About

Snowcone & Haystack is a Helsinki based strategic design practice focused on helping governments and leaders innovate.

The means helping institutions better respond to the increasingly ambiguous and complex context in which they operate in. Founded in 2013, Snowcone has worked with local municipalities, state governments, and transnational institutions across the world.

Hi, I am Marco, Founder and CEO of Snowcone.

I have +15 years experience working on complex institutional and social challenges, helping leaders and organizations innovate.  

Prior to founding Snowcone I was Director of Strategic Design at Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund where I help establish the fund’s strategic design capability. While there, we launched a portfolio of initiatives to address the acute need for strategic improvement in the public sector, which included building the government innovation platform Helsinki Design Lab and spearheading the transitional urban decarbonization intervention Low2no.org.

From 1999-2009 I was on the faculty of the Harvard Design School. As Associate Professor I led several significant research & innovation efforts including work on the Stroke Pathways Project, a strategic design initiative to transform stroke care in the US to deliver better outcomes at lower costs.

Currently I work with many organizations, big and small, helping them better respond to the needs of a 21st century world. I am proud of the many practitioners that I have had the privileged to work with through the years. When needed I am happy to help clients build bespoke teams, networking stellar professional that I’ve worked with in the past.

In other responsibilities, I am a faculty member of NESTA’s States of Change program; and advisor to many public, private, and academic organizations. I was a co-author in “Fostering Innovation in the Public Sector” published by the OECD: co-authored “Outriders for European Competitiveness” for the EU Commission; and have published extensively on design, innovation and public sector transformation. Books include “Legible Practises: Six stories about the craft of stewardship” (2013) and “In Studio: Recipes for Systemic Change” (2011).

I received my BFA and BArch from Rhode Island School of Design and an MArch with Distinction from Harvard University. In 2020 I received an Honorary Doctorate from Delft University of Technology.

for a more complete summary, see here.

Select projects & publications

Work

A few of the organizations I’ve had the privilege to work with include:

United Nations Development Programme, UNDP

City of Helsinki

Vinnova, Sweden’s Innovation Agency

European Commission

Government of Northern Ireland

Government of Canada

Finnish Government

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Collaborative Initiatives

Government of Slovenia

Nesta

Details

Contact info@snowcone.fi

Address Pursimiehenkatu 15, Helsinki 00150, Finland

Business details Snowcone & Haystack Oy, Business Tax ID (Y-tunnus): 2558051-5