Very practical research

Our work since the beginning of Monnou has been aimed at making design a practice that helps us, as companies, organizations and society, to live more sustainably and with well-being. This is how we have been accompanying people and teams from different organizations and projects to materialize transformation paths towards sustainability.

But, we could ask ourselves, what is Design, and how does it help us to live in a more sustainable way? That's what Pedro's doctoral thesis is about.

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First of all, we must dismantle the idea that Design is about shaping products and pretty graphics. Design, in reality, is an intrinsically human and strategic activity for any organization or group, and for society. We speak of "strategic design" because in reality, what we are designing are not new products or communication campaigns. These could be the result of a design process, but they are not the only possible outcome.

Strategic design is a creative activity, aimed at innovating in any field. Not only to create new products or communications: also to rethink (intangible) services, or the very way we live, as a society. Examples of things that can be designed or redesigned are:

• The public transportation service of a city.
• Public Health.
• The way in which a company in the automotive sector solves its customers' need to get from point A to point B. The traditional solution is to sell them a car (a product that is designed), but it could be solved in many other ways.

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So what does this have to do with Sustainability? But first... what is "Sustainability"?

We understand Sustainability as something closely related to the "Triple Bottom Line". That is, maintaining a balance between:

• The economic part (how much money we spend and how much we earn).
• The social part (welfare and development of people).
• The environmental part (impact on other living beings and the planet).

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If we compare a company to our home or our family, sustainability is how to make everyone happy in the house.

To explain this very homely comparison: in our family, we might be concerned only with how much money comes into the house. This is certainly important, but money is only the basis for other things. That there is a good coexistence in the house, that we can enjoy together activities that we like, that we have a good health and a good education and we can develop as people... Also, it is important that we take care of our environment, of the nature around our house and of the rest of the people, otherwise, we will not be able to enjoy all this. If we only focus on how much money comes in or goes out, and we neglect everything else, we are not going to be happy. And if we are not happy, what is the point of that economic balance?

To make such a transition, we need creativity, to innovate and not repeat things as we are already doing them. And that's what Design is all about. So, this PhD research aims to create a theoretical model on how Design can contribute to this continuous transformation. And, based on that theory, a practical methodology to achieve it.

Bibliographic review.

The first thing we need to do is to understand what things have already been done, or are being done now, on this topic. What theories and methodologies already exist, how they are used, and what the results are.

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Semi-structured interviews.

Then, we launch ourselves into field research, into the street, to understand how other people and organizations are designing their paths to sustainability. What is their starting point, what are their circumstances and perspectives, what methodologies or processes are they using.

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And then? As we develop our own methodology at Monnou, it is important to test it, to validate it in practice. To do so, we can use some techniques:

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Focus groups.

One of the ways we have found to validate our methodology, detect improvements and continue developing it, is through focus groups. That is, gathering several people in a kind of group interview, to talk, in this case, about the methodology itself.

To this end, what we normally do is to conduct a workshop on the methodology with these people, so that they can experience it as closely as possible to real practice.

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Ethnographic research.

Ethnography consists in introducing us into the real context we are studying, learning about its culture and behavior, actively observing. In this way, we can draw lessons and conclusions.

With Monnou, this is easy because we are continuously involved in real projects, with companies, start-ups, public institutions, technological institutes, universities, associations... We are immersed in the context of these people and organizations on a daily basis.

We would like to delve into the knowledge of what factors we must take into account when designing anything, in order to effectively achieve this transition. It is about identifying what can work best to design this transformation to the Triple Bottom Line.

Thus, at the end of the thesis, we hope to have, first of all, a mental model that will allow us to understand how to approach this social transformation from Design. And, based on this, a solid and effective methodology to effectively design this transformation. That is, a kind of plan to put this theory into practice.

For us, but hopefully for many others as well, this research will have a very clear practical utility. First of all, to give a sense to all the things we do, those of us who are dedicated to Design as a practice for Sustainability. Those methodologies we use, those theories in which we believe...

Then, giving a shape to this, will offer us a philosophy, tools and methods that will make it easier for us to be agents of change. That make it easier for everyone to contribute, with a practice of creation and very conscious planning, to this transformation towards Sustainability.