This document discusses design thinking principles for putting people at the center of campaign planning. It emphasizes empathizing with target audiences through techniques like interviews and observation to gain insights. These insights are then used to generate ideas through creative exercises done without judgment. Ideas are developed and turned into quick, rough prototypes that are tested with audiences. Feedback is used to refine ideas through multiple iterations until a clear campaign direction and activities are determined. The goal is to design campaigns that will inspire and engage people to create social change.

1. 1
Putting people at the
centre of campaign
planning
ECF Europe
29 November 2019
Tracy Frauzel
tracy@mobilisationlab.org
@MobilisationLab

2. We equip social change
campaigners and their
organisations with the
transformative, collaborative,
and participatory approaches
they need to drive large-scale
systems change for a just,
equitable and sustainable
world.

3. WHY
Design Thinking?

4. Design thinking puts people at the
centre of design and planning.

5. Design thinking is a strategic innovation process…
DESIRABILITY
(HUMANS)
FEASIBILITY
(RESOURCES)
VIABILITY
(TRANSFORMATION)
INNOVATION
Source: adapted from Tim Brown

9. Principles of
Design Thinking

10. Non-linear, creative,
exploratory approach to
problem solving
Solutions mindset

11. Divergent Convergent

13. A people centric and
empathetic approach
Human Centred

14. 14
Community and stakeholder
involvement is a critical part of the process .

15. Prototyping and testing
ideas early and often
facilitates an iterative
approach to
implementation
Adaptation &
Iteration

16. Testing ideas early
and often
Feedback from the
people we want to
engage to define
direction and
refine ideas.

17. Eye
Opener

18. Eye
Opener
1. Choose one personal item you
are willing/comfortable to
swap
2. Take a few minutes to walk
around the room – in silence
– see what you feel/notice

19. In pairs:
What was it
like to wear
this new item?

20. As a group:
Did anything
change for
you?

21. Sense Purpose
Build a deeper understanding of
and empathy with the specific
groups we need to engage for
strategies.
Outcomes
Insights about people key to
our strategy and how we can
motivate and engage those
people to be part of the
solution.

22. Learning directly from
people by observing,
engaging and
interacting with them.

24. Sensing is about
empathy to gain
new perspectives.
We empathise to uncover
emotional needs, dreams,
frustrations, motivations and
barriers for taking action.

25. It also provides
inspiration.
The insights we gain from
sensing can spark new ideas
and ensure ideas are relevant to
the people we want to engage.

26. Example:
Demobilising guerrilla
fighters in Colombia .

27. Why they joined?
Why they left?
What their dreams
where?
What their
frustrations where?
Interviews
with former
guerrillas

28. Insights
● Operate deep in the jungle
● Guerrillas as much prisoners as the people
they hold hostage
● Families and love are strictly forbidden
● Guerrillas are more likely to demobilise
during christmas because it is such an
emotional time
● Talk to the human not to the soldier

29. How
might
we…?
HMW create communications that reach deep into the
jungle to trigger people to demobilise?
HMW use family & love to create emotional messages
to trigger people to demobilise?
HMW use the emotional time of Christmas to trigger
people deep in the jungle to demobilise?

30. Nine strategic pathways in the jungle
covered with Christmas lights.
Only lit up when the guerrillas happened
to walk by and triggered a motion sensor
with a message.
331 guerrilla fighters demobilised
30% increase from the previous year
First iteration
“If Christmas can
come to the
jungle, you can
come home.”

31. 2nd round
interviews
● They thought the Christmas tree was cool.
● They don’t walk as much as everyone thinks. “The
rivers are the highways of the jungle.”
● Recruiting was being done in and around the
river villages
● Some guerrillas have close personal relationships
with the villagers

32. Collected 6000 messages from
villagers and relatives “Come home
at Christmas”
This generated, on average, a
demobilisation every six hours.
The campaign prompted 180
guerrillas to demobilise.
Second iteration

33. Why was it
successful?
Empathise - understand the emotional
needs of the target group and what will
motivate them to act
Methods - Interviews, challenge
assumptions, field research & data
Prototyping/Iterations - Testing
messages before and after
campaigns to get feedback and did
iterations

34. Key
Principles
• Observe, listen and
suspend judgement
• Meet people where they
are and develop empathy
to get insights from target
groups

35. To
empathise
Intellectual understanding blocks
empathy.
Empathy lies in our ability to be
present.
Listen for people’s unspoken
needs rather than just what they
think.

36. What are
insights? ➔ Insights are concise expressions
of what you have learned.
➔ They are the “aha” moments and
unexpected learnings.
➔ An insight seeks to understand
the WHY vs the WHAT.

37. Fact
Men earn much more than
women for similar work.
Insight
Observation Men don’t want women to
earn as much as them.
Men feel their self worth is
tied to their earning power
and ability to provide for
their family.

38. Fact
In Europe, 20% of women
have experienced sexual
assault since age 16.
Insight
Observation Women don’t always say “no”
when they are uncomfortable
with behaviour.
Women need to feel that it
is safe to speak out and it
takes great courage because
they are afraid of the
reaction.

39. Insights
should
be….
DEEP
DIRECTIONAL
RESONATE
Goes beyond what is
said and done
You can take action on it
Strikes a chord with
people – provokes the
shock of recognition, is
relevant

40. Fact
In Europe, 20% of women
have experienced sexual
assault since age 16.
Insight
Observation Women don’t always say “no”
when they are uncomfortable
with behaviour.
Women need to feel that it
is safe to speak out and it
takes great courage because
they are afraid of the
reaction.

