The reviews are in: Designing Assistant Technology is the future of AI design
Have you read the book that Kirkus Reviews calls “a smart, warmly encouraging look at the future of AI design” and “a multi-pronged analysis of the ways in which artificial intelligence can be harnessed for good”?
Christopher Noessel’s Designing Assistant Technology: AI That Makes People Smarter is a framework for designers looking to invest in the future of their careers.
When artificial intelligence is designed poorly, it diminishes people’s skills rather than enhancing them. It can even make users less capable and more dependent on AI. In Designing Assistant Technology, Christopher Noessel provides a framework for how to use AI to assist users, as well as mitigating the risks of de-skilling and overreliance on AI.
If you’re…
- A product or tech person looking to ensure your software is doing everything it can for its users
- A designer who builds and informs direct experiences with AI systems
- A futurist that understands that AI is only as dark as they let it become
- Anyone else—because it is our responsibility to build literacy in the major forces at play and combat the negative effects
…this is the book for you.
Last week in the Rosenverse: Systems thinking and the heart of design
Last week in the Rosenverse, we hosted two events focusing on building credibility and influence for designers in healthcare, and a story of a UXer leaving corporate tech for greener pastures.
Log into the Rosenverse to watch these recordings.
See what you missed below.
If design had a heart
“For every business metric, there is always a companion human-centric metric.”
April 16: Design is not just about screens and flows. It is about relationships. And love is the ultimate bond between users and products, moving users from mere engagement to a deep emotional connection.
Although love sounds soft and abstract, it drives practical outcomes like retention, trust, and advocacy, and can be a competitive edge. Love scales deeply, and is measurable not as a single number, but as a pattern when people return, forgive mistakes, and recommend the product. Usability makes products usable, joy makes them pleasant, and love makes them meaningful. Furthermore, love makes experiences ethical because it is earned, not extracted.
So how can we intentionally design systems that speak to the very core of human emotions? How should we prioritize emotional attachment and a sense of belonging over basic user liking? Today, we have many functional and forgettable products that feel ‘cold’. This talk with Himanshu Bharadwaj looks at design through the lens of ‘warmth’. Through real UX examples, learn how to design experiences people don’t just enjoy but trust and return to them. Watch the recording »
Q&A with Himanshu Bharadwaj
This Q&A was drawn from the Rosenverse Live session.
Q: Why is emotional connection such an important part of product design?
A: Because people don’t just remember what a product does; they remember how it made them feel. When an experience feels respectful, caring, and human, it becomes easier to trust and easier to return to.
Q: What is the biggest mistake teams make when designing digital products?
A: They focus too much on efficiency and not enough on emotional resonance. A product can be technically strong and still feel cold if it doesn’t acknowledge the human being on the other side of the screen.
Q: How should designers think about warmth in practice?
A: Warmth starts with intention. It shows up in the language you use, the moments of friction you remove, and the small cues that help people feel understood rather than processed.
Q: How can design go beyond “user satisfaction”?
A: Satisfaction is a good start, but I think the real goal is emotional attachment and belonging. When design creates a deeper connection, it becomes memorable and meaningful instead of just acceptable.
Q: What should teams prioritize if they want to build more human-centered products?
A: They should prioritize empathy, clarity, and consistency. Those qualities help turn a product from something people simply use into something they genuinely feel connected to.
Systems Thinking and Design Innovation: Working with Leverage Points in Rural Maternal Health Systems
“Systems that can self-organize are the strongest form of resilience.”
April 17: Are some problems too wicked, complex, and systemic for designers to solve?
The United States is experiencing a maternal health crisis—with the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income nations globally and an expanding number of counties being deemed “maternity care deserts” or areas without obstetrical services. These failures are disproportionately impacting Black and Indigenous communities, especially in rural areas.
In this presentation, Meghan Bausone shared research that applies systems thinking to first-hand accounts from maternal health stakeholders to identify leverage points for design innovation. Meghan broke down leverage points using Donella Meadows’ framework and discuss the power of her ultimate leverage point — paradigm shifts. Watch the recording »
Q&A with Meghan Bausone
This Q&A was drawn from the Rosenverse Live session.
Q: What was the focus of your session on rural maternal health?
A: My session looked at rural maternal health as a systems problem, not just an access problem. The goal was to identify where design innovation can have the greatest impact in improving maternal care in rural communities.
Q: Why is systems thinking important for rural maternal health care?
