If you are working on a meaningful project and you could use some help, then we recommend starting out with us in Boston. Studies in our diverse and interconnected communities can get you results quickly. That said, we can develop rich, contextual understandings of the places and communities that are important to your work. Projects have taken us to many different countries and remote destinations as we have partnered with businesses, government agencies, nonprofits, foundations, and other organizations.

YZDesignWorks is a cast of designers, engineers, and anthropologists who live in Boston, MA and around the world. We all work in our various disciplines and come together when a project needs it; every project gets a hand-picked team whose size and skill sets fit your needs. Yuri Zaitsev started this team from his home in Boston, MA in 2020.

Yuri Zaitsev

MS Mechanical Engineering: Design Impact

Stanford University - d. School

2019

 

BS Mechanical Engineering + Physics

Northeastern University

2013

 

Teaching

DESIGN231: Needfinding for Systems Change

d. School, Stanford University

 

ME277: Graduate Design Research Techniques

d. School, Stanford University

 

DESINST275: Conversations in the Wild

d. School, Stanford University

 

UGBA 190T: Special Topics in Innovation and Design

UC Berkeley

 

Workshops

Problem Labs: Executive Future Thinking for Justice Series

10 week course

Thailand Institute of Justice + Harvard Law Institute for Global Law and Policy

2022 & 2023

 

Conversations that Connect

4 week course

Berkeley Public Library Training

2022

 

Conversations that Connect: Even When it's Hard

8 week course

Centro Upaya

2022

 

Applying Game Design to Play with Perspectives and Make Valuable Products

Talk

De La Salle - Benilde: World Industrial Design Week: Reinvent the Ordinary

2021

 

Resilience as a Process for Future Urbanites

Talk

Bangkok Design Week: Resilience

2020

 

Game Design Principles to Make Cool Products and Change Lives

Talk

De La Salle - Benilde: World Industrial Design Week: Today and Beyond

2020

 

Design Thinking with Agility

Talk

Product Craft 2019