Victor Udoewa
Service Design Lead, CDC
Having started his career in the design and development of computational tools for scientific applications, Victor shifted his focus to the social impact space and Information and Communications Technologies for Development, both community and international development. He is a practitioner and advocate of participatory design, a meta-methodology he’s used in service and system design for governments, multilateral institutions, nonprofits, for-profits, and communities, to facilitate skill-building and improved employment opportunities for community members. Bitten by the “civic-innovation bug” he is now focused on creating or improving government products and services for citizens, immigrants, and refugees.
Victor has a particular love for design, learning, and design education. He advocates bringing practices such as positive deviance, pluriversal methods, and systems practice into civic design. He helps leads an equity-centered meetup group and Justice by Design as part of his work to decolonize design. Outside of work you can find Victor teaching salsa, singing with his a cappella group, volunteering as a health trauma and crisis counselor, or (mostly) hanging out with his family.
Rosenverse talks by Victor:
" We should break with the concept of projects and embrace change management over time to advance service design. "
Making service tangible: the fastest path to higher performance
November 19, 2025
" Colonial ways of being, knowing, and valuing will never produce emancipatory methodologies. "
Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
March 26, 2024
" You can be an amazing researcher and have zero impact, or a bad researcher and have amazing impact. "
Panel: Excellence in Impact
March 25, 2024
" Semiotics isn’t just words and pictures; it includes every stimulus in your waking and even perhaps sleeping life. "
What emerging methods are advancing UX research [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
September 28, 2023
" Language learning is a required component of the work because so much knowledge and values are stored in the language. "
Research in the Pluriverse
March 29, 2023
" We’re going to laugh, learn, listen, and maybe take some sketch notes. "
Theme One Intro
March 27, 2023
" Attendee cohorts meet daily in small groups with facilitators to share learning goals and deepen engagement. "
Everything You Need to Know about the Civic Design 2022 Call for Presentations
May 17, 2022
" Have a majority of the research team members experienced a sustained and sustainable shift in power? "
Radical Participatory Research: Decolonizing Participatory Processes
March 9, 2022
" Empowerment is problematic because when we empower others, we reinforce the hierarchy we seek to subvert. "
Radical Participatory Design: Decolonizing Participatory Design Processes
December 10, 2021