42. Create Purpose
To generate and develop ideas
based on your sensing insights that
will inspire and engage specific
audiences to engage with the
project and help create change.
Outcomes
At the end of this stage you will have a few
ideas with enough detail that you can test the
concepts and tactics with specific stakeholders
& audiences to support your project strategy.

43. Creative Principles

44. Apple Exercise
Create.
Draw as many apples as you
can…fill the grid.
Take turns, one at a time.
From top left to bottom right.
Each one has to be unique.
In silence.
You have 7 minutes.

45. Creative Principles
Create.
● QUANTITY is a condition for QUALITY
● THINK BIG / encourage wild ideas
● Build on one another’s ideas: “Yes, AND . . .”!
● Postpone critical thinking and judgment
● Listen to other people’s ideas
● Get all of your ideas out
● Diversity leads to new ideas
● Be visual!

46. Structured Idea
Development

47. Create.

48. Create.
Formulate the
challenge as a
HMW
question
Generate as many
ideas as possible
(without judgement)

49. When the music starts, one
person from your team runs and
picks an image — quickly!
As a team, think of all the ways
you can answer the question
inspired by what you see in the
image.
One idea per post-it note.
Picture association
Create.

50. Trend prompts
Create.
Use these trends to give you
inspiration for how you can solve
the focus question.
➔ Work as a team.
➔ Write each idea on a post-it.
➔ You have 2 mins per trend.

51. Create.
Formulate the
challenge as a
HMW
question
Select ideas
that hold
creative
potential
Generate as many
ideas as possible
(without judgement)

52. 52
Get out of your .
Comfort zone .
comfort
zone
stretch
zone
Panic zone!

53. Create.
Formulate the
challenge as a
HMW
question
Select ideas
that hold
creative
potential
Generate as many
ideas as possible
(without judgement)
Develop each idea
further - again no
judgement!

54. Create the story
of your idea
Purpose of this exercise:
Creating a people-centred story that will
call your audience to action that you can
test and refine.
Expected outcomes:
Key elements of the campaign story you
can use to engage people to create
change and test.
Create.

55. Engagement Pyramid
Purpose of this exercise:
Building on your campaign concept to
deepen engagement and commitment
for your campaign project.
Expected outcomes:
Tactics for engaging people in different
ways in the campaign depending on
their ability and interest to contribute.
Create.

56. Create.
Formulate the
challenge as a
HMW
question
Select ideas
that hold
creative
potential
Select one idea
and turn it into
a final solution
Generate as many
ideas as possible
(without judgement)
Develop each idea
further - again no
judgement!

57. Prototype & Test Purpose
To create quick and rough
prototypes of the campaign solution
and test with audiences and allies
to determine key project activities
and improve ideas through
feedback.
Outcomes
At the end of this stage you should have a clear
direction for the campaign solution and
feedback from audiences to build on and
improve ideas for implementation.

58. What are Prototypes?
Prototype & Test.
➔ Quick & early model
of an idea
➔ Interaction with
audiences

59. Why Prototype?
Prototype & Test.
Create: explore your ideas and options for implementation.
Understand: better understand audience needs, motivations
and barriers to taking action with the campaign.
Feedback: helps you decide which ideas will be most effective in
achieving your objective.
Refine: ideas amplify what’s working, improving ideas and
eliminating elements that won’t benefit the campaign.

60. Prototype & Test.
● Create quick visual,
physical or interactive
representation of your
ideas
● Test with representatives of
audiences/allies
● Gather feedback
● Refine and improve
● Repeat

61. Different ways
to prototype

62. What is it good for: To quickly
develop and try out a few ideas and
rapidly iterate on them with
feedback from target audiences.
Expected outcomes: Quick and
cheap way to prototype ideas –
works well for digital channels.
Paper Prototypes
Prototype & Test.

64. Storyboards
Prototype & Test.
What is it good for: a quick, low resolution story board can help you think
through and visualise your idea from start to finish and refine it.
Expected outcomes: a quick prototype that tells the story of your campaign or
key activities.

66. Click-thru Prototypes
Prototype & Test.
What is it good for: combining static
drawings and interactive features to
create the feeling of a digital
platform to improve and iterate the
user experience.
Expected outcomes: Quick
prototype of ideas for digital
channels.

67. Roleplay
Prototype & Test.
What is it good for: an easy way to
get an idea or experience in front
of the people you’re designing for
quickly.
Expected outcomes: get into
character and make ideas
tangible enough to get a
response.

69. What is it good for: Testing
interactive activities that you
want to take to scale, such as a
street stall, local group activity or
distributed supporter action.
Expected outcomes: Experiential
activity to learn directly from
users what works.
Activity prototypes
Prototype & Test.

70. Tips for prototypes
Prototype & Test.
● Keep it simple and scrappy. You’ll get more honest and
constructive feedback if ideas don’t look finished or polished
● Narrow focus to key ideas; you can add more detail as idea
evolves
● Ask one question at a time. Break big ideas down into smaller
pieces so you can get clear answers to specific questions
● Be specific about language and images so that people can
understand the idea with little explanation

71. Next step…
Prototype & Test.

72. Testing
Prototypes
➔ Early and often –
before ideas get fixed
➔ Multiple concepts
➔ Constant refining,
iteration
➔ OK to abandon ideas

73. https://mobilisationlab.org/training-coaching/campaign-accelerator-training/re
sources/

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