#46: Purpose, pathways, and play
A Q&A with designer and founder, Katie Kirsch
Hello!
Thanks for all the love you gave to my last issue on abundance. I'm chuffed that it resonated and excited to continue on a similar track with this week's Q&A.
Our guest is Katie Kirsch, a designer and engineer turned founder from California. Katie became my temporary teammate this summer when she interned at Sana. Her passion, intelligence, and creative energy left a mark on all of us.
I invited Katie to Pass It On to share her story and explain why her design training has made her a better founder and non-profit leader.
You graduated top of Stanford's class in Product Design Engineering, then spent 3.5 years working at IDEO, one of the world's leading product design agencies. What drew you to product design?
Before coming to Stanford, I had been trained to avoid failure at all costs. I lived by the rules, memorized exactly (and only) what my teachers required for exams, and hand-wrote my essays in pencil and then over again in pen to present the neatest possible assignment.
Perhaps this perfectionism is no surprise given my upbringing: seven years at a competitive all-girls school in the heart of Silicon Valley, two younger sisters for whom to model good behavior, and accomplished parents with high expectations. Regardless, what drew me to the design world was how it flipped my perfectionist expectations at every turn.
I learned how design thinking revolves around surfacing questions rather than answers, experimenting with radical approaches over plugging in tried-and-true formulas, and embracing ambiguity instead of structuring a detailed process. After years of carefully coloring inside the lines, I finally found the permission to paint bold strokes onto a blank canvas of my own. At the end of my first year, I broke down in tears in my professor’s office. For the first time in years, I felt free.
How has your design thinking training affected your approach to non-profit initiatives and ventures?
On the surface, design thinking has given me a creative problem-solving process and blueprint for launching new products, programs, and ventures. More importantly, it's given me an entrepreneurial mindset and spirit. It's shown me that perfection doesn't exist and that everything (and everyone) is a prototype with the potential to evolve and transform in incredible, unexpected ways. Adopting this mindset has made me more resilient, collaborative, caring, and curious—professionally as a founder and teammate but also personally as a sister, daughter, and friend.
In 2015 you co-founded Girl Possible, a non-profit empowering girls to become the leaders and change-makers of tomorrow. And you kicked it off by driving across the US in an RV, teaching 55 design thinking & leadership workshops for 1500 girls across 32 states. What was your biggest learning from that experience?
Before we hit the road, more than a few friends found our summer plans reckless, exhausting, and even ludicrous. Were we really going to sleep, eat, and live all summer in a 27-foot-long motorhome and drive countless miles to teach the exact same workshop 55 times… instead of getting a stable, well-paying job at a tech company like everyone else? Yes, we were.
I'm convinced that summer on the road taught me more about life, teamwork, impact, and people than any traditional corporate job ever could have. I didn't feel exhausted; I felt wildly energized by the opportunity to explore dozens of unique cities across the US, the many diverse people we met, and the stories we heard on the road. I didn't feel reckless. For the first time, I felt truly aligned and in tune with my inner passions and purpose. I found a calling in helping younger people build confidence, dream big, and achieve their full potential, which has only further catalyzed my career ever since.
When you interned at Sana this summer, you hosted a superb session on 'Purpose, Pathways, and Play.' Can you explain what this framework is, why it's helpful, and how it's empowered you during your career?
Your purpose is the change or impact you want to create in the world—in other words, your ‘why.’
Your pathway is a skill, activity, or process you can use to create that change—in other words, your ‘how.’
Finally, when you effectively bring these two areas together—your passion and your purpose—it should feel like play.
When we play, we get into our zone and lose track of time because what we're doing feels inherently fun and intrinsically rewarding. When we play together, we build trust and create a safe space for coming up with wild concepts, thinking outside the box, and building upon each other's ideas. Finally, there are different types of play behaviors, including role play, exploratory play, constructive play, and social play. They all help teams unlock different kinds of insights.
I first learned about the power of play at IDEO's Play Lab. It's a toy invention and consulting studio that leverages the principles of play and game mechanics to drive impact across industries. Since then, I've been intentional about weaving playful moments, experiences, and practices into my career, knowing that even a little laughter with a new team can go a long way. If you're interested in learning more, check out Brendan Boyle's and Michelle Lee's work—they're amazing!
Private or public, professional or academic, education is the red thread across all your ventures. Why are you drawn to this field? What are you aiming to achieve?
As a kid, I couldn't wait for the first day of school and always came prepared with my hair pulled back and highlighted school planner in tow. I genuinely admired my teachers and wanted to make them proud, including by passing on my learnings to others. As a higher schooler, I mentored middle schoolers; in college, I mentored high schoolers; now, I work with college students and recent graduates to help them navigate their twenties. I'm so grateful for the many mentors and professors who shaped my career. This is my way of paying it forward.
It energizes me to hear other people's questions, curiosities, and hopes about the future and to help them explore how they might get there. I firmly believe that finding and working with the right mentors can be a transformational experience, both personally and professionally. I'm on a mission to help as many people as I can to build those relationships and realize what's possible.
You recently founded Twenty, a career coaching platform to give young leaders the mentors and skills they need to crush their twenties. What inspired you to support people through that life decade specifically?
Our twenties are a "defining decade" filled with challenges that can be really hard to navigate. It's like we graduate from college—what society deems the "best four years of our lives"—and enter a dark abyss.
Of course, there are brass tacks "adulting 101" skills, like how to file our taxes or change a tire. However, what interests me most are the bigger, more ambiguous career and life questions we wrestle with throughout our twenties:
"How do I find a job or career that makes me happy?"
"Why do I feel stuck at work?"
"How do I build community and healthy relationships in a new city?"
"How do I find work-life balance and overcome imposter syndrome?"
"Am I ready to pivot in my career, and how do I get started?"
These are the kinds of pain points that inspired Twenty.
Which book has had the most significant impact on you as a leader and why?
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez. It's a powerful, sobering investigation of how products, experiences, and industries as a whole—health, education, automotive, and beyond—have been designed to revolve around biological male bodies, heteronormative male perspectives and needs, and the patriarchy overall. I'll never look at an airbag, kitchen utensil, or doctor's appointment the same way! Whenever I'm building something new, I remember this book and ask myself, "Who am I really designing this for, and what kinds of perspectives or needs might I be neglecting?"
More questions for Katie? DM her on LinkedIn or send an email to: katiekirsch@alumni.stanford.edu
Thanks so much for reading!
Lauren
Lauren, this is great! Katie sounds like someone we need to keep an eye on....amazing work she is doing!