Leakage Awareness Consulting Workshop

Press Kit

Unique Properties

The Leakage Awareness workshop is a tool that makes it possible for designers to work on bigger, deeper cases with clients. It provides a way to build internal stakeholder support, gather reluctantly disclosed situation info, receive pay for typically unpaid early design research, and ultimately visualize production flows for discussion. The workshop features a modular design for portability and easy extension. It also integrates with the C-BAT app to generate a material analysis report.

Dimensions & Packaging

The workshop is formatted into a series of modular A4 PDFs for easy printing and flexibility. Sheets can be stacked for as many production steps as needed. The workshop suggests facilitators to judge from participant interactions whether a single larger A2 or multiple A4 sheets works better.
The companion C-BAT app provides training content, and can generate a material analysis report from gathered workshop info. A planned upgrade to C-BAT would allow quick upload via OCR capture.

Tags

workshop, consulting, stakeholder, consensus, design service, service design, manufacturer, leakage, resources, circular economy

Production Technology

Major personas involved during project communication were first mapped, and a topical survey of 50 SME manufacturers was conducted to understand their design expectations and willingness. The designs were iteratively adjusted through internal testing and 2 major rounds with target facilitator designers. The workshop was also run by a few long-term clients for feedback. This confirmed overall direction and design decisions were finetuned in line with real feedback.

Design Challenge

Compared to usual design, circular design requires deeper involvement into business and strategy, in order to resolve material and market issues. As such, a big challenge circular designers face is getting reluctant clients to share the resource info needed. The Leakage workshop addresses this by first suggesting NDAs and using feeling-based scales for sensitive details like material cost and waste disposal. During a trial run, the client said they felt comfortable sharing in that context.

Inspiration

After nearly a decade of working with long-term clients, two major hurdles were identified in their transition to circular business: finding resource leak and convincing stakeholders. A comprehensive method for visually exploring resource flows was needed, along with a means to gather stakeholders to create consensus. The Leakage workshop not only builds internal solidarity but also helps the designer deeply understand the clients’ situations and paves the way for more impactful design cases.

Project Duration

The project started in March 2023, and the alpha version launched in November 2023. The project was selected for showcase in 2024 by the Taiwan Design Research Institute.

Operation Flow

In the Leakage Awareness workshop, the designer is like a coach guiding the client’s team discussion. Once a main focal product is chosen, production steps are mapped out, with all resource input and output noted. Lastly, the team together identifies inefficiencies and opportunities. This step-by-step team huddle builds internal agreement on what can sustainably improve business, and provides clear targets for following design cases.

Patents

Copyrights belong to Leafer Circular Design, 2023.
Patent pending.

Image Credits

Image #1, Creator Victor Wu, Leakage Awareness Workshop with Stakeholders, 2024.
Image #2: Creator Victor Wu, Companion App for Situation Analysis, 2024.
Image #3: Creator Victor Wu, Presenting Workshop Overview, 2024.
Image #4: Creator Victor Wu, AI-Assisted Analysis Clarification, 2024.
Image #5: Creator Victor Wu, Prep with Leakage Report, 2024.
Video Credits: Creator Craig Bossley, Workshop Tutorial, 2023.