Design Thinking Roundtable – Details, episodes & analysis

Victor Udoewa is Service Design Lead  for the CDC (centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Prior to this role, Victor was Chief Technology Officer, Chief experience Officer and Service Design Lead at NASA. Prior to NASA, Victor served as the Director of Strategy at 18F, a civic consultancy for the federal government inside the federal government. Previously, as a Global Education Instructional Designer and Training Development Specialist at Google, he designed learning experiences and learning software for people in low-to-middle-income countries around the world.

In this episode, Victor shared with us his "non-linear" journey to being a service designer: from being a teacher to working with USAID and then Google and NASA while being a health crisis and trauma counsellor. He shares the different definitions of service design and contrasts them with his perspective and practice in the public sector. He then explains why he talks about radical participatory design (rather than participatory design) and introduces us to relational design and pluriversal design.

To learn more about Victor's work, follow him on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/udoewa/

You can also read some of his academic papers:

Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

Rachael Dietkus is a social worker-designer. Her practice, research, and writing at the intersections of social work values, trauma-responsive principles, and care-focused design research methods. Rachael is the founder of Social Workers Who Design and an active member of the Design Justice Network and the Social Work Futures Lab. Since September 2022, she has served as a Digital Services Expert in Design and Social Work and a Trauma-Informed Practice Subject Matter Expert with the United States Digital Service, a design and tech unit under the White House. 

In this episode, Rachael reflects on the different civic and public interest roles she has had over the last twenty years to explore how social work and design are intrinsically connected in her practice. She explains how she encountered trauma-informed design and more recently trauma-responsive design. She stresses the importance of language, of care, of intentionality and relationality.

To learn more about Rachael's work, follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachaeldietkuslcsw/

and check the Social Workers Who Design website: ⁠https://www.socialworkerswho.design⁠

To learn more about the topics we discussed:

'Trauma-Informed Care: A Sociocultural Perspective' / ⁠⁠https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207195/⁠⁠

Social Work Futures Lab / ⁠⁠https://www.socialworkfutureslab.org⁠⁠

Racism Untaught / ⁠https://racismuntaught.com⁠

Some of the references Rachael's made in the podcast:

• Desmond Patton's / 'Applying Reflexivity to Artificial Intelligence for Researching Marginalized Communities and Real-World Problems' / ⁠https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/items/7607e8e6-db3b-45c6-87c5-516e8e67ba08/full⁠

• Resmaa Menakem / ⁠https://resmaa.com⁠ + ⁠https://onbeing.org/programs/resmaa-menakem-notice-the-rage-notice-the-silence⁠
• Karen Treisman's 'Trauma River' / ⁠https://media.churchillfellowship.org/documents/Treisman_K_Report_2018_Final.pdf⁠

• AJ Singh's 'Justice Sensitivity is the Cure, Not the Sickness' / ⁠https://ajs4dlg.substack.com/p/justice-sensitivity-is-the-cure-not⁠

Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

Ezio Manzini  is one of the world's leading and provocative thinkers in design for sustainability and social innovation — considered a major driver of sustainable changes. These two joint interests led him to start DESIS: an international network of schools of design specifically active in the field of design for social innovation and sustainability. Currently, Ezio is President of DESIS Network and Honorary Professor at the Politecnico di Milano. He has been guest professor in several design schools world-wide such as Elisava-Design School and Engineering (Barcelona), Tongji University (Shanghai), University of the Arts (London), CPUT (Cape town), and Parsons - The new School for Design (NYC). Ezio has written many books and papers on service design and social innovation. His most recent books are: 'Design, When Everybody Designs', 'Politics of the Everyday’ and lately 'Livable Proximity’.

In this episode, Ezio invites us to reimagine the role of design in building a sustainable and resilient world. In particular, he talks about how our contemporary society has become a “careless society” and how design can help create conditions that afford care and nurture relations. He highlights the complex relation between care and proximity and based on his most recent book, discusses the notion of livable proximity and how a city that cares look like. Finally, he discusses the notion of social innovation, and stresses that if there is value in emergent, bottom-up social innovation, we need to nurture them and that this requires a new type of social infrastructure.

