Tosh Juma

I am the founder of the Nairobi Design Institute — an academy that enables creative leadership through design education. NDI’s twelve month program introduces students to the concepts of human-centered design to enable them explore different ways of designing the ways of living that people want: futures that lead to collective wellbeing and sustainable service growth for Africa, today. The students address complex challenges through new design practices and bespoke community engagement.

I am also a Creative Lead in Nairobi with Dalberg’s Design Impact Group. With Dalberg Design, I bring human-centered design innovation services to the international development field in the areas such as global health, access to finance, and food security. Dalberg Design pioneers an integrated approach to problem-solving and strategic planning that combines the best skills in human-centered design with robust strategy, operational planning and measurement toolsets.

Prior to Dalberg, I was the creative director and founder of the Watungaji design studio. The studio aims to bring leading design teams together to build platforms that attempt to address social challenges within the communities we live in. I led the interaction design teams with the intent of influencing user perceptions and behavior, he worked to capture the critical elements of user experience and helped unite business goals and user needs for optimal user experience. Prior to design consultancy, I worked with the Innovation hub of Nairobi (iHub) as the Manager. I worked to grow, scale and lead the citywide community of tech innovators.

I am a strategist and a problem solver. I situate myself at the intersection of design thinking and experience design in Africa. With over ten years experience in the creative industry, I have spent the last years creating usable and delightful processes and product experiences for bottom of the pyramid audiences in agriculture, education and the finance sector.

Influenced by the principles of ‘co-design’, I put users at the heart of everything I design and am committed to translating research findings into insights and meaningful experiences. The combination of my skill-set in design strategy, user research and interaction design has led me to shape products and services that are human based. I am passionate about design education, entrepreneurship and financial inclusion. I find great value in balancing hands-on industry work, self-initiated projects and teaching, as I feel all three complement each other in the best possible way. The Nairobi Design Institute represents the ultimate expression of this goal.

I was nominated to become a THNKer by Emer Beamer