A key element of the Equity-Centered Design approach is inviting a diverse team of collaborators. Diversity helps us imagine and create a broader range of possible solutions. Being intentional at the outset about inviting a variety of collaborators with diverse life experiences increases our chances of creating good solutions that meet community needs and provide long-term sustainability.

FEEL

Deep community engagement is the next step. We use qualitative and ethnographic research methods to deepen our understanding of the issues and systems involved and to ensure community needs and points of view are thoroughly expressed and at the forefront of our work going forward.

This step is perhaps the most critical of the entire journey. We unpack all of the findings and feelings of the previous two phases, we group them and sort them to find connections and meaning, and we ask questions about the things we've found. Often we do this with end users or community members as a collaborative endeavor, to co-create the outcome of this stage, our problem question. This is the key question that will guide the rest of the process.

IMAGINE

Imagining possible solutions is the fun part. Our approach to this task is based on the principle of designing with not for the community we seek to serve. We convene co-creation sessions with community members and use research-backed techniques to generate both a quantity and quality of ideas. Our facilitation methods are designed to ensure that everyone gets a voice and that ideas from disparate viewpoints are included. We draw on an international network of subject matter experts and provocateurs who can stimulate discussion and new ideas.

Make

We move quickly from imagining to doing. We quickly make simple, physical and digital prototypes and get them into the hands of our users and communities. We get feedback fast, so we can iterate, and more importantly, so that we can learn.

REFLECt

As we take our ideas into the world, we do so with an important mindset. We aren't just trying to refine the ideas so we can launch them. Every iteration is a chance to learn more about the community, the systems, and the impacts, intended and otherwise. It's a chance to uncover a new insight that may change the idea, lead us in a better direction. A heathy dose of humility is important in this phase, as learning can often uncover assumptions that were unjustified. But through the learning process, the team becomes not only better able to make this idea successful, they gain increased capacity to execute new ideas that improve impact throughout the organization.