# Peter Macdonald

> Strategic Designer | Design Project Leader | IDEO Alum | User Experience Designer | Design Thinking Educator

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/petermacdonald

Human-Centered Design Thinking Leader and Educator
UX & Design Team Leadership | Strategic Design | Training & Coaching

I create innovative design strategy and practical product and service concepts for user experience (UX) by applying deep creative skills and broad experience. I lead multidisciplinary design teams and emerging project leaders, enabling their growth as they do their best work.

While leading teams I guide colleagues and stakeholders through the design process to achieve actionable on-target results. My teams deliver practical concepts for products or services that meet or exceed the client’s goals.

My experience designing across many industries and domains and completing global design research gives me a powerful capability to make analogous connections and creative leaps that expand solution spaces. I know why commanding a nuclear submarine is like performing interventional cardiology procedures, and why it's not.

Skills:
- Human-Centered Design Thinking 
- Design Research 
- Experience Design (UX)
- Physical Product Design 
- Service Design
- Storytelling 
- Concept Sketching
- Industrial Design
- Mechanical Engineering 
- Workshop Design & Leadership 
- Design Learning & Development

psmacdonald@mac.com

## Work Experience
### Senior Designer / Researcher @ New Origin Studio
Jan 2024 – Present | Palo Alto, California, United States
Designing and facilitating human-centered design workshops with domain leaders, users, and client partners. Designing and executing design research of both domain experts and users. Synthesis and identification of opportunities for focus and subsequent design efforts and to inform further work by other teams. Currently focused in the Food is Medicine space within healthcare.

### Strategic Design Lead / Consultant @ Strategic Design Teams / Orgs
Jan 2023 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
Leading, coaching, and mentoring cross-functional strategic design teams, applying my deep human-centered design / design thinking expertise.

### Design Thinking Catalyst Lead @ Ford Motor Company
Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 | Palo Alto, California, United States
Advanced practice of design thinking and human-centered design across global enterprise through curriculum development and design, tailored presentations, workshop design and leadership, and individual and team coaching.

### Product Design & Learning Lead @ Ford Motor Company
Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 | Palo Alto, California, United States
Led cross-disciplinary design and engineering teams and practice of physical product design while also advancing practice of design thinking and human-centered design across global enterprise. Met objectives of excellence of practice and adoption of human-centered design crucial to senior leadership’s corporate transformation strategy: always starting with what people need.

### Instructor @ Ignite Institute, Pacific School of Religion
Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | Berkeley, California, United States
Led team project portion of a program designed to enable mid-career emerging leaders and entrepreneurs to pursue social impact initiatives and/or ventures, employing mindsets and methods of design thinking. Founded and led program. Content was subsequently adapted to be core of program and other courses based on success of student projects and enthusiasm for what was learned.

### Senior Design Lead @ IDEO
Jan 1993 – Jan 2019 | Palo Alto and San Francisco, California, United States
Led design teams in tackling diverse client projects across a spectrum from early phase discovery of business and design opportunities to late phase detailed and refined solutions tailored to needs of the client, customers, and users. Design challenges ranged from design of medical devices to design of culture-changing design thinking workshops, service experiences, and strategic roadmaps of product and service opportunities in the clients’ domain. Recognized as go-to project lead for complex early phase explorations with multidisciplinary teams.

### Lecturer @ Stanford University
Jan 2015 – Jan 2018 | Stanford, California, United States
Designed and taught course in design methodology and design thinking process for students from local community with diverse experience and needs.

### Lecturer @ Stanford University School of Engineering
Jan 1993 – Jan 1998 | Stanford, California, United States
Taught an undergraduate course in physical product design that builds a foundation of excellence in design process and a human-centered approach to innovation. Guided students through challenging hands-on projects, developing their creative skills and judgment. Many of the students became leaders in prominent design organizations and other businesses.


## Education
### MS/Engineering in Joint Program in Design, Product Design
Stanford University

### Bachelor of Industrial Design in Industrial Design
Syracuse University


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-macdonald-designer
- Website: https://psmacdonald.myportfolio.com

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Source: https://flows.cv/petermacdonald
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/petermacdonald/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-07