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Summary
This will be an informal conversation between Alison Rand and Sarah Brooks. We discuss Sarah's experience applying service design and design research in both the public and private sector to create organizational change that delivers positive outcomes to people. We touch on questions of working at different scales, within different types of organizational structures and business models.
Key Insights
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Design operations increasingly involves service design to scale impact across complex organizations.
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Sarah's work at the VA showed design's role in transforming bureaucratic culture from compliance to people-centered care.
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Scaling design impact requires support from both executive leadership and grassroots communities simultaneously.
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Human-centered design must evolve toward life-centered design, considering ecological systems, not just humans.
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Early digital tools, like the 2011 Pop Tech iPad app, integrated service design by connecting pre-event, event, and post-event experiences.
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Large legacy organizations like IBM and the VA share similar challenges around legacy systems and cultural inertia.
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Storytelling with qualitative data is critical to influencing change in government and large organizations.
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Facilitation and convening people to collaborate often requires less structure than expected; just creating space is valuable.
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The Presidential Innovation Fellowship acts as an entrepreneurial bridge between private and public sectors to drive civic design.
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Experienced designers benefit from having a 'playbook' but must continuously adapt to new contexts and players.
Notable Quotes
"Design operations is really so much about service design."
"Hot Studio’s Maria is considered one of the founding members of design operations."
"Why would you do pro bono social impact work without a sustainable business model?"
"We did journey maps to understand how to connect digital and in-person experiences at Pop Tech."
"You need support from the top down, but that’s not enough; grassroots support is equally critical."
"We were changing people’s relationship with change in a rules-based government culture."
"Storytelling through evidence like videos and printed stories is incredibly valuable for making impact."
"There are still very few Chief Design Officer roles in government agencies."
"People often go along with an outcome if they feel like they were part of the process."
"I’m trying out life-centered design because we live in a biosphere, not just a human world."
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