Thomas Both

Thomas Both

Thomas Both is Director of the Designing for Social Systems program at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (the d.school!). In this program, he leads a fellowship for accomplished professionals to learn and apply human-centered design to complex social challenges, and facilitates workshops for social impact leaders to develop a more human
and strategic practice.

At the d.school since 2009, the core of his work has been to design immersive hands-on learning experiences that provoke students, fellows, and professionals to try on new tools and behaviors, and develop their innovation practice. In a previous role, he created and facilitated the d.school’s workshops for executives, including the highly praised Design Thinking Bootcamp Executive workshop. To teach Stanford graduate students, Thomas has designed and led many iterations of the d.school quarter-long fundamentals course, Design Thinking Studio. He has also codified the methodology and designs resources, such as the Bootcamp Bootleg and the d.school Design Project Guide, that are offered free to the public. Thomas holds a Master degree in Design from Stanford, achieved after a prior career as a mechanical engineer.