Most teams don't have an idea problem. They have a room where six smart people hold six different versions of the same project, and no shared way to settle it. I run the sessions that end that — with a decision, a tested concept, and a written record of why.
HALF-DAY TO MULTI-WEEK · ON SITE IN DC OR REMOTE · GEICO · CNN · IHG · ADP
Every organization I've worked inside has some version of this. The symptoms look like a communication problem. They're usually a method problem — no agreed way to turn opinion into evidence, so the loudest version wins and gets rebuilt two quarters later.
Each of these is scoped to your project, not delivered off a shelf. Pricing depends on group size, length and how much preparation the material needs — tell me what you're working on and I'll send a scoped proposal.
A facilitated design-thinking workshop for stalled projects.
One room, one project, one day. We define the real problem, generate options against it, and get a rough concept in front of someone before we leave. Best when a project has stalled in debate and needs a forcing function.
A short series of working sessions that maps what your users actually experience — not what the org diagram says they do — and turns it into a prioritized list of where to intervene. Best before a build, a budget request, or a redesign.
A recurring series that runs your team through the method on live work, then hands it over. The goal is that you stop needing me — your people run the next session themselves, with the templates and the language to do it.
I quote per engagement rather than per hour, so the scope is fixed before we start and you know the number going in. If what you need is smaller than anything above, say so — I would rather point you at the right size than sell you a series you don't need.
Two or three short conversations with the people closest to the work, so the session starts from your real constraints instead of a generic exercise.
Surface every version of the problem in the room, map where they conflict, and write one statement everyone can live with. This is usually the part that unsticks things.
Options generated against that statement, then converged deliberately — with the criteria written down first, so the choice is defensible after the room empties.
Sketch the chosen direction concretely enough to react to, then put it in front of someone outside the room. A tested concept beats a confident slide.
What was decided, what was rejected and why, what was tested, and the ranked next moves. The artifact that stops the debate reopening.
My background is regulated, high-traffic, heavily-reviewed product work. That tends to suit organizations where a decision has to survive a stakeholder review, an accessibility standard, or a budget cycle.
Member experience, program design, and the case for why a change is worth the grant money.
Services people are required to use, where clarity and accessibility are not optional extras.
Facilitation capacity for a client engagement, or training so your own team can run the sessions.
Groups with designers already, who need a neutral facilitator so nobody in the room has to referee.
Intake, claims and enrollment flows — where I've spent the last several years of client work.
Offsites and planning sessions that need to end in a decision with a written rationale.
I'm Zaye Flowers, a product designer and design lead in the Baltimore / DC area. Ten years of it has been inside large organizations — GEICO, CNN, IHG, ADP, Publicis Sapient — on work that had to pass legal, accessibility and executive review before anyone saw it.
That's the relevant part. I've sat on the other side of the table you're describing: the stakeholder who won't budge, the requirement that arrived as a solution, the research that got filed and ignored. The sessions I run are built to get through those, because I've had to.
There's no bench behind me. You get one facilitator, and it's the same one on the framing calls, in the room, and on the write-up.
Injury claim completion, after turning a phone-dependent process into guided self-service.
Election night data made legible at national scale, with 4.6M+ accessibility-tested interactions.
Booking payment page rewritten around a single, repeatedly-voiced customer complaint.
Mentoring designers one to one — 85% of them landed design roles.
The FEZ Innovation Lab is a six-week evening cohort for professionals and founders who have an idea of their own. Six people, two evenings a week, and you leave with a working prototype and a launch plan. No code required.
It runs live online, so DC works fine — Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:00 to 8:30 PM Eastern, October 27 to December 10. Organizations can also enroll one or two employees as professional development instead of booking a full-team engagement.
Tell me the situation in a few sentences. I'll reply with an honest read on whether a session would help, and if so, a scoped proposal with a fixed number — usually within two business days.
If it turns out you don't need me, I'll say that too. It's a small practice and a long game.
Prefer email? hello@fezmedia.co
Tell me what your team is stuck on. I'll tell you honestly whether a session is the right answer.
