Source Local, Eat Local

My Role: Design Researcher

A multi-disciplinary investigation into sustainable, circular food systems in Finland. Our insights revealed an opportunity to improve local food procurement in Finland's schools and hospitals. 

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Project type: Generative research for government services, Design for Government (DfG) Master’s course

Team: Design Researchers, Service Designers, Sustainability Analysts, Managers from the Finnish Government Ministry of Forests, Environment & Agriculture and Sitra Innovation

Date: February - May 2017, part time

Skills: Plan and conduct research, designing research materials, participant recruitment, interviewing, data analysis, synthesis and reporting.

Methods: design workshops, contextual interviews, expert interviews, systems thinking, affinity mapping

Tools: Design games, Adobe CC, Slack, Google suite

My direct contributions:

  • Field research: observation and guerrilla contextual interviews
  • Participant recruiting, interview guides for expert interviews, interview summaries
  • Stakeholder workshops and materials design, documentation
  • Analysis (in-team affinity mapping) and synthesis (data frameworks, stories)
  • Reporting, slide deck content and diagrams
  • Project documentation (all photos here are mine except where otherwise credited)
  • Writing reports, content development, proof reading and editing
Lindsay Simmonds co-facilitating and writing notes at a design workshop while two managers from the Government of Finland discuss in the background.

I co-faciltated a Stakeholder Workshop involving a design game I helped to customise for our research goals.

THE CHALLENGE

Finland is moving toward industrial food systems based on a circular model (zero waste) to build more efficient use of resources, mitigate negative environmental impacts and build a promising new economy.

My multi-disciplinary team was given an open brief to investigate the obstacles, opportunities, best practices and potential innovations for sustainable circular food systems in Finland.

Our research uncovered opportunities to change how food is sourced so that the amount of local, sustainable food in public cafeterias (e.g., schools, hospitals, care homes) is increased.

Given the majority of students in Finland eat lunch at school cafeterias throughout their school life, our research and design proposal have the potential to make a positive impact on citizens’ local food consumption, not to mention farmers’ livelihoods and the environment.

Eat Local, Source Local is a team project developed in collaboration with Andrea Cuesta, Helén Marton, Anna-Mia Myllykangas and Ellinoora Rustholkarhu. After the research the team continued to develop a service design strategy called “Source Local, Eat Local” (for brevity, not covered here).

Source-local-eat-local-carrot-farmer

The team’s field research included contextual interviews with local carrot farmers. Photo by Helén Marton.

APPROACH

This case study covers the Discovery phase of the project. Our research approach was structured into two parts (predetermined by the course structure):

  • Part 1: Orientation & Empathic Design Research
  • Part 2: Systems Thinking

Due to the open-brief and complex nature of the topic, the team predicted the following challenges:

  • navigating the ambiguous nature of the brief in a sectors we were unfamiliar with (farming, agriculture, waste management ... you name it)
  • navigating complexity in the food system
  • managing data overload, narrowing the focus as the research progressed

In order to tackle these challenges we applied empathic design, systems thinking and behavioural insights methods in a collaborative team effort. Teamwork was carried out in a mix of individual and pair tasks with regular team meetings. We used Slack and Google suite for online collaboration.

A project timeline graphic showing the discovery phase and solution phase. Research and analysis happens across both phases, while ideation and concept development start in the later solution phase.

Over seven weeks we conducted desk and field research, two design workshops and used several system mapping techniques to analyse the data. Research and analysis continued to explore/validate ideas/concepts during the solution phase of the project.

PART 1: Orientation & Empathic Design Research

To better understand the challenges and opportunities in Finland’s regional food systems the team conducted the following research activities:

  • secondary research and expert interviews to understand the global and regional context
  • design workshops with stakeholders and users to orient the team and find concensus
  • field-based ethnographic design research to understand the local context
Source-local-eat-local-workshop-sketchnote

Our teammate made “Sketchnotes” to live document interviews with Ministry Managers and to prompt post-interview discussions.

Source-local-eat-local-desktop-Research
Source-local-eat-local-affinity-Map

Throughout the investigation, the team conducted rounds of desktop research and made affinity maps to make sense of the data, to get insights into people and context, and to identify opportunities for design.

Stakeholder Workshop 1: Systems Mapping

The design team designed and facilitated a kick-off stakeholder workshop with two senior Ministry Managers. The goal of the workshop was to:

  • facilitate discussion and trigger new connections/ideas between stakeholders about the complex organizational systems at play.
  • orient and deepen understanding of the topic in the design team.

To meet these goals, the team collaboratively designed a food system mapping game.

In the game the Managers took turns to build a systems map to explore and draw connections between stakeholders, and to identify obstacles and opportunities in the local food system. I designed playing cards with graphics representing stakeholders and relevant aspects of the food system. A team-member facilitated the session, while I documented and observed the discussions.

The workshop resulted in a visual representation of the food system from the Managers’ perspectives and a shared understanding of the project challenges and goals. The Managers commented that:

“... the game presented a refreshing way of exploring complex issues.”

Source-local-eat-local-workshop1
Source-local-eat-local-workshop2

The stakeholder workshop resulted in rich discussion, a fresh perspective on old issues and a visual artefact of actors, connections and flows in the Finnish food system.

Stakeholder Workshop 2: Discussion Board Game

With a deeper understanding of the project challenges and goals, the team held a second workshop with five senior Ministry Managers.

The main goals of the workshop were to:

  • dig deeper into the specific regional food system issues of our field study site (the agricultural Forssa region)
  • test our assumptions with a variety of stakeholder perspectives
  • prioritise the team’s research focus.

