Over six months, we partnered with seven young people to explore school engagement through a peer-led research project — from shaping questions to interviews, sense-making and storytelling.

The project culminated in a trip from Melbourne to Sydney, where they presented their insights to executives and 40 key decision-makers at national office. 

​

It was a huge exercise in trust, care and capability building, and the impact lives on — their voices continue to shape policy and program decisions, and their learnings contribute to an important conversation and body of knowledge in the sector. Along the way, we built tools and practice, and we’ve documented the process so others can build on it.

​

Peer-led research • Co-design • Project management

The Ask Izzy Community Advisory Group has now been running for over three years, bringing together people with lived and professional experience of things like homelessness, disability, family violence, queerness and seeking asylum. Their insight shapes what we build — and helps make sure it’s safe, respectful and actually useful.

 

We invested in trust-building from the beginning: creating spaces where power could be shared, skills could grow, and people felt safe to speak openly. We took time to get the practical things right — like how people were paid, how decisions were made, and how we stayed connected.

​

Advisory Groups • Community • Co-design

Ask Izzy is Australia’s largest directory of social and community services, originally designed to support people in crisis. But usage data revealed something unexpected: nearly half of all searches were being made by frontline workers looking for help on someone else’s behalf.

​

We saw an opportunity to better support them. Through 40+ hours of research we mapped key pain points and shaped a roadmap with features we knew could shift the dial — including new ways to search, save, share, refer, and manage information across teams. We built and tested prototypes through a Beta Program for service providers, helping us trial new features in real-world settings, with the first releases landing in the main product in 2022.

​

Data informed • Pilot • Product innovation

To help teams involve young people in decisions that affect them, I led capability-building efforts across The Smith Family. We built on trusted models like the IAP2 Framework for Public Participation and the National Child Safe Principles. Materials included a practical, step-by-step toolkit, guiding staff through how to engage safely and meaningfully.

​

Experimentation uncovered systems barriers so we co-created ways to make this work feel less risky and more possible. A coaching model focused on confidence helped embed youth participation not just as a “nice to have” — but as everyday, impactful practice.

​

Capability building • Youth participation • Applying frameworks

A big part of my role at Infoxchange was helping to build and embed design practice across multidisciplinary teams. I spent time rebuilding trust in design after earlier experiences had left teams feeling sceptical. Patience, generosity, and creating the conditions for collaboration were key to shifting that dynamic.

Using frameworks like theory of change and impact mapping we better aligned our efforts with meaningful outcomes — and introduced CX metrics that moved the focus beyond just tickets and speed to market.

​

We made space for capability building through lunch & learns, short videos, and hands-on workshops — giving teams practical skills and helping them connect more deeply with our users.

​

Coaching • Capability • Impact measurement

A major Australian university sought to better understand the end-to-end journey of it’s students across six national campuses.

 

We built a searchable digital journey map, that could be scaled across the university. Tagging insights and journey stages provided dynamic learnings about specific experiences among a diverse student cohort. Insight can be zoomed in or out, with a rigorous synthesis process enabling us to pinpoint widespread, universal experiences, through to those unique to a cohort, campus, topic or mindset.

​

Cross-functional teams • Capability • Living artifacts

A local government sustainability team was piloting a new community energy initiative to give people who’ve been excluded from solar access a fairer way to take part.

We worked closely with community members to understand what gets in the way — and what could help — when it comes to joining new energy programs.

Through design workshops and one-on-one conversations, we uncovered the real motivations and barriers people face.

What we learned shaped a set of service model prototypes, developed and tested through a series of design sprints.

​

User Research • Prototyping • Business model