Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Let's Talk About Money
Gold
Thursday, November 17, 2022 • Civic Design 2022
Share the love for this talk
Let's Talk About Money
Speakers: Chelsea Mauldin
Link:

Summary

There's scant data on how the economics of a successful civic design practice squares with its values. What's fair pay for doing this work and a fair price to pay or charge for it? And how do you start and scale a design team that values a culture of care, transparency, and empowerment -- for staff, partners, and publics -- when our shared unit of value is a dollar bill? This session will provide real numbers and tools for making your team's business model and team structure as radically collaborative, transparent, and equitable as your design product.

Key Insights

  • PPL started with no funding or projects but grew to 22 employees and two million dollars in revenue by aligning money with mission.

  • Nonprofit civic design consultancies can generate income through government contracts rather than relying heavily on fundraising or grants.

  • An organization's budget must include non-project costs like rent, insurance, and paid time off to ensure financial sustainability.

  • Creating a transparent pay scale with clear, observable criteria significantly boosts fairness and equity in compensation.

  • Shifting salary from a private individual benefit to a collective organizational resource requires cultural change.

  • Using an agile, release-based project model helps forecast workload and prevents team burnout by managing effort predictably.

  • Tracking all team hours openly reinforces collective ownership of labor as the engine that generates both revenue and rest.

  • A team-based costing model better reflects collaborative work than billing individuals by the hour, accommodating changing project roles.

  • Open-book accounting and financial transparency deepen trust and enable anyone on the team to understand organizational finances.

  • Collective decision-making on finances can be difficult but is essential for equity; pay raises must often apply to the entire salary scale.

Notable Quotes

"Mission was our primary interest because we started without money, projects, or assets."

"How does the money we make align with our public sector values and make our organization the one we want to be?"

"We had to charge not just project work but all the costs including vacation, rent, insurance, and bookkeeping."

"We wanted compensation that is fair, transparent, and generous, not typical nonprofit low pay."

"We shifted from thinking of salary as an individual thing to thinking of revenue as a collective resource."

"Our agile project process lets us look six months ahead to prevent overload and support human dignity."

"Everyone can see how much everyone else makes through our transparent pay scale tied to observable criteria."

"We track every hour so the team's time is visible and understood as the collective engine of revenue and rest."

"Our team-based costing accounts for changing project roles and time, reflecting true collaborative effort."

"If anyone’s pay goes up, we move the whole pay scale so equity and fairness are maintained by the entire team."

Ask the Rosenbot
Erin Malone
Understanding the past to prepare for the future
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Gabriela Barneva
Operationalizing Inclusive Design in Service Design
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Conference
Lukas Moro
“Feels Like Paper!”: Interfacing AI through Paper
2025 • Designing with AI 2025
Gold
Lisa Spitz
Building Trust Through Equitable Research Practices
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Dan Willis
Theme 3: Intro
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
Leading through the long tail of trauma
2022 • Enterprise Community
Nathan Curtis
Discussion
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Lavrans Løvlie
Ask me anything – Authors of Service Design: From Insight to Implementation
2025 • Advancing Service Design 2025
Conference
Lena Shenkarenko
Collaborative Wireframing for Creating Team Alignment and Shipping Better Products
2020 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Emily Lessard
RFPs Without Tears: Writing Inclusive RFPS that Don't Scare Away Talent
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Kevin Bethune
Gatekeepers and Servant Leadership
2020 • DesignOps Community
Simon Wardley
Maps and Topographical Intelligence
2019 • Enterprise Community
Megan Blocker
Positioning insight: Structuring teams, roles and careers for a changing research landscape
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Kristin Skinner
Group Activity: A Deep Dive Into Value and Outcomes
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
JP Allen
Navigating the UX Tool Landscape
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
James Rampton
The Basics of Automotive UX & Why Phones Are a Part of That Future
2024 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Molly Fargotstein

"One-pagers are a lightweight, skimmable way for anyone in the company to quickly understand what’s been learned from research."

Molly Fargotstein

Multipurpose Communication & UX Research Marketing

September 12, 2019

Fisayo Osilaja

"Timely engagement helps stakeholders make faster, more informed decisions leading to better business outcomes."

Fisayo Osilaja

[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist

June 4, 2024

Samuel Proulx

"For those of us who are blind, braille is very costly to make, bulky, and slow to read compared to audio."

Samuel Proulx

Designing for Disability, Innovating for Everyone

March 11, 2025

Sheri Byrne-Haber

"Accessibility isn’t just about visible disabilities; it’s about invisible disabilities and situational impairments too."

Sheri Byrne-Haber

Accessibility at Scale

June 9, 2021

Hana Nagel

"Scaling change starts at the margins and ripples from the periphery into the center of a system."

Hana Nagel

Turning Research Ripples into Waves

November 8, 2018

Erin Malone

"If AI makes building trivial, the challenge shifts to figure out who’s best to decide what to make."

Erin Malone

Understanding the past to prepare for the future

July 19, 2024

Patrick Boehler

"The economies of scale that benefited traditional media organizations have disappeared."

Patrick Boehler Madison Karas

The service shift: transforming media organizations to create real value through design

November 19, 2025

Mike Brzozowski

"Helping users express their individual sustainability values opens more possibilities than enforcing rigid standards."

Mike Brzozowski Laura Palotie Steve Isley Nancy Tsang

UX in everyday products: Empowering climate conscious choices

July 17, 2024

Melissa Eggleston

"Meeting people where they are means recognizing what’s going on in their life and their context."

Melissa Eggleston Maya Israni Florence Kasule Owen Seely Andrea Schneider

Practical People Skills for Building Trust on Teams and with Partners

December 9, 2021