Winterthur Libraries: Reimagining Public Library Services
When Winterthur Libraries (Winbib) approached us, they were facing a challenge familiar to many public institutions: how do you stay relevant and valuable to a community whose needs are constantly evolving?
The Challenge
Public libraries are no longer just about lending books. They’re community hubs, learning centres, and public spaces that serve very different people with very different needs. Winbib wanted to understand what their community actually needed — and how to serve them better.
Our Approach
We designed and facilitated a series of Design Thinking workshops that brought together library staff, community members, and local partners. The process:
Discovery: Interviews, observations, and data — talking to the people who actually use the libraries (and the ones who don’t).
Ideation: Library staff and community voices imagining new possibilities together, not separately.
Rapid prototyping: Testing ideas with real users before committing resources.
Implementation planning: Turning the most promising ideas into practical next steps with named owners.
The Results
The workshops produced a short list of ideas Winbib is now putting into practice. More importantly, the team came out of the project with the tools and confidence to keep listening to users and testing ideas — not just once, but as a habit.
«Emilie opened a space for dialogue, actively listening to each participant. She encouraged us to question our thinking patterns.» — Franziska Baetcke, Director, Winterthur Libraries
Key Learnings
- Involve the community early: The best ideas came from listening to actual library users, not just staff assumptions.
- Make it tangible: Rapid prototyping helped turn abstract ideas into concrete proposals that stakeholders could evaluate.
- Build internal capacity: The goal wasn’t just to deliver solutions, but to help the organisation develop its own innovation capabilities.
Want to explore how Design Thinking could help your organisation? Book a 20-minute chat.