Urooj Qureshi On Aligning Business Practices to Impact Driven Goals Using Human Centred Design

Urooj Qureshi is the founder of the Design Centered Co. (DCO), an award-winning design and transformation consulting firm, and Impactor, the first-ever AI-powered digital facilitator that helps organisations lead projects and drive impact.

In the past, Urooj has held management roles in prominent medium-to-large enterprises and has pioneered youth-centric programs that aimed to disrupt poverty cycles and empower communities.

He also founded the Impactor Award to recognise founders who demonstrate commitment to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Urooj discusses Why human-centred design is crucial when creating inclusive and sustainable products and services, and Frameworks for effectively driving transformational change on local and global scales

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Indio Myles] - To start off, could you tell us about your background and what led to your work in human centred design, social enterprise, and business for good?

[Urooj Qureshi] - I think everything starts in our youth. I was encouraged towards art and design, and as a result, I was motivated to pursue a passion in art. Over time, I became really good in portraiture.

The neat thing about portraiture is that it forces you to really look at people and capture their emotions and sentiments on a canvas. As a youth, I used to spend a lot of time doing portraiture and that brought me closer to the human condition and human thought and expression.

I went to school for mechanical engineering, but I believe I'm a more of a humanist. I have this strong sense of empathy. Even when I studied engineering, I was always pulled towards projects or engineering initiatives that aim to solve a human need.

When we talk about social enterprise and the impact sector, ultimately, that's what we're trying to do. Whether it's by serving our beneficiaries and our target audience, or the ecosystems in which we all live in, if you take a human centred approach, you’re likely to capture the real needs and goals of people.

With those insights, we can improve the human condition, whether it's the ecosystem or breaking the cycle of poverty.

I apply that lens to everything I do, and it originates from my youth as a budding artist, working on portraiture and looking at people's faces. I would focus on their expressions, the lines, and the stories that those faces and humans told me, all through the process of creating art.

That's what I believe led me to human centred design, and somehow throughout my career, the choices and decisions I've made go back to that experience of spending time looking into the eyes and faces of people.

How does Design Centered Co. deliver inclusion and impact through design principles?

I've been a multiple time founder, and I've worked in both the social enterprise sector and private sector. Design Centered Co. started with a framework. In 2018, I was looking back at my career, reflecting on the value I had delivered up until that point through my efforts. Through that process, I realised that oftentimes we start off with an idea, whether it’s an individual or a group, and we pursue that idea heavily, until it gradually loses the initial excitement it had.

Things begin getting operationalised because you’re trying to run things the right way, which is important to do, but we end up losing sight of the original impact we set out to create with our idea in the first place.

This realisation led to the creation of a framework I call impact centred design, and it places impact at the heart of the process. How do we create more inclusive, human centred solutions now? First, we start with impact. When we work with a client or on our own advocacy work, we start with clearly defining our impact statement. What is the change that we want to create as a result of the efforts we engage in from here on?

After every step and every milestone we achieve, we come back to our core impact statement to make sure we're still on the path of achieving the future state of that impact.

impact centred design is so core to Design Centered Co. and what we do, that it's important to talk about for context. The framework was the genesis and it's the heart and soul of Design Centered Co. and why we operate.

Every piece of work or project we do starts with defining our impact statement, and then there are three Ps involved in the impact centred design framework. The first P is purpose. Why do we want to pursue this impact?

For example, I started an organisation a while back called The Lotus Project. We wanted to work in the education sector to break the cycle of poverty in South Asia. Many parents believe and want their kids to have white collar jobs, but it’s unlikely their kids are going to get there in one generation, especially starting with some of the very poor people on our planet.

While part of the reason we wanted to work in the education space was of course to improve literacy rates in Pakistan, we also really wanted to help break the cycle of poverty. Everything we did was linked back to that impact statement of breaking the cycle of poverty through education. Without going into The Lotus Project too much, purpose is really important in pursuing an impact goal or objective.

The second P is people. This is where humans come in. As I said before, in any initiative we pursue, if we take into account and empathise with the humans that we aim to benefit, we're likely going to find better solutions that we can measure and see the fruits of our efforts against.

Understanding people's needs, goals, and motivations is a huge area of design that we spend a lot of time in. We help organisations understand the pain points, benefits, and the advantages that humans are looking for, specifically in solutions that would help the organisation achieve their impact.

The third P is process. We understand that operations that distracts us from the impact we set out to achieve are actually very important. We can align ourselves to our impact. When we do things more thoughtfully and mindfully, we can align the path we take towards achieving impact back to our impact statement.

Once we have an impact statement, whether this is a transformation project in the public sector or a CSR (community social responsibility) project in a corporation, we start with helping our client. We define their impact on an impact scorecard, and then we validate that impact through purpose, defining the people they aim to serve, and creating a step-by-step process to achieving that milestone. At the intersection of all three P's is often the catalyst, the great ideas that create that change, the actionable items, and what we measure to tell our story.

