AdaptNSW
AdaptNSW, The Department of Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water
Leading a strategic design program for AdaptNSW
To support Strategy Action 8 of the NSW Climate Adaptation Strategy, I led a strategic design engagement to help AdaptNSW better support communities preparing for climate impacts, as part of Folk (Strategic Design Agency).
The work focused on aligning user needs, government capability, and existing digital assets into a clear, evidence-based roadmap, enabling confident decision-making, improved engagement, and future investment.
The outcome was a user-centred strategy that translated research into action: shaping experience priorities, embedding design thinking across teams, and delivering measurable improvements in engagement and conversion.
Role
Strategic Design Lead
Organisation
Folk, Strategic Design Agency
Focus
Experience strategy, service design, and digital direction for climate adaptation
“This work gave AdaptNSW a clear, actionable roadmap—connecting strategic goals with user needs to deliver more value, more confidently, at scale.
–Project reflection journal
The challenge
AdaptNSW had a growing ecosystem of tools, content, and channels supporting climate preparedness, but limited clarity on how well these resources served different audiences or how to prioritise future investment.
The challenge was fragmentation across:
- digital assets
- assumptions about audience needs
- teams responsible for delivery
Without a shared understanding of user motivations and barriers, it was difficult to align stakeholders, justify investment, or confidently progress the platform.
“These insights are exactly what we wanted to hear. We thought we knew everything, but this articulates it.
–AdaptNSW
My role & responsibilities
As Strategic Design Lead, I:
- Led a team on the end-to-end discovery and experience strategy for AdaptNSW
- Shaped the research approach across multiple audience segments
- Facilitated design thinking workshops with senior government stakeholders
- Synthesised insights into a clear value proposition and prioritised roadmap
- Connected user research directly to funding, governance, and delivery decisions
Approach & thinking
I framed the engagement around decision enablement, focusing on what AdaptNSW needed to understand in order to invest wisely and scale impact.
Key elements of the approach included:
- Discovery across five priority audience segments to uncover motivations, barriers, and decision drivers
- Review of existing NSW and national adaptation tools to identify duplication, gaps, and opportunities
- Analysis of the current AdaptNSW experience across web, conference journeys, and communications
- Co-design and prioritisation workshops to surface assumptions, test hypotheses, and align leaders
Research insights were translated into refined archetypes, information architecture recommendations, and “how might we” questions that directly informed experience changes and future roadmap planning.
–Project workshops
–AdaptNSW website
–Workshop activities
–Project pack archetype outline
Outcomes & impact
The engagement delivered meaningful improvements across experience, organisational alignment, and delivery (data points withheld).
- Drove measurable improvements in digital engagement and participation across AdaptNSW initiatives
- Improved discoverability and perceived value of climate adaptation guidance for diverse audience segments
- Accelerated decision-making by providing a clear, research-backed experience strategy and prioritised roadmap
- Influenced operating models and governance practices by embedding design thinking and continuous discovery approaches
- Built cross-team alignment and executive confidence in the future direction of the AdaptNSW platform
“With a clear roadmap, aligned teams, and a user-centred strategy in place, AdaptNSW is now set to deliver climate tools that truly meet the needs of NSW communities.
–AdaptNSW feedback
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