A B O U T
Project
Re-imagining
Civic service design integrating futures thinking methodologies
Re-imagining
Civic service design integrating futures thinking methodologies
My role
Project Partner
Project Partner
Timeline
4 months,
2025
4 months,
2025
Context
The Public Policy Lab (PPL), a nonprofit innovation lab for marginalized Americans, partnered with
the External Engagement Studio to evolve its “PPL Release Model.” Our team was tasked with integrating strategic foresight into PPL’s human-centered design process to bridge the gap between immediate client needs and long-term generational impact.
The Public Policy Lab (PPL), a nonprofit innovation lab for marginalized Americans, partnered with
the External Engagement Studio to evolve its “PPL Release Model.” Our team was tasked with integrating strategic foresight into PPL’s human-centered design process to bridge the gap between immediate client needs and long-term generational impact.
Challenge
How might we reimagine the civic design process to consider future generations while continuing to serve current-state users and project clients?
How might we reimagine the civic design process to consider future generations while continuing to serve current-state users and project clients?
R E S E A R C H
Over the course of 15 weeks, the team worked directly with PPL to explore how civic design processes might incorporate futures thinking while addressing current client needs. Familiarity with PPL’s methodology was developed, from problem definition and research through ideation and prototyping to deliver human-centered solutions. The studio culminated in a final presentation showcasing the process and design response to the original challenge brief.
Ethnographic Study
We used ethnographic methods to understand how PPL works in practice, not just how its processes are described. This included interviews, observation and shadowing, participation in internal meetings, & exercises such as asking team members to map office space and perceived organizational hierarchies. These methods helped surface informal behaviors, communication patterns, team dynamics, hidden assumptions, and decision-making practices that shaped how futures thinking could realistically fit into PPL’s workflows.
Qualitative Analysis
The studio conducted 19 interviews (10 with Public Policy Lab members and 9 with external experts), participated in 8 internal meetings, and facilitated 2 co-design workshops with the PPL team. We also completed 12–15 hours of observation and shadowing to understand communication, team dynamics, and decision-making. Additionally, we created 3–4 stakeholder and ecosystem maps to visualize roles, relationships, and internal processes.
M E T H O D
Phase 1: Co-Design Workshop
The co-design workshop future validated the need to move with the two broad approaches of skill development and integrating a futures-oriented toolkit: a model that PPL could use within their internal work and with their partners. The studio also engaged with external stakeholders in prototyping sessions to test potential methods for seamlessly incorporating futures-oriented strategies into PPL’s practice.
Phase 3: Testing
For the testing workshop, we collaborated with Public Policy Lab staff through a futures-thinking game centered on emergency room overcrowding in post-pandemic Baltimore. Using Situation and Action Cards and a Now / Next / Future framework, teams responded to evolving scenarios, developed strategies across different time horizons, identified barriers and deliverables, and reflected on how futures thinking could support more adaptive and resilient policy work.
The workshop was designed to help participants strengthen their foresight skills, recognize gaps in current practice, and build confidence in applying futures thinking collaboratively to complex public-sector challenges.
The testing revealed a collaborative, non-hierarchical team culture with strong research practices and stakeholder engagement. However, tight timelines, resource constraints, and client priorities limit the integration of long-term futures thinking. Opportunities lie in introducing more flexible workflows, building team capacity, and adapting existing structures to support both immediate needs and long-term planning.
O U T C O M E
A set of practical, design-led tools was developed to translate futures thinking into accessible, everyday practices within organizational workflows. These three skill-building resources introduce and expand on key futures thinking methods such as trend analysis, scenario planning, backcasting, and holistic systems thinking to help embed long-term perspectives into everyday decision-making.
The tools were designed to work at the intersection of skill-building and process integration. On one hand, they help teams build the capacity to use futures thinking through prompts, cards, and structured exercises. On the other, they fit into existing workflows so futures thinking does not become an additional burden, but becomes part of how teams frame problems, make decisions, and plan for long-term impact.
PPLay Book
A backcasting resource designed to help PPL teams move from long-term possibilities to near-term actions. It supports internal onboarding and partner education by making futures thinking easier to practice within existing civic design workflows
Futures Canvas
A modular tool for mapping ideas across present, near-term, and long-term horizons. It helps teams structure conversations around future impact without adding a heavy new process to the Release Model.
Futures thinking cards
A prompt-based card set that helps teams collaboratively explore scenarios, risks, opportunities, and strategic responses. The cards were designed to build a shared language for futures-oriented decision-making and make abstract futures work more tangible.
These align with the report’s conclusion that the studio created three skill-building resources to support onboarding, partner education, and methods like trend analysis, scenario planning, backcasting, and holistic systems thinking.
These align with the report’s conclusion that the studio created three skill-building resources to support onboarding, partner education, and methods like trend analysis, scenario planning, backcasting, and holistic systems thinking.
R E P O R T
See the full report here.
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