Dan Woods

Dan is a specialist in human-centred design methods with over 20 years of experience delivering research and strategic design projects to enable social innovation and policy design in digital and non-digital contexts.

Dan revels in the grey areas — he takes a systems-thinking approach to making sense of complex, nuanced, cross-functional and cross-cultural contexts. He believes in the importance of human-centred approaches in delivering participatory public policy-making; and the role that ethical technologies and open standards can play in linking public policymakers with the communities they serve.

Dan’s work has ranged from digital product development and public sector innovation to policy co-design. His work as a former public servant saw him apply design methods to diverse fields including international development, counter-trafficking and international labour migration. He has broad exposure in the public and private sectors across Australia and the Asia Pacific. He has worked extensively with design innovation companies, the Australian federal government, and the United Nations.

As our General Manager, Business Operations, in Canberra, Dan works to strengthen our design, research, and systems practise with a focus on the public sector. He also supports our teams in understanding project users and their needs — identifying leverage points and co-design solutions that meet those needs.

Dan holds a Master in International Relations from the Centre for Global Politics at the Freie Universität Berlin and a Bachelor of Arts specialising in Design. He led the development of Paper Giant’s bespoke Innovation Maturity Evaluation framework.