There's a huge gap I see again and again in the social enterprise sector where many people don't see the value of the work being completed, because there's no measurable impact. Even though the foundations of a story are there in KPI’s and analytics, they’re not delivering stories to an audience using those numbers.

Using the impact centred design process, services are naturally better aligned to people's needs and goals. They take into account the environmental and ecosystem characteristics and objectives for humans. Therefore, whether it's people with disabilities, in a certain socioeconomic sector, or users of an application, or additional product, we make sure that those solutions are better aligned to their needs and goals.

We have a whole set of tools that we use to make sure that inclusion happens. Starting with an impact scorecard ensures those metrics are being captured and those stories are being told, ensuring alignment to that original impact statement.

What are common mistakes you see entrepreneurs making within impact measurement or in using the principles of human centred design?

I wouldn't call them mistakes, but there are definitely gaps. I've worked across multiple continents, and I see this one gap again and again, and it’s that we get really excited about individual stories when we start out on our impact journey. Every founder starts out because of a personal interaction with a cause or situation that sparks the idea and motivation to work towards improving a certain situation and bringing a solution to market.

A lot of the time, I notice that those few engagements and interactions define the solution, and it doesn’t have a lot of validation at a broader scope. This is why only one out of ten initiatives, at best, are going to succeed. Nine are going to fail.

One of the biggest reasons nine fail is because they haven't been tested with actual beneficiaries or users at the outset.

That one step might involve a bit of research, conducting a few interviews, or using a plethora of tools to engage audiences from around the world. Conducting that initial user or beneficiary research will make a huge difference in both how we shape a solution and how we bring it to market.

My word choice is mindful here because I'm hoping to spark a debate. The audience might be thinking that this all sounds very commercial, but I think it's important to think commercially.

We're not always talking about selling a solution but using the language that the commerce or for-profit sector uses is important because we're still competing in those environments.

Often in social enterprises and the not-for-profit sector, funding comes from the public sector or donors and sponsors in the private sector. When I talk to that sector, they often feel like professionalism is lacking in the impact sector because you're speaking in two different languages.

We have to talk about value and benefit, even though our intent and our outputs are very different. The not-for-profit and social enterprise sector produces social capital, whereas for-profit models will produce financial outcomes.

In the end, the processes are very similar; you still need to think about your product market fit.

Our product might be something like mental health services, an education service, or social bonds, but there has to be that product market fit in which we're building a model or solution that will help people, gain traction, and is also viable from a business perspective. This lets us attract the best possible talent to help serve and further our mission and purpose.

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If you're just starting out, or even if you're a lot further along the journey, for both social enterprise and for-profit ideas, think about your users and conduct user research. Figure out what the pains are that your idea is going to solve and understand whether there is a broad appeal for that.

There are many ways to test. You can reach out to not-for-profit organisations already working with the beneficiary you're aiming to serve and set up interviews across a catchment or geographic area.

If you're serving vulnerable populations, you might want to talk to the people who are already serving those populations, such as social workers or other community service individuals. If it's a physical product, like a sustainable coffee brand or a shoe company, it's the same thing.

Consider what makes your coffee or your shoe company better than a for-profit alternative. Ultimately, people vote with their actions and with their dollars. Validation is really important and it’s something I see repeatedly missed.

How are you seeing the business for good movement evolving and where are you seeing opportunities for accelerating its progress in the future?

There are many great ideas emerging from business for good. I love the generation of entrepreneurs that are coming up that are fulfilling a dream that I I've had for a long time. It’s becoming commonplace that we no longer have to use the term social entrepreneur or social enterprise because entrepreneurship and enterprise by default is for the good of our planet and the people we aim to serve.

Commerce doesn't have to have this negative connotation associated with it, as long as you have a framework of justice, equity, and empathy, whether it's in sourcing the base materials or in our commercial practices.

I am happy to see a lot of new businesses for the most part have that positive social conscience and a sense of justice. There are different parts of the world that I see different things happening, but having cross continental conversations, like this one, creates opportunity for us to share these ideas around the globe and give flight to people around the world thinking about business for good.

One model I really like is in the UK, and it’s a legal policy framework where you can register a social enterprise as a social enterprise and issue social bonds. In Canada, for example, we still have the traditional models of registering a business.

You could be a for-profit corporation, a sole proprietorship, or a not-for-profit organisation, but there's no specific designation for a social enterprise. There's some work around policy that many countries can do to support this movement around business for good.

There's a lot of positive advocacy around the world. In Canada, we have a few conferences and organisations working towards another area where I think businesses might be struggling, which is around supply chains.

Especially when it comes to products, I think the entrepreneurs are on the right track, but our governments and policymakers need to be more actively involved to support business for good.

We talk about the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and there's so much opportunity there. For anyone who doesn’t have an idea or wants to build their impact scorecard, a great place to start is the UN SDGs.

The needs of the global community are very well articulated in these global goals. For the most part, there is a sub-domain for every region or country in the world where there's specific goals that you can pursue to improve society.

