Approach

Co-Design

Create WITH, NOT FOR

Co-design (also called participatory design or human-centered design) is a method for solving collective problems by sharing knowledge and power.

We engage directly-impacted stakeholders with lived experience of the problem. Using interactive practices that leverage creativity, co-design participants transform their knowledge and needs into collective solutions.

 

Services

We facilitate the collaborative creation of:

REseaRch

We use qualitative methods like listening sessions and one-on-one interviews to learn with stakeholders.

Evaluations

We measure the impact of programs with the beneficiaries they serve.

PolicY

We co-design laws, protocols, and policies with the constituents directly impacted by them.

Decisions

We facilitate events where critical choices are made with the people directly affected.

Resources

We create toolkits, handbooks, and model with the people who will use them.

Capacity

We train others to use co-design methods to create with community.

To achieve the above we:

  • Center marginalized and excluded voices

  • Value lived experience and personal stories

  • Embody anti-racist, feminist, and decolonalizing values

  • Practice cultural humility

  • Co-organize and launch new initiatives

  • Co-create equitable power dynamics

  • Are trauma-informed and survivor-centered

  • Work virtually or in-person

Project Examples

Below are reports, slide decks, workshop photos, and other work products for three recent and ongoing client projects:

  1. REIMAGINING ACCESS co-designed health policy with young people impacted by substance use and their communities for the WA Health Care Authority.

  2. OPEN SOURCE AI DEFINITION is co-designing tech policy with global stakeholders in open source artificial intelligence for the Open Source Initiative.

  3. SUPPORTING SURVIVORS co-designed education policy with public school students for the WA Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

  4. IT’S ABOUT RESPECT co-designed a communication campaign with Latinx and queer youth for the WA Department of Health.

  1. Reimagining Access

Co-Designing Health Policy

Final report for Reimagining Access, a 2022 project with the Washington State Health Care Authority to rethink access to substance use treatment with directly-impacted young people and their communities.

 
 

2. Open Source AI Defintion (OSAID)

Co-Designing Tech Policy

The Open Source AI Definition is a project with the Open Source Initiative. The project’s aim is to collaboratively define what open source will mean for artificial intelligence. The deck above gives an update on the definitional co-design process in early spring of 2024.

One-minute video summarizing how Do Big Good is co-designing open source AI policy for this project. (source: Open.Intel)

Click on the press logos above to read news coverage of the open source AI project.

Photos from two 2023 co-design workshops for the Open Source AI Definition project.

One-hour webinar on the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) and the co-design process that created it, including audience Q&A. (source: Open Source Community Africa)

Public report of recommendations from working groups analyzing four AI systems. Group members voted on which components should be required for an AI system to be licensed as open.

Vote tallies spreadsheet from the working groups. It was made public in the interests of transparency and audibility, which are crucial in building trust around co-design processes.

 
 

3. Supporting Survivors

Co-Designing School Policy

Summary report (above) and supporting deliverables (below) for Supporting Survivors, a 2022-2023 project with the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop recommendations on school responses to sexual assault with student survivors and their peers. All student quotes and comments are shared pseudonymously and with consent.

Report on school mandatory reporting procedures, centering student needs.

Student quote from the summary report.

Student comments on a sexual harassment policy.

Student quote from the summary report.

Intake process for student listening sessions.

Slide presentation on the project created for the Transforming the Trend Conference.

Final report (above) for HearMeWA, a youth safety and well-being program managed by the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. Our role in the 2023 project was to co-design a youth advisory group for the program, to ensure the needs and voices of young people are centered and empowered in the new program.

4. It’s About Respect

Co-Designing Communication

“It’s About Respect” was a project with the WA Department of Health. The project’s aim was to collaboratively create messages for a campaign about respect with middle-school youth who are queer and Latinx. This final report shares those youth-created messages.

Case Studies

WAshington STATE HEALTH CARE AUTHORITY

The Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) is the state's largest health care purchaser. They hired Do Big Good in 2022 to help close the gap in youth substance use treatment. To jump-start this systems change, Do Big Good conducted listening sessions virtually and in-person, reimagining treatment with youth across the state who have substance disorders and with their adult allies.

WAshington State Office of SuperIntendent of Public Instruction

The Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) oversees the state’s K-12 public school system. In 2022 they hired Do Big Good to develop recommendations on school responses to sexual assault with student survivors. The project required student listening sessions, adult stakeholder interviews, policy review, and academic research.

SPOKANE FOOD SECURITY COALITION

Spokane Regional Health District's Food Security Coalition unites over 40 organizations strengthening the food system in Eastern Washington. In the spring of 2022, Do Big Good facilitated two virtual workshops to develop a community outreach strategy with adults impacted by food insecurity.

IMPACTA LATAM

In 2021, Do Big Good partnered with international donor National Endowment for Democracy and local Guatemalan nonprofit Red Ciudadana to launch the Impacta Latam network and facilitated the network’s first action, the co-design of a toolkit on impact measurement with Latinx activists working to strengthen democracy and governance.

Open Knowledge Foundation

The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a global nonprofit network whose mission is to create a world where all non-personal information is open and free for everyone to use, build on, and share. In 2021, they hired Do Big Good to help them co-design a measurable, participatory strategy to relaunch the organization under their new CEO.

Code for America

Code for America is a tech nonprofit that believes government can work by and the for people in the digital age. In 2019, they hired Do Big Good to co-design a new model of impact measurement with their volunteers across the country. The results in-person and virtual process, piloted by brigades across the country, resulted in the Impact Cascade model and process.

University of Michigan

University of Michigan's Center for Socially Engaged Design (C-SED) hired Do Big Good to co-design a two-part train-the-trainers workshop with their graduate facilitators in the spring of 2022. The focus was Do Big Good’s Decision Cascade, a model we developed to make power dynamics visible in design and decision-making.

Photo Gallery

Above: co-design workshops with and for Code for America (2019)

all graphics by Vector Juice