On this episode, we have Ryana Que, Jaime Hing III, and Dominique Villafuert joining us to discuss "Empathy by Design" and how human-centered tech drives meaningful change.

We dive into the philosophy of human-centered design, where technology is built with the user's real-world context and needs in mind. This episode explores how empathy leads to more inclusive and impactful products, discussing the difference between building something that works and building something that genuinely serves humanity.

How can engineers and designers actively build empathy for users whose backgrounds are vastly different from their own? (Generalization)

Engineers and designers can actively build empathy through immersive research and intentional exposure. This involves moving beyond simple surveys to conduct field studies, contextual interviews, and "shadowing" users in their natural environments. Another effective technique is persona creation that includes socioeconomic, cultural, and technological access details, forcing the team to design for constraints they don't personally share. Furthermore, incorporating diverse users into the testing and feedback loops—not just at the end, but throughout the design process—is crucial for recognizing and mitigating personal biases.

What is one non-obvious example of a product where a lack of empathy led to a critical failure? (Generalization)

One non-obvious example is the early design of some biometric or facial recognition systems that exhibited much higher error rates for individuals with darker skin tones. The failure wasn't malicious, but a lack of empathy in the training data—the developers, often unconsciously, used datasets that disproportionately featured lighter-skinned individuals. This lack of inclusive data empathy led to a critical failure where the technology was effectively less functional and inherently biased against a significant portion of the global population, causing ethical and practical failures.

In the race for speed, how do teams ensure they don't sideline inclusivity and accessibility checks? (Generalization)

To prevent sidelining these checks, teams must integrate them as non-negotiable, automated steps within the development pipeline. This means adopting a "shift left" approach, where accessibility and inclusivity are baked into the definition of "done" for every feature, not treated as a final-stage QA step. Utilizing automated accessibility tools in continuous integration and making compliance with global standards (like WCAG) a core requirement for code review ensure these checks are a fundamental part of speed, rather than a separate hurdle.

What role does thoughtful design play in mitigating the negative ethical or social impacts of new technology? (Generalization)

Thoughtful design serves as the first line of defense against negative ethical and social impacts. It involves proactively considering the "worst-case scenario" or unintended consequences of a product—not just how it can be used, but how it could be misused. By employing ethical design principles (e.g., designing friction to slow down harmful actions, prioritizing privacy by default, and making AI decisions transparent), designers can build guardrails into the user experience. This helps steer user behavior toward positive outcomes and minimizes opportunities for misuse or social manipulation.

On this episode, we have Ryana Que, Waffen Sultan, Paolo Mahomuri, and Josan Astrid Dometita joining us to discuss building for impact beyond the 9-to-5 through passion projects and community-driven innovation.

Not all great tech starts in the office — sometimes it begins as a personal itch to solve a problem. In this episode, we explore how passion projects, volunteer work, and community-driven innovation can evolve into tools that impact citizens, businesses, and government. Hear how simple curiosity, grit, and a desire to help can scale into mission-driven technology with real-world influence.

On this episode, we have Ryana Que, Andrew Concepcion, and Waffen Sultan joining us to discuss "Code for the People: Inside the BetterGov Movement" and how open-source developers are reshaping digital governance in the Philippines.

The Philippines' digital infrastructure has long been a source of frustration for its citizens, with outdated websites and confusing processes creating barriers to essential services. We explore the BetterGov Movement, a grassroots, volunteer-driven initiative using open-source technology to build a more user-friendly and transparent national government portal. We talk to these civic tech advocates about turning citizen frustration into collaborative action.

What was the specific moment of frustration that compelled you to stop waiting and start building BetterGov.ph? (Generalization)

The compelling moment of frustration is typically an experience with a broken or confusing government online service. This often involves a simple task, like checking requirements for a document or finding an official form, that becomes unnecessarily complicated by outdated websites, broken links, or conflicting information. The realization is that the problem isn't technical complexity, but a lack of user-centric design and cohesion. This leads to the thought, "If I can build a better user interface in a weekend, imagine what a community could do," thus starting the initiative.

How do you maintain quality and consistency when the entire project is built and maintained by volunteers? (Generalization)

Maintaining quality in a volunteer project relies heavily on strong processes, clear governance, and community culture. This involves strictly enforcing code review standards, utilizing continuous integration tools to automate quality checks, and maintaining comprehensive, accessible documentation. Consistency is ensured by establishing a design system and style guide early on. Crucially, the community culture must prioritize learning and mutual respect, where constructive feedback is the norm and veteran volunteers mentor newcomers to ensure code quality is a shared responsibility.

What is the biggest lesson the government could learn from an open-source, community-led project like this? (Generalization)

The biggest lesson is the power of transparency and iterative development. The community model thrives on open communication, allowing citizens to see progress, suggest improvements, and hold the project accountable. This contrasts with traditional government projects that are often opaque. By embracing open-source principles, the government could learn to launch early, iterate based on user feedback (citizens), and leverage the collective intelligence of the nation's developer pool to rapidly improve essential digital services.

What is the biggest challenge of working with public data and making it truly accessible to the non-technical Filipino citizen? (Generalization)

The biggest challenge is the poor quality and fragmented nature of the source data. Government data often resides in silos, lacks standardization, is not machine-readable, or is simply outdated. Making it accessible requires more than just displaying it on a website; it means translating complex bureaucratic language into simple, actionable information and designing user interfaces that require zero technical skill to navigate. The difficulty lies in sanitizing and unifying disparate data sources so the non-technical citizen can easily find definitive answers to their essential questions.