‍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.

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

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:

• 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

• 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.

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