The Index Project Playbook

PL BK PAGE 1

Playbook 2021-2023 PAGE 2

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Our evolution

20 Our purpose

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Our programmes

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Our playbook

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Design is for humanity

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Our evolution

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We’re in a world of trouble

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Design to improve life

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Going beyond the SDGs

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Our purpose

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Our principles

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Things are changing

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Strategic priorities

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Our programmes

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We award design to improve life

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We invest in design to improve life

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We teach design to improve life

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We operate as a community

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Will we ever succeed?

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Our playbook

This playbook defines who we are, where we’re going and we update it biennially with each award cycle.

This is internal and used to guide our organisation, partners and friends, defining where we stand and how our community can get involved by following our lead.

It’s based on three simple rules: we practice what we preach, learn as we go and share all we know.

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Design is for humanity

Design helps us, as humans, understand, engage with and shape the world around us. To date, it has birthed some of our most impactful products, services, symbols and movements, from prosthetics that complete the human body to the pride flag; a celebration of freedom and diversity.

We’ve seen rockets take us to the moon, virtual telephones enable worldwide connectivity and drones bring hope rather than destruction. The Tesla Roadster took electric vehicles mainstream, borderless currency Bitcoin burst the banking world wide-open, and the Apple iPhone became a permanent fixture in the palms of more than a billion people.

These advancements have given new meaning to the word ‘disruption’ — nudging, tripping and even derailing industries to offer alternative and better ways of living.

But design isn’t just about aiding technological progress, it’s a tool for the people. Design thinking, as creative problem solving combined with a human-centered mindset, is the go-to practice for innovation and transformation. And time has shown these techniques lead to better solutions, from simplifying complex business processes to designing products for the most harsh and remote locations on Earth.

Design thinking empowers, giving those who aren’t trained as designers the creative tools to actively shape an equitable and sustainable future worth living in. As we say, design is far too important to be left just to the designers.

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2004 2001

2002

Global research launched

Design to improve life concept coined

2003

2013 2014

Design to Improve Life Challenge launched

Inaugural call for nominations for INDEX: Award

2005

2006

Index Award launched

First international city partnership launched

2011

First acceleration Summer School for INDEX: Award finalists launched

Media partnership with CNN

Google Arts & Culture partnership launched

Design to Improve Life investment Launched

2009 Pilote project to Improve Life Education

2017 Design to Improve Life Fund 1 established

2018 New leadership Liza Chong appointed as CEO The index project is born

2019 Business x Sustainability conference launched Media partnership with NYT

Our evolution

As we embark on 2021, we can safely say we’ve achieved our major goal: design is now seen as one of the most transformative industries. Now, we’re at a critical juncture — so, what’s next?

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2008

2010

Investor day launched

2015

Global INDEX: Award Exhibition launched

First international student challenge

2012

2016

2007

2021 PAGE 11

2020 The Index Project becomes an independent foundation

“There is no bigger project than designing world 2.0” - Arnold Wasserman, Index Award Jury Vice Chairman PAGE 12

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We’re in a world of trouble

Design to improve life

Humanity has come a long way but the

Our mandate, design to improve life, has

biggest fight remains ahead of us. As a

guided our work since 2002 and is just as

global society, we face countless critical

important as ever.

problems, from cybersecurity to systemic Why = to improve life

racism, species extinction to social

How = design

inequality. And the list keeps on growing.

There’s a growing urgency combined with

To improve life is about closing that

a complex landscape, politically, socially

inequality gap and design is how we get

and environmentally, that’s constantly

there. We’re striving to ensure everyone

evolving.

in the world has equal access to food, housing, healthcare, education and fair

We need radical collaboration—not just

employment. And, along the way, we make

between countries, unions or businesses,

sure to preserve and protect our natural

but a mix of all combined with a

ecosystems.

focussed effort on engaging the coming generations. Firstly, those we know as

Design to improve life is about solving

millennials, who’re in their ‘prime’ currently

real problems, small and large, simple and

in or approaching positions of leadership

complex, systemic and emerging and is a

and seeking tangible ways to contribute.

life-long pursuit. Each stumble is a chance

As well as Gen Z, a motivated generation

to learn, iterate and redesign a better way

hungry for the right knowledge and tools

forward, and we now have the history and

to design a sustainable future from the

credibility to set the global benchmark for

ground up.

design to improve life.

