Beyond the Podium: Strategic Design – Unlocking Sweden's Future. Here’s some thoughts from Almedalen Week.

Almedalen, the “unaware” Design Prototype for future of Democracy – Here’s some open thoughts.

One week each summer, Visby (Gotland) is transformed into a living laboratory for democratic exchange. What began as a spontaneous political gathering has evolved into an extraordinary forum of radical openness—thousands of events drawing policymakers, business leaders, civil society, and citizens into shared dialogue. It’s far more than a conference; it's a dynamic civic infrastructure—vibrant, participatory, and inherently messy in the best possible way. In essence, Almedalen already embodies the very fabric of a strategic design-setting. Its open, iterative, and multi-stakeholder format mirrors design’s core logic: framing, ideating, prioritizing, deciding, implementing, and monitoring. Every tent, every panel, every pop-up becomes part of an informal prototyping ecosystem—a unique space where Sweden's most pressing "wicked problems" are not just debated, but socially rehearsed. As SVID by many implicated, There is a role for design in a resilient, ever changing and sustainable future society – Environmental impact alone can be reduced by 80 percent in the design phase. One of many talking points.

Is it designed yet?

Designing for Complexity: Enter Strategic Design. Let’s go Beyond Management and talk, Towards Shaping Futures.

Almedalen’s pervasive themes are anything but simple. Climate adaptation, healthcare reform, digital infrastructure, defense resilience, AI ethics—these are not isolated policy silos but deeply interconnected systems that defy linear solutions. Such challenges demand a mindset that is simultaneously systems-oriented and profoundly human-centered, capable of navigating uncertainty while fostering innovation and openness across traditional institutional boundaries.

This is where strategic design proves indispensable.

At TBD Studios, we define strategic design as a hermeneutic, materially grounded practice. It masterfully combines creative problem-framing with collaborative problem-solving, always rooted in inclusive, user-centric methods. Inspired by Bauhaus’s timeless synthesis of function, form, and social good, our work bridges the often-disparate worlds of policy, culture, and systems. We empower organizations to shift their focus from managing the present to actively designing possible, desirable futures.

Strategic design doesn’t arrive with pre-packaged answers. Instead, it begins with the courage to fundamentally question how problems are framed. It equips governments, institutions, and communities with the capacity to prototype change before committing to it—significantly reducing risk, enhancing relevance, and embedding a vital culture of continuous learning at the very heart of public systems.

From Welfare Systems to National Resilience: Strategic Design in Action

Sweden’s evolving public sector offers fertile ground for this vital work. As in our recent collaborations—including initiatives with the Swedish Welfare Innovation, and the Open Sweden Platform (envisioned as a single digital gateway to public services), demonstrating how a focus on user-centric design can significantly reduce processing times and improve access to critical services. For instance, reports from countries embracing digital transformation show a 25% reduction in processing times for administrative tasks across federal agencies, achieved through advanced workflow management systems and automation. As George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist at MIT Sloan, aptly puts it: "When digital transformation is done right, it's like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly."

The Resilience in Makerspace program. Design became embedded—within structures, not outside them. Through iterative co-creation, these efforts nurtured institutional agility and civic value. And this year, Almedalen offered even more signal that this shift is needed. In roundtables from food policy to hydrogen energy, design capacity was implicitly or explicitly named as the missing link.

These transformative projects didn’t begin with static, top-down plans. They commenced with a process of deep listening—a hermeneutic interpretation of existing institutional logics, nuanced user needs, and often hidden pain points. We then co-created solutions through rigorous iterative prototypes, consciously embedding design processes directly within governance structures rather than treating them as external add-ons. By working fluidly across diverse domains—from technology and service delivery to citizen engagement — we help unlock institutional agility and cultivate long-term civic value.

Just imagine to apply this on a fraction of the talks in Almedalen. For example the real-world problem statement for ”Next Generation Homes” – Älmhult and IKEA in a talk on how to create a sustainable, conscious and affordable housing for young adults. Not just about constructing new units; it's about designing a future lifestyle. Strategic civic design can move beyond just addressing symptoms to crafting genuinely people-centered, resilient, and desirable communities.

Embedding some Voices of 2025

The discussions at Almedalen underscored the necessity for new approaches:

“It is not about replacing people – but about giving them better tools to make the right decisions.” — Lars‑Gunnar Edh, Lantmännen

“We have 50,000 small farming businesses in Sweden. For them to be part of the development, we need to design solutions that suit the entire chain, not just the large players.” — Jonas Engström Jadvi, RISE

“We must stop ducking the tough decisions… the unhealthy food landscape for kids is no longer sustainable. The norm needs a redesign.” — Anna Lindelöw Mannheimer, PUSH/Vinnova

"There’s a global hydrogen race—if Sweden wants to lead, we must close the knowledge gaps together with industry and invest in coordinated innovation platforms." — Cecilia Wallmark, CH2ESS, Luleå University of Technology

These reflections echo the same core message: it’s not about more plans—it’s about better tools for shared decision-making, faster experimentation, and inclusive systems thinking.

