Guest Contributor
August 30, 2012
Change is good. Massive change is better. Change puts value squarely into focus. It helps to sort through the noise, distractions and illusions to pin point what matters most. Change sheds light upon and is the catalyst of growth. This could not be more apparent to me than now as I leave my current dream job to join a new dreamy gig with the self described group of troublemakers and changemakers at BIF. Change is indeed good and I look forward to designing the future with my new BIF family.
That said, I have had the honor of spending the last decade working with an amazing family of collaborative innovators at Trek Bicycles in Waterloo, Wisconsin. Some of you may know of Trek's Tour de France & WorldCup winning bicycles and athletes, especially one particular athlete and his foundation's great work to find a cure for cancer. Likewise, you may know Trek as a world class performance brand, global bicycle industry leader, a maker of great retailers, athletes and riders or even the largest private advocate for bicycle recreation/transportation facilities in North America. What most people don't know is that Trek's secret sauce is a dedication to change and a belief that continuous change at all levels of the organization leads to amazing growth, inspired performance and social impact. Sounds a little bit like BIF eh? :)
During my time at Trek our Industrial Design team moved from 2 to 25 globally, from a wood paneled room filled with used furniture to a world class [& beautifully branded] facility with Utopian tools and processes (not to mention private trails and a downhill track). I've been lucky enough to be a part of or lead new user centered design/research methods, branded design language processes and cross functional, participatory design & business design practices. Not only that but our team along with our killer engineering, product and creative group partners have forged new collaborative ways to work with professional athletes, normal riders and retail partners to address system challenges and generate market winning, smile making products and services. To say I feel blessed to have been a part of the Trek family is nothing less than an understatement. Trek is an AMAZINGLY innovative place. Trek has shaped me, supported me and changed me profoundly, both personally and professionally.
The question I get from my friends outside of Trek is why the hell would you leave a dream job and killer team at Trek? Great question, after all my user centered research trips involve riding around gorgeous places with happy people and my design work a product ecosystem that is very hard to genuinely dislike. Wow, seriously what the heck am I doing right!!! (insert silent pause) The answer is simple. It is time for a massive change. It is time to follow my heart, and my family, to a place and a team who are shaping the leading edge of innovation, value creation and system modeling. It's time to dive deep into crazy hard system or social problems and test my own design, research and value generation skills and to be a dedicated contributor of the self described craziness that is the BIF frontier.
I sincerely welcome your thoughts and look forward to meeting the greater BIF community (though I know a bunch of you -talkin 'bout you Deb!). You can find me on LinkedIn where you can find out a lot more about me and my experiences beyond the bicycle company. Also, I can be found on twitter @chadlockart and eventually somewhere riding around Rhode Island on a bike I designed with some exceptional peeps in Wisconsin. Change = Good.
Rock the day people!
cL!
To learn more about Chad, visit him on twitter.?
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