Work
Tools, platforms, and programs we've built and tested with thousands of people at universities and institutions over the past 10 years.
1. Sensemaking Environment
DartWorld
Spatial Narrative Platform / Dartmouth College / DALI Lab / 2021 - Present
context
A spatial platform built with Dartmouth's DALI Lab. Three parts: a reflective onboarding quiz, a 3D world you can walk through, and a journal where you track how your thinking changes over time.
objective
Give students a place to get their thinking out of their heads, look at their own experience, and start putting together a story about who they're becoming.
approach
We rebuild it every term with a new DALI Lab student team. Each version goes live with real students, and what we observe changes what we build next.
reflective onboarding
Nine questions that start simple (where are you from, what do you study) and get personal (what keeps coming up in your choices, what are you actually worried about). You end up as one of three archetypes — Explorer, Seeker, or Achiever — before entering the world.
3d environment
A 3D space where students walk through occupations, industries, and stories from other students. Career exploration as a place you move through, not a list you scroll.
journaling pinboard
A running journal inside the platform. Students write entries, go back to earlier ones, and see how their thinking has shifted over weeks. It's both a personal tool and a source of research data for the lab.
2. Exploration Instrument
Synapse
Spatial Career Exploration / 460 Occupations / 13 Dimensions / sethlooper.com/synapse
context
A career exploration tool that throws out the ranked list. Students answer 13 either/or questions about how they think and work, then see how they line up against 460 real occupations from BLS and O*NET data.
objective
Let students wander through careers instead of scrolling past them. Show how occupations connect to each other — not just which ones score highest.
approach
13 questions produce a profile. The result is a spatial map, not a ranked list — students can walk through clusters of related careers and find connections they'd never have seen in a search bar. Explore Synapse.
3. Deliberation System
Career Design Lab
Identity Sensemaking Program / Dartmouth College / Center for Career Design / 2019 - Present
context
A semester-long program at Dartmouth's Center for Career Design that brings together six tools into one coherent system. Each term is both a program for students and a research cycle for the lab.
objective
Give students structured time and tools for the slow work of self-examination — before they start making plans. The program is a living prototype that changes every term based on what we learn.
approach
Six tools, one arc: from pulling apart your experiences, to finding patterns, to naming what matters, to deciding what to do next. Each tool was built, tested, and revised separately before being woven into the sequence.
6 Tools
Identity Mapping Workshop
Tile Sorting Exercise
OneWord Interface
4. Narrative Workshop
Narrative by Design
Career Narrative Workshop / Dartmouth College / Center for Career Design / 2024 - Present
context
A 90-minute facilitated workshop built around narrative compression. Students start with a messy paragraph about who they are, cut it to a sentence, then to a single word. Each cut forces a choice — what you keep tells you what actually matters.
objective
Teach students a method for figuring out what their story is — before they try to tell it. Not a script or a template, but a way to look at their own experience and find the thread running through it.
approach
Compression exercises paired with card sorts for values, strengths, and skills. A companion web app (ccd-nbd.vercel.app) guides students through each phase and gives them a place to do the work.
narrative compression
Paragraph to sentence to one word. Each cut forces prioritization. The word isn't a brand — it's a decision tool that helps you figure out what to emphasize and what to leave out.
grounding in evidence
Card sorts adapted from Knowdell Career Values, CliftonStrengths, and Motivated Skills. Students pick their top values, strengths, and skills — then compare what they chose with what their resume shows.
digital companion
A five-phase web tool (Intake, Resume, Categorize, Rewrite, Reflect) that walks students through the full process in one session.
5. Sensemaking Environment
Threshold
Architecture Career Toolkit / thresholdarch.com
context
A career toolkit built specifically for architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. Grew out of years of professional practice and teaching in studios.
objective
Fill a gap in the field: architecture students and early-career professionals need a real place to think about their careers — not just a 20-minute advising meeting.
approach
Content and exercises built around the specific pressures of architectural education and practice — licensure, portfolio culture, firm economics, and the gap between studio and the real world. Visit Threshold.
Threshold Interface
Resource Architecture