Catalyz, an Innovation and Leadership Consulting Firm
About Catalyz
Our team has over 40 years of collective experience building teams and programs, leading organizational change at scale, and empowering individuals to design and deliver innovative products, services, and workplaces. We believe that successful change is rooted in strategy and culture, and that by engaging both employees and leaders in adaptive leadership and the human-centered approach of Design Thinking organizations can develop cultures that don’t fear change, but lean into it together.
We have a network of design strategists and facilitators across the West coast, East coast and EMEA/Asia regions, and are available to support companies across the US as well as globally. Our design strategists include alumni of IDEO, the Stanford d.School, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Accenture, Deloitte and Inner Chapter.
Our Vision
We envision a world in which the people, companies, and services we interact with are deeply customer-centric, innovative, and prepared for the accelerated rate of change and transformation of the 21st century.
Our Mission
To help organizations transform the way the work using a design-based and human-centered approach.
Our Approach
We partner with client teams through a combination of embedded coaching, on-call support on strategic projects, and facilitated workshops and offsites.
Leadership Team

Ben Grossman-Kahn
CEO & Co-Founder
Ben is the CEO and co-founder of Catalyz. He has an M.ED in Learning, Design and Technology from Stanford, is a graduate and former lecturer and coach at the Stanford d.School, and has 17 years of experience leading teams and developing programs that support innovation and cultural transformation. Prior to Catalyz, Ben was a Founding Director of the Nordstrom Innovation Lab, and co-founded the Seattle Design Thinking and Innovation Collective. Ben has worked with clients ranging from Kaiser Permanente, Nordstrom, Starbucks, Amazon, Capital One, Wiley, the California Health Care Foundation, the Pokemon company, California Health Care Foundation and Delta Dental of Washington.

Esther Armstrong
Principal

Melissa Chevalier
Creative Director

Zachary Smith
Co-Founder Emeritus

Tim Schmuckal
Advisor
Connect
Curious in learning more? Please send a note to hello@catalyz.io to set up a time to talk!