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Going beyond the SDGs

Balance Human & Artificial Intelligence

Navigate Post-Factual Society

Trust, Tolerance & Empathy

Innovative Financial Systems

Achieve a healthy balance between human intelligence and the exponential growth of artificial intelligence;

Understand the drivers behind post-factual society and promote the value of factual information as the sound basis for global development

Promote trust, tolerance & empathy to achieve a broad sense of global solidarity

Develop and support financial mechanisms that prioritise profit, people and planet - the triple bottom line model

Refugees and Migrants

Sustainable Tourism

Generational Harmony

Ethical Leadership

Help stabilise the growing refugee and migrant crisis and promote more inclusive systems for newcomers

Build and boost sustainable tourism models that minimise impact on global ecosystems and improve livelihoods of locals

Strengthen understanding between generations and create models for improved inclusivity and collaboration between age groups

Establish a global code of ethics for leadership, at all levels, and develop better tools to hold leaders accountable for their actions

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We’re not alone in this endeavour: the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are a given for any business or organisation wanting to do their part in shaping a better future. But, the world is evolving quickly, and not all of life’s challenges can be encompassed in a neat package of 17 targets. The Design to Improve Life Goals go beyond SDGs to chase that moving target, identifying new opportunities for change as, or even before, they arise.

Our goals are derived from speaking with hundreds of people within our global community, from young designers to thought-leaders in business. We penned our first five goals in 2016 and our additional three in 2020, a process we plan to continue every four years to ensure a proactive approach to tackling global challenges.

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Project Coelicolor

Marsha

Index Award

Index Award

2019 Winner

2019 Winner PAGE 18

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Our purpose

We’re in a red ocean of design-for-good, but that doesn’t mean we’re not needed. The world has many problems, and we need many solutions. But, it does mean we’ll need to evolve constantly. It’s no longer enough to award the best; we need to drive real impact. That’s why we’ve gone beyond promoting design to improve life to both catalysing and scaling design to improve life.

Design to Improve Life = award (promotion) + education (catalysing) + investment (scaling).

Now, as a foundation, we’re self-governed and are held accountable to serve our mandate. But, while we’re a foundation on paper, we’re still a unique hybrid of an award, educator, investor, publishing house, influencer and incubator. We’re not a one-size-fits-all foundation and recognise to tackle complex problems; we need to be adaptable.

We lead the way by leaning on our rich legacy and deeply-rooted culture but, more importantly, by being open to change and adaptable in the face of uncertainty.

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Our principles Prioritise diversity We take representation seriously. From internal programmes to public air-time, we listen and elevate more projects and people beyond the western world.

Be a ‘bootstrapper’ We’re resourceful in the face of change. We embrace the unpredictable and build on our adaptability to go where the chase leads us.

Meet eye-to-eye We keep it professional but always empathy-led. We lean on our strong assets of warmth and approachability to maintain and grow our community.

Embrace collaboration We celebrate value-exchange and build together. We look beyond financial exchange to co-create with partners to drive the movement forward.

Live sustainably We not only champion sustainable design, we live the lifestyle. We do our best to reduce any unnecessary consumption and prioritise circular business.

As a team, we’re guided by these core principles. They’re a sum up of our DNA and culture—our backbone for the past 20 years that we want to bring forward into this new chapter.

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“[The Index Award] has emerged at the forefront of one of the most important developments in contemporary design: the reinvention of design practice from a predominantly commercially driven discipline into one that also pursues social, political and ecological objectives.”

- Alice Rawsthorne, The New York Times.

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Things are changing Things are changing, so we need to change with them. If we’re to survive long-term and achieve critical mass, here are five key points we need to follow.

Showing tangible results - We’ve got 20 years of experience, now

Setting concrete standards - As pioneers in the field, we need

we need to show the real results to get backers onboard. We need

to set benchmarks that other businesses and organisations can

tangible numbers on our impact, across each programme area, to

strive for, creating a global design to improve life standard. We

clearly show what a ‘buyer’ gets when they opt in or partner with

also need to improve our tools to clarify what problems they’re

us.

solving and what people can exactly achieve by using them.

