Given the right tools, anyone can make strides to heal the planet, their communities, and themselves. And when these ordinary people do this work — together — they become champions of it. They own it.
One step at a time. Make change happen.
“Design Research is about three things: Curiosity, Compassion and Collaboration.”
Here’s How I Help.
1 Secondary Research and Research Design
We complete as much secondary research as is necessary to understand the background of the challenge and to find out what we still don’t know, and where opportunity might be available.
We propose our research methods. These may include qualitative surveys, field visits, experience simulation, ethnographic interviews, and various other ethnographic research methods, or a workshop or workshops. There are literally hundreds of different tools to help people get outside of their embedded mindsets to provide new insights.
Time: Two weeks to one month
2 Design Research
This is where we use design thinking tools to tap into the best resource you have — the people who live the experience: doctors, nurses, techs, cleaning staff in emerg who know it could work better; families, elders, health regions, providers, to better understand the fear, anger, loneliness and feelings of abandonment for our seniors; Boards of Governors, faculty, executive, staff and students of a university to reassemble under a new name.
We run through our research plan and collect the data.
Time: One to two months
3 Synthesis and Reporting
We start looking: for patterns in the data, for differences and for outliers. We use what is called beginner’s mind, looking at data in different ways, with curiosity. Like a multi-faceted gem, every side is unique. We may be looking for one kind of solution, but see an entirely different approach.
Sometimes the research will suggest further research into a specific or new area. For instance, although we may be seeking the parameters for an industrial design solution, it might become clear that service design is the more immediate need. At that point, we may propose a deeper dive into service design. The more “wicked” the problem, the more likely it needs multiple solution approaches.
Time: One to two months +
Some past projects
Big Word Breakdown
What is Design Thinking?
If you have wicked problems to work on, design thinking is a great collection of tools to work with. It’s taken me about 25 years to get to know them, but luckily for you, I will share.
Design Thinking was born out of the way designers work. The process is inherently creative, but it is not about “making art” or designing anything (in the traditional sense of the word). As such, it can make a lot of traditional business professionals uncomfortable. But it needn’t be intimidating. It’s a tool, and if you are working with the right people and have true buy-in in from the folks who make the big decisions, it is an effective one. Design Thinking is not a global panacea. It is not the right tool where innovation isn’t the desired outcome. The process is all about innovating — that means making big change. If you know what you want; if you have already determined your process, you’re not looking for innovation.
Design Thinking isn’t a cure-all. It is the tool to use when real innovation is the desired outcome.
What are Design Thinking tools?
In my world, design thinking tools are used for opening up minds, getting everyone relaxed and on the same page, and then tapping into the group mind to plumb the ideas that they all have, but carry unconsciously.
You’re not going to see the explanation of quantum physics, but you’ll see things from defining a city’s essence in the year 2030, to understanding how people make their decisions in front of recycling bins, to hinting at how a community might understand and dig in to help people marginalized by homelessness.
I generally work with groups of 20 to as many as 60 or more, breaking them into groups of about five. I use three tools for the most part and they are designed for the client and the challenge. They are usually aimed at:
Acclimatizing/educating and/or lowering resistance to participation (sometimes, some people don’t really want to play. Can’t fix it every time, but this helps a lot).
Sensitizing people to those who aren’t just like them. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said, "Make a friend out of someone who doesn't look like you, and you'll get to understand their humanity." In these exercises, I get participants to explore that friend and their situation.
Asking groups to tell us about their new found friends/ future community/solution and what they’ve learned about them/it.
What are “wicked” problems?
Wicked problems are tangled, complex issues. They involve complexity in culture, finance, politics, education, and various other societal norms and expectations that make creating a global solution impossible. Known as “wicked problems”, these kinds of challenges can often be more effectively addressed through multidisciplinary co-operation guided by people like designers and design strategists who, through their experience with divergent thinking and using abductive reasoning and collaborative sensemaking, can assist subject experts to see new ways of solving problems.
OK, how about the not-so-wicked problems?
I think of some of the challenges I’ve helped clients with as “baby” wicked problems. When a small town in Alberta needs to rethink their brand, it’s because they have to reconsider their economic engine, their tax base, and their future. Farmers are aging out and their heirs aren’t stepping in. There are new immigrants to the community. The town has opportunities like being considered a commuter community to larger centres. There are so many opportunities too explore yet there is so much uncertainty. The community needs to feel involved in the shaping of its future.
That doesn’t mean that Council and a focus group decide. It means every member of the community is invited to participate, be heard, and have their thoughts folded into what the future should look like. Everyone “future-casts” their town and “sees” what it will be like. They describe how it feels, how it looks and how it behaves/