Design consultant and researcher Callan Rowe joins Jessica Watson to unpack co-design that actually sticks: building the speed of trust, naming decision power, and moving from co-define to co-design to co-deliver. Cal traces a path from film and communication design to strategy and capability-building with Village Collaborative, sharing how to balance breadth vs depth, why “voice of …” projects are often research not co-design, and how strategy should make the useful feel exciting. We explore design as responses (not one-and-done solutions), asset-based community work, and the future of services that aim to make themselves unnecessary. Practical, principled and immediately applicable for facilitators, service/strategic designers and for-purpose leaders. ❤️‍🔥 Follow us on Instagram: @thefeelingdesigner 👉 See more resources: thefeelingdesigner.com.au Find Callan at: https://www.villageco.co/ Resources mentioned in this episode: ❤️‍🔥 “Speed of Trust” (echoed in Stephen M.R. Covey’s work) ❤️‍🔥 Herbert Simon – The Sciences of the Artificial ❤️‍🔥 Richard Buchanan – “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking” ❤️‍🔥 Liz Sanders & Pieter Jan Stappers – Convivial Toolbox ❤️‍🔥 Ivan Illich – Tools for Conviviality ❤️‍🔥 Asset-Based Community Development (Kretzmann & McKnight) ❤️‍🔥 Co-production literature (esp. UK public services; role in co-implement) ❤️‍🔥 Distinction guide: co-define / co-design / co-deliver / co-evaluate 00:00 Welcome, Acknowledgement, and Episode Framing 02:00 From Film to Design: Early Career, R&D, and Burnout 09:00 Strategic Design, Facilitation, and Making the Useful ‘Sexy’ 16:00 The Co-Design Clash and Founding Village Collaborative 21:00 Capability-Building, Thought Partnership, and On-the-Fly Synthesis 28:00 Beyond Toolkits: Depth vs Breadth, ‘Voice of’ Pitfalls, and Co-Define 41:00 What Makes It ‘Design’: Materiality, Abduction, and Imagining Futures 54:00 Responses, Not Solutions: Strengths-Based Practice and Community Capacity 63:00 Caring for the Carer: Trust, Nourishing Relationships, and the Hug KPI - ❤️‍🔥 Please like, share and follow so we can grow more careers in Australia’s for-purpose design community