Reboot

Services

Informed inspiration is the key to innovation.

Our focus is, first and foremost, on people. Our process begins with rigorous design research that uncovers critical insights about human needs, desires, and aspirations. We then identify and leverage opportunities to match the strengths of our partners to the needs of the citizens, communities, and constituencies they serve.

We strive to develop ever better services and systems in governance, international development, and civic media. We also help build the supporting processes, cultures, and tools to realize enduring change. We balance our clients’ short-term priorities with citizens’ long-term needs.

We believe in collaboration between all stakeholders to accelerate social progress and create lasting net-positives.

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Immersive Research

To improve lives, we must first understand lives as they are. To create better systems, we must first understand systems as they exist and evolve. Intensive contextual research and strategic analysis are thus at the heart of all we do.

Through methods such as contextual user interviews, stakeholder interviews, experience mapping, observation/shadowing, and deep domain research, we gain a holistic, nuanced understanding of human behaviour, organizational capacities, and market opportunities. These help us identify optimal leverage points and develop appropriate solutions.

We believe in outputs that are practical and actionable. We use creative approaches to distill the fruits of our research so they directly inform, inspire, and empower the design phase.

Collaborative Design

Whether it’s a product, service, strategy, or operational model, every project has multiple paths to success, each with a different set of strengths and trade-offs. We use design synthesis tools such as ecosystem diagrams to help clients strategically assess various approaches. We use stakeholder expectation maps and user journey maps to connect client capacities to their own visions and to the needs of those they serve.

We do this by working hand-in-hand with our clients’ teams across organizational divisions. From beginning to end, our process ensures collective agreement on goals and shared ownership of outcomes. We also work closely with end-users, various ecosystem stakeholders, and subject matter experts as appropriate to leverage the full spectrum of expertise and to ensure all possibilities are considered.

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Iterative Development

We believe in endless experimenting; fast and furious prototyping; and testing, testing, testing. Once off the drawing board, concepts are tuned, re-tuned, and fine-tuned until we get it right. Hallmarks of this stage include rigorous debate amongst the design and development teams, as well as rigorous testing with citizens, communities, and clients.

Iteration enables us to achieve optimal end-results that satisfy client demands, meet user needs, and harness the full potential of technological, social, and political forces available.

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Training & Implementation

Reboot takes an active role in implementation. We don’t simply hand off designs or strategy documents, we roll up our sleeves and get all hands on deck to ensure our clients’ visions are accurately realized. We have experience identifying and managing strategic partnerships, overseeing program roll-out, and leading communications initiatives, whatever it takes to ensure optimal results delivery.

At this stage, we also train our client teams using both formal documentation and hands-on approaches so they can independently manage and grow programs well into the future. In short, we teach our clients to fish.

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Monitoring & Evaluation

We define success as measurable, durable positive change, and we don’t accept anything less. If we don’t know how well a solution performs, we won’t know how to make it better.

To this end, Reboot measures the impact and progress of solutions to ensure original goals are met or exceeded, with an eye towards future improvements. Projects are evaluated based on client, sector, and other globally significant indicators. From formal surveys to participatory evaluation to rapid appraisal, we work with clients to determine which impact evaluation models are most appropriate for each project. We document and, where possible, share results to encourage learning in relevant interest communities and to advance our collective wisdom.

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Injecting Inspiration

Whether it’s training, facilitated workshops, or just good old-fashioned brainstorming, we welcome opportunities to share our ideas and approaches. Working globally across a broad range of sectors, our leadership has a history of applying intra-disciplinary perspectives and unique insights to today’s challenges.

Featured

Egypt: From Revolutions to Institutions

A special report

Inspiration

Inside Egypt: The Land of Pharaohs on the Brink of Revolution

by: John R Bradley

Banned upon its 2008 publication by the Mubarak regime, this prescient look at Egyptian society and politics — corruption, dysfunction, tribulations, all — concluded that Egypt (with popular uprisings in 1919, 1952, and 1977) was due for another.

In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World

by: John Thackara

A grand meditation on the current state of design, and how we might do better. Using themes such as mobility, conviviality, and flow, Thackara calls for ever more thoughtful design that is attuned to the needs of our planet and its people.

The Mystery of Capital

by: Hernando de Soto

Why does capitalism work in some places and not others? De Soto traces it back to the legal structures (or lack thereof) in property systems. Written over 10 years ago, and still fascinating and important.