Creativity led by empathy.

Context: A national service design project focused on the hip and knee replacement journey, from referral and preparation to surgery, recovery and follow-up.

My role: Service design, working as part of an EKA team to map the existing journey, frame opportunities and develop a more coherent patient-centred service direction.

Team and partners: Estonian Health Insurance Fund, with Ruth-Helene Melioranski, Maarja Mõtus and Riina Raudne.

Work included: Patient stories from across Estonia, input from healthcare professionals, journey mapping, opportunity framing and co-creation sessions with healthcare providers.

Outcome: The project influeced major policy and funding decisions and was awarded with Gold in Service Design for the Public Sector at the Estonian Design Awards.

Context: A healthcare design collaboration focused on the fragile transition from hospital care to long-term self-management at home.

My role: Team lead and mentor in the Design for Social Innovation course, framing the collaboration with the clinic and guiding the student teams through research, synthesis, reframing and concept development.

Team and partners: Heart Clinic of Tartu University Hospital, with Daniel Kotsjuba, Riina Raudne and an international MA student team.

Work included: Interviews, observations, service safari, stakeholder mapping and co-design. The analysis looked at information, fear, trust, responsibility, hierarchy and everyday routines after discharge.

Outcome: Several concepts for post-discharge support, including structured waiting-time communication, peer support, reflection tools and clearer patient-facing communication. Several concepts moved forward for implementation.

Context: A healthcare design collaboration around the introduction of genetics-based personalised medicine into everyday clinical care in Estonia.

My role: Team lead and mentor, helping the partner and student teams move from a technical medical innovation context toward practical service and communication opportunities.

Team and partners: Estonian Institute of Genomics, with Daniel Kotsjuba, Riina Raudne and an international MA student team.

Work included: Stakeholder research, systemic analysis, behavioural design and prototyping, with attention to trust, prevention, shared decision-making and empathetic patient conversations.

Context: A social design collaboration focused on helping young Ukrainian war refugees build stronger connections in Estonia.

My role: Team lead and mentor, helping the partner and student teams move from the broad topic of integration toward feasible services, programmes and interventions.

Team and partners: Estonian Refugee Council, with Andrea Wollensak, Riina Raudne and an international MA student team.

Work included: Desk research, stakeholder engagement, observations, interviews, co-design and prototyping, with a focus on empathy-building, intercultural learning and everyday contact between young people.

Recognition: One of the concept teams received the LAETUD award at EKA Design Showcase.

Context: Sustainable business development programmes for Estonian companies and organisations, supporting teams in moving from environmental awareness to concrete action.

My role: Design lead, trainer and mentor. I designed and facilitated the Green Tiger Academy practical development format, adapting design sprint logic for sustainability and circular design work.

Team and partners: Rohetiiger and Enterprise Estonia, with programme teams and external experts including Markus Vihma and Kaimai Kuldkepp.

Work included: Circular audits, opportunity framing, strategy work, workshops, mentoring, prototyping and team coaching with leadership teams and specialists.

Scale: Around 40–50 organisations and nearly 200 experts and leaders over several cohorts, including companies such as Neste, Ericsson, Bigbank, Verston, Timbeco, Thermory, Äripäev and others.

Context: Circular design work with timber and housing companies through the Circular Design Masterclass.

My role: Design lead, guiding company teams through circular audits, opportunity framing and concept development.

Lotus Timber: We analysed operations, strategy and climate impact, then developed three concept directions: a logistics service, a reframed product category and a new cladding attachment system.

EstHus: The process focused on strengthening an already sustainability-oriented company’s market position and customer relationship, including the concept of a digital house passport.

Outcome: A Lotus Timber concept was patented, both companies finished as winning teams in their respective masterclasses.

Context: A unified pictogram system and implementation toolkit for Estonian recycling infrastructure.

My role: Design lead, working on the service system, visual logic and implementation strategy.

Team and partners: Things Foundation, with Kristiina Kerge, Teele Puusepp and Joonas Kerge, in collaboration with municipalities, waste collection centres and other stakeholders.

Outcome: The system has been widely adopted across Estonia and received the Baltic Sustainability Award in Design.

Context: A digital platform that helps people understand what to do with things they no longer need, from recycling and reuse to correct disposal.

My role: Design lead, working across product concept, interaction, service logic and public-facing communication.

Team and partners: Things Foundation, with Kristiina Kerge, Tõnu Kerge and Joonas Kerge, built in partnership with producer responsibility organisations.

Outcome: Kuhuviia.ee became a national guidance tool and received Environmental Act of the Year award in 2015.

Context: In 2017, I took over the management and later leadership of EKA’s Interaction Design MA curriculum.

My role: Head of Curriculum, responsible for programme development, teaching culture, guest expert network, industry collaborations, student journey and long-term curriculum direction.

Team: Built with many colleagues and guest experts, including Nesli Hazal Oktay, Kristjan Mändmaa, Sigmund Abou Chrouch, Quinn Feller and Kärt Viljalo.

Outcomes: The programme received the highest possible result in international accreditation, built partnerships with design schools in Europe, Asia and South America, and has seen students and graduates recognised through strong professional outcomes and festival awards.

Context: An internal design capability-building programme for EKA employees.

My role: Programme designer, facilitator and coach, helping participants apply design thinking to real challenges in their own work.

Work included: Problem framing, stakeholder and user understanding, idea development, prototyping, testing and reflection.

Aim: To cultivate design champions by building internal confidence and practical design readiness through guided work on real organisational issues.

Context: A semester-long training and development programme for creative higher education curriculum teams from institutions such as EKA, EMTA and Pallas.

My role: Co-designer and facilitator of the incubator process as a design-led curriculum development journey.

Team: Developed with Marleen Soosaar and participating curriculum teams.

Work included: Future backcasting, curriculum auditing, value proposition work, student journey mapping, curriculum concept visualisation and individual consultations.