Estonia’s Helelyn Tammsaar Will Debut at CanUX in 2025

 How the Estonian Defence Forces Took a Shot at Design Thinking
} Oct 3/4, 2025   TBD / 30 MINUTES

What would you do if, after doing research in a large organization, you discovered there is nothing that would classify as human-centred but quite the opposite? You approach the top leader of this organisation and make a case for using service design, the latest research and best methodologies to better understand and influence human behaviour. For Helelyn Tammsaar, this top leader was the Commander of the Defence Forces of her country, Estonia.

In her talk, Helelyn will share her experience designing more supportive orientation programmes for conscription, the state-mandated military service, and the efforts to institutionalize better understanding and implementation of contemporary motivational theories and teaching methodologies. Yes, all this happened in a country with a third of the population being ethnic Russians, and for an organization whose culture, mission and goals may seem a world away from human-friendly approaches.

 Speaker Bio: Helelyn Tammsaar
 Service Design

Helelyn Tammsaar is an anthropologist exploring the most exotic tribe in the world – the Deep State. She is the team lead at the Estonian Public Sector Innovation Team – an experimental unit of four people serving all 11 Estonian ministries and their agencies. The team runs innovation programmes, design sprints, nudgeathons and a variety of workshops that combine service design, ethnographic methods, behavioural insights, co-creation and policy experimentation.

Helelyn has led and consulted a variety of projects from all walks of life. She has tackled speeding with the Estonian Police, designed re-entry for young prisoners, explored recreational drug use in the nightlife. Her presentation reflects the experience of smuggling design thinking into a rather different domain – the military.

Follow Helelyn on LinkedIn .

*Image credit: Helelyn Tammsaar and generative AI.