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FFFran de la FuenteStrategic & Service Designer

Sectors & challenges

NGOs & Social Impact

Design so purpose becomes participation, access and real impact.

I work with NGOs, foundations and impact organisations to understand communities, barriers and systems, and design services, programmes and experiences that make it easier for people to access, participate and become involved.

From participatory research and challenge definition through to co-design, prototyping, piloting and learning from real experience.

Sector challenges

  1. COMMUNITY

    Design with people, not only for them

    Bring lived experience, local knowledge and diverse voices into the process so solutions respond to real needs rather than organisational assumptions alone.

  2. ACCESS

    Reach those most easily excluded

    Identify social, cultural, cognitive, economic and digital barriers and design more inclusive, understandable and usable services for diverse contexts.

  3. PARTICIPATION

    Move from interest to sustained involvement

    Reduce the friction that makes participation difficult and create experiences that help communities, volunteers, members and donors find a clear, relevant way to become involved.

  4. RESOURCES

    Design viable solutions in constrained contexts

    Prioritise where to intervene and create responses that can work with the available capabilities, time, resources and partnerships.

  5. EVIDENCE

    Understand what changes, not only what is done

    Connect impact objectives with community feedback, behaviours and outcomes to learn what is working and where adaptation is needed.

  6. ECOSYSTEM

    Coordinate actors without diluting purpose

    Make relationships between communities, frontline teams, organisations, funders, institutions and partners visible in order to design more connected and sustainable responses.

How I can help

01

Listen to the system from within

I research with communities, participants, professionals and frontline teams to understand needs, motivations, barriers and relationships in their real context.

Qualitative and participatory research brings in voices often left out of the initial definition of the problem.

02

Find where to intervene

I map journeys, behaviours, actors and dependencies to identify where an intervention can create the most value and which constraints need to be considered.

This helps turn broad social challenges into concrete opportunities an organisation can act on.

03

Co-design services and programmes

I work with communities and stakeholders to develop value propositions, services, programmes and experiences that connect purpose, real needs and organisational capability.

Co-design is not a final validation step, but part of constructing the response.

04

Test at a small scale before rollout

I make propositions tangible through concepts, prototypes and pilots that test accessibility, understanding, participation and performance in real situations.

Testing early supports learning without committing resources that are often particularly limited.

05

Learn, adapt and strengthen

I gather community feedback and outcome signals to understand what needs to evolve.

The learning enables services and programmes to be iterated, adapted to new contexts and strengthens the organisation’s ability to respond to change and emerging needs.

Capabilities

  • Strategic Design
  • Social Impact Design
  • Service Design
  • Human-Centered Design
  • Participatory Design
  • Community-Centered Design
  • Co-design
  • Community Engagement
  • Qualitative Research
  • Participatory Research
  • Behavioral Insights
  • Behaviour Change
  • Stakeholder Mapping
  • Ecosystem Mapping
  • Systems Thinking
  • Journey Mapping
  • Service Blueprinting
  • Programme & Service Design
  • Inclusive Design
  • Accessibility
  • Opportunity Framing
  • Value Proposition Design
  • Concept Development
  • Service Prototyping
  • Pilot Design
  • User Testing
  • Community Feedback
  • Outcome Definition
  • Facilitation
  • Stakeholder Alignment
  • Cross-Sector Collaboration
  • Adaptive Design

What this work brings

  • Services and programmes built from real needs and contexts.
  • Greater community participation in decisions that affect them.
  • Fewer access barriers for diverse people and groups.
  • Clearer priorities when resources and capabilities are limited.
  • Solutions that can be tested and learned from before wider rollout.
  • Better coordination between organisations, communities and other ecosystem actors.
  • Greater capacity to adapt initiatives through feedback and evidence.
  • A more tangible connection between organisational purpose and the experience it provides.