As we look ahead to 2025, we first wanted to pause and reflect on last year – our wins, our challenges, and what we learned. The unique work of systemic design is an evolving art; so reflection helps us to better understand it, in a hope to share all that we can from our journey to help guide you on yours.

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Let’s look at the year that was: 2024.

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What made us proud: let’s be real, stability

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It was a tough year for many Australian consultancies. The Australian federal and state governments reduced the scale, frequency, and spend on consultants in the wake of high-profile scandals from multiple large firms. This was accentuated by the continued in-housing of capacity and capability, slowing and in some cases reversing the changing shape of many departments.

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The wider economic conditions have accentuated these challenges - private, not-for-profit and purposeful organisations of all scales have faced major headwinds; often resulting in a reduction in spend on discretionary items.

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The general slowdown has been particularly pronounced for design-oriented consultancies; some of which are seen as "optional" or "discretionary". Design research (and firms that work with its outputs) have been particularly impacted; with some cornerstone firms in the Australian design space ceasing operations this year.

While we have seen this change in demand from some of our clients, others have had sustained partnerships through our diversity of offers, industries, and partners.

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What we learned from this

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We’re a very small organisation, which made us a little more sheltered than others. It is much easier for us to follow new opportunities that emerged.

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Through this period, we've been recognising our unique value in a slower economy. We have continued to expand our repertoire in organisational design and value proposition design to work with organisations that aim to improve their effectiveness in resource-constrained environments.

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In fact, it is in these environments that it is most important to make sure that the right work is being done with the limited resources available - that impact is maximised.

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This perspective has connected us into ongoing engagements with two organisations, supporting upfront thinking and subsequent operationalisation of these new practices.

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Our project portfolio

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In 2024 we had the opportunity to work with twelve client partners (predominately) in health, international development and climate action; with a focus on ecosystem interventions, organisational design, and capability building.

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We are incredibly grateful to our client partners who have kept us doing the most interesting work we can, and enabled us to continue growing in this environment.

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And, a Good Design Award

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In November, we were thrilled to receive one of the highest design accolades available in Australia: an aptly named Good Design Award.

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We were successful in the Policy Design category for our work on the 'Sustain Impact' report, created in partnership with the Argidius Foundation. The report captures the leading efforts of individuals and organisations supporting entrepreneurs in emerging markets and the ways donors can better support these activities.

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We welcome Policy Design as a new category in 2024; recognising the growing importance and role of designers in this space. Design has great capability to improve policy through better understanding of context in bringing together multiple perspectives, iteration of complex concepts, and their communication and implementation.

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Read more about the report here.

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A strong and growing team

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We were excited to announce Leanne Sobel joined the team in late 2024 as our new Director, Strategic Design. Leanne has hit the ground running; jumping straight into project work with us and submitting her PhD at the same time. A huge congratulations to Leanne for her PhD submission in November; we are fortunate to have her in the team and are already learning so much from her. Learn more about Leanne’s perspective in this interview.

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Snowmelt also recently advertised new roles for a Strategic Design Analyst and Systemic Designer - stay tuned for an update as we finalise the selection process.

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If you’re interested in future opportunities to join the Snowmelt team, follow us on LinkedIn, or subscribe to our newsletter.

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We supported cities to grow their youth-led climate action

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We started coaching cities in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund. The Fund backs the idea that youth-led climate action is vital to tackling the climate crisis and it can unlock greater benefits across cities. It’s no surprise that 84% of youth worldwide are worried about climate threats. Responding to this, the Youth Climate Action Fund supports 100 cities to back youth-led climate projects. The program spans 38 countries and represents over 62 million residents. It is supported by the Bloomberg Centre for Public Innovation, and United Cities and Local Governments.

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Snowmelt has been coaching Australian municipalities of the City of Melbourne, the City of Newcastle, and the City of Hobart, alongside the Philippine cities of Borongan City and San Francisco. Each city has done an amazing job of building new bridges with youth, funding 10-20 youth teams with microgrants.

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These youth-led projects ran from September to December, with the potential to continue into 2025 and beyond. These cities recognise the multiplicity of benefits that youth perspective and energy can bring to these challenges. We're excited to see what comes next as their programs continue.

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Around the world

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Our year concluded with a flurry of travel; with Murray visiting clients in the USA in November, and the entire team coming together in the Netherlands to work intensively with a client team.

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While travel is a significant commitment, the benefits of face-to-face collaboration are difficult to pass up, especially in areas of great complexity like international development to support entrepreneurs and businesses in emerging markets.

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We were also delighted to connect with our long term collaborators at Climate KiC, Chôra Design, and TU Delft (where Tim studied back in 2008).

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We continued to hold and expand systemic design conversations with new cohorts.

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In October, Snowmelt participated in RSDX, an online conference, part of the Relating Systems Thinking & Design 13 (RSD13) Symposium, “Rivers of Conversations,” hosted by the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in October 2024. Snowmelt held two panels, with a stellar lineup of participants: 

• ‘One cohort reflects on 15 years of changing systemic design practices’ with conversation partners: Angela Meyer, Gina Belle, and Tim Tompson Chaired by Prof. Cameron Tonkinwise. Learn more
• ‘Global and Local: Navigating a common tension in systemic design’ with conversation partners: Michelle Miller, Valentine de Ganay, and John Thackara Hosted by Sebastian Wolf Siebzehnruebl and Tim Tompson. Learn more

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Thanks to all the contributors and attendees who made these sessions successful.

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Leanne continues to teach in the Executive MBA program at UTS business school. She taught Transformation and Renewal at UTS, and last year in the Spring session, taught the Strategic Design Studio. She also taught at USyd Practices of Design Innovation in the Design Lab.

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Tim guest lectured at the University of Sydney in the Master of Design program. His lecture was 'Design as dialogue', which unpacks the design capabilities required to design systems, environments, and organisations. 

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Emily spoke on a panel at UTS exploring how graduates of the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence course can communicate and sell themselves as transdisciplinary practitioners.

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Looking forward...

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Thanks to all the wonderful people we worked with, partnered with, and conversed with in 2024. And now, we look ahead to 2025 – another year to grow, learn, and seek out new ways to use systemic design thinking to improve organisations and impact. We’re excited to have you on this journey with us.
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Happy new year!
Team Snowmelt.

To follow along with our exploration and learnings, follow us on LinkedIn, or subscribe to our Newsletter.

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