Ep. 75: Inclusive and Human-Centered Design Unlocks Greater Financial Security
Gosia Tomaszewska
Director
Commonwealth
On This Episode
Gosia Tomaszewska, Director at Commonwealth, came onto the podcast to share her experiences working to make financial security possible for everyone. Commonwealth, a nationwide non-profit, focuses on providing financial opportunities and security to low-income or financially vulnerable people.
Gosia has been in this field for 15 years and has watched as technology has opened up new opportunities. “Technology is not always the answer, but I think if used correctly, it can provide access and hopefully get rid of some of those barriers that exist in the current system,” said Gosia.
Gosia knows how important it is to focus on systematic changes, rather than encouraging individual changes. For instance, Gosia believes that if designers keep low-income people in mind, rather than those who already have financial security, new solutions will be discovered. She said, “It’s really about designers having a much greater impact by focusing on changing the products and the distribution channels that have been historically discriminatory.”
Commonwealth even offers an Actionable Insight Toolkit, which outlines specific recommendations for how product designers can make products more accessible and empowering.
Gosia is excited to see how the financial workplace adapts to these new technologies in the next few years. A lot has changed in the workplace since Covid-19, and Gosia can’t wait to see how these changes impact the day-to-day processes.
To learn more about how Commonwealth is making finances more inclusive, listen to this podcast episode with Hunter and Gosia.
More About Gosia
Gosia Tomaszewska is a Director at Commonwealth where she leads the Lab team, which focuses on the design and testing of new and useful human-centered solutions to lead the transformation of the financial services field to create a stronger and more prosperous society where everyone has financial opportunity. Gosia brings over 10 years of experience in the field with specific expertise in cross-sector partnership development, capacity building, project management, and stakeholder engagement. She is passionate about developing successful collaborations to change and improve systems. Before joining Commonwealth, Gosia worked at the state and municipal levels in the financial empowerment and asset-building field to create innovative programs, solutions, and policies to improve existing systems. Most recently she scaled the City of Boston’s children’s savings program, Boston Saves, to include all of the Boston public schools. She holds a graduate certificate in Politics and Public Policy from University of Massachusetts, Boston, a Masters in European Studies from Jagiellonian University, and Psychology and History from Douglass College of Rutgers University.