A: Because the challenges are interconnected. Access to care, workforce shortages, travel distance, funding, and outcomes all affect one another, so a systems thinking approach helps reveal how the whole maternal health system works.
Q: Why is rural maternal health such an urgent issue right now?
A: Many rural communities face maternity care deserts, hospital closures, and long travel distances for prenatal and delivery care. Those barriers can make it harder for pregnant people to get timely, safe, and consistent support.
Q: How can design support maternal health innovation?
A: Design can help translate complexity into action. It can improve care experiences, make systems easier to navigate, and support more human-centered solutions for rural maternal health access.
Q: What is the main takeaway from your talk?
A: The biggest opportunity is to understand the system well enough to act at the right points. When we do that, design can help create more resilient, equitable, and effective maternal health care for rural communities.
Catch up on last week’s recordings, and mark your calendar for upcoming events.
See you in the Rosenverse!
Designers, this is your guide to creating AI-powered products
One of Rosenfeld Media’s most timely books, Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI by Josh Clark & Veronika Kindred is officially on pre-order! But what exactly does this book have to offer that countless other books, articles, and courses don’t?
The groundbreaking nature of Sentient Design
This book is for designers who want to create entirely new categories of experiences with artificial intelligence (AI).
We’ve entered a revolutionary era of technology and innovation. And AI has only magnified that boom.
Now that this tech is here, how should designers adapt? What is possible in the realm of AI-powered products?
Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred are so glad you’ve asked, because that’s exactly what they intend to answer in Sentient Design. They’re delivering a practical framework and imaginative perspective to deliver extraordinary new products using AI as a design material that will change the game for anyone who picks up this book.
But don’t just take their word for it. Industry veterans can’t get enough of this read, either.
What is sentient design, anyway?
Sentient Design is the practice of crafting intelligent interfaces: dashboards that design themselves, apps that manifest on demand, agents that just get it done, and much more.
Who are Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred?
Josh Clark is principal of Big Medium, a digital agency that helps complex organizations design for what’s next. Josh has over 30 years of experience in emerging technology, user experience, and design innovation. His projects include future-friendly interfaces for AI, connected devices, and websites for many of the world’s biggest companies.
Veronika Kindred
is designer and researcher at Big Medium, where she defines and solves design problems alongside some of the world’s biggest companies. She travels internationally to lead Sentient Design workshops and speak to teams at startups and Fortune 100 companies alike.
When does Sentient Design come out?
Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI will be released on June 9, 2026. Through June 8, you can pre-order the book at 15% off.
Where else can I learn about AI?
Coinciding with the launch of Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred’s book is the third annual Designing with AI conference. Join us virtually June 9-10 for case studies, panels, and expert speakers diving into AI-augmented product design work and processes.
You can also view other talks by the authors in the Rosenverse.
How is AI reshaping product design? Find out at Designing with AI 2026
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is shifting design work in unprecedented ways.
As leaders of user experience (UX), how are we supposed to create clarity?
That’s exactly what we’ll be discussing on day 1 of Designing with AI 2026, a virtual conference by Rosenfeld Media taking place on June 9-10, 2026.
What is Designing with AI?
Designing with AI is a multi-day virtual conference experience created by Rosenfeld Media. Designing with AI, also referred to as #DwAI, brings together leading and emerging voices in the UX and design fields to answer one of the most critical questions of modern designers: How can I responsibly harness the power of this innovative technology in my work?
Over the course of two days, speakers from all across the globe present case studies of their own implementations of AI in their work, celebrating the good, warning of the bad, and exploring the endless possibilities that come with an innovation like this one. Each day ends in a panel discussing the prior case studies, reflecting on lessons learned and takeaways for designers.
The conference is curated by Dr. Llewyn Paine. Llewyn is a strategy consultant with nearly two decades of experience in emerging technologies, including HoloLens and AI at Microsoft, and experimental media for Disney. She currently supports teams across the innovation lifecycle at Llewyn Paine Consulting.
Llewyn and the Rosenfeld Media team designed a conference that resonated with people so deeply, that this is our third year hosting it!
Who will be speaking at Designing with AI 2026?
Our expert speakers, hailing from companies such as Dalberg Design, JPMorgan Chase, Philips, and more, have been selected by our all-star conference team. Their hard-hitting case studies demonstrate the ups and downs of AI and how this constantly-changing innovation can be used by UXers and designers all around the globe in a way that helps, rather than harms, our industry.
The Designing with AI Program
Dr. Llewyn Paine and the rest of the Designing with AI curation team has been carefully crafting the 2026 program since we wrapped up Designing with AI 2025!
