The Design Clinic.
In challenging, informal contexts, intervention strategies may seem logical in theory, but results on the ground unfold differently from expectations.
The Design Clinic creates a space and structure for organisations to quickly sharpen their intervention logic.
Who are you designing for, and what do they really care about?
If you haven't already articulated this for your programme, defining User Personas is a transformative first step to user-centered design and increased impact.
What outcomes could realistically be achieved, given participants' rational behaviours, motivations and known constraints?
What are the range of options for achieving these outcomes?
Design thinking widens the scope of options beyond conventional programming.
How it works
SELECT.
1. Clarify the design challenge
You choose a priority programme design question and brief me:
Where are outcomes not emerging as expected, and what change is the programme currently trying to create?
Together, we clarify:
- what the programme is aiming to shift
- what is currently happening on the ground
- where assumptions and lived realities may not yet be fully aligned
Output:
A clearly framed design challenge grounded in observed behaviours and delivery experience.
PRIME.
DEFINE.
2. Prepare the team
I provide a tailored 15-minute training video using examples drawn directly from your design challenge. This supports your team to:
- move beyond generic “beneficiary” categories
- surface implicit assumptions
- draft first-cut user personas based on real incentives, constraints, and current behaviours
Output:
Draft user personas and a shared analytical lens for the live sessions.
3. Sharpen the User Personas and Problem Statement
In a half-day facilitated session, we refine and test the personas and use them to sharpen the problem definition.
We focus on:
- what different sub-groups care about and how they currently behave
- what is the core problem that they and the project want to solve
Output:
Accurate user personas and a behaviourally realistic problem definition.
CREATE.
4. Develop context-fit intervention options
In a second half-day facilitated session, using Design Thinking techniques to expand creative thinking, we generate a wide range of possible interventions which are tested and prioritised against the user personas and problem definition.
We explicitly consider:
- feasibility within real-world constraints
- likely uptake or resistance
- unintended effects
Output:
A prioritised set of intervention options, each with a clear micro-Theory of Change designed for behavioural and contextual factors.
"Your expert insights on the personas we drafted were so so good.
You were so quickly able to pull out key observations that made a huge difference."
Robyn Lee Ghaui
Founder, Telos
Who this is for
The Design Clinic is designed for organisations that:
- are working in complex or informal contexts and recognise that gaps between programme logic and
on-the-ground realities increase risk and delivery uncertainty
- value evidence-informed, user-centered programme design and want to refine their intervention logic based on actual not assumed behaviour
It's especially useful when
You have an ongoing intervention that is not delivering the results you hoped, or teams sense that “something isn’t quite working”, but can’t yet pinpoint why.
You want to more clearly define and target behaviour change aspects of your interventions.
You don't have scope to fully redesign the programme but know that small targeted improvements could make a significant difference to impact and sustainability.
This intervention could work.
But will it - in the way people actually behave?
If your programme outcomes are not emerging as expected, the issue is rarely effort or commitment.
It's almost always design logic.