To learn more about DESIS: https://www.desisnetwork.org/

Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

Bon Ku is an emergency physician, professor and host of the Design Lab podcast. He is the Assistant Dean for Health and Design and leads the Medicine+Design initiatives at Thomas Jefferson University. As the Director of the Health Design Lab, he created the first design thinking program at a medical school. Bon is creating design-minded solutions to improve patient health. Bon co-wrote the book, Health Design Thinking, with Ellen Lupton and was a regular panelist on the primetime medical TV show Chasing the Cure with Ann Curry. In this episode, Bon talks about the role of design and prototyping in the development of products and services for better health care. He discusses medical education and design and explains how the Health Design Lab empowers future doctors to redesign healthcare services, physical spaces and medical devices. Bon stresses the need for more creativity in medical education and medicine. We also talk about collaboration and co-creation and how essential it is to design a better health system.

To learn more about Bon's work: https://linktr.ee/bonku

Listen to his podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/pt/podcast/design-lab-with-bon-ku/id1529983261

Follow him on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbonku/

Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music & Art Work: Guilhem Tamisier

In this episode, our guest was Laetitia Wolff,  a creative strategist, design curator, published author, and self-described cultural engineer and the former director of strategic initiatives at AIGA in NY. Laetitia lives, works and teaches in the South of France following 20+ years spent in New York. She consults and creates projects that generate new discourses, meaningful practices and experiences using design as a tool for social change, impact, and innovation. She brings design to cities, through research-action projects, curated programs, and citizen engagement initiatives. She teaches at Besign, The Sustainable Design School, design impact and partnership-based courses to imagine the creative strategies for tomorrow’s territories.

In our conversation, Laetitia shared her perspective about design as a tool for social change, impact and innovation and how her design work focused on cities understood as an intertwinement of spatial, social and relational dimensions. She stressed the importance of multi-disciplinary approaches and of multi-stakeholder engagement. Laetitia shared her passion for amplifying the voices of individuals and communities who are unheard. Last, all her projects illustrated the value of learning by doing.

To learn more about Laetitia's work: https://www.laetitiawolff.design/

Follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laetitia-wolff-31a6193/

Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music: Guilhem Tamisier

Art work: Guilhem Tamisier

Karine Sarkissian is a founding partner at Tamar Capital (2016), a single-family office based between the Middle East, the UK, and the US. She oversees the FO’s Impact and Venture portfolio. Designer and Design Strategist by background, Karine has extensive experience in social innovation for urban and economic development initiatives within New York City and Internationally. Leveraging her expertise, she co-founded Le Studio as part of Tamar Capital to actively support portfolio companies and investors alike through design, impact measurement, and strategy development. Since inception 2 years ago, Le Studio has supported more than 50 aspiring entrepreneurs across 4 continents.

Karine also co-created and co-facilitated the Open IDEO NYC Chapter, served as a Design for America mentor to graduate students within New York University, as well as a Hult Prize accelerator mentor. She often freelances as a graphic designer and illustrator, and spends most of her time outside or in the ocean.

Karine was the Fall 2022 Social Innovator in Residence with the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and the DESIS Lab at NOVA SBE.

Follow Karine on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinesarkissian/ and Twitter: @karinesark

Learn more about her work at Tamar Capital: https://tamar.capital/

and Le Studio https://lestudio.io/ 

Discover her portfolio: http://karinesarkissian.com

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music: Guilhem Tamisier

Art work: Guilhem Tamisier

The Podcast was recorded and produced in the Fidelidade Creative Studio @ Nova SBE

Tales of the Field is a podcast series which gives voice to social activists and social innovators who work in and with their communities to create social impact and sustainable change. They share with us their work in the field - where they  tackle complex social issues and aim to create sustainable change and social impact. At its core, their work is human-centered, systemic and always informed by a deep understanding of the context and people’s lives.