Clarifying the synergies - Due to how we’ve grown, the synergies

Making it easy to contribute - With a broad selection of

between programme areas can be unclear, not just publicly but

initiatives, it’s been difficult for the public to understand how

also internally. We need to concretely define these synergies and

they can get involved, beyond nominating for the award. We need

strive to create more value between programmes.

to define a clear set of actions people can take, regarding each programme area, to make it easy for others to join the movement.

Looking beyond our borders - Awareness of design to improve life may be high in our direct communities, like-minded peers and competitors, but not beyond our European/Western borders. We need to increase efforts where we can offer the most value and impact in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

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What are our overarching top-tier priorities for this next chapter?

1.

Focus on scaling-up strategic partnerships to grow we need to co-create with more partners, across all programme areas, to create a ‘multiplier’ effect, enabling as many people as possible to leverage design to improve life to create impact.

These partnerships will be a key source of revenue fed back into foundation.

2.

Test and solidify our new business model We’ve ideated, sparred, tested and now have a solid list of ‘products’ across all programme areas. With set targets, we now need to clearly define our fundraising strategy to secure stable streams of revenue until 2023, where we reevaluate our strategy.

3.

Develop the award as a design aggregator The Index Award should be developed to easily aggregate solutions from other awards to improve representation and reach. This could be a tech-driven solution, a partnership model with like-minded awards programmes or regional Index Awards to reach local populations.

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Our programmes We use design to improve life in three strategic ways to ensure we have the desired impact;

We award design to improve life, through every Index Award biennale, to constantly push the global design benchmark, provide recognition to pioneers and inspire the our community; We invest in design to improve life, through our funds, to scale the best purpose-driven companies, ensuring the impact is amplified and doesn’t stop at prize-giving; We educate to design to improve life, through our tools and programmes, to enable and empower the next generation of pioneers, ensuring a future pipeline of solutions.

Our community is the mixing pot where we bring together our network via events (online and in-person), from all programme areas, to share, learn and collaborate.

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We award design to improve life

Develop and launch a set of ‘design to improve life’ metrics or guidelines, derived from The Index Award, to enable companies to benchmark their sustainability/impact work.

Diversify The Index Award by increasing nominations by 20% in the underrepresented areas of Latin America, Africa and Asia;

Develop and launch another regional Index Award competition with a largescale local partner (a second Diseno Responde - Latin American challenge)

Goals for 2023 PAGE 32

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Why do you do it?

“We need to think beyond our life cycle.

We need to demonstrate better ways forward and envision the future we want to live in before it’s too late. And, at the end of the day, the pioneers who’re designing this way forward need recognition, backing and a network to scale. That’s where we come in.”

How do you do it?

“Like most awards, we have lots of nominees, finalists and, eventually, five winners across five categories: Body, Home, Work, Play & Learning and Community. We run lots of campaigns digitally, sharing all these incredible stories, and then have a big celebration in Copenhagen when we announce the

What’s The Index Award about?

winners.”

“It celebrates the people using design to

Q&A with Liza Chong

solve real-world problems. Each award cycle, we recognise the best-in-field

“We need to think beyond

solutions, and the great minds behind

our life cycle.”

them, from all over the world.”

CEO

Who’s your primary audience?

“The do-ers: designers, entrepreneurs,

When does it take place?

engineers, teachers, makers -- anyone actively working with design to make a

It’s a biennale, usually celebrated in

positive difference. We also serve as an

September but we campaign all year

inspirational design beacon to the public.”

‘round to garner nominations, share

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Zipline Index Award

inspiring stories and get the big picture on

2017 Winner

the current design landscape.

What’re the most important do’s?

“We lean on what we’re good at:s ervice, compassion and servitude to each other.

Moving forward, it’s important we take the risks and experiment and along the way, be humble, resourceful and focus on doing ‘better’ rather than perfect!”

What will you do differently moving forward?

“Take our accessibility and representation more seriously -- moving further away from the elitist brand. Saving our planet means reaching out to the overlooked

Zipline

areas and providing incredible digital experiences that ensure deeper exploration and more inclusion.”

How does the award compliment the other programme areas?

