About us
With backgrounds in economics, business and design, we bring together more than two decades of experience helping people build better products, services and organisations in complex environments. Our participatory approaches, facilitation skills and learning focus prioritise collaboration, co-creation and capability building in everything we do.
Who we are
Simon Gough
FOUNDER
Simon has almost twenty years’ experience of participatory design and teaching. He draws on everything from design thinking and service design to systems thinking and strategy.
He has worked across private and public and third sector projects, including with FMCG companies, social enterprises, central government and charities, helping to collaboratively design hundreds of new organisations, products, services and projects.
Lena Nielsen
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Lena specialises in delivering human-centred innovation projects, bespoke learning programmes and executive training for global organisations and NGOs.
Drawing on ethnography, futures, design thinking, systems thinking and business management, Lena brings more than 19 years of experience with her. She is the former Operations Director and Head of Academy at Design Thinkers Academy London and DK&A, and is currently a Specialist Lecturer at University of the Arts London.
Our principles
We approach all our projects with a set of guiding principles. It helps you to know how we work and to better understand how that fits with your aims.
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Collaboration is core to all our work. We aim to meet people where they are and ensure that the things we help design create the space for everyone to bring their unique skills and perspectives.
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We believe that the best work comes from being able to move between the bigger picture and the individual interaction. By combining systems and design approaches we help our clients navigate these different zoom levels with confidence.
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We help you find the best combination of frameworks and tools to apply to your challenges and train your people. Whether we’re using existing approaches or custom-building them for specific projects, we make sure that everything we create is a perfect fit for your needs.
Clients
