International Women’s Day Spotlight: Jenni Parker

International Women’s Day is a global observance held annually on March 8th to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and girls. The first official observance took place in 1911, and the day has since grown into a worldwide movement. Today, IWD is marked by events, campaigns, educational initiatives, and community gatherings across the globe.

In recognition of this important awareness day, we have the pleasure of speaking with Jenni Parker, NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme Mentor and Founder and Director of Humanly.

Welcome Jenni tell us a little about yourself and your background

I studied Product Design at university and became interested in how the methods used for developing products, anything from vacuum cleaners to mobile phones to cars, could be applied to developing the public and health services we rely on every day. I was particularly struck by the concept of human-centred design: a creative problem-solving process that keeps people at the heart. Inspired by social innovators like Hilary Cottam, I went on to do a Master’s in Product Service System Design, determined to use my skills for social good.

I was lucky enough to get my first job working for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, in the technology department. Not long afterwards I became a freelance consultant, and I spent 5 years delivering a wide range of design projects for charities, non‑governmental organisations, and local authorities. When the work became too much for me to do on my own, I decided to found my own design studio, which is when Humanly was born in 2017.

How did your journey with Humanly begin, and how has it evolved since then?

The vision for Humanly was to apply human-centred design, specifically deep user research, co-creation and prototyping, to complex social issues, working with organisations across sectors, topics and audiences.

Our first client was Macmillan, exploring the future of cancer support. Since then we’ve worked with a wide range of organisations including charities, government bodies, tech for good start-ups and international NGOs. Our projects have spanned a huge range of areas, many in the health and social care space, all with the goal of involving people with lived experience in the design of new and improved products and services that affect them.

My hope for the future is that we continually increase the role of lived experience in the design process, moving towards genuine co-design and shared decision making to achieve the impact that matters most to people.

What attracted you to become a mentor for the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme?

Innovation in healthcare is one of my core interests, and I’ve always thought that the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme is a brilliant initiative. My first experience of the programme was supporting Dr Karen Marshall, founder of the fantastic respiratory innovation BreathTec, in her successful application to join the programme. I met Karen when Humanly partnered with Asthma + Lung UK to deliver their inaugural Innovation Accelerator. BreathTec was one of the innovations we selected for the accelerator, and I was beyond impressed with the difference it made to those living with lung conditions who we invited to test BreathTec over 8 weeks. Karen was incredibly open to the feedback and insights that emerged from the user testing process, and I admired her commitment to implementing this learning to improve the user experience of her innovation. This experience inspired me to become a mentor on the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, and I hope to support other women entrepreneurs to develop innovative health products and services that people love to use.

Is there a woman who inspires you within healthcare or innovation?

I am constantly inspired by Ali Fawkes, our Head of Social Innovation. Ali’s unwavering passion for the inclusion of those least heard and represented in research and design processes has led us to continually find new and creative ways to reach and meaningfully engage diverse groups of people with lived experience in our projects. Her background in working with children and adults with learning disabilities and neurodivergence has brought a huge amount to our practice and I have learned an incredible amount from working alongside her. I am proud to work with Ali every day.

What advice would you give to women interested in innovation?

I believe that being ‘innovative’ or ‘creative’ is not an innate quality, but a skill that can be learned by anyone. I teach human-centred design as a methodology that anyone can learn and apply to develop innovative solutions to problems through a defined process and tried and tested techniques. I truly believe that the best solutions don’t begin with ‘genius ideas’, but with a commitment to approaching problems with an open mind, deep learning about how the problem is experienced by all those who have a stake in it, co-creating multiple diverse potential solutions, and testing, learning and refining solutions in an iterative process.

I would encourage anyone interested in social innovation to try this out, and if anyone on the programme would like guidance, I’d love to hear from them.

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