Building a global community of designers to confront the biggest challenges facing humanity
Co-founder and Chair of Design for Good, Ben Sheppard, spoke to Thomas Farrar, a manager of communications based in McKinsey's London office, about the origins of the organization, what it has achieved in its first year focusing on clean water and sanitation and what happens next.
Thomas: Could you start by telling us more about Design for Good and how it came to be?
Ben: I am honoured to host a quarterly gathering of 30-40 Chief Design Officers, to discuss critical topics like sustainability, inclusivity, growth and AI. It was during one of these gatherings back in 2020 during the pandemic that we began discussing the idea of Design for Good.
There was a collective desire to move beyond the concept of ‘hackathons’ where outcomes and impact were often ephemeral. Instead, we wanted to create a global community of designers and empower and train them, and partner them with development agencies to create lasting social impact in a way that these individuals wouldn’t be able to achieve alone in their respective industries and settings.
In its first year Design for Good had a fantastic response with over 600 designers volunteering to participate in cross-functional innovation teams.
Thomas: Who got involved and why?
Ben: From our initial intake of volunteers, I want to particularly celebrate 100 designers who went above and beyond the call of duty and played a crucial role in innovating and leading their respective projects. Our group of volunteers came from a diverse range of backgrounds and represented 22 countries across six continents, including talented students in their final year of study to expert specialists with decades of professional experience from leading companies.
In the feedback we’ve received, our volunteers have a range of motivations, many have spoken of the fantastic opportunity to learn in cross-functional, global teams, while also growing their personal and professional networks in the field of multi-disciplinary design. All seemingly were driven by a sense of purpose and desire to put their skills and experience in physical, digital and service design towards solving major challenges confronting humanity and to see tangible results from their work.
Thomas: What was this community hoping to achieve?
Ben: Our board agreed to align our objectives to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - a globally trusted blueprint for building peace and prosperity - choosing to focus on one of these goals on an annual basis. In our first year, we decided to focus on SDG 6: clean water and sanitation. In terms of impact, the board agreed that this goal was measurable. We knew we could hold ourselves accountable by looking at volumes of water cleaned, and number of lives improved. We also knew we could partner with several established development agencies in this field who could share learning and help put plans into action.
Thomas: What was the outcome and impact?
Ben: The outcome has been phenomenal. In our first year, we’ve seen 20 social impact innovation solutions aimed at improving water and sanitation for communities around the world.
We have encouraged our teams to be conservative in their estimates, but our analysis suggests these innovations have the potential to improve the lives of up to 4.8 million people within 24 months of implementation. An impact report with more detailed numbers will be published soon.
And critically, all ten alliance members agreed to give make any intellectual property open-source on a worldwide basis, meaning that all solutions, products or services will be made available license-free so impacted communities can benefit in perpetuity.
Thomas: Could you give an example of a specific project that helped deliver impact?
Ben: What I found so inspirational about our Design for Good projects was how hands-on they were and how they connected with local communities and put local people in a position to drive them forward. One example that springs to mind was a project to improve access to clean water by encouraging local ownership of water wells. The team examined some of the issues around access to water and found that previous initiatives to build water wells had focused heavily on the physical build and less on how to maintain them over time. One of our teams focused on a franchise model, where local people part-own the water well and have an incentive to maintain it over time. The team developed a maintenance focused app that educated owners in how to maintain a functioning water well, conduct equipment maintenance and checks at regular intervals, and document the condition of service and equipment and report this back to the development agency through the app.
So far, this model has shown promising results. Owners are engaging with the program, learning valuable skills and most importantly helping provide clean water in their communities.
Thomas: What happens next?
Ben: In its second year, Design for Good will work with more than 15 development organizations, plus innovation partners such as the Royal College of Art’s incubator, on sustainably implementing and scaling the solutions. From Q4 2023, new Design for Good teams will focus on UN SDG 4: quality education. Participants will be equipped with the tools and resources they need to be able to design for vulnerable communities via the Design for Good Academy.
If you are interested in joining Design for Good’s global community of designers contact: info@designforgood.org. Follow news from Design for Good on their website.
McKinsey is one of ten founding Design for Good alliance members in the independent alliance, alongside General Mills, Lixil, Logitech, Nedbank, Nestlé, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Philips and the Royal College of Art.