The Policy Lab sat down with Associate Professor Hepburn to discuss her work and starting at the Lab.
What are you looking forward to about working with the Lab?
As a naturally curious person, I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to connect and collaborate with a diverse group of experts, industry partners and community members at the Lab.
I love listening to and capturing stories of how we live our daily lives, reflecting on challenges we face and exploring opportunities – we can learn so much through these rich lived experiences. The Lab’s approach to participatory engagement resonates strongly with me and I’m excited to bring a design perspective into the mix.
How do you see the importance of design to policymaking?
For too long, policymaking has felt abstract and distant from our everyday lives. Having worked for many years in public policy within local government, I’ve seen this disconnect firsthand. Yet, policymaking is central to the decisions we all face, whether in housing, health, education or travel.
The challenge lies in meaningfully engaging people in the policymaking process. Through design, we can better understand and visualise lived experiences, framing issues, surfacing challenges and highlighting what truly matters. Design is particularly effective in addressing ambiguity, complexity and adaptivity – qualities often inherent in policy challenges. In this context, design can be both a mindset and a methodology, offering valuable insights and approaches.
Are there particular kinds of policy problems crying out for design-led solutions?
Design allows us to prototype, test and iterate solutions collaboratively, empowering communities to co-create transformative future scenarios. Instead of waiting for the future to happen to us, we can actively design it.