This year, we have two themes:
- Managing AI-augmented product design work
- The new AI-augmented design process
Let’s dive into the full program below!
How can product designers manage the implementation AI into their work?
Deciding how to align people, process, and AI infrastructure requires both strategy and empathy.
Day 1’s case studies demonstrate how leaders are balancing conflicting AI pressures and justifying their teams’ value, even amid constant change.
Here’s a sneak preview at some of what day 1 of #DwAI2026, June 9, has to offer:
- [Featured speaker] New Work, New Words: A Glossary for AI with Paul Ford, Co-Founder, Aboard
- Reimagining the creative process: Orchestrating intelligent systems for business impact with Shambhavi Gupta, Director AI Product Design, System Thinking, Service Design, Design Strategy and Innovation, Incedoinc
- Coordinating chaos: Preventing workflow fragmentation when everyone accelerates with AI with Claire Dhoosche, Senior DesignOps Manager, Criteo
- Leading through ambiguity: Supporting a design team relearning their craft with Beth Chappell, Senior Manager, Product Design (AI & Creator Tools), Articulate
- Deciding when to automate: Integrating AI in high-stakes systems with Joy KendiMwiti, Senior Creative Lead, Dalberg Design
- [Panel] From prototype to production: Vibe coding design for real engineering systems
What does the design process look like when reshaped by AI?
AI is reshaping the traditional design process. There are new steps to adopt and new skills to learn–all while navigating increasingly blurred boundaries across design, research, product, and engineering.
Day 2’s case studies demonstrate how UX practitioners are seizing new AI opportunities, while preserving the focus on the human user.
Join us on June 10 for these case studies:
- Rehashing the Double Diamond: Collaborating across functions with AI-assisted prototyping with Allan Lowson, Head of Experience Design and Research, Arity
- Designing for trust: Preventing hallucinations in last-mile maternal care AI systems with Vaidehi Supatkar, Design Researcher, Philips
- Conducting pre-research with AI agent personas: Pressure-testing concepts for expert workflows with Snehal Pendharkar, Vice President Experience Research, JPMorgan Chase & Co
- Moving AI offscreen: Exploring failures, constraints, and recovery in physical game design with Kritika Sony, UX Designer, PromptPath AI
- [Panel] From tools to staff: What the next generation of agents means for the future of design
- [Featured speaker] Designing with Power in the Age of AI with Anil Dash, Principal and Co-Founder, antitech
The conference is shaping up to be one of our biggest yet! And that’s not all #DwAI2026 has to offer, either…
What else does Rosenfeld Media offer at its conferences?
- Networking: Hundreds of designers from all over the world come together at Rosenfeld Media conferences. Designing with AI is no different. Be a part of something bigger and connect with like-minded UX and design professionals in real time.
- Cohorts: Rosenfeld Media offers exclusive conference cohorts! Join a small randomly-assigned group of about 10 virtual conference attendees to interact with during the conference. Facilitators will bring you together and collaboratively set an agenda to discuss throughout the event. Enjoy the benefits of small-scale interaction embedded in a large conference!
- Recordings: Rewatch the conference any time you like! All conference attendees get access to 90 days of all conference content. That includes video recordings, transcripts, session notes, and resource lists.
What does a bundle conference + workshop ticket include?
Designing with AI isn’t exclusive to June 9-10—you can also learn from experts hands-on during our virtual workshops! Purchase a bundle conference + workshop ticket, or a workshop only ticket to RSVP.
