Sometimes called human-centered design, service design, or design thinking, we use a process-based approach to amplify the knowledge and creativity already in the people you work with. We customize our approach for each initiative and client, bringing skills in research, design, co-creation, and facilitation, supported by process design and project management. In projects and collaborations, we frequently draw on a mix of these areas of expertise, and we scope our support to fit your team’s goals, budget, and timeline. Learn a bit more about our primary skills:
You: want to know more about the experiences of people who are directly impacted by what you do (clients, customers, partners, grantees, users, constituents) in order to better respond to their needs, motivations, and opportunities
We: plan, lead, and synthesize qualitative research, centered on learning from people with lived experience. Using a design research approach, we prioritize deep interactions through methods such as contextual interviews, observations, and guided activities. Each research plan is tailored to also engage relevant stakeholders and secondary sources. Sometimes this takes the form of community engagement, learning from and with people to help determine what should happen in the future within their community.
Resulting in: actionable insights / defined areas of opportunity / strategic visual frameworks / multi-media storytelling tools
You: want to create a new intervention to a well-understood challenge
We: host collaborative brainstorming and guide concept design, engaging people with lived experience through iterative prototyping – a cyclical process of making ideas tangible, gathering feedback, and creating improved versions. We help guide prioritization of potential interventions, including policies, services, and products, and create pilot or implementation plans that fit your capacity and communication needs.
Resulting in: detailed, tested interventions / pilot or implementation plans / tools for communicating your future direction
You: want to build solutions, make decisions, and create meaningful change with a wide range of people, particularly those who are directly impacted by these decisions (and may not historically have been part of deciding)
We: design and lead a process that brings all voices to the table, acknowledging and building on the strengths, expertise, and wisdom of different experiences, perspectives, and ways of working. Co-creation participants build relationships, make decisions together, and move towards action.
Resulting in: plans and ideas that can move to action / increased trust and understanding across groups / buy-in and champions for future efforts
You: want to align your team, partners, and stakeholders to move together toward shared goals
We: create interactive sessions, emphasizing relationship building, shared decision making, and trust. We develop tools, activities, and processes that are accessible and tailored to the people in the room. Depending on the needs of your group, we can lead the sessions directly or coach your team to take the lead.
Resulting in: tools and processes for collaborative sessions / trust, connections, and relationships between partners / visual documentation of collective discussions
You: want to move your team, partners, and stakeholders through a complex set of decisions, iteratively refining and supporting additional buy-in
We: work with you and your team to create a clear, transparent process that considers constraints and contexts such as timeline and power dynamics. This process outlines when and how different groups participate, review, and decide, and leaves flexibility to respond to emerging situations. We then support execution of this process through thoughtful facilitation and clear communication with all participants.
Resulting in: stronger refinement of ideas before they are executed / clear timelines / buy-in and belief in the process
Public Design Bureau 