Read about Lauren Dodge, PPI Analyst and how Lean has impacted the way she does Life.
I'm streamlining procurement, helping city's hire people faster, developing strategic plans for a special district and building an action plan for a county's continuous improvement program...how did I end up in my dream job?!
Throughout school and work, I have faced challenges with ADHD. As a woman who grew up in a time when ADHD was often thought of as a "boy thing," my lack of focus, follow through, or comprehension was seen as a result of a lack of effort. Behind the scenes, I tried like mad! And with fairly good results. Before I had the language to describe my efforts, I was prototyping personal organization and focus tools and frameworks. I would create a process that would improve my school results for a while, and then a gap would present itself, leading me to develop a new structure to keep myself going. One of the most incredible things about working for a company specializing in Lean methodologies is that I now work within a structure and have more language, tools, and frameworks to help me be successful. These structured tools blend seamlessly with the more creative, exploratory methods I developed as a Service Designer, helping me balance systematic progress with expansive stakeholder co-creation.
My path to PPI started in public service and design. While earning my MFA in Service Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), I worked on projects with Snap-on Incorporated and the Google Pay Team, where I focused on user-centered physical and digital system solutions. However, my roots in public sector problem-solving go back further: before SCAD, I was a nutritionist for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program in the State of Georgia. This work of increasing access to essential services gave me my first real taste of improving public systems with meaningful change.
At PPI, we use huddles to manage our own work internally - we set goals and review progress together weekly in a short morning meeting. I've seen it used by cities to improve time-to-hire and report out pilot project successes to a larger work group. I've loved how easy and effective huddles are to ideate and communicate in a supportive, team environment, and now I'm using it with my cycling team, AUTOMATIC Racing! During our bi-weekly team calls, we use the huddle model to discuss new ideas, prioritize tasks using an impact-effort matrix, and assign JDIs ("Just Do Its"--small improvement tasks) that athletes take ownership of. Huddles have made a massive difference in our productivity and team culture. Not only are we achieving our race goals, but athletes are engaging in the structural success of the team. Since implementing huddles in October, we've completed four JDIs, and the team is getting more done than ever.
Joining PPI has allowed me to combine all these experiences—from my early public service work to my love of Service Design and Human-Centered Design to my personal passion of cycling and team sports. I'm excited to continue finding innovative solutions to public sector challenges and working with our clients to make a lasting impact. Thanks for getting to know me a bit better, and I look forward to the work we'll accomplish together at PPI!
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