type A, perfectionistic Capricorn, when the world is a mess around me, I scramble to clean everything up. The design process has taught me that it’s ok to leave the mess for now and go back to what grounds me into my purpose. After I’ve taken a large inhale, I’m much more prepared to tackle the long hike uphill.

Mad scientists

Through various brainstorming sessions, creative warm-ups, and dozens of nonsensical sticky notes, I forgot about perfection and pressure somewhere along the way. I remembered that ideas are endless, and generative thinking is done best during a good belly laugh with your team. In a climate that wants to see changemakers burn out and give up, Human-Centered Design gave me and my team the opportunity to step out of the disarray we can’t control and into a creative chaos of our own making. 

By the time our last in-person session with In/Tend in Memphis rolled around in March, my team and I were mad scientists: crouched on the floor of the conference room around a giant Venn diagram, slapping sticky notes on every surface available, and using fidget toys and play dough to make board game pieces that looked like bugs. Our challenges seemed smaller and our playground bigger. Most importantly, our ideas were better because we allowed ourselves for just a moment to remove the impossibly high stakes set against us.

We all came out of the In/Tend Incubator Hub more resilient and adaptable as individuals and professionals. Those are valuable qualities to cultivate organizationally and to instill in the young people we work with. Yes, the needs of our community are urgent, and I want to sink my hands as deep as I can into the mess of it to see what I can draw up and mold.

I

t’s not always realistic to implement the entire human-centered design (HCD) process in every project. Even if you are well versed in HCD, time, resources, or stakeholder buy-in might limit how far you can go. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still incorporate some of its most powerful tools and mindsets. 

Ideation is all about exploring possibilities. It’s where creativity, curiosity, and collaboration shine.

One of the easiest, quickest, and most adaptable pieces of HCD you can integrate into your work is ideation. Ideation is the process of generating lots of ideas, without judgment, in a short period of time. Ideation is all about exploring possibilities. It’s where creativity, curiosity, and collaboration shine.

Ideation also helps you practice essential HCD mindsets, like deferring judgment, embracing ambiguity, thinking expansively, and building on others’ ideas, in a short period of time. A quick ideation session can infuse energy into your team, unlock surprising solutions, and shift how people approach challenges, even if you only have 15 minutes. Ready to give it a shot? 

Here are three simple ideation methods our In/Tend teams used at our recent in-person gathering. Try adding one to your next meeting.

Rapid Brainstorming

A classic! Team members quickly generate as many ideas as possible in response to a problem or opportunity prompt. The emphasis is on quantity, speed, and wild thinking. Banish all judgment or worries about if you could do the idea. 

Benefits: 

• Encourages free-flowing creativity 

• Reduces overthinking 

• Surfaces unexpected ideas 

• Builds team energy and collaboration 

• Gives people permission to dream wildly 

 When to do it: 

• When you are starting a project and need ideas 

• When you feel stuck or need fresh perspectives 

• Anytime you want a quick creativity boost 

• As a creative warm-up before a solution-heavy meeting 

 How to do it: 

1. Set a clear, focused prompt (e.g., “How might we make our onboarding process more welcoming?”). 
2. Set a timer (5-10 minutes works well). 
3. Everyone writes or says as many ideas as possible—no evaluation! Sticky notes with one idea on each works best, but use whatever you have. 
4. After time’s up, share all ideas. Cluster similar ones and allow team members to build on each other. 

Reverse Brainstorming

Instead of brainstorming how to achieve a positive goal, you flip it: Brainstorm how to cause the opposite, like a negative outcome you want to avoid. Then, reverse the “bad” ideas into potential “good” ideas. 

Benefits: 

• Helps teams break out of habitual thinking 

• Highlights overlooked risks or pain points 

• Sparks creative problem-solving by flipping perspectives 

When to do it: 

• When addressing persistent challenges 

• When traditional brainstorming hasn’t yielded strong ideas 

• To engage teams in thinking differently 

How to do it: 

1. Create a negative prompt (e.g., “How could we make our services as frustrating as possible?”). 
2. Generate ideas enthusiastically—no holding back! 
3. Once you’ve collected ideas, flip each one to its opposite (e.g., “long wait times” becomes “fast, streamlined access”). 
4. Discuss which flipped ideas have real potential. 

Mash-Ups

Take two unrelated or previously brainstormed ideas and combine them to see what new concepts emerge. The magic often lies in surprising or unusual pairings. 

Benefits: 

• Encourages novel connections 

• Helps teams break silos by combining different perspectives 

• Pushes ideas beyond the obvious 

When to do it: 

• After a previous brainstorming session 

• When you have many partial or incomplete ideas 

• To unlock new concepts from existing ones 

How to do it: 

1. List out ideas generated in earlier sessions or from past projects.
2. Randomly select two (or more) ideas. 
3. Challenge the team: “What happens if we combine these?” 
4. Repeat, remix, and discuss! 

Once You Have a Ton of Ideas… 

The next step is narrowing them down to the most promising ones. Try these quick decision-making tools: 

• Dot Voting: Each team member gets a set number of sticky dots (or digital votes) to place on their favorite ideas. The top-voted ideas move forward for further exploration. 

• Top Five Selection: As a team, discuss and agree on the top five ideas based on criteria like feasibility, impact, or excitement. Prioritize ideas that feel doable but still stretch the team’s thinking. 

You don’t need a big budget or long timeline to tap into the power of human-centered design. By integrating quick ideation methods like these, you can spark fresh ideas, practice creative mindsets, and bring more innovation to your everyday problem-solving. 

