Societal Impact is something that exists even if it is not designed into the service or product: the point of an innovation is to change people’s behaviour, thinking and habits, and therefore, the goal for an impact is always there. However, it is not often recognised and less often linked to larger societal trends, issues, and topics. Also, our world is full of unintended societal impacts that emerge only after a business or technology has become successful (e.g., social media, platform economy etc).

This lecture covers thinking and methods to bridge large societal problems and individual client projects. There are many large societal problems that we can solve, but creating a desired impact isn’t so straight-forward. Keep in mind, that a piece of tech/design is passive unless someone uses it. Therefore, to make an impact, we need users who know about our innovation. It’s important to understand the context where innovation happens to create leverage for impact.