Supporting Changemakers: Designing The Futures Fellows Programme

Challenge

Co-develop an experimental futures-learning programme (Futures Fellows) for emerging leaders, collaboratively designed with a founding team. The specific contents cannot be made public until after the programme ends.

• Complex, shifting stakeholder needs

• Wicked problem context: overlapping educational content, participant expectations, institutional constraints

My Contribution

Together with my thesis partner, I led a holistic design process, offering expertise in facilitation, strategic synthesis, and relationship-building. My main contributions were as following:

• Stakeholder Mapping & Analysis: Conducted 10+ interviews and observations and facilitated team workshops to align organisational perspectives

• Co-Design Facilitation: Designed and led hands-on workshops - journey mapping, rapid prototyping, role-playing - to generate ideas and gather real-time feedback

• Material Artefacts & Visual Tools: Created communication material like a “welcome package”, journey visualisations, and session blueprints to make intangible programme elements tangible for team and participants

• Iterative Engagement: Embedded as a co-designer, physical presence at Thoravej29, allowing rapid iteration and emergent changes

• Evaluation & Synthesis: Enabled feedback loops and reflection checkpoints to adapt content, pacing, and structure in real time

What I Learned, and Brought Forward

• Navigated a Wicked Problem: Embraced uncertainty using abductive reasoning and the “design squiggle” approach, blending problem definition with ideation and evaluation simultaneously.

• Empowered Shared Ownership: Shifted from parallel consulting to full collaboration - shaping programme strategy, content, and participant experience directly alongside the founding team.

• Built Trust Through Materials: Used visual and tactile artefacts as boundary objects, cultivating trust, transparency, and shared agency among stakeholders.

• Mastered Systemic Thinking: Designed across time, space, and multiple stakeholder worlds - fusing micro-level session design with macro-level programme strategy.

Impact

• Inclusive & Accessible Design
  We focused on making the programme welcoming and usable for a wide range of participants. This meant using plain language, clear visuals, and thoughtful structure in both physical and digital materials. We also considered different energy levels, learning styles, and access needs in the session design.

• Participant Communication Materials
  I co-created the Welcome Package and session guides to help participants feel prepared, included, and oriented throughout the programme. These materials explained the programme in a visual and clear way - reducing confusion and helping build trust from the start.

• From Design to Real-World Launch
  The Futures Fellows programme is now up and running - with the materials, processes, and activities we designed being used live. Feedback from facilitators and early participants shows the onboarding materials and structure are helping people feel more connected and ready to engage.

• Shaping How the Programme Works
  I didn’t just deliver materials - I helped shape how the programme is run. By being present at Thoravej29, co-facilitating sessions, and working closely with the team, I supported changes to the way sessions are structured, how feedback is gathered, how the team collaborates, and how participants are supported between blocks.

Role: Systemic & Service Designer

Client: Bikubenfonden and Copenhagen Institute of Futures Studies