Meet Zahler Design
Sparking creativity and equipping changemakers
Zahler Design partners with organizations building a more creative and equitable world. I use human-centered design and systems thinking to articulate the opportunities in front of you, outline coherent and creative strategies, and then build alignment and excitement in your teams to bring it to life.
Through my work, I have helped leaders …
Go from the seed of a new idea to gaining traction in the market
Tell impressive stories of impact to unlock new funding and relationships
Get teams on the same page, breaking through old patterns and stalled ways of working
Hi! I’m Kimberly
I am a designer, artist, musician, systems thinker, and strategist. In every engagement, I empower individuals and organizations to build self-sufficiency, confidence, and deepen their impact.
My career started in classical music. Performing with orchestras, teaching multiple instruments, and starting a school of music equipped me with a powerful metaphor for collaboration and achievement. I studied with Denise Westby, Zartouhi Dombourian-Eby, Doriot Anthony Dwyer at Tanglewood; my postgraduate studies were with Trevor Wye at The Flute Studio, and William Bennett at The Royal Academy of Music.
Music took me around the world, nurturing empathy and broader perspectives. It ignited a passion to see the world in new ways and listen for the voices and stories of people everywhere.
Shifting to visual art and design, I earned a Master of Arts in Emergent Digital Practices with a focus on museum anthropology and game design.
Now, I focus on systems behavior, human decision-making, and adult learning in support of innovation and change. Drawing all these experiences together allows me to help teams define their unique contributions, harmonize together, and chart a path to create new things that are bigger than any one individual.
I emphasize cultures of collaboration, fostering growth and new challenges.
Principles for working together
Mess-making before sense-making
This is a critical step to understand the situation you’re in. What do we know? What do we need to know? Who or what does that initially suggest? Who should we talk to, and who might we have overlooked?
In sense-making, we create a whole out of the fragments. This is where having a systems-mindset shines! Defining the boundaries of the system will help us see the factors that are important and where the connections are.
Build in order to learn
Don’t just talk—build quickly! An idea does no good if it’s stuck in imagination or discussion. However, this is not the same as jumping too quickly to a solution before we understand the opportunity.
Even simple sketches can be used to try out assumptions and ideas, validating whether it meets objectives. More often than not, by simply making an early prototype, we’ll learn how to make our idea even better.
Co-creation
We will be partners together. I will encourage you and your team to draw out the creative powers and skills already in your organization, guiding you to be even more capable of figuring out and bringing new solutions to life.
We will get a lot done together, in a short amount of time. But more than an extra set of hands, I will be a coach, educator, and facilitator enabling your team to use design in their daily work. These skills will outlast our engagement, leaving your organization in an even stronger position moving forward.
Craftsmanship outweighs novelty
A well-crafted but otherwise ordinary solution beats out a novel one that fails to account for context.
We’ll focus on doing the fundamentals of design well—understanding the customer, documenting our rationale, and testing our assumptions.
People first. Technology second.
Technology should support the needs of the users, not the other way around. A new piece of software (or AI) won’t immediately solve all your problems.
Technology acts as an amplifier to human systems. Focusing first on human dynamics, needs, and potential biases will mean a better result when a tech solution is introduced.
Mistakes aren’t the enemy. Not trying is.
“It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.” –Ornette Coleman, jazz musician
Don’t let fear or overwhelm get in the way of doing good work. Treat each mistake as a learning opportunity. Becoming a learning organization means exploring and trying new things, not all of which will turn out as expected.
Design Leadership workshop at World IA Day Pittsburgh (2019)
Learning Experience Design workshop at LXDCON Amsterdam (2019)
Human-Centered Design workshop (2017)
Let’s Talk
I am interested in opportunities to further design equity and extend the impact of social enterprises. Don’t have a project right now? Drop a line to say hello, or start a conversation about meaningful design work in the world. I’d love to meet you!