Interview with Dawn Ahukanna

Software Crafts Podcast

A new episode is out, and today we feature Dawn Ahukanna (@dawnahukanna). She is challenged with the heuristic “Your solution should not be more complicated than the problem” from the Xebia Essentials repository (https://essentials.xebia.com/kiss/). We discuss what solution vs problem space needs, and how different disciplines complement each other in order to deliver value. Dawn shares with us what are the heuristics that allow people with different perspectives to cross their paths to solve a complex problem.

Dawn recommends the following resources:

• As-is scenario mapping (https://www.ibm.com/design/thinking/page/toolkit/activity/as-is-scenario-map)
• To-be scenario mapping (https://www.ibm.com/design/thinking/page/toolkit/activity/to-be-scenario-map)
• Service Blueprint (Sequence diagram for people and interactions) (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/service-blueprints-definition/)
• Cynefin framework (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin_framework)
• Wardley maps (https://medium.com/wardleymaps)

Dawn Ahukanna (@dawnahukanna) is a Design Principal at IBM Design. She's always been curious about how "things" work, taking things apart and trying, failing, learning, trying again, failing, trying again and finally putting them back to together. Sometimes, making completely new things in the what should have been a re-assembly process.

She started her career as a Chemical Engineer, taking things apart at the atomic level and figuring out how they worked. Then simulating and emulating abstract models by developing and programming software. Finally progressing to figuring out how people work, without taking them apart or simulating, as a Design Principal and Front-End Architect.

Her mission: To design, develop and deliver digital user experiences that hopefully delight, definitely enables or at least don't frustrate, the clients and users.