Groundswell NYC: The Mural That Never Ends
In New York City, space is the ultimate scarcity. For Groundswell, a non-profit that uses public art as a tool for social change, the search for new mural sites had become a slog through expensive real estate and legal red tape. The city felt saturated, and the traditional path to growth—finding more walls—was hitting a dead end.
The monument trap
The project began with a simple, if flawed, assumption: more impact required more square footage. But during a weeklong design sprint, we looked past the map and toward the clock. Most murals are treated as monuments—static, finished objects that invite a single moment of applause before becoming part of the urban background. This permanence was the real constraint. When a mural is "done," the community engagement usually stops.
From artifacts to systems
We reframed the challenge by asking how a finished site could stay alive. Instead of hunting for new brick-and-mortar, we proposed a "rotational canvas" model. This system treats existing mural sites as stages rather than monuments, enabling a continuous cycle of artists, themes, and community participation. By redesigning the art's lifecycle, we turned a one-off event into a recurring conversation.
Efficiency by design
This shift from "output thinking" to "systems thinking" offers several practical advantages:
Reduced Friction: Reusing approved sites eliminates the legal delays and permitting costs of scouting new locations.
Continuing Relevance: A rotational programme allows Groundswell to respond to current events in near real-time.
Expanded Access: Shorter cycles create more opportunities for a diverse range of artists without requiring a larger physical footprint.
The strategic takeaway
The result is a more agile organization. By treating the mural as a beginning rather than an end, Groundswell can scale its mission without needing more land. It proves that in a crowded city, the best way to grow is often to look more closely at the space you already have.
Operation DEIBrief
Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) initiatives are currently in retreat. In a polarized political climate, many companies that once championed these values are scaling back, leaving hiring managers in a bind. The challenge is no longer just about building a diverse team; it is about doing so effectively when traditional methods are under fire. The problem is not a lack of talent, but a lack of visibility. Standard recruitment tools often favor those who "check the boxes" of traditional credentials, leaving high-potential candidates in the shadows.
Beyond the resume
Operation DEIBrief was a semester-long challenge to find a better way. We began by stripping away the "throat-clearing" of corporate jargon to ask a simple question: how can a manager spot an "it" factor that a resume doesn’t show?. Most hiring processes are static landmarks of a person’s past. We wanted to design a system that predicts their future. By focusing on curiosity and trajectory rather than just titles and tenures, we reframed the search for equity as a search for excellence.
Surfacing the "unexpected star"
Our solution is Hachi, an AI-powered talent platform designed to find the "stars" that traditional filters miss. By connecting to professional networks via the LinkedIn API, the platform looks beyond the surface to analyze what truly moves the needle in a modern workplace:
Career Trajectory: Identifying momentum and growth rather than just static job titles.
Curiosity Quotient: Measuring a candidate’s willingness to learn and adapt.
Network Strength: Assessing how a person builds and maintains professional relationships.
Cultural Potential: Evaluating what a candidate adds to a team, rather than how they "fit" into it.
Systems, not slogans
This is a shift from "output thinking"—simply trying to hit a quota—to "systems thinking". Hachi provides hiring managers with a more sophisticated lens, allowing them to build equitable teams based on hard evidence of potential. It proves that the best way to move past the DEIB stalemate is to design better tools for seeing talent.
The strategic takeaway
The project demonstrates that in design, as in business, the most effective strategy is often to find the "invisible" data. By redesigning the hiring filter, we can uncover high-potential candidates who were previously hidden by their own resumes. It is a reminder that when the old rules stop working, it is time to build a better system
The Youth Sexpert Program
It is often assumed that "digitally native" teams are natural communicators. Yet for The Youth Sexpert Program, a remote non-profit training peer leaders in sexuality and wellbeing, the virtual environment had become a barrier. Despite a leadership team primarily composed of Gen Z, the organization struggled with inconsistent accountability and a lack of "psychological safety". They were experts in the subject matter, but novices in the mechanics of their own team
The cost of faking it
In a virtual workspace, it is easy to "clear one's throat" with polite agreement while entirely missing the point. The team’s reliance on familiar language allowed them to mask misalignment. They nodded in meetings but failed to follow through. To fix the culture, we had to make their default communication patterns unusable.
Beyond words
We designed a role-playing workshop that stripped the team of its professional vocabulary. The challenge was simple: communicate as aliens from a destroyed planet using only emojis and sketches. By removing the ability to use jargon or standard English, we forced the leaders to find new ways to reach an understanding. Our hypothesis was that when you cannot hide behind words, you cannot fake alignment.
The clarity of silence
The results were immediate and revealing. When the "crutches" of everyday speech were removed, the team could no longer pretend to agree. The exercise exposed the exact points at which their logic diverged and their internal "meaning" broke down. It proved that culture is not formed through slogans or policies, but through the raw, messy work of truly being understood.
The strategic takeaway
This project demonstrates that in strategic design, the goal is often to disrupt the familiar to find the truth. By redesigning the team's communication system, we moved them from polite misalignment to active participation. It is a reminder that in a remote world, the most effective tools for building a team are often the ones that force us to stop talking and start observing
AccessAbility Solutions
For modern brands, digital accessibility is no longer a niche "feature." It is a baseline expectation. While most companies claim to value inclusion, few have the time or technical knowledge to execute it consistently across every social media post or paid advertisement. This creates a gap between corporate intent and the actual experience of users with disabilities. The problem is not a lack of desire, but a lack of tools that can scale.
The automation of empathy
AccessAbility Solutions was designed to close this gap by treating inclusion as a technical standard rather than an afterthought. As the hypothetical CEO of this generative AI startup, I developed a pitch for a second-round funding round that prioritized social impact as a core business driver. The product is a software platform that uses artificial intelligence to scan and adjust digital content in real-time. It ensures that every image, video, and line of text meets global accessibility standards before it reaches a screen.
Meeting the market
The strategy focused on two primary insights:
A New Baseline: In a world where investors prioritize social justice and equality, accessibility is a non-negotiable requirement for any brand that wants to remain relevant.
Operational Ease: Companies are more likely to be inclusive if the process is automated. By removing the friction of manual checks, we make accessibility the default setting rather than an optional extra.
A multi-format argument
To persuade a skeptical investor, a single deck is rarely enough. The project required a suite of materials that addressed both the heart and the head:
The Pitch Deck: A clear narrative linking social impact to market growth.
The Product Mock-up: A demonstration of the user journey from "inaccessible" to "compliant."
The Brand Story: A positioning statement that reframed accessibility as a tool for broader reach.
The Strategic Rationale: A document explaining why this approach aligns with the values of the modern investor.
The strategic takeaway
This exercise proves that the most successful "impact" products are those that solve a practical problem. By using generative AI to handle the heavy lifting of accessibility, we allow brands to be as inclusive as they claim to be. Strategy, in this case, is about designing a system that makes the "right" choice the easiest one to make.