Design thinking / Co-design – What happens when citizens decide?
Professor Mark Evans
Director, Australia-New Zealand School of Government, The Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis
Dr Nina Terrey
Partner, ThinkPlace
Adjunct Associate Professor, The Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis
What is co-design?
1. Co-Design captures a process of research and professional reflection that supports inclusive problem-solving or stabilization in policy development, and service design.
2. It places the citizen/stakeholder at the centre of an intentional process of collaborative learning.
3. It draws on ways of working that are commonplace both in the design of objects and products and in community-driven development.
4. Formulating policy through understanding the lives of others & sharing power.
Design thinking/Co-Design as a movement
• UK Design Council (established in 1944)• UK Cabinet Office Design Centre• APS 200 Public Sector Innovation Project• APSC’s Centre for Excellence in Public Sector Design• SA’s Integrated Design Commission• Ministry of Technology and MindLab in Denmark• Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard University• NZ Centre for Social Innovation• ANAO’s Better Practice Guide on Innovation in the Public Sector• Involve (UK)• The Big Innovation Centre (UK)• The Publin Project funded by the European Union’s 5th Framework Project• The Public Policy Lab in US• Design for Europe• Human Experience Lab, Public Service Division, Singapore
• Enrolling citizens, public policy makers, other people involved in the policy making process into the co-design method
• Scope and define the problem intent and identify the change objective to be produced
Co-Design involves… Should we do anything about the problem?
Co-Design involves…
Touch points with the system
No one experiences the whole system: we experience pathways through it
Dr Richard Buchanan, “Managing as Designing” 2004
• Co-discover the problem and desirable experiences
• Few cases• Not representative rather
illustrative of a range of experiences
• Empower citizens and people to tell/show their story
• Establish conditions for citizens to feel safe
• Insight driven with visualisations
Why pay attention?
Co-Design involves…
• Co-create possibilities
• Concerned with what ‘ought to be’
• Prototype, iterate and refine
• In situ, context based
• Ability to zoom between whole system understanding and deep empathy for the individual and what they need
Can we do anything about the problem?
Co-Design involves… Will it work here?
• User test in small numbers, in situ (in homes, everyday contexts)
• Evolve the prototypes, or ideas through collaborative processes
• Evidence base builds through real everyday people interacting with possibilities
Going back and forth…
Understand variations as we
user test
Example Techniques• Observations• Shadowing the everyday • In-situ interviewing • Collaborative workshops• Field work• Field shops
Example Outputs• User Journeys or Pathways• Interaction Maps• Insight maps• Personas• Blueprints• Paper prototypes• Other forms of prototypes• Service walkthroughs
Co-Design involves…
What conditions are necessary?
1. Require support of political or senior elite
2. Collective recognition of the complexity of the issue
3. Appetite to try something new or to get a different answer to a complex issue
4. Appetite for collaboration (and may not know how)
5. Access to skills and expertise in design methods
What does co-design bring policy makers?
Encourages and enables people to involved in policy to engage with each other - cross ministerial, cross agency teams reflecting complexity of policy is cross boundaries1
Empathising with people whose lives will be touched in one way or another by a policy1
References1 Junginger, S ‘Towards Policy Making as Designing’ 2014 2 Christiansen and Blunt ‘Innovating Public Policy’ 2014
Shift from perceptions of the needs of citizens, to an understanding of the desires of citizens by collaborating and empowering citizens in the process
Reflective practice that allows policy makers to reflect on the problem as it appears, and to state it, and re-state the problem
Identifying and valuing useful evidence to achieve policy outcomes because co-design uncovers insights that locate where policy will make impact2
Uncover not only human factors that are important for policy design but broader system issues
Policy applications of Co-Design
POLICY FORMING POLICY EXPERIMENTATIONPOLICY IMPLEMENTATION &
EVALUATION
[1] Focus on outcomes and not solutions
[1]Focus on possibilities
[1]Focus on viability
[2] Exploration and deep empathy with how the ‘system’ works now [small=N]
[2] Rapid and iterative prototyping of many solutions
[2]Scalable implementation (might start small)
[3] Empowering citizens to co-discovery with policy makers the aspects of citizen experience that need to change
[3] Co-design possibilities with a strong emphasis on prototyping in situ
[3]Co-create desired interactions of the policy (system touch points)
[4]Uncover the desirable outcomes – from all actors in the system
[4]Collaborative learning about what works and not
[4]Collective buy-in and support
Case Study
Improving Services with FamiliesUnderstanding the journey of families through the service system.
Approach
“In this policy space, a ‘co-design’ methodology with service users based on an action learning approach is more
likely to be effective than a traditional policy making process”
CO-DESIGN PHASES
Second Phase: Co-design and prototype service changes
First phase: Listen and co-design possibilities of change
En
do
rse
Str
ate
gy
Initi
ate
En
do
rse
Sca
le
DIVERGE CONVERGE
“What is the unique and powerful strategic
opportunity?”
DIVERGE CONVERGE
“What do we need to make to realise
the strategic opportunity?”
POLICY [RE]FORMING
POLICY EXPERIMENTING
POLICY SCALING
DIVERGE
“How do we scale?”
Third Phase: Co-design and service scaling
CONVERGE
Phase 1: Listening to families
The policy recognition is that…
a group of individuals and families experience perpetual cycles of disadvantage
The policy issue was to…
address how to improve responses for individuals and families that cannot, or choose not to, access the support they require to meet their full range of needs and to mitigate against any adverse outcomes
Approach
Co-designThe process where the development of policies and services is a collaborative effort between policy makers, service system and service users
• Recognising the everyday life• Developing future scenarios• Collaborating across fields• Prototyping ideas
Action learningRecognising that solutions to problems can only be developed inside the context in which problems arise
• See connections between issues and events• Create a safe learning environment• Focus on the whole rather than the parts• Seek a holistic solution to the problem
Network of relations within the service system drawing together policy people,
frontline staff, and the families enabled by designers and sociologists
Phase 2: Improving Services with families
Co-created prototypes concepts from Phase 1 with public officers and families
Developed tools to enable the service to be prototyped to enable action learning
Collaborated across the service system throughout
Increased the number of families involved
Periphery
Core
Joan
Understanding and developing the family and lead worker network
• Who does the family need in their network?
• Who is not there? • Who would be better closer
in or further away?
My network map 3 months ago
My network map today
Pete
Donna
Karl
Jim Cross
JuneLegal aid
HA
CT
Transport
Susan
na
Harris
DVCS
GAP!Police
Co-Design tool: The network map
Quick and dirty prototype on the digital family information profile
Family Information (online) tool
Family co-created the online tool to help them maintain their story
Information sharing with service providers
Developing networks
Phase 3: Scaling Strengthening Families
• Government case to scale
• Commitment to assemble services around the needs of families – from both the government agencies and community sector organisations
• Recognition changing policy to change the authorising environments for frontline workers and families can break down the service fail points
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