In 2017, Zipline won an Index Award in the Body category for its “The award is the heart of our foundation,

medical drones carrying life-saving remedies to remote areas in

providing the lifeblood, in terms of people,

Africa. Since, Zipline has expanded its services into even more

cases and investment opportunities, to all

African countries and been a crucial carrier of vaccines in the

other programme areas. It also offers great

US during the Covid-19 pandemic. Today, the company is valued

case studies and learnings we use for our

at about €1B and continues to expand and further its mission to

education programmes.”

save lives.

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We invest in design to improve life

Ensure the DtIL Funds are the best performing funds compared with the markets benchmarked via the Cambridge Associates annual VC comparative reports

Diversify our investors - Establish and launch a ‘crowd equity’ platform for all types of investors to invest in ‘design to improve life’

Grow our fund sizes 10x, to accommodate more than 12+ companies, to ensure we can invest into more of The Index Award pipeline

Goals for 2023 PAGE 38

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What does the investment programme

our portfolio companies too -- we give

encompass?

company founders and teams design thinking tools/training to help them run

“We started as an acceleration program

their businesses more sustainably and

for early-stage companies and, over

effectively.”

the years, developed into a multi-stage international micro-VC fund. Our funds

When does it take place?

invest directly into promising companies

Q&A with Vittoria Casanova

from The Index Award pipeline, the

“We launched the first fund attached to

award nominees, alongside international

Index Award 2017 and typically launch a

investors and funds.”

fund for each award cycle, so it’s always a juggling act!”

Who’s your primary audience?

What’re the most important do’s?

“We’re the connector between life-

“The investment world can be intimidating

improving companies looking for capital

but don’t pretend to be someone you’re

and like-minded investors who want to

not just to conform to a stereotype or

make a meaningful difference.”

fit in. Listen and learn from others, stay humble, curious and never lose sight of

Why do you do it?

impact.”

“All great solutions need backing to have

How does the investment programme

a real impact and our goal is to help these

relate to the others?

companies reach their full potential. We

Investment Manager

also want to show the world that doing

“The companies we invest in are selected

good and turning a profit can go hand-in-

from The Index Award pipeline each cycle.

hand.”

We also use the same tools and methods as the education programme to support

How do you do it?

portfolio companies with their challenges and strategy.”

“Coming from a very different background than the usual VC funds and financial institutions, we do things in our own style. We also provide human capital to PAGE 40

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Pinatex, Design to Improve Life Fund I portfolio company

Piñatex Ananas Anam, the company behind the innovative textile made from pineapple leaf fibres Piñatex, was shortlisted to become an Index Award 2017 Finalist. In 2019, the Design to Improve Life Fund I invested in the company which since then has multiplied its impact. The textile has entered the fashion industry through collaborations with H&M, Hugo Boss and Chanel to name a few, won awards for its ingenuity and been covered in several media outlets. It’s a testament to how caring for people, profit and the planet can make an impactful business.

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We teach design to improve life Works as a catalyst for others to join the movement - empowering people to get off the sidelines and become a do-er.

Establish a permanent trainer team, xx employees, to enable the smooth rollout of education workshop and session deliveries

Develop and launch fully-fledged digital resources, including all videos modules and digital gamified tool, to accompany

Establish and launch two (2) large-scale

in-person facilitation

partnerships with reputable educational institutions (e.g. Carnegi) for developing DtIL into a permanent fixture on the university curriculum.W

Goals for 2023 PAGE 44

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give them the tools to fulfill this vision and share their knowledge with others -planting a seed of change.”

Why do you do it?

“We simply have to, it’s our reason to get up in the morning. Education is the answer to so many problems and differences in the world and how to create a more equal system -- it all starts with education. We want to get to a point where everyone has access to the same opportunities.”

“Prioritise authenticity over authority - creating a warm and comfortable atmosphere will always foster better results,” What’s education all about?

How do you do it?

“It’s about giving people a training in using a tool that can help them make this world a better place. Our edu is where you

“We meet them where they’re in their

actually achieve that goal -- find the right

own context, we take them through

challenges and create these real solutions.

the programmes, or workshops, that

Many people don’t have the right mindset.

are developed to meet the needs that they have. We give them the tools but

Who’s your primary audience?

Q&A with Charlotte Høeg Andersen Education Director

it’s ultimately their responsibility to implement them and make them work in

“Anyone that wants to make an impact

their own daily practice. It has to work for

with design, but we mostly work with

them.”

educators, education institutions and businesses from all over the world. We

When and where does it happen?

