About Us
We're passionate about creating value and impact in the service of people. We do this through our practice of human-centred design. Human-centred design is a creative, collaborative approach to devising meaningful courses of action to understand complex challenges and create impactful solutions that meet the needs of people. It involves having empathy for all people involved, defining the 'right' problems, ideating the 'best' solutions, prototyping, testing and integrating the learning.
Our unique approach to human-centred design is a transdisciplinary praxis of design thinking, systems thinking and design anthropology. The roles of designer, researcher, coach and facilitator are interwoven.
We work with our client partners and share our practices through authentic collaborative engagement. We invite various perspectives to embrace "designing with" people. We believe successful outcomes depend on understanding the context of the problem and solution.
With decades of experience, we're experts at utilising human-centred design approaches to solve complex challenges in employee experience, customer experience, strategic design, service design, innovation, and transformation.
Our name is inspired by the thinking of design theorist and educator Richard Buchanan who identified Four Orders of Design. First order relates to the design of signs and symbols used in communication. Second order is the design of objects or products. Third order is the design of activities and services. Fourth order is the design of complex systems. The fourth order is our focus, yet all these areas are interconnected in our work. This viewpoint enables us to see the "big picture" and deliver greater impact in all areas.
"Some designers have the ability to deal with these very complex questions that lie at the core of our social life. Not every designer, but some have the ability to grasp the ideas and the values at the core of very complicated systems.
Those are fourth order designers."
Richard Buchanan
VISION
Our vision is to be a dynamic catalyst for positive change in the service of people.
MISSION
Our mission is to guide and empower purpose-driven organisations using human-centred design to embrace complex systemic challenges and achieve impactful outcomes.
We believe in the profound impact of collaborative efforts with our client partners to achieve alignment around strategic objectives, foster a deep understanding of the people they serve and bring valuable insights about their systems and services.
Phil Bickerdike
Founder & Principal Designer
Phil is a human-centred design expert with 15+ years of experience in design, innovation, strategy and change. He is passionate about putting people at the heart of everything he does through empathy, respect and collaboration. Phil helps organisations, leaders, teams and individuals tackle “wicked problems”, develop critical skills and create effective interventions with diligence and integrity.
Phil has been the leader of a multi-disciplinary design team, and the regional director for a multi-national organisation building human-centred design and innovation capability. His roles are design researcher, strategic designer, service designer, facilitator and coach. His qualifications include a Masters of Design (Design Anthropology). He has industry experience in the public sector, insurance and finance, energy and utilities, logistics, technology and consulting.
Phil can help you bring a strategic focus to a broad range of challenges, perspectives and contexts; uncover insights that drive system and service improvements; craft constructive and appropriate approaches for various stakeholders; and embed new knowledge and skills.