Service Designers as AI-Readiness Leaders: Orchestrating Change Across the Organization with Erika Flowers
8 hours over 2 days: June 22-23, 2026, 8:00am-12:00pm PT
In this interactive workshop, NASA Digital Service alum Erika Flowers shows how service designers can lead their organizations through AI readiness: the process of aligning people, processes, and systems before technology enters the scene. Drawing from Erika’s AI-Readiness in a Box framework, participants will leave with a practical toolkit, facilitation materials, and the confidence to position service design as the engine of organizational AI transformation. Learn more »
AI for UX Researchers with Llewyn Paine
8 hours over 2 days: June 23-24, 2026, 8:00am-12:00pm PT
UX researchers are experiencing increasing pressure to use generative AI in their workflows. But while commercial tool vendors champion AI as a cure-all for research woes, the academic literature–and in-depth, real-world evaluation–tell a more nuanced story. In this workshop, you’ll learn a framework for vetting AI capabilities, practice it with cutting-edge AI tools, and discover opportunities to evolve the role of research in this new world. Learn more »
Designing for AI: New Techniques with Dan Saffer
8 hours over 2 days: June 30 – July 1, 2026, 8:00am-12:00pm PT
This workshop will be teaching a handful of new techniques that designers, product managers, and researchers can take back and start using immediately. The workshop will be short lectures to introduce a technique, then exercises working with the method hands-on. Learn more »
Designing AI to Make Users Smarter with Chris Noessel
8 hours over 2 days: June 30 – July 1, 2026, 1:00-5:00pm PT
AI is full of promise for users, but it introduces risk as well. The two we’ll talk about in this session are over-reliance and deskilling. Over-reliance is when users trust an AI’s output too much. Deskilling is when users lose skills they previously had, but handed off to the AI; with implications not just for users but for labor relations as well. The good news is that you as a designer can do something about each of these. Come hear Christopher Noessel introduce the problems, share examples, and walk us through the patterns we can implement to help take some of the sting out of AI. Learn more »
Why should I attend Designing with AI?
Designing with AI is tailored for conscientious product designers and UX professionals—whether writers, researchers, or designers—eager to harness the potential of AI in their professional endeavors.
If that sounds like you, be sure to join us on June 9-10 to explore the responsible and innovative application of AI in UX.
Last week in the Rosenverse: Healthcare design & leaving corporate tech
Last week in the Rosenverse, we hosted two events focusing on building credibility and influence for designers in healthcare, and a story of a UXer leaving corporate tech for greener pastures.
Log into the Rosenverse to watch these recordings.
See what you missed below.
Diagnosis UX: Building Influence in Healthcare Design
“Find the people who already care about what we care about, even if they don’t call it UX.”
April 9: Watch Eric Shumake address a question that never goes away: how designers and researchers build credibility and influence in environments where design doesn’t always have a seat at the table.
We walked through:
- Making the case for UX investment when stakeholders focus on clinical outcomes and operational costs
- Navigating regulated environments without losing your design instincts
- How AI is reshaping clinical workflows and what that means for UX teams
Learn to grow your influence—whether you’re early in your healthcare career or looking to have more impact in your current role. Watch the recording »
Exit Interview: 20 Years of Tech, One Very Big Bet, and a Lot of Heat Pumps
“The title is becoming less important. Focus on the outcome you want to create and whether it feels meaningful.”
April 10: What do you do when you decide your skills deserve better problems?
Sara spent 20 years doing UX work she was genuinely good at with people she truly liked. And somehow still went home empty most days. The problems felt too small. Worse, some felt like they were pointing in the wrong direction entirely. So she made a bet on herself.
She walked away from a senior UX career in corporate tech and spent 18 months building something new from scratch. She journeyed through certifications, new knowledge, trial and error, and eventually a new career in residential electrification.
Now, instead of maximizing clicks and driving consumption, she helps people feel more comfortable in their homes while reducing their bills and their climate impact. These days she sizes HVAC equipment, pulls permits, coordinates subcontractors, and gets fossil fuels out of people’s homes. She also opportunistically uses her UX background to make the whole operation run better.
This is a story about reinvention, risk-taking, and landing somewhere you’d never have predicted you’d find meaning. Watch the recording »
Catch up on last week’s recordings, and mark your calendar for upcoming events.
See you in the Rosenverse!
Why OKRs, agile, and their ilk fail with Jeff Gothelf
AI is reshaping product development faster than most organizations can even rethink how they work—and that gap sits at the heart of this conversation with product design guru Jeff Gothelf. Lou and Jeff explore why proven methods like Agile and OKRs so often become “process theater” instead of real change, and what it actually takes to shift organizations from output-driven cultures to outcome-driven ones.
Jeff explains that most transformations fail because incentives still reward shipping outputs, not creating real value. Meaningful change tends to emerge only in pockets led by leaders willing to experiment and treat ways of working as something to test and evolve.
They also explore how AI is shifting risk upstream—from engineering to vision, validation, and decision-making—making design and research more critical than ever. Along the way, they reflect on consulting as organizational therapy, the need to prove design’s value in the AI era, and why companies that relentlessly embrace new technology are best positioned to endure.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
- Why Agile, OKRs, and similar frameworks often fail to create real change
- The critical shift from measuring output to measuring outcomes
- The two traits shared by successful pockets of transformation in large companies
- How to run small, time-boxed experiments to change ways of working at scale
- Why AI makes design, research, and product thinking more valuable
- How to explain and prove the value of “thinking before the prompt” in AI-driven organizations
Q&A with Jeff Gothelf
This Q&A is drawn from this podcast episode.
