Andrea Small is a design strategist, educator, and now, apparently, a writer. As a Teaching Fellow at Stanford's d.school, she and her cohort originated the “Navigating Ambiguity” curricula, and she has co-authored the forthcoming d.school book "A Designer's Guide to Navigating Ambiguity.”

Andrea is currently Creative Lead at Samsung Research America on their R&D Innovation Team in Mountain View, CA. Working closely with SRA executive leadership, her team works at the forefront of advanced technology design and research. She also supports innovation and creativity throughout the R&D organization.

She currently teaches “Innovations in Inclusive Design” at Stanford. As part of the course, she and her teaching team designed a set of Intersectional Design Cards, a tool designed to help teams explore and develop intersectional design solutions.

Previously, she was the Director of Product and Portfolio Strategy at Herman Miller, focused on the future of work, and prior to that, Strategy Lead at Yves Behar’s design firm fuseproject.

Her vast experience in design includes work with some of the world's most iconic brands, including the Nike Foundation, Nivea, GE, Starbucks, Samsung and Steelcase, and a number of global and local social impact organizations and programs.

Andrea studied architecture and metalsmithing at Miami University in Oxford, OH and holds a Masters of Design in Human Centered Product Design from the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago, IL. Andrea is from Youngstown, OH and currently resides in San Francisco, CA. She loves musicals, yacht rock and camping.

Specialties

• design strategy

• design thinking

• human centered design

• intersectional design

• writing

• point of view and vision

• brand strategy and naming

• design education and workshop facilitation

• design research

• presentation design

• public speaking