Maria Ana Botelho Neves, MA, FRSA@mbseven

Entrepreneurial idea-driven Design Thinker and Strategist with a great passion for Collaboration, Design and Innovation.

Lectured in Central St Martins School of Design (nearly 10 years), studied Strategic Design and Relational Design in the UK, managed an eco-toursim village in Portugal (Loural Village, 2017-18), and researched the challenges for High St Regeneration in the UK (Bangor 2018-19), and now... co-designing a new transformative project with several partners: Business Transformation by Design. Other recent projects in 2020: Business Transformation by Design, The Great Village, Makesense Lisbon Hotspot.

Left advertising in 1988, followed by several entrepreneurial initiatives from designing new business models, citizenship initiatives for social change, like Plan Zheroes (2009) in London and The Thinking Hotel (online 2009), led new product development / new-business operations for companies into new markets like Sorema (PT - Textile Manufacturer) into the UK. Launch and managed a KT Platform to connect SMEs with Design and Academia (London - Brunel University), and a 10 year business in Educational Games.

#collaboration, #Problem-solving, #participation, #cross-sector, #stakeholder-engagement, #decision-making, #idea-generation #insight-generation #process-design, #design-thinking, are key skills.

My Innovation Avatar is: The Seeker

The Seeker is most suited to the Searching phase of the Innovation Journey: driving force is the discovery, creation, and collection of understanding, insight, and knowledge. The Seeker is far-sighted, outward-looking, curious, and open-minded.

Frequently uses the following skills:

• Framing the inquiry
• Facilitating creativity
• Identifying opportunities
• Hunting and gathering ideas