To reach these goals we used the ATLAS Game. This game is used in design research and co-design to facilitate balanced participation, discussion and collaborative problem-solving. We tailored the game to our research topic and current line of questioning. 

Source-local-eat-local-workshop-game2
Source-local-eat-local-workshop-game1

A team mate and I developed the game strategy and tailored the content of the game to our research goals. I adapted the card graphics and constructed the physical game materials. Prior to the workshop, we tested and improved the  customised game in a rehearsal session.

Source-local-eat-local-workshop-game3

The ATLAS Game workshop brought together five key stakeholders for a discussion about the Finnish circular economy and food systems in the Forssa region. Photo by Tilda Jyräsalo.

Source-local-eat-local-workshop-game4

The workshop generated a collection of question cards and discussion notes that also documented the workshop data.

Ethnographic Field Research

Our field study location for the project was the agriculturally rich Municipality of Forssa, 100 km north of Helsinki. In Forssa the team conducted:

  • 10 interviews including contextual interviews with two farmers and a two restaurant owners/food producers
  • semi-structured interviews with local government officials and agriculture waste technology experts.
  • five guerrilla interviews with grocery store staff and customers, a local resident and small-scale food producers
  • observation of diners in cafeterias and shoppers in supermarkets.
Source-local-eat-local-farmer

“No Farms, No Food”. Field research in Forssa included contextual interviews with farmers at two local farms. Photo by Helén Marton.

Source-local-eat-local-potatoes
Source-local-eat-local-supermarket-carrots

We found that people in Forssa appreciate local farming, as evidenced in the town's K-Supermarket (one of Finland's largest grocery chains) which prominently displayed locally grown potatoes. Grocery store staff reported that there is a will to "pay more" to support local carrot and potato farmers.

Analysis and Synthesis

To analyse the data we gathered from the workshops, desktop and field research, we made a “research wall”, with our key findings printed on notes and loosely categorised, and then conducted two rounds of Affinity Mapping to bring out themes and develop insights.

Source-local-eat-local-Affinity-Map1

To process the immense amounts of data we gathered, a team member suggested that we switch from hand writing laborious Post-it notes to entering them on a google docs, and then printing/trimming them into notes. This offered significant time-saving and collaboration benefits.

Source-local-eat-local-affinity-map2

The drawback to the google docs approach was that all of the notes looked the same. I found that this hindered my own visual reognition/recall of notes of interest and made identifying clusters more challenging. Colour coding the notes with markers or printing on coloured paper might work better next time.

Source-local-eat-local-research-topics2
Source-local-eat-local-research-topics

Eventually the team identified patterns in the data, made clusters of emerging themes and synthesised findings into insights.

Source-local-eat-local-affinity-wall

Further along in the process, the team narrowed the research focus to local food procurement, and maintained a research wall to track data and develop our progress.

Part 2: SYSTEMS THINKING

The Finnish, let alone European, food system is a very complex network of subsidies, policies, suppliers, distribution and waste management processes, not to mention the environment and industrial infrastructures that support it.

To better understand these inter-related systems, we mapped stakeholders and key players in the Forssa regional food system in order to identify power structures and “leverage points” – places in the system that represent opportunity for change.

Source-local-eat-local-systems-mapping2
Source-local-eat-local-systems-map1

I paired with a team member to begin mapping the food system, using loose sketches and Post-it notes to facilitate discussion. My team member digitised and shared the map with the entire team. The map was adapted as knowledge of the system evolved and our research focus sharpened.

Source-local-eat-local-systems-thinking

Two team members discuss a food systems diagram.

Key Insights

  • Farmers feel they are already doing a lot as stewards of the earth and are under a lot of pressure to adapt to more sustainable farming methods.
  • Small scale local farmers can’t compete on price and supply in a large centralized food system and with powerful Finnish and EU distributers.
  • Buying decisions in procurement are often made far from where the food is going to be served. Price and delivery guarantees are the driving factor on choice.

Key insights from the research were presented in slides, supported by direct quotes from participants and information visualisations. Slides by Helén Marton.

Deliverables

  • A Food in Finnish Public Cafetrias systems map illustrating the connections between food procurement, distribution, consumption and circular production/waste processes.

  • We presented our research in a presentation and short report. The report identified six opportunity areas for design intervention:
Source-local-eat-local-opportunity-questions

Our final proposal addressed areas four and five with a strategy for integrating sustainable food rankings into food procurement / supplier award processes.

IMPACT

  • Stakeholders reported that introducing them to design methods and processes improved their  creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

  • Ministry staff learned to collaborate in new ways and gained a fresh perspective on food system issues.

  • Source Local, Eat Local was presented to a wider pool of civil servants which raised awareness of how design can play a role in government.

Professors’ Feedback

“The quality of the proposal was very good. The choice to focus on procurement was smart and strategic, and supported well through research work. Excellent work throughout the whole course: everything from research, concept design and the proposals was well thought and executed. This is professional quality work that I hope the Ministry will have the boldness to bring forward.”

 

LESSONS LEARNED

  • Working in a semi-structured team of five on complex problems is demanding work. I found that working on focussed tasks in pairs with different team members of my team throughout the project made the work more productive and exciting.

  • We collected an overwhelming amount of data (a common novice mistake). Even with the open-brief, a tighter research guide to gather specific behaviour and attitudes would save a lot of time and energy next time.

  • Showing evidence of first-hand accounts (participant quotes, images) and weaving it into stories proved to be the most compelling evidence that supported our research insights and justified the thinking behind the final proposal.

Say hello!
In need of a UX Researcher or Designer? Comments or questions? I'd be happy to hear from you. If you would like to hear more about my experience and discuss how me might work together, please get in contact.