Strategic and systemic design

Research-informed product direction

Role —
Strategic designer (freelance)
Organisation —
Kausal
  1. Background

    Kausal is a climate-software company that helps cities translate climate goals into action through digital tools that support collaboration around key data. With two tools already in market, the team was exploring the development of a third. Before investing in a new solution, they wanted to better understand the broader problem space.

    I was engaged as a design researcher to lead exploratory research - broadening the team’s understanding of the context in which local climate decisions are made, and identifying whether the proposed tool addressed a real gap. My role was not to assess whether they should proceed with development, but to support more informed, strategic decision-making by surfacing systemic insights.

  2. The challenge

    Cities face a range of systemic and operationally complex challenges that shape their decision-making environment. This includes siloed departments, short-term funding cycles, and shifting political priorities. These conditions often inhibit long-term planning, interdepartment cross-sector collaboration.

    Designing digital tools in this context requires more than addressing immediate user pain points. It requires an understanding of the systemic and interconnected factors which influence a tool's use, adoption and impact. The aim of the research was to:

    • Understand how climate-related decisions are made at the local level
    • Identify potential leverage points within city systems
    • Validate the relevance of the proposed tool
    • Align product ambitions with real-world needs and constraints
  3. The process

    Given the problem space we were investigating was ambiguous, the process was intentionally flexible. We shifted between divergent and convergent thinking - zooming out to understand the system, and zooming in to explore specific decision-making practices. It involved:

    In-person workshop with Kausal in Helsinki (August, 2024)

    Laying the foundation

    We began with internal alignment:

    • Workshops to identify our hypotheses
    • Desktop research to gather contextual information
    • Assumption mapping to test the confidence behind existing ideas.

    Engaging with cities

    To ground our ideas and research, we conducted:

    • Semi-structured interviews with local government staff across Australia, the United States, and Finland.
    • Informal conversations with prominent industry voices and local practitioners.
    • Prototyping sessions to test early concepts and validate assumptions

    Making sense of what we heard

    Findings were analysed, synthesised and translated into:

    • Key insights about how decisions are made and where gaps and opportunities exist
    • 'How might we' questions to spark solution oriented conversations
    • Design principles to guide future product development
    • Recommendations for where and how the new product could intervene within local government systems

    Sharing insights and reflecting

    • Internally:
      • Facilitated a 3-day strategy workshop with the Kausal team to unpack key insights, identify blind spots, and reflect on whether a product-market fit existed
    • Externally:
      • The Kausal team used the insights from the research to run a  design workshop at the 2024 Innovate4Cities Montreal conference
      • Developed a white paper to share findings across the sector
      • Presented a public webinar to reflect on the emerging insights

  4. Outcomes

    • Refined focus: The research revealed a misalignment between the original product hypothesis and the actual needs of councils. Rather than helping sustainability teams convince high-level decision makers, a key gap was around fostering stronger collaboration across departments
    • Strategic clarity: Kausal now has a clearer understanding of the systemic environment their tools must work within, and what capabilities they need to build internally
    • Sector engagement: The project engaged 30+ Australian local government staff and laid the groundwork for future partnerships
  5. Lessons Learned

    • Design principles are helpful, but they aren't a silver bullet
      Ongoing engagement is needed to design principles into internal decision-making.
    • Stories and case studies help insights stick
      Personal accounts and real-world examples are key to making complexity more understandable.
    • Blind spots are inevitable
      Identifying what internal capabilities are missing is just as valuable as spotting opportunities.
    • Workshops need time for reflection
      Building space to reflect on a workshop at its conclusion increases ownership for next steps and helps develop realistic actions.
    • Ask people to scale the importance of their feedback
      This helps with prioritising the feedback, which can help create clear actions.

Projects

Project & programme development

Fostering collaboration between local governments

Role —
Climate Projects Officer
Organisation —
Cities Power Partnership (The Climate Council)
Learn more
Policy innovation

Making sense of local climate action

Role —
Lead author and researcher
Organisation —
Kausal
Learn more
Policy innovation

Connecting governments to accelerate climate action

Role —
Lead author and researcher
Organisation —
Cities Power Partnership (The Climate Council)
Learn more
Strategic and systemic design

Applying a systems lens to impact investing

Role —
Lead researcher
Organisation —
Founders4Impact
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Master’s Thesis

Ratcheting up global climate action

Role —
Student
Organisation —
The University of Melbourne
Learn more