Equity Centered Collaborative Design, Field Research, Conflict Facilitation and Healing History

Hello! My name is Jooyoung Oh.

I wear many different hats.

For almost 20 years, I’ve been working primarily as a design research & strategy consultant. During this time, I helped uncover insights, motivations, and aspirations of people in order to picture the future products and services. In 2017, I shifted my attention to social justice projects and ended up going back to school for the conflict facilitation MA program at the Process Work Institute.

My current collaboration is with the Multnomah County Idea Lab where I bring my expertise in design thinking for systemic change and racial justice. We work at the intersection of racism and poverty, taking action rooted in revolutionary love to challenge systemic injustice. Current topics (as of 2023) include Multnomah Mother’s Trust (Guaranteed Income Pilot for 100 black mothers) and participatory budget process.

I teach equity centered design and facilitation at universities.

As a process work therapist, I offer conflict facilitation for individuals, families and organizations. I specialize in AAIPI (Asian American and Indigenous Pacific Islander) clients. Go to my Therapy page to read more about my offerings.

Healing history is my life’s work. I work primarily with the “comfort women” issue with the goal of bringing intergenerational healing to those who experienced direct/indirect trauma from the state organized violence against women. I do this work through dance performance and writing.

Recent Field Research Project

In early 2019, in collaboration with StudioD and Proximity Design we studied the ecosystem of sesame farming in Myanmar and published a book that you can download here.

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Design & Strategy Consulting to…

Plan and facilitate Equity Centered Co-creative Design Sessions
Provide consumer insights for business and organizations, for UX design process, product development and branding
Bring clarity into whom you are serving and how they want to be served
Provide a deep understanding of people including their motivations and aspirations, and the experience they have with products and services
Provide a clear framework and criteria to help make key decisions

My Approaches in Field Research

Bring Racial Equity lens in all aspects of research and facilitation
Sometimes I (you) may not be the right person to be doing the facilitation or interview for the given community. Offer space and support for the community to co-create and step asides
People are experts of their own experiences
Patterns and insights are hidden in nuances. Listen well, observe what they do and what they don’t do.
Good research = a fine balance between validated hypotheses and open-ended explorations
Ethical field research means choosing local businesses when possible and showing respect for participant’s privacy and local culture over Instagram opportunities. It means being aware of our own rank and power, and using it well
Insights and opportunities are key alignment tools for teams. Utilize archetypes and user journeys for idea generation
Collaboration takes time, but yields better results. Trust the process.