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workshop “Our education initiatives run all year

more synergies between education and

‘round. Right now, our workshops and

investment to create better businesses

sessions happen in cyberspace but we

and better relationships between investors

usually meet people face-to-face where

and investees.”

Siemens Stiftung

they live.”

How does education synergise with the

Since 2018, The Index Project has partnered with Siemens Stiftung

What’re the most important do’s?

other programme areas?

Research and really understand your

“Many of the investment companies need

teaching. In 2020, the focus became up-skilling STEM teachers in

users -- to go in with the right mindset,

new design-thinking techniques and skills

Latin America to implement design thinking in their teaching. The

know how they like to work, and make sure

to optimise their solution or business,

collaboration is based on developing and executing co-created

we can best meet their needs so they’ll

we can offer these sessions based on our

tool training programmes for teachers and multipliers. Having

actually use the skills after;

methodologies to be a stronger company

a collaboration with Siemens Foundation gives our education

Get comfortable with unpredictability

and to be more clear in what investors are

activities a worldwide outreach and the potential of multiplying

-- always have a plan B, C or even D. You

investing in. Regarding the award, we also

the mindset of Design to Improve Life to educators in many

can be prepared but things will inevitable

offer training to our winners to help them

countries is enormous. It’s brought us to Chile, Peru, Mexico and

change, as many sau: “fail early to success

solve business or leadership problems.”

South Africa.

to bring the Design to Improve Life methodology into STEM

later”; Prioritise authenticity over authority -- creating a warm and comfortable atmosphere will always foster better results. In the end, we want users to feel we’re more like sparring partners rather than experts.

What’ll you do differently moving forward?

“With so many programme options and clients from all over, it’s easy for things to get complicated. But, from now on, we’ll keep it simple and make our offerings very straight-forward for our current and future clients. We also want to foster PAGE 48

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We operate as a community

Establish two (2) major partnership with an ‘influential’ community to give us credibility, greater reach and access to new members

Grow our following in the digital community groups and event attendance by 5X

Develop and launch our own digital community platform (website) to showcase our members, accommodate interaction etc

Goals for 2023 PAGE 50

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Q&A with Ditte Fiil Ravn

What’s The Index Community about?

How do you do it?

“Our community is a network of

“We have three initiatives we aim to

entrepreneurs and engineers, teachers

succeed with: Digital/physical events with

and talents, start-ups and students –

and without partnerships at least every

whatever they’re title, they’re all invested

two months, enabling decentralised events

in the mission of design to improve life.

hosted by local ambassadors and a fully-

The community offers access to change-

functioning community platform with high

makers, trend spotters, knowledge hubs

engagement.”

and shooting starts within the fields of design, sustainability and impact.”

What’re the most important do’s?

Who’s your primary audience?

“As an extended arm of Copenhagen HQ, we need to create meaningful events

“Our ‘alumni’ as we call them: former

for our followers, connections with local

nominees, finalists, winners or portfolio

stakeholders and most of all, encourage

companies, also our board members, jury

our audience to give back to the

and partners -- new and long-term ones.

community.”

But, we also have a secondary audience of our social media followers as well as

What will you do differently moving

global design, impact and sustainability

forward?

institutions and organisations.”

“Creating a community means expanding Why do you do it?

the experience people have when attending in-person awards and we,

Community Manager

“Both as of now and in the future, the

as a team, are great at making people

community will be what scales and

feel welcomed and supported and

sustains all of our initiatives. Their

acknowledged. Our design community is

endorsement of us, their word-of-mouth

based on meaningful interactions and

and their use of our services will be the

connections: our mission is to make these

foundation of our projects’ success.

last all year ‘round. By 2023, we’re aiming

Community initiatives such as guest

to have a toolbox of initiatives that we

blogging, tailored networks and events will

know our community engages with and

be a meaningful offering to sponsors and

finds meaningful.”

partners.”

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Will we ever succeed?

In an ideal world, we’d be obsolete. Most of the world’s critical problems would be solved and everyone would truly prioritise people and planet, equally alongside profit. With the right knowledge and community, we can design a better future.

But we have to act now.

The Index Project is a call to action.

Are you in?

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Playbook 2021-2023 PAGE 56