Wicked Problems Require Civic and Strategic Designers

The overarching themes at Almedalen—climate, welfare, AI, security—require more than incremental policy adjustments. They demand a new breed of professional: civic, strategic designers. These are embedded and invited collaborators fluent in both the language of bureaucracy and the intricate nuance of public life. Civic design, as practiced, is inherently a collective, transdisciplinary endeavor. It’s about navigating immense complexity with humility, questioning entrenched power structures with care, and ultimately building systems that serve with profound empathy.

Yet, here lies a powerful paradox: while the urgency for civic and strategic design is palpable in every Almedalen tent, designers themselves are often conspicuously absent or hidden in the crowds. The stage remains largely dominated by decision-makers deeply embedded in current structures—analysts, administrators, lobbyists. Few are yet equipped with the essential tools of inclusive interpretation, participatory problem-framing, or prototyping. We convene to shape the future, but too often, we lack the very capacities or incitements to truly enable it.

This absence is not accidental; it stems from a "tissue incompatibility" between the inherently experimental and human-centered nature of design and the public sector's deep-rooted emphasis on stability, risk aversion, and hierarchical processes. Design, on the other hand, moves to its own rhythm: experimentation, empathy, an experience-led confidence that the path will reveal itself. When these two meet, the friction's real. This cultural chasm often relegates design to a mere cosmetic afterthought or a standalone "lab" rather than an intrinsic engine for systemic change.

“Uncertainty also means opportunity.” — Samantha Job, UK Ambassador to Sweden

“AI transformation is not just about the tech—it’s about upskilling and aligning pace with society.” — Håkan Jevrell, State Secretary

Strategic design offers ways to address these calls—not just with regulation, but with iterative, inclusive, human-centered innovation. Friction is also a good thing. A designer led process enables governments to move beyond simply managing problems to designing desired futures. Yet few have the tools. Fewer still have the mandate. That’s the missing link.

What’s Missing: Capacity, Empowerment, Courage, A in STE-M or Metrics?

This pervasive gap is there, in embedded systemic factors. Public institutions frequently operate within fixed procedures, perceiving experimental design as inherently high-risk. Furthermore, while a small fraction of all designers consistently measure impact, a vast majority struggle to comprehensively capture the social, environmental, and long-term systemic effects of their work.

This critical oversight results in significant value left uncaptured—a profound missed opportunity for strategic design to overcome ideological resistance and prevailing risk aversion.

To decisively close this gap, we need a concerted effort:

• Organizational cultures that unequivocally value sustainability and user impact as much as, if not more than, immediate cost-efficiency.

• Public procurement models—such as an "Open Public Design Framework"—that rigorously focus on desired outcomes rather than rigid outputs.

• Design education on all levels that proactively integrates systems thinking, behavioral insight, and robust business literacy to truly equip the next generation of civic designers that mix all the areas.

• Targeted support for commissioners, providing clear guidelines to confidently contract, trust, and scale design expertise.

• Invite a designer to your table.

Sweden’s Unique Opportunity—and Obligation

Sweden possesses the extraordinary ingredients to lead a global shift toward a truly design-literate state. Almedalen itself stands as powerful evidence that dialogue, iteration, and radical openness are already deeply ingrained cultural norms is a start. What’s urgently needed is the next decisive step: make it easy to invite and embed strategic design directly within all parts of public systems as an intrinsic engine for transformation wherever the public system is gathered.

We have already witnessed its transformative power. And compelling data from the UK Design Council demonstrates that every £1 invested in design for public services has yielded an astonishing £26 in efficiency savings. The logic is clear and irrefutable: strategic design doesn’t just make systems better. It makes them work for people.

And the urgency is real. As of 2025, the UN warns we are off track for 80% of the Sustainable Development Goals. CO₂ emissions continue to rise globally, and only 15% of the SDG targets are on track. The window for climate-smart innovation is closing fast. Designing system change is no longer optional—it is existential.

For private sector leaders, this is equally critical. Navigating volatility, regulatory pressure, and public trust now demands design capacity—not just for product or service innovation, but for resilient strategy, supply chain transformation, and sustainable ecosystems.

A Call to Action:
Designing Together

Strategic design is not a luxury. It is an undeniable civic necessity. And if Almedalen serves as the rehearsal room for Sweden’s future, then design must become its core practice—not merely represented by a select few, but championed across every sector. Perhaps, even, actively led by.

At TBD Studios, we firmly believe this future is not distant; it is already underway. By seamlessly weaving interpretation, radical inclusion, and iterative learning into how we govern, plan, and serve, we can meet complexity not with attempts at rigid control, but with expansive creative capability. To design well is to govern wisely. And to govern wisely is to learn, listen, and prototype—together.

Let's Design the Future—Together with TBD Studios

Design Capability-boost: Act on something with a team of designers, and in the same time train internal teams in innovation, systems, and iterative governance.

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