Seattle Public Utilities Pilot Program Report
Be Possible
Be Possible needed to share the findings of a nine-week pilot with 23 Seattle Public Utilities staff in a form that could build support for taking the work utility-wide.
Design the pilot report, its custom infographics and the program's presentation materials, bringing the process, participant insights and recommendations together with data tables, photography and an appendix of Designer posters and resources.
The 64-page report takes readers from the pilot's framework to its recommendations, delivering a pathway to continue implementation.
AWARD RECOGNITIONS
Eleven Growth Areas, One Clear Starting Point
The pilot was one stage of a multi-year Appreciative Inquiry process, so readers needed context before results. We built the opening around that need: a letter from SPU General Manager Andrew Lee, then a cycle diagram of the process stages and a wheel of the 11 Race and Social Justice Growth Areas that SPU identified, with the number 11 set large at its center. By the time readers reach the pilot itself, they can see where it fits and which growth area it tackled.
Turning Insight Into Information Graphics
Much of the pilot's learning lived in frameworks, phases and reflections. We translated it into visuals a reader can take in quickly. A concentric "Designer's Journey" diagram links the four guiding questions to the six key design elements and SPU's commitments. Three-column tables set each design element beside what Designers said and how it supports those commitments. An adoption curve marks the "tipping point" (about 300 staff) that the recommendations aim for. A teal and navy palette with orange accents carries through every chart, table and heading.
Designers' Voices, Front and Center
The report's evidence is its people. Designers, Dream Phase participants and SPU's General Manager speak in their own words throughout, alongside photography from the program. The appendix belongs to the Designers themselves: 20 individual posters, followed by the resources they worked from, including the Quick Start List of Micro-Experiment Ideas, Disagree Better and a Feelings Wheel. The result is a report that also works as a starting toolkit for the next cohort, a step the Designers' own recommendations call for.
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