CHRISTIAN
SMIRNOW
Service Design,
Research & Strategy
Christian is a service designer, researcher, and strategist based in Berlin. He develops solutions for public innovation and transformation.
With a background in design and education, he brings an elevated sense of empathy and infuses both projects and teams with intersectional values. He aims to nudge business strategy towards social impact and focuses on iterative prototyping and participatory processes.
Projects
Specialization
Service Design & Prototyping
Prototypes and blueprints tailored to each project phase increase desirability of solutions, enabling tangible user experiences captured through precise testing.
Strategy & Systems Thinking
Systems Thinking and visual mapping help to break down complex problems into actionable fields of opportunity, to ultimately identify innovation potential and develop impactful business strategies.
Applied User Research
Research drawing from design-led, ethnographic, and UX-approaches, generate unique and meaningful human insights.
Facilitation & Participation
Professional facilitation interwoven with participatory design principles maximize efficacy and enablement of the design team and of external, non-design stakeholders.
Access for All
An inclusion & diversity strategy for an educational institution
?
How might we evolve D-School’s attractiveness, readiness, and accessibility for diversified communities?
Client/Partner
HPI School of Design Thinking
Approaches
Applied User Research, Change Management, Social Innovation, Network Building
Design Thinking Programs
Design Thinking and innovation programs for 110+ students and 30+ coaches
?
How might we strengthen the educational offerings of a leading institution for Design Thinking in order to prepare graduates as innovation professionals in the “VUCA” world?
Client/Partner
HPI School of Design Thinking
Approaches
Applied User Research, Learning Design, Experience Design, Immersive Prototyping
GoodFill
A network to save surplus food products
?
How might we make left-over, edible food products available to hungry New Yorkers while expanding New York's centralized food distribution systems?
Client/Partner
Food Bank for New York City
Approaches
Applied User Research, Service Design, UX Design, Branding & CI
Office of Gender Identity
A university-wide service-center for gender inclusivity
?
How might we build awareness about transgender issues in educational institutions to improve organizational culture & research across key stakeholders?
Client/Partner
The New School University Health Center
Approaches
Applied User Research, Service Design, Participatory Design, UX Design
VergeNYC Conference
A conference on transdisciplinary design
?
How might we build a network of design professionals, social orgs, students, and academics to foster recognition of the transdisciplinary design practice?
Client/Partner
ThoughtWorks, Doblin, Zago, International Reycue committee, IBM, Moleskine, DESIS Lab
Approaches
Network Building, Experience Design, Design Thinking, Event Management, Hosting
Better Breather Program
A B2B2C service system for public health
?
How might we transform NASA’s big data on air pollution into actionable health benefits for marginalized citizens?
Client/Partner
NASA Earth Science, WeAct for Environmental Justice
Approaches
Service Design, Storytelling, Branding & CI, Design Fiction, UX Design
End of Life
Ethnography and exhibition on the end-of-life
?
How might we deploy design to confront the final stages of our lives with intentionality and prepare ourselves and our beloved for this universal experience?
Client/Partner
The New School End of Year Show
Approaches
System Thinking, Ethnography, Immersive Prototyping
Made in Rockaway
A strategy to grow a local food economy
?
How might we leverage local resources and ambitions in a remote neighborhood to trigger social innovation and business potential?
Client/Partner
RISE Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, Edgemere Farm
Approaches
Applied User Research, Social Innovation, Participatory Design, System Thinking
Place for Dying
A speculative testing-site for new social concepts
?
How might we envision radical societal norms and social dynamics in the context of sustainability and mortality through speculative design?
Client/Partner
Dunne & Raby Design Studio
Approaches
Speculative Design, Design Fiction, Product Design, System Thinking