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. Our work can focus in one of three areas: research, design, and facilitation. Projects frequently span all three areas, and we scope our support to fit your team’s goals, budget, and timeline.
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.
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 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 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
Public Design Bureau 