Join 3000+ Designers worldwide who are empowering organisations to transform how they are designing and delivering services.
I’m the founder of the Human Centered Design Network and the creator of This is HCD, the leading human-centered design podcast with over 1.5 million downloads. We empower organisations worldwide with expert design training and coaching for executives, designers and teams.
When They Don’t Know What HCD Is
|
Hey Reader, Something unexpected—and kind of incredible—happened this week. Earlier today, I was invited into the Irish Government to meet with a Senator. The topic? Homelessness, and the role that design—and specifically, my podcast—might play in shifting understanding and education around it. I’ll be honest: I felt proud to be in that room. But what happened next caught me off guard. This Senator, someone with real influence and power, had no idea what Human-Centered Design was. They had never heard of Service Design. No jargon. No frameworks. No shared lingo. I instantly started to feel this need to overshare rise inside me about what SD and HCD was and could do for them. But I resisted. What they did know about were the challenges they were facing: rising homelessness, pressure on services, overstretched systems. And they knew that I had spent years working in these areas, professionally and personally. So I stopped talking. I listened. I asked a few questions. Then I listened some more. Here’s the thing: I didn’t go in to sell design. I went in to understand. And the more I listened, the more I realised something important: I don’t know if they need Service Design. I don’t know if they need Human-Centered Design frameworks. How would I know—until I build trust, understand their world, and start helping? If trust is not at the centre of everything that we do, we are wasting our time. Trust is the foundation and the soil in which we sow our seeds for change. This is what collaboration actually looks like. Not pitching. Not proving. But building a shared understanding, one conversation at a time. We are never going to create a world where everyone speaks our language. And we don’t need to. What we can do is create space to align on a North Star—and then walk together toward it. If you work in design, advocacy, or any kind of systemic change work, maybe this is the reminder we all need: It’s not about teaching people our tools. It’s about meeting them where they are. Listening. Helping. Co-creating. No frameworks needed (yet). Gerry P.S. I’m actually exploring about recording an episode that connects the themes of "Women + Addiction + Homelessness" inside the Irish Parliament in the next few weeks. Would that be of interest? Hit reply and let me know. P.P. S Like this? Maybe you might be interested in our Private Community. Apply Now?
|
Join 3000+ Designers worldwide who are empowering organisations to transform how they are designing and delivering services.
I’m the founder of the Human Centered Design Network and the creator of This is HCD, the leading human-centered design podcast with over 1.5 million downloads. We empower organisations worldwide with expert design training and coaching for executives, designers and teams.