Learn the craft on a problem that matters
A design cohort puts a small team of designers, researchers, technologists and domain experts on a real social impact brief for twelve weeks, mentored by practitioners. Part-time/Full-time, free to take part, stipend available, and the work goes to a real partner at the end.
You do not need a public sector background
You need curiosity about how services fail people, the patience to talk to strangers about their day, and the willingness to work on someone else’s problem rather than a portfolio piece.
Teams are deliberately mixed. A cohort works best when a researcher, a designer, an engineer and someone who knows the sector are arguing with each other.
Designers & researchers
Practising or studying, from any discipline — service, product, communication, architecture, social science.
Students
Final-year and postgraduate students, including through fellowships with partner universities.
Engineers & data people
People who can build a rough thing quickly, or make sense of the numbers a department already has.
Domain experts
Health workers, teachers, transport planners, civil servants — people who already know where a system bends.
How a cohort runs
The same five stages we use on paid engagements, compressed and mentored. You leave with one piece of real work you can explain end to end.
Framing
Meet the partner, map the system, and agree what is actually broken before touching a solution.
Fieldwork
Interviews and observation with users and frontline staff, in their language and their setting.
Design & test
Blueprint the service, make the cheapest testable version, and put it in front of real users.
Hand over
Write it up honestly, present to the partner, and leave them everything the team produced.
Every team has a mentor from our volunteer network and a weekly critique session. Nobody is left to figure out field research alone.
Read the full methodJoin the next cohort
Applications open twice a year. Tell us who you are, what you would bring to a team, and which kind of problem you would want to work on. No portfolio required — we care more about how you describe a problem than how you present a case study.
Apply nowReplace with your application form link and the next opening date.
Register your interest. A short form: background, skills, languages, city, hours you can give.
A conversation. Twenty minutes on what you want out of it and which brief suits you.
Team assignment. We build mixed teams around each brief and introduce you to your mentor.
Kick-off. Twelve weeks, starting with a full day together and the partner in the room.
One cohort so far
We started small on purpose: six people in three pairs, and a full twelve weeks to do it properly rather than a larger group doing it thinly.
The first one
Six people working in three pairs, twelve weeks. They ran the full cycle from framing through to a hand-over, and much of how we work now was settled by what did and did not work for them.
A full research round done properly, including the uncomfortable finding that changed the brief.
A service blueprint and tested prototype handed to the partner rather than filed as coursework.
A working relationship that continues — a few of the six are still involved as volunteers.
Cohort 02 — opening soon
Larger, with more than one brief running at a time. Register your interest above and we will tell you when applications open.
Mentor a cohort team →
An hour a fortnight with a team working a live brief — the role we need most.
Support the workFund a student’s term →
A stipend lets a student take part without giving up paid work. That is what decides who can join.