L

earning and teaching human-centered design isn’t easy. It pushes us to think in new ways, which can feel uncomfortable at first. It challenges our assumptions, encourages us to take a non-linear approach, and asks us to hold off on jumping to solutions. Instead of judging ideas too quickly, we learn to stay open, listen deeply, and focus on the real experiences of the people we’re designing for. While this shift can be difficult, it leads to more creative, meaningful, and lasting solutions for the communities we serve.

At its core, human-centered design is a way of solving problems that starts with understanding the people most affected by a defined challenge.

At its core, human-centered design is a way of solving problems that starts with understanding the people most affected by a defined challenge. Instead of assuming we know what will work, we take time to listen, test ideas, and refine solutions based on real feedback. It’s an ongoing process of learning and improving to create solutions that truly meet people’s needs. 

Through Sprout: A Design Challenge, a part of In/Tend, we built a hands-on, beginner-friendly, learning experience where participants could explore and apply human-centered design in real time. By running two iterations of Sprout, we learned these ten strategies that make teaching and learning human-centered design a little easier and increased the percentage of participants who said they would be able to apply human-centered design to their work to 100%. These strategies can be used by anyone who is hoping to share human-centered design, whether it is socially among colleagues or through an incubator like In/Tend: 

1. Use a Visual to Show the Design Process

A clear visual of the human-centered design process helps participants understand where they are and where they’re going. Revisiting this often provides context, reinforces connections between steps, and helps people stay grounded in what can feel like a messy process. 

2. Emphasize Mindsets Alongside Methods

Teaching human-centered design is about more than just following steps—it’s about shifting how people think. Encouraging creative confidence, comfort with ambiguity, and designing with rather than for others is just as important as teaching the process itself. Revisiting these mindsets throughout the experience helps participants recognize when they are embracing (or resisting) them. 

3. Incorporate Creative Warm-Ups to Reinforce Mindsets

Human-centered design mindsets like learning from failure, empathy, and self-awareness aren’t always easy to access on demand. Short creative exercises, along with reflection on them, can help participants shift into a design mindset before diving into their challenge.

4. Provide Clear Instructions

Human-centered design is already complex, so instructions for activities should be as clear as possible. Step-by-step guides or reference materials help participants stay on track once they begin working. 

5. Use a Case Study Slightly Outside Participants’ Expertise

Working through a case study of a human-centered design challenge can help participants practice the process, rather than doing it hypothetically. Select a challenge that may be outside the typical area of expertise for your participants so they can focus on the process, rather than getting bogged down in the complex problem space. A strong design challenge provides enough detail to be realistic and clearly communicates the guidelines but still allows room for creativity.

6. Create Space for Collaboration and Peer Learning

Human-centered design is a collaborative process, and learning it should be, too. Participants need time to work in and across teams, problem-solve together, and test ideas. Opportunities for teams to share insights and approaches also expose them to different ways of thinking. 

7. Keep the Scale of Learning Manageable

Human-centered design is complex and includes dozens of methods. Learning all of this at once can be overwhelming. Keeping the scale of content taught aligned with the time available ensures participants can learn and apply the methods. Learning a few methods deeply is better than learning too many methods at only a high-level.   

8. Make Activities Hands-On

Learning human-centered design requires practice. Participants should practice methods by conducting real interviews, engaging in hands-on brainstorming, and building prototypes rather than just discussing ideas.  

Tip: If real users aren’t available to work with, teams can create personas and assign a teammate to act as a user. This approach keeps the experience interactive and practical. 

9. The Right Space Makes a Difference

A well-designed and creative environment supports better learning. A space with breakout areas, wall space for mapping ideas, and (if possible) natural light encourages movement, collaboration, and creativity. 

10. Share Opportunities for Application and Adaptation

The entire human-centered design process isn’t necessary for every problem. Helping participants identify which parts of human-centered design they can apply in different situations—and recognizing the elements they may already be using—makes the approach more adaptable. Principles like empathy, brainstorming, iteration, and centering the needs of those impacted can be integrated into everyday work without requiring a full design challenge.  

At In/Tend, we’re on a mission to enhance the sexual and reproductive health and well-being of all young people. Through participatory research and design, we cultivate and empower teams to develop innovative solutions to real-world challenges.

We aim to build a world that affirms every young person, ensuring they have the agency, opportunity, and access to prioritize their bodies, relationships, and futures. Today, we’re thrilled to introduce the remarkable innovation development teams joining the first cohort of the In/Tend Incubator Hub.

When I was starting my professional life, I had the opportunity to work at a company that was preparing thoughtful, handmade gifts for potential partners and investors. My boss was especially proud of the team’s efforts; they had meticulously researched each partner’s culture and interests to ensure the gifts were meaningful. One of my responsibilities was to ensure the gifts were beautifully wrapped—a seemingly simple yet important task.

Eager to impress, I carefully selected elegant white wrapping paper with silver and gold accents, confident it would make the gifts look stunning. But when we presented the first gift to our Japanese partners, their reactions caught me off guard. They frowned and appeared uncomfortable. My boss was upset, and I couldn’t understand why.

Later, I learned that in Japanese culture, white wrapping paper symbolizes death and mourning. What I thought was a thoughtful presentation had sent the wrong message. I was mortified by what felt like a massive failure. But in hindsight, that experience taught me lessons I carry to this day: the importance of cultural awareness, attention to detail, and understanding context. Without this misstep, I wouldn’t have gained those valuable insights.

Failure, as uncomfortable as it can be, often provides lessons success cannot. This is particularly true in the world of innovation, where failure isn’t just inevitable—it’s essential.