Across the 17 goals, there's a lot of opportunity where if you already have an idea, you can look at which SDGs can be addressed through your idea. You can shape your idea to mindfully address those SDGs.

By default, you have an opportunity for a product market fit because there is a need, and you might be able to raise capital or support for your idea. Now, you're starting a business that is inherently going to be business for good because it addresses some of the key, critical needs of the global society.

This is why I started the Impactor Award as well. I do a lot of startup mentorship through different programs at the University of Ottawa and another organisation called Invest Ottawa.

We started the Impactor Award because I wanted to guide people to those SDGs, regardless of if you're coming from the for-profit or the not-for-profit perspective of the impact sector.

We have no choice but to work towards those goals. Especially when it comes to planet, we're running out of time. We need ideas and we need people with a load of energy to start to think about those. We all need to be creative in our pursuits and find solutions together to solve some of the pressing needs of the world. The Impactor Award is to encourage and support people to work towards those goals and find expression to their ideas.

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently creating a positive change?

I can speak more to Canada because this is where I spend a lot of my time. There's one, called Thirteen: A Social Enterprise. It's a really neat social enterprise that I was involved more closely with when they were starting out a few years ago before the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re an economic development program and they have a retail product that they produce, spices from around the world.

This community economic development program aims to engage refugee youth, who may have few opportunities when they arrive in Canada, into learning skills and building community. They bring people together and they express the stories of these youth coming from different parts of the world in the retail product they produce.

They've created a spice brand with different flavours and barcodes that represent different parts of the world. When it started, it was more about that youth development, but now you can find them in some major retail stores, at least that I've seen, and that's fantastic. This has resulted in those youth becoming a part of the business community in our region.

They've created leaders that can uplift this community economic development model, whether they choose to pursue a job in the tech sector, the not-for-profit sector, or in government. We're a big government town, so we see a lot of people going into that sector. They have this experience that they bring, and it keeps them connected to the community where they started.

In the developed world, the need for social connection and community economic development is often around new immigrants and refugees. Thirteen: A Social Enterprise is a really cool initiative and they've done really well.

There's also another organisation in our community called Parkdale Food Centre. Due to the global economic pressures and everything going on in the world, we're seeing a lot of people who we typically won't see using food banks are now turning to food banks for help.

There's a challenge around affordability in Canada that’s very well known. Our food banks have been struggling, but amongst all of the food banks, there's one in particular that has a social entrepreneurship model.

They believe that part of the challenge is not only meeting the immediate needs of people, but also educating people about nutrition and good, healthy eating. They expressly refuse to use less nutritious types of foods and brands. They created a store where people can use social vouchers to do purchasing, and the pricing is based on the different nutritional values.

It's a really neat project, which is not only addressing the immediate need for food but also training people on how to use nutritional resources to create healthy meals. Providing them with that knowledge leads to long term sustainability and wellbeing for the beneficiaries that they aim to serve.

To finish off, what books or resources would you be recommending for our audience to check out?

For people interested in human centred design, I highly recommend The Design of Everyday Things. It's very much a design-oriented book, but it teaches you skills that are essential to applying human centred design. There are many reasons to design; it could be for commerce, advocacy, art, or aesthetics, but in every scenario, we need to understand user needs, motivations, and empathise with the end user. The Design of Everyday Things is a good way to introduce oneself to the field of human centred design.

There's also Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. It’s been on shelves for a while now, but if people want to understand the climate urgency and what some of the contributors are to what's happening in our world, it's a really good starting point.

I find it inspirational for anyone who looks for deeper meaning when they read these kinds of texts. I like to read books that don’t just focus on one topic but give me context about why we are here. How did we arrive at this critical point in society or in our climate crisis?

For those looking for resources in North America, we have an organisation called the Centre for Social Enterprise Development. It was an organisation I helped found many years ago and they're still around. They have a lot of great resources on their website, and they host events in Ottawa. Even if you're not in Canada but you're interested in learning about the ways we're thinking about social enterprise and impact, they're a good resource.

We’ve just relaunched our website for Design Centered Co. and we're building a resource blog called Ideas for Impact. The impact centre design framework is already there and soon we will publish different design frameworks and articles on new insights and the world we operate in.

We do a lot of work with the public sector, like improving access to benefits for Canadians from coast to coast to coast. We're doing some of that overseas as well in other communities.

I know it's a bit of a hype, but it's really important for the impact community to look at what's happening in the AI space. Not that I'm supporting AI, but there's going to be a huge impact that AI is causing on communities around the world for good and for worse. It's going to create a lot of exclusion.

People who are tech savvy and looking to create impact should look at what's happening there and see how we can create better frameworks for equity, justice, and for becoming more human centred when it comes to the evolution of AI.

AI could be a real help and benefit for the planet and human society, but those of us working in the impact sector I feel have a responsibility to keep an eye on how things are evolving and make sure things are being guided in a just and fair way. We do not want to create more exclusion and bias in our societies.