Newly Created Group of Problem-Solvers Concentrate on Austin Waste, Recycling

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Austin Resource Recovery had a problem. The Austin American-Statesman reports the city department responsible for collecting waste and recycling had set a goal of reaching “zero waste,” which means keeping nearly all materials out of the landfills, by 2040. But it wasn’t going very well. As of 2015, a city study estimated that Austin was diverting only 42 percent of its waste.

“We knew our diversion rate had plateaued and we weren’t continuing to make progress,” said Emlea Chanslor, a spokeswoman for the department.

So the department turned to a newly created group of city problem-solvers.

These temporary employees, hired by the city’s Innovation Office, are part of the city’s Design, Technology and Innovation Fellowship program, which was created in 2016.

These tech fellows are charged with bringing private-sector problem-solving skills to the entrenched bureaucracy of city government.

The program is focused on “human-centered design,” a popular product development philosophy increasingly being used at tech companies. The traditional approach to product development is to come up with an idea, perhaps based on data or just a hunch, and then try to sell it to customers. But in the design thinking way, the approach is to identify a user’s needs first.

“The design-thinking approach involves more qualitative research of talking to people, talking to users and understanding what they actually need,” said Ben Guhin, the program lead for the city’s fellowship program. “That’s important to make sure you are solving the right problems.”

Design-oriented thinking can be used to solve pure technology problems, such as designing a new website, but it can also be applied to intractable problems, like finding homes for the homeless.

So far the city has hired 25 people to work as innovation fellows. “The reason these methods are important is our words often times get in the way,” said Kerry O’Connor, chief innovation officer for the city. She said cities often turn to “methods such as surveys, polls and town halls to seek feedback, but this type of engagement doesn’t reveal deeper issues.

“When you can visualize things, it helps with a shared understanding and it creates a new way of understanding problems – these designers have a unique skill set in being able to better frame problems,” she said.

The idea for the city’s tech fellowship program started with O’Connor. She was hired in 2014 as the city’s first “innovation officer.” She had previously worked for the U.S. Department of State at its Research and Design Center.

Courtesy: https://wasteadvantagemag.com