Approach
Co-Design
Decide WITH, NOT FOR
Co-design is a method for solving collective problems by sharing knowledge and power with those who are directly-impacted.
Govern WITH, NOT FOR
At Do Big Good, we apply co-design principles to policy and governance.
This means that we engage stakeholders with lived experience of the policy or governance challenge in order to improve it. Using a social justice lens, we center those who are most impacted and most marginalized from current public decision-making. Including the excluded adds missing information to the civic decision-making process and increases justice and equity, creating societies in which everyone can thrive.
Services
Planning + Management
We create and oversee co-design processes. This means aligning both synchronous and asynchronous methods with the resources and constraints of clients and stakeholders.
consultation + Listening
We skillfully facilitate online and offline workshops, listening sessions, meetings, and requests for comment (RFCs) to productively collect stakeholder input.
Outreach + Engagement
We identify diverse stakeholders impacted by the policy or governance challenge and invite them into the co-design process, using channels and methods accessible to each.
Integration + Output
We synthesize stakeholder input and integrate it into the policy, governance framework, or other resource so it is ready for client implementation and use.
To achieve the above we:
Center marginalized and excluded voices
Value lived experience and personal stories
Embody anti-racist, feminist, and decolonalizing values
Co-create equitable power dynamics
Are trauma-informed and culturally humble
Work virtually and in-person
Featured Projects
Below are reports, slide decks, workshop photos, and other work products for three client projects:
REIMAGINING ACCESS co-designed health policy with young people impacted by substance use and their communities for the WA Health Care Authority (2022).
OPEN SOURCE AI DEFINITION is co-designing tech policy with global stakeholders in open source artificial intelligence for the Open Source Initiative (2023 - 2024).
SUPPORTING SURVIVORS co-designed education policy with public school students for the WA Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (2022 - 2023).
Reimagining Access
Co-Designing Health Policy
Final report for Reimagining Access, a 2022 project with the Washington State Health Care Authority to rethink access to substance use treatment with directly-impacted young people and their communities.
2. Open Source AI Defintion (OSAID)
Co-Designing Tech Policy on Artificial Intelligence
The Open Source AI Definition is a project with the Open Source Initiative. The project’s aim is to collaboratively define what open source will mean for artificial intelligence. The deck above gives an update on the definitional co-design process in early spring of 2024.
One-minute video summarizing how Do Big Good is co-designing open source AI policy for this project. (source: Open.Intel)
Click on the press logos above to read news coverage of the open source AI project.
Photos from two 2023 co-design workshops for the Open Source AI Definition project.
Public report of recommendations from working groups analyzing four AI systems. Group members voted on which components should be required for an AI system to be licensed as open.
Co-designed policy paper (January, 2025)
One-hour webinar on the Open Source AI Definition (OSAID) and the co-design process that created it, including audience Q&A. (source: Open Source Community Africa)
Vote tallies spreadsheet from the working groups. It was made public in the interests of transparency and audibility, which are crucial in building trust around co-design processes.
3. Supporting Survivors
Co-Designing School Policy
Summary report (above) and supporting deliverables (below) for Supporting Survivors, a 2022-2023 project with the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop recommendations on school responses to sexual assault with student survivors and their peers. All student quotes and comments are shared pseudonymously and with consent.
Report on school mandatory reporting procedures, centering student needs.
Student quote from the summary report.
Student comments on a sexual harassment policy.
Student quote from the summary report.
Intake process for student listening sessions.
Slide presentation on the project created for the Transforming the Trend Conference.
Final report (above) for HearMeWA, a youth safety and well-being program managed by the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. Our role in the 2023 project was to co-design a youth advisory group for the program, to ensure the needs and voices of young people are centered and empowered in the new program.
Trainings
Increasing Co-Design Capacity
Do Big Good is available to train others to do co-design for inclusive decision-making. Below are slide decks from a range of our virtual and in-person trainings:
Slides for a virtual training for graduate student at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)
Slides for an in-person training for New Beginnings, a Seattle nonprofit fighting domestic violence.
Slides for a virtual training for clients of Keela, a fundraising platform that services the not-for-profit sector.
Slides for a virtual training for clients of Keela, a fundraising platform that services the not-for-profit sector.
Slides for an in-person training for business students at the University of Washington’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship.
Slides for a virtual training for employees of Outreach.io, a sales software company that serves the for-profit sector.
Case Studies
Projects in Brief
WAshington STATE HEALTH CARE AUTHORITY
The Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) is the state's largest health care purchaser. They hired Do Big Good in 2022 to help close the gap in youth substance use treatment. To jump-start this systems change, Do Big Good conducted listening sessions virtually and in-person, reimagining treatment with youth across the state who have substance disorders and with their adult allies.
WAshington State Office of SuperIntendent of Public Instruction
The Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) oversees the state’s K-12 public school system. In 2022 they hired Do Big Good to develop recommendations on school responses to sexual assault with student survivors. The project required student listening sessions, adult stakeholder interviews, policy review, and academic research.
SPOKANE FOOD SECURITY COALITION
Spokane Regional Health District's Food Security Coalition unites over 40 organizations strengthening the food system in Eastern Washington. In the spring of 2022, Do Big Good facilitated two virtual workshops to develop a community outreach strategy with adults impacted by food insecurity.
IMPACTA LATAM
In 2021, Do Big Good partnered with international donor National Endowment for Democracy and local Guatemalan nonprofit Red Ciudadana to launch the Impacta Latam network and facilitated the network’s first action, the co-design of a toolkit on impact measurement with Latinx activists working to strengthen democracy and governance.
Open Knowledge Foundation
The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a global nonprofit network whose mission is to create a world where all non-personal information is open and free for everyone to use, build on, and share. In 2021, they hired Do Big Good to help them co-design a measurable, participatory strategy to relaunch the organization under their new CEO.
Code for America
Code for America is a tech nonprofit that believes government can work by and the for people in the digital age. In 2019, they hired Do Big Good to co-design a new model of impact measurement with their volunteers across the country. The results in-person and virtual process, piloted by brigades across the country, resulted in the Impact Cascade model and process.
University of Michigan
University of Michigan's Center for Socially Engaged Design (C-SED) hired Do Big Good to co-design a two-part train-the-trainers workshop with their graduate facilitators in the spring of 2022. The focus was Do Big Good’s Decision Cascade, a model we developed to make power dynamics visible in design and decision-making.
Photo Gallery
Above: co-design workshops with and for Code for America (2019)
all graphics by Vector Juice