Summary
Speakers from the conference will speak on the themes of the conference, reflecting key insights that emerged over the three days and leaving us with critical questions we can carry forward as a community and individuals after the conference.
Key Insights
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Incorporating longer temporal contexts in design can enhance foresight and sustainability in civic projects.
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Civic action often precedes government implementation, acting as proof of concept to drive official adoption.
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Trust is a crucial but delicate asset that must be intentionally built within organizations and communities.
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Hiring designers from the communities they serve builds trust and shifts power towards lived experience.
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Transparency, especially around pay and organizational finances, supports internal trust and equitable work environments.
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The pace layering framework helps distinguish between fast-changing elements like infrastructure and slow cultural shifts in civic design.
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Measuring success in civic projects requires time-scaled frameworks, recognizing some impacts manifest only over years or decades.
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Many civic designers struggle with impostor syndrome despite the field’s inherent ambiguity and evolving practices.
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Zooming out to systemic, long-term goals like rebuilding trust can unify disparate civic initiatives into collective impact.
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Human relationships and authentic community engagement remain the most fulfilling and challenging aspects of civic design work.
Notable Quotes
"The sponge is really full — my brain is pretty full of lots of insights from the last couple of days."
"Who creates the conditions for civic design to slow down? Can we afford to slow down? Can we afford not to slow down?"
"Always design a thing by considering it in this next largest temporal context — a day in a month, a decade in a century."
"Civic action as proof of concept to get government moving, to get the wheels turning was really interesting."
"Building trust within organizations toward methods and processes is essential to onboarding new ways of working."
"Hiring people you want to design for is a powerful way of shifting power and valuing lived experience."
"Pay transparency within organizations is critical for enabling good work and healthier working conditions."
"We are the problem we’re trying to replace — some legacy digital systems we created 20 years ago are still running."
"It’s a marathon not a sprint. Pace yourself and take care of yourself and the other runners around you."
"My younger self had a lot of impostor syndrome, but everyone even with more experience doesn’t totally know what they’re doing."
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