Design can still make the world better, if you lead the way

A talk by Daniel Burka, Co-founder at Hard Problems and Mahima Chandak, Co-founder at Hard Problems

Over the years designers have made big claims about the power of design to better the world. However, we’ve primarily made companies more profitable and optimised ad-clicking. Not all hope is lost. There are places where design really can save lives and improve the world, but you’re going to have to get out of your comfort zone to bring great design where it’s needed most.

Daniel Burka

Co-founder at Hard Problems

Daniel Burka is a product manager and designer who focuses on solving complex global health problems in simple ways. He is the co-founder of Hard Problems — a not-for-profit that helps technologists to apply their skills to real problems like climate change and public health.

Daniel is also the founder of the open source project, Simple (simple.org). Simple is used by thousands of hospitals in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Ethiopia to manage over 6 million patients with hypertension and diabetes.

In 2021, Daniel founded the open source project Healthicons.org to provide free icons to healthcare projects around the world.

Previously, Daniel worked in Silicon Valley. He was a design partner at Google Ventures for 5 years and helped write the book Sprint. He was early at several startups including Digg, Pownce, Milk (sold to Google), and Tiny Speck (became Slack). He co-founded the Canadian design agency silverorange, which is now over 25 years old.

Mahima Chandak

Co-founder at Hard Problems

Mahima is a product designer who has spent her career tackling healthcare’s most complex challenges at scale. She has led the design of tools and services that support frontline health workers and strengthen public health systems across India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Ethiopia.

Her work spans large-scale efforts, including a hypertension and diabetes management system adopted by governments, a primary and preventive care offering aimed at improving health outcomes for large populations in India, and, more recently, an oral cancer screening service piloted in a few districts ahead of national rollout.

Mahima cares deeply about creating solutions that advance equitable health outcomes for everyone. Through Hard Problems, she is bringing together technologists and designers who want to apply their skills to urgent global challenges like public health and climate change.