Johnson & Johnson’s GenH (Health) Challenge calls upon designers, entrepreneurs, and medical field experts —doctors, nurses, technicians and administrators—to innovate ways to promote healthier communities on a local, national or even global scale. In doing so, Johnson & Johnson is trying to tap into the years of experience and deep know-how and to empower field experts to become innovators and changemakers. But how can J&J support them to activate ideas into innovative solutions?

We partnered with GOOD Corps to create “Designing for People: A Toolkit for Professionals & Innovators to Revolutionize Care.” Drawing upon our deep knowledge of human-centered design principles and practices, we developed the structure, content and design for a toolkit that introduces key concepts and walks medical professionals through an iterative design process. We selected and tailored activities that would generate ideas and prototypes for a wide range of people, whether they are administrators at a hospital in the Midwest or midwives delivering care door-to-door in Mali. We included inspirational and illustrative case studies to show how others are making change within the healthcare industry, by revolutionizing service delivery in their own practices or redesigning products to better meet the needs of their communities.

Completed over a 5-week schedule, the toolkit was first unveiled in a series of workshops at the 2017 International Conference of Midwives in Toronto. There are plans to continue expanding activities and content for additional audiences and channels.