Creative Confidence Podcast Playful Thinking Under Pressure: Q&A with Cas Holman & Michelle Lee
Feb 18, 2026
Michelle Lee, IDEO partner who helps teams apply playful thinking to tough challenges, and Cas Holman, play designer behind Rigamajig, discuss play under pressure. They tackle making psychological safety fast, using constraints to spark creativity, collaborating without losing edge, and bringing playful practices into policy and healthcare. The conversation is pragmatic, story-driven, and full of quick, usable approaches.
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Rigamajig’s Collaborative Resolution
- Cas Holman described discovering Rigamajig copies in China and choosing collaboration over litigation.
- She negotiated manufacturing and partnership terms to protect design integrity while learning from the Chinese pedagogy leaders.
Name Goals Before Defending Assets
- Start tough business conversations by naming true goals and stakeholders before reacting.
- Clarify what everyone is actually after to find cooperative, value-aligned solutions.
Parallel Play Accelerates Market Learning
- Parallel play in business surfaces when competitors share experiments and co-build a market.
- Openly showing work and vulnerabilities accelerates collective learning on hard problems like AI.
