Fjord added Shelley Evenson to its roster as Executive Director, Organizational Evolution. A pioneer and long-time educator in the practice of service design, Evenson will lead Fjord's initiatives to create a flexible learning organization, grow talent, and advance innovative knowledge sharing practices across the company.
Evenson, a co-founder of the international Service Design Network, joins Fjord from Facebook, where she oversaw research for user experience and design. Previously, she was a principal in user experience design at Microsoft where she worked initially as a part of Startup Labs, and later with researchers and developers in the Future Social Experience Lab (FUSE) in Cambridge Massachusetts and Cambridge, U.K. Prior to joining Microsoft, Shelley was an Associate Professor at the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, where her projects included collaborations with GM, Intel, The Mayo Clinic, Microsoft, Motorola, and UPMC.
In her new role, Evenson will work closely with Fjord's global teams to further their skills and abilities in applying groundbreaking service design practices and research techniques to client projects. She will also implement enhanced ways for Fjord to share best practices and insights across the company. Collaborating with Fjord's leadership team, Evenson will create programs to inspire Fjord clients, helping them to develop and implement service design and research methodologies within their own organizations.
"At Fjord, we work at the leading edge of design and technology, and so it is crucial that we constantly evolve and refresh our thinking," commented Olof Schybergson, Co-Founder and CEO of Fjord. "Shelley brings a wealth of experience and new approaches to service design that will help to deeply integrate learning into our strategy and operational DNA. She will be instrumental in building a fluid learning organization that can grow our people and create an environment that attracts the best talent to Fjord."
"Fjord is one of the most respected service design companies in the world, and I'm impressed with its commitment to creating a world-class learning organization," said Evenson. "I'm thrilled to work with such a talented team to cultivate new thinking both internally and with clients that pushes the boundaries of service design."
Evenson has been at the forefront of ethnographic methods, and helped define what became the industry standard for "design language" and interface guideline development across a range of products. She served on the National Research Council's Committee on Human Systems Integration, and has been on the advisory board for both the American Center for Design and the AIGA. A contributor to several books and journal articles on service, interaction and design strategy, Evenson is a frequent speaker at events including the IA Summit, IIT's Design Research Conference, AIGA's Design Conference, IxDA, and the Service Design Network conference.