Exit Design announces the recent hire of Julie Krohner, PhD, an experienced qualitative researcher and communication professional with a focus on user-driven, empathic research. In her role as Chief Innovation Officer, Julie will work with the Exit team to expand their award-winning research process and augment services in the areas of innovation and emerging technologies to improve people’s experience in the built environment.
Alan Jacobson, Founder and President of Exit Design, says, “Julie has great compassion for people and their challenges and has learned how to better ‘walk in their shoes’. As Exit explores the connections between people, information, and the environment to design more empathic, efficient and joyful environments, Julie will help us and our clients gain a deeper understanding of what people need and want as they experience the complex places where they work, heal, learn, and play.”
Before joining Exit, Julie spent 13 years leading her research firm with a focus on empathic immersion, user experience, product strategy, healthcare and emerging tech. “I have always believed that the impact of my work could be amplified by the right team,” Julie said. “Alan and I started talking a couple of years ago and as we discovered the synergies between our objectives and philosophy, the pieces fit together. I am thrilled to bring my passion for human behavior and ‘what’s next’ to Exit.”
Highly respected for her human-centered research, Julie Krohner is an experienced speaker and writer, with a unique methodology in hosting innovation and empathy workshops to uncover opportunities that help clients deliver new experiences. Within emerging tech, she is particularly interested in how mission-based organizations can use virtual and mixed reality to enhance user experiences and quality of life. Julie believes that immersive technology is the ultimate opportunity to explore empathy—bringing people and cultures closer through the ability to walk in another’s shoes. As Julie noted, “Immersive tech is particularly exciting for Exit Design, as the future of wayfinding and placemaking begins to incorporate virtual, augmented and mixed reality into the design process.”
Julie’s empathic mindset includes a meditation coaching practice. She is also the chapter lead of a global women’s organization Dreamers//Doers, whose mission is to increase the number of successful female-founded businesses through high-impact community building. Originally from Wisconsin, Julie holds a Bachelor’s from the University of Wisconsin in Communication Arts, a Master’s in Mass Communication from the University of New Mexico (where she studied with Everett Rogers, the father of Diffusion of Innovation theory), and an ABD PhD in Communication and Psychological Research Methods from the University of Arizona. She has studied interpersonal, intercultural, organizational, rhetorical, public, mass and non-verbal communication.
For more information about Julie, visit www.juliekrohner.com
For more information about Exit Design, visit www.exploreexit.com
