Hello
I’m Simon Gough—a design facilitator, learning designer, lecturer, writer, photographer and aspiring filmmaker. Read more below about what I do and get in touch using the contact details at the bottom of the page.
Facilitation
I have almost twenty years’ experience of participatory design and facilitation. I work with everyone from small teams to large groups of over 100 people employing a variety of approaches, from unconferences and open space technology to design sprints and experimental workshops.
I bring together different design perspectives and a varied toolkit: recent facilitation work has drawn on design thinking, service design, systems thinking, lean startup, storytelling, machine learning and data visualisation. I have a particular interest in individual agency, sustainable futures and economics.
My early work focused on working closely with groups and communities to co-create new platforms and services. This ultimately led to a more deliberate focus on service design. Since then I’ve worked across private and public and third sector projects, from fmcg companies to social enterprises and from central government to small charities, helping to collaboratively prototype hundreds of new organisations, products, services and projects.
Learning Design
I regularly design and deliver new learning programmes: most recently working with Design Thinkers Academy London to create their Systems Thinking courses (online and offline) and their Service Blueprinting course. I also work with Future London Academy to support their Executive Programme for Design Leaders.
I designed and taught workshops on organisation design at Hyper Island in Manchester, based on The Self Agency project, a collaboration with Visceral Business.
Where I Work
The majority of my work is carried out through Redfront where client work is balanced with discovery projects (emerging themes I’m keen to explore with people). Some discovery work projects include legal design; design and economics; design and data; and design for self agency.
Almost all discovery projects have been collaborative. Design and Economics was co-founded with Mark Simpkins as a developing resource and series of unconference events.
In 2017 I co-founded both The Data Place and ThingsCamp, bringing together human-centred design, data, open source technologies and open hardware. ThingsCamp events have taken place all over the UK, including at the V&A in London.
Clients include Mars Global, International SOS, Government Digital Service, the Met Office, the Food Standards Agency, the RSA, Libraries Unlimited, DCMS and the Open Data Institute. I’m also an Open Data Institute Registered Trainer.
Teaching
For eight years I delivered the core pathway for the Ravensbourne MDes in Service Design Innovation along with complementary modules in organisation design, systems thinking and transition design. In my last year at Ravensbourne I was course leader for the MDes in Social Innovation, focusing on storytelling, futures and systems thinking.
Writing
I’ve co-authored two articles for Touchpoint—the Service Design Network’s journal—and spoken at industry conferences (Service Design Network Global Conference and Service Design in Government) about Redfront’s discovery and client work. I used to write a long-running blog, The Minimal List, with my wife about more intentional living; I also write occasionally about learning and unschooling.
Photography and Film
Photography has always been a big part of my life and I’ve started to add a selection of my work to the Photos section on this site. More recently I’ve been exploring video and I’ve begun training in documentary filmmaking. Telling visual stories is a critical part of my work and a keen interest.