Using Research Methods to Solve Community Problems
How a design thinking workshop helped bridge the two sides of an ongoing community conflict
As a longtime user researcher, I’ve found that research methods and approaches can do a lot more than just help make products more usable. They can also be used to identify and solve problems in just about any field — and even to improve our communities.
A couple of years ago, I used my research skills to work with two community groups that had come to an impasse about upgrades to the local ferry landing. The experience made me realize how valuable and versatile research tools are — and how powerful they can be in creating common understanding among people with different perspectives.
Diagnosis: Terminal
Since 2009, the Golden Gate Bridge District had been pushing a redesign of the Sausalito Ferry Terminal. Sausalito gathered tens of thousands of signatures and comments from residents who opposed the design, saying the big new landing wouldn’t fit with the ambience and beauty of the town. As one friend, a Sausalito resident, put it: “It’s horrible. It’s huge, ugly, and way too big for Sausalito. Plus, it is going to destroy the view of the City.”
In response, the Golden Gate Bridge District conducted surveys and town hall meetings, to no avail. The result was a standstill. Neither Sausalito nor the Bridge District was willing to budge.
I mentioned to my friend (the one who hated the design) that what the situation called for was a workshop to build empathy between the two groups, in which representative groups from both sides could work together to find a way to resolve the issues. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had volunteered to facilitate a design thinking workshop.
Sheesh! What was I thinking?
I soon found myself in the home of the mayor, being interviewed by public officials representing both Sausalito and the Golden Gate Bridge District. After successfully navigating this first meeting, we set the workshop for a 6-hour block on a Saturday.
A Different Beast
Before I even started, I knew it was one thing to do research in an industry where the discipline is understood and included in most development processes, and another to use it to address community problems. Among the most glaring differences:
- Talking, meetings, letters, petitions, etc. are the main ways communities work through disagreements.
- Communities don’t often spend time building empathy with each other or identifying the real problems to solve.
- Individual points of view can be especially strong because people live there and pay taxes.
With one eye on those differences and the other on my well-worn research toolkit, I dove in. Here’s what I learned about the biggest challenges of applying research methods to community problems.
Challenge #1: Bring the community into the room
An impasse between community groups doesn’t happen overnight. The issues in this case had been ongoing for 5 years. To build trust and credibility among all parties, the researcher must not discount discussions and activities that have already taken place.
To create an environment of acknowledgment and trust, I filled one wall of the workshop room with community data — personas, petitions, letters, surveys, pages and pages of comments from residents — as well as data prepared by the Golden Gate Bridge District. The other wall was lined with chairs to allow residents and business owners to observe the workshop. This was a public event, and we wanted to allow non-participants to observe the proceedings.
Challenge #2: Stay focused on the main topic
Working on any community issue inevitably raises many related issues that haven’t been resolved. It’s important to keep the research activities focused on the issue at hand. To acknowledge the importance of these issues without derailing discussion, I used the ‘parking lot’ technique, hanging one large poster paper for each topic and recording participants’ thoughts there as they arose.
Challenge #3: Set the stage for empathy
To help everyone acknowledge differing points of view about the proposed redesign, and to refresh their memory about the data collected in the past, I asked them to spend some time “walking the wall” — actually walking slowly around the room, past all the artifacts I’d hung. This activity helped both sides acknowledge all the relevant events of the past 5 years, as well as the many differing points of view.
Then I had all six teams — each of which included people from both sides, sitting together at a table — work together on various activities. Three teams created an empathy map for the town of Sausalito, and the other three created one for the Golden Gate Bridge District. These maps sought to show what representatives of each side said, thought, felt, and did, as well as their needs and other insights the teams learned from the community wall. The teams created problem statements from the empathy maps.
Building empathy was the key to a productive, focused discussion. Both groups were able to express their ideas and have their voices heard. At the end of the day, I asked the workshop participants if we bridged the gap between the stakeholders’ concerns. The answer was a unanimous yes!
Challenge #4: Keep the collaborative spirit going
Of course, solving a complex community problem requires more than establishing empathy between the conflicting groups. If you volunteer to conduct research activities for a community project, be aware that one day may not be enough — and that success might look less like a full solution and more like the two sides beginning to hear each other.
In this case, I met with the stakeholders three times over a 5-month period. The first day was successful in building empathy and getting the stakeholders to listen to each other. The second meeting was productive, but the residents were divided. I had to come up with a new strategy for the third meeting, carefully planning each activity to reach my intended goal: laying the groundwork for a future resolution — which I’m still hopeful will happen.
I hope my experience encourages you to think about ways to apply research methods to issues in your own community. Share your ideas and experiences in the comments.