Q: Why is this shift from outputs to outcomes so important?
A: Because outputs can look productive without actually solving the right problem. Outcomes force teams to ask whether their work is making a real difference.
Q: What does customer-centricity mean in practice?
A: It means starting with the customer’s problem, not the team’s solution. When teams stay close to customer needs, they make better decisions about what to build and what to measure.
Q: What is one of the biggest mistakes teams make?
A: Teams often fall in love with a solution too early. They rush to build before they fully understand the problem they are trying to solve.
Q: How do OKRs support this way of working?
A: OKRs are most useful when they help teams define success in terms of outcomes. They become much less effective when they turn into a list of tasks or deliverables.
Q: What is the biggest takeaway from the episode?
A: The takeaway is that strong product work depends on clarity, focus, and learning. Teams need to stay centered on customer value and measure whether their work is actually changing behavior or improving results.
About our guest
Jeff Gothelf is a product and strategy coach who helps organizations build better products, stronger teams and more adaptable cultures. With more than 20 years of experience, he brings deep expertise in product strategy, cross-functional collaboration, agile-friendly product design and experimentation. He has worked with companies like AOL, TheLadders and Neo Innovation to lead customer- centric transformations and deliver measurable business results.
Quick Reference Guide:
0:10 – Meet Jeff Gothelf; Lou and Jeff discuss bridging the gap between ritual and cultural change
7:44 – Good ideas without a clear understanding of why
9:42 – What it takes for organizations to successfully communicate and incentivize
15:21 – 5 reasons to use the Rosenverse
17:37 – Consultants validate insiders; AI shifts risk toward design clarity
24:20 – AI speeds output, but critical thinking, research, and testing prove designers’ value
27:50 – Jeff and Lou speculate on Amazon’s future
30:49 – Jeff’s gift for listeners
Resources and Links from Today’s Episode:
4 Hands-on virtual workshops to level up your AI skills
Is your UX team actually getting value from AI? Whether you’re a designer, UX researcher, or product manager, staying ahead of AI isn’t optional anymore. Throughout 2026, Rosenfeld Media is offering a series of virtual workshops to equip you with the skills and confidence to assess, implement, and design AI-powered experiences.
Our first dates kick off this spring — save your spot before April 15 to lock in early bird pricing.
View the full workshop series »
Service Designers as AI-Readiness Leaders: Orchestrating Change Across the Organization
with Erika Flowers | April 27-28, 2026
In this interactive workshop, NASA Digital Service alum Erika Flowers shows how service designers can lead their organizations through AI readiness: the process of aligning people, processes, and systems before technology enters the scene.
AI for UX Researchers
with Llewyn Paine | April 29-30, 2026
In this workshop, learn a framework for understanding AI’s capabilities within the context of user research and workshop opportunities for AI to evolve the role of research, making the researcher even more valuable in this new world.
Designing for AI: New Techniques
with Dan Saffer | May 4 & 6, 2026
This workshop will teach a handful of new techniques that designers, product managers, and researchers can take back and start using immediately.
Designing AI to Make Users Smarter
with Christopher Noessel | May 6-7, 2026
AI is full of promise for users, but it introduces risk as well: over-reliance and deskilling. The good news is that you as a designer can do something about each of these. And Chris Noessel will show you how.
Announcing the themes for Designing with AI 2026
With the constant influx of new AI models and tools, it can be hard to distinguish hype from true value. Learn from experienced design practitioners where AI delivers on its promises, where it hasn’t, and the processes they’re using to leverage AI to its full potential.
Join leading experts at Designing with AI 2026 as they share firsthand AI case studies and the lessons learned along the way. Our two-day conference is split into two themes:
-
Managing AI-augmented product design work
- As AI shifts design work in unprecedented ways, UX leaders are tasked with creating clarity. Deciding how to align people, process, and AI infrastructure requires both strategy and empathy. These case studies demonstrate how leaders are balancing conflicting AI pressures and justifying their teams’ value, even amid constant change.
-
The new AI-augmented design process
- AI is reshaping the traditional design process. There are new steps to adopt and new skills to learn–all while navigating increasingly blurred boundaries across design, research, product, and engineering. These case studies demonstrate how UX practitioners are seizing new AI opportunities, while preserving the focus on the human user.
Don’t miss out on our most highly-anticipated event of the year. Join us June 9-10 for this unforgettable online conference.
