Helping product and leadership teams thrive for over 20 years, by design

I’m Ben, your team catalyst

I partner with you and your team to help solve what’s holding your product back, generate actionable solutions, and map the way forward. Along the way, your team gets the capability uplift you want, and the breakthrough moments they've all been looking for.

How I can help you

Better business strategy
with value discovery and brand development

Better products
with problem framing and creative solutions

Better team alignment
with values mapping and health diagnostics

My super-power

Workshop facilitation? Check. Customer research, agile ways of working, innovation playbooks, yes yes and yes. I even do training and code working prototypes.

But what I do that really unlocks progress is visual mapping. I listen deeply, I draw, and I connect all the various parts of your problem, solution, team, and plan into a cohesive whole.

You and your team have insights along the way, and at the end you have a powerful story to show.

Let’s work together

I work as Principal Facilitator at Bright Pilots, my business design consultancy.

Hire me for:

  • Workshop facilitation
  • Team innovation coaching
  • Facilitation skills training
  • Visualisation and storytelling skills training
  • Strategy illustration
  • Graphic recording

Let’s talk

Ben had fabulous discernment in making sure everyone's voice was heard. He wasn't afraid to notice someone ‘stewing’ on an idea and asking the right questions to help solidify. Really well done!

RACHEL PATRICKS • NORWEST CHRISTIAN SCHOOL

The real value for me came from having a trusted partner to work with. This allowed me to focus on my day-to-day priorities without losing too much time to planning.

DAVID MEIER • HEAD OF DESIGN, ZIP.CO

Ben Crothers guided us through strategic design and thinking to create a single organisational strategy... The methods he used were collaborative, engaging and he was instrumental in helping our teams and our board consider the key needs that were ahead.

CLARE STEELE • CEO, COMPASSION AUSTRALIA

Books and writing

Drawing and facilitation are my twin passions that I’ve published books about:

 

Book cover - Presto Sketching by Ben Crothers

Presto Sketching

A practical workbook for learning simple sketching skills (like people, faces, objects and scenes, storyboarding, journey mapping, and conceptual illustration) for better ways to explore problems, generate ideas, explain concepts, and persuade stakeholders.

Buy online Find out more

Book cover - Draw in 4 by Ben Crothers

Draw in 4

100 4-step sketches of various objects, animals and people — everything from lions to lava lamps — for you to try drawing, to boost your drawing confidence. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, this is a fun way to amp up your visual vocabulary.

Buy online Find out more

Book cover - 50 Remote-Friendly Icebreakers by Ben Crothers

50 Remote-Friendly Icebreakers

Say goodbye to boring meetings! This book is made for anyone who runs any kind of online meeting, with 50 different fun, insightful and intriguing activities to try with your group. Guaranteed not to contain any cheesy ones. Comes with a companion website.

Buy online Find out more

 
 

I’ve been writing for over 10 years, posting on the Bright Pilots blog, the Presto Sketching website, Medium, plus a few guest posts here and there.

 

Resources

I help people win at work by providing training, templates and other downloads

Drawing for Work

Photo of Ben Crothers drawing during the Drawing for Work course

This is a comprehensive on-demand online course to boost your drawing and visual thinking skills, to help you solve problems and communicate solutions at work

Go

Unlock Your Skills with Foundation Lines

Photo of Ben Crothers drawing during the Foundation Lines course

This on-demand online class boosts your confidence and skills in translating what you observe, or whatever is in your head, into more satisfying drawings, using the foundation lines (or construction lines) technique.

Go

Thumbnail image of the Presto Sketching Storyboarding Toolkit

Storyboarding Toolkit

This storyboarding toolkit has over 550 images to help you create storyboards, and tell your story - fast!

Thumbnail image of the Presto Sketching Journey Mapping Icons

Journey Mapping Icons Set

This set contains 100 hand-drawn icons for you to use in journey maps and visual research summaries.

A photo of a hand holding one of several cards with various values printed on them

Teamwork templates and cards

A trove of strategy and productivity templates and cards for you to download and use with your team.

Speaking

I also love speaking about using design and facilitation to solve problems and envision better futures. Topics:

  • Drawing for business strategy, user experience, persuasion and creativity
  • Design Thinking for better innovation and team performance
  • Unleashing creativity at work, in surprising and useful ways

Recent talks

Podcast interviews

First Time Facilitator podcast
First Time Facilitator

June 2023

Call the Game: Ben Crothers Shares His Tips on Being Bold in Your Next Workshop or Meeting

The New Way podcast
The New Way

December 2022

How To Use Visual Communication To Align, Collaborate And Share Stories with Ben Crothers

The Sketchcast
The Sketchcast

May 2020

Winning at online facilitation, with Ben Crothers

Visual Thinking podcast
Visual Thinking podcast

April 2020

An in-depth interview by Yuri Malishenko, with Ben Crothers

The New Way podcast
Prodpod podcast

October 2019

People, not Pixels - an interview by Adrienne Tan with Ben Crothers, brought to you by This Is HCD

Graphic recording

I help make any event more impactful with live scribing. Seeing a talk or group conversation graphically recorded as it unfolds is highly engaging, and helps people connect with the content in more meaningful ways.

Whether in-person or online, analog on the wall or digital on an iPad, I capture what’s said in real-time, summarising on the fly.

Want to learn how? I teach it too...

See some examples

 

Get in touch