Working Backwards

We worked with families to develop Family by Family

To get to thriving lives you need a problem solving approach that starts at the bottom with what people want and are capable of, rather than at the top with what systems and policies want and have available to spend.

You need a way of organising work that is networked and distributed, rather than bureaucratic and hierarchical. In other words, you need ways of working that are responsive, adaptable, and built on relationships - rather than the kind that are preset, standardised and built on transactions. 

We call our problem solving approach ‘Working Backwards’ and we organise our work in interdisciplinary, non-hierarchical teams. Indeed, we work backwards as a team, first to work with people to identify what people want and can do before co-designing and prototyping new kinds of solutions and ways of spreading those solutions (e.g. principles, platforms, organisations, and programs). Each phase of our approach starts with a question. To answer the question we draw on skills and tools from design, social science, business and policy development.

The phases of working backwards

1 GET READY
What team fits the problem?

2 LOOK & LISTEN
What are good outcomes?

3 CREATE
What could improve outcomes?

4 PROTOTYPE INTERACTIONS
What interactions shift outcomes?

5 PROTOTYPE SYSTEMS
What supports new interactions?

6 VALUE
What value does the solution create?

7 GROW
How can we spread the solution?

 

Adapted from Co-designing Thriving Solutions: A prototype curriculum for social problem solving.