In this episode, we talked with Tonya Gayle, Executive Director of Green City Force (GCF) and an advocate for economic justice for young people of color. She led GCF’s development team from July 2014 to September 2020 when she became GCF's Executive Director. She is a board member of The Corps Network focused on national service, and Environmental Advocates of NY focused on environmental justice. Prior to joining GCF, Tonya served in public-private partnerships at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) Career Program. Tonya is a member of The New York Women’s Foundation Circle of Sisters for Social Change, a graduate of Wesleyan University, and a native Brooklynite. She is an associate producer of the 2006 documentary The Perfect Life featuring young adults from Harlem.

Co-conception and Voice: Melchior Tamisier-Fayard

Co-conception and Production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design, Music and Post-production: Guilhem Tamisier

Artwork: Jyoti Tamisier-Fayard

In this episode, I talked with Joana Casaca Lemos, a design researcher passionate about sustainability innovation. Joana runs an independent practice where she supports organisations in ensuring that sustainability is at the forefront of business. She is currently launching Unusual Research - the first global collective of creatives with sustainability expertise. Joana shared with me her view on design for sustainability and related terms like planet-centered design and circular design. The organizations Joana works with are increasingly interested in getting help in making their products and services more sustainable and how this also involves an internal cultural transformation. She emphasized the complexity of the term sustainability and invites us to always make sure to ask for sustainability for what purpose and for whom. Last, she talked about the "qualities" of social businesses and the role they can play in design.

Follow Joana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanacasacalemos/?originalSubdomain=pt

And on her website: http://www.joanacasacalemos.com/

Credits:

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music: Guilhem Tamisier

Art work: Guilhem Tamisier

Tales of the Field is a podcast series which gives voice to social activists and social innovators who work in and with their communities  to create social impact and sustainable change. They share with us their work in the field - where they  tackle complex social issues and aim to create sustainable change and social impact. At its core, their work is human-centered, systemic and always informed by a deep understanding of the context and people’s lives.

In this episode, we talked with Pushpa Joshi, a young Nepalese social activist, passionate about the issues of gender and sexuality, as well as sexual and reproductive health rights.  At the age of 15, Pushpa joined a local youth club focusing on Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in her hometown of Bakhtapur. In 2019, she co-founded YoSHAN (Youth-led Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Advocacy Nepal). Recently she also directed Lalita, a short film about sex workers, for which she received multiple awards. You can view Lalita here: https://youtu.be/zPfiAp4ZVwk

Co-conception and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Voice and co-conception: Melchior Tamisier-Fayard

Sound design, Music and Post-production: Guilhem Tamisier

Artwork: Jyoti Tamisier-Fayard

Lisbeth Shepherd is Entrepreneur in Residence at MIT's designX and Visiting Lecturer at MIT's School of Architecture and Planning. Her work focuses on how "climate corps" in cities can promote environmental and economic justice. 

Shepherd co-founded the Green City Force (GCF) in 2009 to address the dual imperatives of youth unemployment and climate change.She previously coordinated the Clean Energy Corps working group at Green for All, and co-founded Unis-Cité, the leading national youth service program in France. She is an Echoing Green alum, Draper Richards Kaplan Fellow, Audubon “Woman Greening the City,” and White House Youth Jobs+ Champion of Change.

Lisbeth's interests center on "climate corps" the organized efforts of young adults, in particular those in frontline communities most affected by climate change and unemployment, that provide a platform for service, training and leadership for young people on a path to engaging careers in the green economy."

Lisbeth was the Spring 2022 Social Innovator in Residence with the ERA Chair in Social Innovation and the DESIS Lab at NOVA SBE.

Follow Lisbeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisbeth-shepherd-ab53555/ and Twitter: @LFShepherd

Read about Green City Force: https://greencityforce.org/

and Uni-Cité: https://www.uniscite.fr/

Conception, host and production: Anne-Laure Fayard

Sound design & Post-production: Claudio Silva

Music: Guilhem Tamisier

Art work: Guilhem Tamisier