Kyleigh Wawak

“As artificial intelligence and automation change ‘work’ as we know it, I believe that solving problems is a critical skill of the future. Design thinking is a really effective problem-solving tool and I’m excited to teach others how to apply it to food business and innovation.”

Further reading: Learn how Kyleigh Wawak introduces master’s students to the concept of design thinking, using a human-centered approach to problem solving.

Course: Design Thinking for Food.

Kyleigh Wawak has been using human centered design to solve complex business problems, bring to market new products and services, and create amazing customer experiences for over a decade and in two seemingly different industries—food and beverage and tech. Currently, Kyleigh works for Globant as a client solutions director. Prior to Globant, she worked at Salesforce for eight years leading an innovation consulting team called Ignite. In both roles, Kyleigh uses her human centered design skills to take a customer-centric approach to solving business challenges with technology.

Like many design and innovation professionals, her background is varied and her career path winding, beginning with an undergraduate degree in accounting that led to a mind-numbing desk job that served as a wake-up call: follow your passion! Kyleigh’s own passion led to culinary school at Kendall College in Chicago, IL and working as a consultant for a variety of food companies before landing at gravitytank, a design-led innovation consultancy.

It was there that Kyleigh and her colleagues developed the practice of Food Experience Design—a holistic, user centered approach to food innovation that goes way beyond the product and packaging to consider all aspects of the ecosystem as opportunities for innovation. She has worked for companies like PepsiCo, Quaker, Mondelez, Hormel, and AB InBev to reinvigorate brands, address new markets, and launch new products.

Kyleigh believes design thinking is a powerful tool to solve all kinds of problems, big and small, and is something that everyone can do, not just designers or innovation professionals. She lives in London with her boxed wine entrepreneur husband and Persian cat Sheila, and in her spare time you can find her in the kitchen, reading a book, learning French, or traveling somewhere new to indulge in the local cuisine.