Addressing complex social issues at the root.
When institutions work to address a social challenge, they can feel stuck in the immense complexity of the issue. Sometimes the greatest unknown is how to best serve their community. We work with these organizations to bridge that disconnect and partner actively with their community to co-create innovative, equitable solutions.
Approach
Build empathy with those closest to the issue
The most important thing is to listen intently to the real humans describing the issue and to gain an empathic understanding of the problem we are trying to solve, ahead of everything else.
Find and define the right problem
While it will can take a few tries, the process of identifying root problems needs to be an inalienable part of the design process. Solving for the wrong problem can be frustrating and demotivating for the folks being interviewed.
Think of everything as a system
When brainstorming solutions, we try not to focus solely only one one part of a person’s local experience while forgetting about other parts of their experience. We want the people we’re solving for to have a good experience at all touch points.
Prototype, test, iterate
This is when the group starts documenting inexpensive, scaled down versions of the pilot to prepare for testing. This can happen a few ways. We could test one prototype at once, or 2-3 simultaneously.