Ebooks are now available on the Rosenverse
The Rosenverse has expanded! All 60+ Rosenfeld Media ebooks are available in the Rosenverse, exclusively to Gold subscribers, starting right now.
This new feature means you can go to the Books tab in the Rosenverse to peruse new and old favorites such as The User Experience Team of One (2nd edition), Research That Scales, The Staff Designer, and more!
We’re always striving to make the Rosenverse the best it can be, and we’re so excited about this new update!
Are you ready to start reading? Sign up for a Rosenverse Gold subscription today to get access to all of these books—and more!
Rosenverse Live: 7 Insights on Sharing Power in Co-Design with Samuel Martin
Co-design is more than a methodology. It is a commitment to fundamentally rethinking who holds power in the design process and what it actually looks like to share it. In a recent Rosenverse Live session, Samuel Martin, founder of SDMC and the Co-Design Institute, brought nearly two decades of community engagement experience to a conversation that went well beyond surface-level participation frameworks. Drawing on real projects and hard-won lessons, Samuel unpacked the gap between symbolic inclusion and genuine ownership, examining how institutional norms can quietly reinforce inequality even when lived experts are present at the table. From recognizing tokenism in its earliest stages to navigating moments when organizational priorities clash with community needs, the session gave practitioners, advocates, and system designers practical footing for the uncomfortable but necessary work of building processes where lived experts don’t just have a voice but actually drive change.
We pulled seven of the most pressing themes from the session and framed them as questions worth sitting with in your own work.
View the full session for free »
Q: How do you know if you’re tokenizing community members in your design process?
A: One of the clearest signs you’ve slipped into tokenism is when community feedback is collected but never actually used. Asking for input while having no real intention of incorporating it into the work is a hallmark of what’s called the “placate” phase of engagement. It looks like participation on the surface, but the community’s voice isn’t meaningfully shaping outcomes.
Q: Should you compensate lived experience experts for their time in co-design?
A: Compensation for lived experience experts isn’t optional — it’s a baseline expectation. Too often, organizations overvalue academic or professional credentials while undervaluing the expertise that comes from direct lived experience. Paying people fairly for their time and knowledge is one of the most concrete ways to signal that their participation is genuinely valued, not just symbolic.
Q: Will community members make unrealistic recommendations in the design process?
A: A common fear going into co-design is that community members will make demands that are impossible to act on. In practice, the opposite tends to be true. People with direct lived experience typically bring grounded, practical, and even surprisingly empathetic solutions — often toward the very systems that have caused them harm.
Q: What barriers should you remove to make co-design participation equitable?
A: Participation in co-design isn’t just about showing up to a meeting. For many community members, there are real logistical obstacles standing in the way. Supporting people through things like food insecurity, internet access, or childcare needs isn’t going above and beyond. It’s a necessary part of making sure people can show up as their full selves and contribute meaningfully to the process.
Q: Why aren’t surveys always the best tool for community engagement?
A: Surveys tend to be impersonal by nature. They create distance, they’re one-directional, and they don’t approximate real human interaction. Focus groups and direct one-on-one conversations tend to yield richer, more honest feedback because they give people the space to actually be heard rather than just responding to a predetermined set of questions.
Q: How do you engage a community you don’t already have relationships with?
A: When you’re new to a community, the most important first step is identifying who already has trust there. Rather than trying to reach people directly, working with established community partners to understand the landscape, share your goals, and distribute information through channels people already trust is far more effective than cold outreach. The relationship your partners have built is something you can’t manufacture quickly, and trying to shortcut it often does more harm than good.
Q: How do you make sure community feedback isn’t misrepresented when working through intermediaries?
A: The key is building a feedback loop. Whatever information is gathered from community members should always be taken back to that community for verification before it becomes a recommendation or a report. This applies not just to direct quotes but to interpretation. The people whose experiences are being represented should have the opportunity to confirm that what’s being said actually reflects what they meant.
About Samuel Martin
CEO of SDMC, Samuel has 15 years of community engagement experience, advocating with government, corporations, and non-profits to develop positive legislation and policies. He has worked on legislative agenda setting and advocacy with organizations including Casey Family Programs, Foster Club, CCAI, and FCAA. Samuel is an experienced lobbyist, trainer, and public speaker, featured for organizations like Treehouse, Community for Youth, and City Year. He is committed to empowering those impacted by policy to use their voices to advocate and lead. Samuel holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Washington – Seattle Campus and a Master’s in Public Administration from Seattle University.
