Mining a System for Intervention Opportunities

Leyla Acaroglu

Select a product, service, or system you use regularly and conduct a comprehensive systems analysis using the Disruptive Design Method. Investigate the full lifecycle, stakeholders, environmental impacts, and social implications. Create a “cluster map” to visualize the interconnections, then identify intervention points where design could disrupt the system toward more regenerative outcomes. Focus on activated changemaking rather than just documenting problems.

4 weeks

Parameters

• Choose a tangible system (food, fashion, technology, transportation, etc.)

• Use analog mapping tools (large paper, markers, sticky notes)

• Embrace mess, “the messier the better”

• Include upstream and downstream impacts

• Identify at least 5 potential intervention points

• Design one concrete intervention to test or prototype

• Ground interventions in circular economy and regenerative principles

Deliverables

• Systems cluster map (large format, photographed/scanned)

• Lifecycle analysis document

• Stakeholder map showing power dynamics and relationships

• Intervention opportunities analysis (5+ identified points)

• Detailed design proposal for one selected intervention

• Prototype or proof-of-concept

• Reflection on the disruptive design process (1000 words)

• Action plan for implementation
  

Resources

• Article: “Tools for Systems Thinkers: Systems Mapping” by Leyla Acaroglu on Medium

• UnSchool of Disruptive Design, https://www.unschools.co/

• Donut Economics by Kate Raworth

• Documentary: The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard

• Circular Economy Handbook by Peter Lacy and Jakob Rutqvist

• Podcast: Circular Economy Show by Ellen MacArthur Foundation

• Life Cycle Assessment frameworks and calculators

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Listen to this episode of Climify Season 4, episode 8 here.