Design Thinking Consulting Firm

Stonehill is a design thinking consulting firm that helps organizations solve complex problems, uncover new opportunities, and create solutions centered on the needs of customers, employees, and stakeholders. We combine research, collaborative ideation, rapid prototyping, and experimentation to replace assumptions with evidence and move teams from uncertainty to action.

Led by founder and CEO Doug Pace, Stonehill integrates design thinking with business strategy, systems thinking, data, technology, and operational improvement. We work with corporations, private equity firms, government agencies, universities, and growing businesses to ensure innovative ideas translate into practical solutions and measurable results.

  • Design Thinking Workshops and Facilitation: We design and facilitate customized workshops that help leadership teams define challenges, align stakeholders, generate ideas, prioritize opportunities, and establish clear next steps. Each session focuses on a specific business outcome and concludes with decisions, owners, and an actionable path forward.

  • Customer Research and Journey Mapping: We use interviews, observations, surveys, focus groups, and data analysis to understand customer and employee needs. These insights inform personas, journey maps, service blueprints, and prioritized improvements across digital, physical, and human interactions.

  • Innovation Strategy and Opportunity Development: We help organizations identify and evaluate new products, services, markets, and business models. Potential opportunities are assessed for customer desirability, organizational viability, and technical feasibility before being translated into innovation portfolios, business cases, and strategic roadmaps.

  • Rapid Prototyping and Solution Testing: We transform promising ideas into prototypes, simulations, pilot programs, digital mockups, or minimum viable solutions. Testing with actual stakeholders helps validate assumptions, improve the solution, reduce implementation risk, and avoid costly investments in ideas that have not been proven.

  • Design Thinking Training and Capability Building: We equip leaders and employees with practical methods for understanding stakeholders, framing problems, generating alternatives, testing ideas, and implementing solutions. Programs can include executive education, team training, facilitator development, innovation coaching, and customized certification.

A successful design thinking engagement should produce more than ideas or workshop materials. Stonehill’s approach creates a stronger understanding of stakeholder needs, builds alignment across functions, reduces uncertainty, and gives teams a practical roadmap for moving from concept to implementation.

Organizations choose Stonehill when they need a design thinking consulting firm that understands both innovation and execution. By connecting human-centered problem-solving with strategy, operations, technology, and change management, we help clients turn complex challenges into sustainable improvements and measurable business value.

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We get people up, moving, and creating the next BIG ideas:

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