Jeff Kupperman talked with Rachael Carson and Rachel Rosenbaum, two designers at Civilla, a Detroit-based design studio dedicated to changework. They discussed the importance of incremental design, their own circuitous routes to becoming designers, how they continue to learn, and the key traits of a team that can make it all happen.
The Power of Incrementalism
Rachael Carson:
One of things I’m learning about is the power of incrementalism. Before I got into the design industry, I thought of design as a magical process….But over the past year I’ve learned about the messiness of it all, and that great design is actually accomplished through taking a lot of tiny, tiny steps, persistently.
Jeff:
When was the first time that you realized that?
Rachael Carson:
I’m learning about incrementalism through our partnership with leaders in the State of Michigan and Deloitte Consulting, their technology vendor. Together we have focused on redesigning MI Bridges, the website that over 400,000 Michigan residents use each month to access critical services like food assistance and healthcare.
Early on the data showed that very few people were signing up for text message notifications in MI Bridges. We spent time with applicants who were using MI Bridges to understand why. Their stories helped us see that people were in fact interested in receiving text message notifications, but opting in was unintuitive and required users to click more than seven times.
After identifying the problem, the technology team moved the feature onto the dashboard so that people could sign up with one click.
In the moment it seemed like a really small thing … but the resulting impact has been profound.
In the moment it seemed like a really small thing — the difference between 3 and 7 clicks — but the resulting impact has been profound.
Rachel Rosenbaum:
Similarly, people have to upload documents such as their ID, bank statements, and lease agreements to verify their eligibility. The state calls these documents “verifications.” But we found that the clients are more likely to use the term “paperwork.” That shift in language may seem inconsequential, but we’ve seen it greatly influence clients’ understanding of the process.
Jeff:
What has been difficult about this process?
Rachael Carson:
Traditionally, MDHHS used a linear approach to build technology: they would draft a proof of concept, articulate technical requirements, lock in the design specifications, and ship the whole thing to the engineering team. Once the code was written and tested, the final product would launch in one big bang. Unfortunately, feedback on the design often arrived too late to be incorporated, leaving applicants and staff frustrated.
During the MI Bridges redesign, Civilla worked with Deloitte to adopt a new way of working. Rather than building the product linearly, we would build in much shorter, faster cycles.
It’s been difficult to influence norms and culture, but the shift has helped leaders in MDHHS make decisions with the user in mind.
Journeys to Civilla
Jeff:
Do you have formal training in design?
Rachel Rosenbaum:
Technically my major was design and environmental analysis, more specifically, ergonomics, but I was not really interested in designing chairs. I was more fascinated by the idea that you can design environments to allow people to interact better in space.
I was not really interested in designing chairs.
Jeff:
What about you, Rachael?
Rachael Carson:
Until I arrived at Civilla, everything I knew about design I learned while building a social enterprise in Vietnam called Fashion4Freedom.
In Vietnam I worked closely with the Founder, LanVy Nguyen, and numerous artisan villages to design an ethical supply chain for manufacturing. I wore many hats, but I learned the most about design during the product development process. For example, translating a sketch into a product, such as a gemstone necklace or a pair of wooden carved shoes.
I also learned that there are things that are out of your control, like monsoon season. The city where the organization was based was infamous for monsoon rainstorms. So we had to think about design not just as a question of how do you make something, but what are the outside forces that are leading to either the death or the emergence of a design.
I learned that there are things that are out of your control, like monsoon season.
Are there any similarities to you work now?
Rachael Carson:
Now I’m working more with technology than physical products, but it similarly requires a lot of back and forth, feedback loops, constant changes, partnership and trust, so that we’re ultimately driving towards a common goal.
Jeff:
Rachel, can you tell me more about your role at Civilla?
Rachel Rosenbaum:
My job is to help the team to codify our learnings and share them with others. We don’t want to just provide tools — there are already thousands of tools in the world. Rather, we want to deliver an experience that helps people to leverage some of our learnings in their own work, and make it their own.
We’re currently in the process of figuring out what that looks like – we’re prototyping every day across mediums from online to print and everything in between.
Secrets to a Great Design Team
Jeff:
What are your thoughts are about making a good design team?
Rachel Rosenbaum:
At Civilla we’re committed to seeing our design work through implementation. It’s one thing to design something, another to bring it to life. It’s not a short process. And so the ability and willingness to persevere for the long haul is critical. And, I believe, that drive has to come from within.
Rachael Carson:
There is no expectation that any of us is perfect, only that we are open and willing to grow.
Rachel Rosenbaum:
This may sound funny, but we genuinely like each other. People want to be here, they care about one another, and ultimately that makes our product better.