Episode 10: Susana Tort – MIT GOV/LAB

Susana Tort is a design strategist within the social innovation sector and is currently working as an innovation strategist and design lead at MIT GOV/LAB. This lab is part of the well-known university Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and focuses on innovation in citizen engagement and government responsiveness. In this episode Susana talks about designing interventions, wicked problems, being comfortable with ambiguity and the importance of creating collaborative spaces so people can connect, communicate and create. In her opinion this last point, is something we as design strategists are good at and we should use that at our advantage. But there’s a fine line between creating collaborative spaces and letting the experts be the ones that are having the conversations. Listen to the episode to learn more.

Key words:
– Designing for governance
– Designing interventions
– Marshall Ganz
– Tropicalization
– Creating spaces
– Wicked problems
– Collaborative spaces
– Unintended consequences
– Viviane Castillo (challenges of design research)
– Support systems for design researchers
– Being comfortable with ambiguity