about | zachary jean paradis

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A PDF of my current cv can be downloaded here:
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Experience counts.

My background in design, business, social sciences, and technology has prepared me to help companies increase their hit rate of innovation. Design methods and integrative thinking can be used strategically, manifesting themselves in companies by creating organic growth through flexible process, an open culture, and more compelling, differentiated products and services.

Companies and clients with whom I have worked include:

Chrysler Auto Group, Four Points Digital, General Mills, Hyatt, John Deere, KBA Marketing, Ladbrokes, M&S, McLaren Automotive, Microsoft, Miller Brewing Company, RadioWave, RollingStone, SAP, Target, Unilever, UnitedHealth Group, Universal Music Group, Vodafone, Yahoo!, among others.

Naked Innovation.

Back in January of 2007, colleague David McGaw (currently with Embarcadero Partners) set out to write a 13 chapter book in 8 weeks, edit and design it the next month and self-publish in a limited way while seeking a formal, traditional publishing deal. There were a few unexpected twists and turns along the way but I'm proud to say Naked Innovation has been consistently used in higher education, in dozens of Fortune 500 companies and in government throughout the world. After what has seemed like an eternity, I have brushed the dust off Naked Innovation and am pushing it forward. In fact, Dave and I have set to do something a lot bigger than traditional publishing as we ask YOU, the innovation community, to partake in a grand crowdsourced critique and edit of the content and the overall innovation process: Download Naked Innovation Now.

When this site launched I wrote heavily on a range of innovation topics and presented at several conferences per year. My rigorous "road warrior" consulting life has left me little time for thinking outside of my clients and my teams. That said, I'm back in the writing and conference presentation game and, in addition to a new book dubbed Innovating Experience, I am committed to writing a few good pieces per year. Read my latest here in: Thoughts.

Teaching the next generation of innovators.

II continue to teach classes at the Illinois Institute of Technology at undergraduate and graduate levels. In the undergraduate program, I've created a course based on Naked Innovation which will be scaled to be taught to 500 students per semester: Entrepreneurship & New Ventures Innovation. At a graduate level, I teach at the IIT Institute of Design, specifically on the topics of Experience Modeling and Managing Complexity. In addition to formal classes, I've taught a variety of workshop and short form primers in customer experience and innovation across North America, Europe and India.

Thousands of pages read and written, dozens of relevant projects completed.

Undergrad degrees in Anthropology and Psychology from the University of Chicago got me focused on understanding people and a Masters of Design from the Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design enabled me to better articulate how to turn that understanding into actionable strategies, offerings and innovation. Read what BusinessWeek thinks about the ID, the top ranked designs school in the world, here: Tomorrow's B-School? It might be a D-School. I have also taken a sampling of courses at Bates College (psychology and theater) in Lewiston, Maine and at IIT's Stuart Graduate School of Business (operations management and organisational management).

I am a big fan. You should be too.

flickr is fabulous and so are the people who run it. Not only does Flickr make you smell better, it also makes you more attractive. See my photos here: flickr.

I had some help.

I designed this site and own all related content but I didn't do it alone. Clint Barth is a smart guy, great designer and a CSS guru. Thanks Clint for helping me out.