Three ways design reframes success

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Dear reader,

What comes to mind when you think of success?

With an election upon us, many folks think of success as winning. But as a former client told us in 2018, winning is but a short-term goal on the road to movement building. This comment reframed everything I thought I knew about a) our client and b) politics.

It’s amazing how rarely we consider what we’re actually working towards. For me, success one day means that I wrote a great proposal, while another day, success means that I got to read a book for five minutes before bed. Both are successful—depending on my definition of success.

Design is a process that allows you to recalibrate your inner compass. Check in with where you’ve been, and reimagine where you’re going. You might be surprised to find that success isn’t what you thought it is…it’s even better.

Sara Cantor,
Executive Director Greater Good Studio

Text: “Three ways design reframes success.”

Identifying new opportunities for collaboration

An illustration of a group of people seated around a table with papers in front of them, facing a standing woman

In 2021, the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, or WHEDA, set an ambitious goal: to increase homeownership among Black and Latino residents in the state. After learning about barriers across the journey to homeownership, WHEDA realized that systemic challenges require collaborative solutions.

See the case study

Defining your piece of the puzzle

A photo of a sunset and trees in the background and coin-operated binoculars in the foreground

How do you know if what you’re doing is working? This simple question has been at the heart of our impact measurement journey at GGS for nearly the last decade. In this piece, co-founder Sara Cantor shares a series of reality checks for narrowing your focus, defining success, and uncovering if and how it’s actually happening.

Read the article

Doing more with our dollars

A venn diagram of three circles with the words “Economic,” “Social,” and “Environmental” in the circles and “Social Impact Purchasing” at their overlap in the center.

Moving beyond quality and cost, our team wanted sharper tools to guide our purchasing decisions. Could buying office supplies and choosing vendors align with our mission? Social Impact Business Fellow Taylor Lay led our staff through the HCD process to come to consensus on our own responsible purchasing criteria.

Check out the blog

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