Collaborative playground (Master thesis)

Aline Alonso Collaborative playground: Design education as a means to foster collaboration between designers and public bodies.

MA Integrated Design Matriculation Number: 11109759 1 8 Köln International School of Design Technische Hochschule Köln (TH Köln) – Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Cultural Sciences Final Master Thesis Submitted: July, 2017 Cologne, Germany Supervisors Prof. Birgit Mager (Area: Service Design) President, Service Design Network (SDN) Head, sedes|research – Center for Service Design Research Marco van Hout and Gijs Gootjes (external supervisors – MediaLAB, School of Design & Communication at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) Examiner Prof. Philipp Heidkamp Printing Hundt Druck GmbH, Germany Fonts Mercury Text G3, Whitney This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 4.0 International License.

To view a copy of this license, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Suggested citation: Alonso, A. 2017. Collaborative playground: Design education as a means to foster collaboration between designers and public bodies. Master's thesis.

Köln International School of Design. Cologne University of Applied Sciences Faculty of Cultural Sciences. DE.

ABSTRACT

The government is confronted with issues of increasing complexity such as climate change, migration and aging population, which challenge public sector bodies to innovate the ways they develop and deliver their services and policies.

Over the past decade there has been increasing interest in design-based approaches such as user-centred design, user experience, service design and design thinking in public sector and government contexts, which can be applied to deliver public good in the format of well-designed services.

In doing so with a systemic and human-centered perspective, design can transform the way public sector bodies approach public issues in a deeper way, such as building internal design capabilities and influencing the policy decision-making and implementation processes.

However, despite apparent interest, only a small portion of public sector bodies around the world are in fact conducting service design or other design approaches. This is due to a variety of reasons, but the lack of education in this area and limited access to professionals that can bridge design and policymaking is among the major challenges for design in public sector innovation.

This research argues that client-driven projects in design schools can contribute to public sector innovation in significant ways and design education can be used as a means to foster collaboration between designers and public bodies. Within the “Research Through Design” approach, qualitative contextual analysis and participatory generative methods were applied in order to study two cases: The Design for Government studio course at Aalto University and the MediaLAB Amsterdam multidisciplinary studio from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

This Master thesis draws conclusions about the favorable collaborative conditions enabled by environments in design schools which are dedicated to the collaboration between students and external partners, through the development of practical, hands-on projects. And invites the design academic community and the community of practice which is interested in, or is already engaged with public sector innovation, to exploit and explore these ‘collaborative playgrounds’ as a mean to develop hybrid ways of designing public services and policies.

KEY WORDS

service design, design thinking, public sector innovation, design education, educational client-driven projects

PROFILE

Hi! I am a Brazilian designer from Rio de Janeiro currently living in Amsterdam. I am interested in how design can inspire, engage and enable people to act towards social and public innovation.

Last year (2016), I managed the research and graphic project of the first Service Design Impact Report, about the Public Sector.

Currently, I am managing the project of the next editions of the Service Design Network reports, with the focus on Health Care and a second edition about the Public Sector.

Also, I am organizing the Global Goals Jam in Amsterdam, a 2-day workshop supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to develop local solutions for some of the UNDP Sustainable Global Goals.

I have a Master of Integrated Design from Cologne International School of Design (KISD), in which I investigated potential contributions of design education to public sector innovation. In Brazil, I graduated from ESDI (Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial) in both Product and Communication Design.

I have more than 5 years of work experience participating in/managing projects in multidisciplinary design fields, such as service design, design research, event organization, graphic design and user experience. I also have experience as a facilitator of meetings, collaborative workshops, design thinking training and project coaching.

You can contact me at LinkedIn or directly at a.alonso.aline@gmail.com. I am happy to talk about collaborations and future opportunities concerning my topics of interest.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Context and opportunity space 16 Research questions

18

Some key definitions

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Public sector innovation and design

24

Design for public sector innovation in design education

40

Research journey

50

Methodological approach

56

1. Contextual exploration

60

2. Preliminary research

68

3. In-depth research

74

Analysis

98

Analysing the the engagement between designers and the public bodies

100

Analysing the contribution to public sector innovation

114

Discussion

122

1. Smooth way-in for design in public sector organizations

124

2. Safe zones for experimentation

126

3. Spaces for mutual learning

127

4. Catalysts of new networks

128

5. Develop projects across projects

130

Conclusion

132

Research questions

134

research Limitations

141

Opportunities for future research and practical applications

142

Final reflections

143

Appendix

144

appendix A: Service Design Impact Report: Public Sector

145

appendix B: Semi-structured Interview Questions

147

appendix C: KISD futures

149

appendix D: Design for government material

151

Acknoledgements

152

Bibliography

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Designers are not designing chairs anymore, but experiences, memories, behavior and ways of living...

This sentence was inspired by the first issue of CRISP (Creative Industry Scientific Programme) magazine’s theme. Which explored the changing role of designers and its impact on the design academia, industry and practice. Editors: Paul Hekkert (Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft) Bas Raijmakers (Design Academy Eindhoven and STBY)

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Design is expanding to new fields of practice and research. During the last decades design has been increasingly recognized in its strategic level proving its value to business and being applied in non-profit areas, such as the social and public sector spheres. In these emerging practices, social and public good take the place of market-driven purposes, and other aspects start to receive more attention such as trust, accountability, social impact, legitimacy and ethics.

It is an interesting moment for design academia, industry and practice since these changes bring the potential, if not the responsibility, to redefine the design role in society. This potential is the core of my motivation to engage in the Master programme and to develop the present research, as my personal search for a designer’s role in society.

This journey started with naive reflections about how design can shape the world we want to live in and what roles will be played by design in this imagined future. Along the research journey, these ideas were fed by several examples of practice and research with similar aims found during the process and made me be sure that I am not the only one in this search. With this in mind, instead of a problem-solving approach, the concept of design that will be explored in this next pages is one of shaping possibilities and opportunities for the future. “Our challenge today lies in our ability to move into uncharted territory, rather than improve the existing. How else will our ageing society be able to meet growing service needs with a diminishing tax base? How will we meet our sustainability challenge within an energy and resource dependent economy? These are not efficiency challenges, but rather redesign challenges. We will have to clarify our attitude towards risk. Doing new things has an associated risk, but doing nothing is arguably much riskier.�

(Marco Steinberg, Director of Internal Strategic Design, SITRA, in Design Council, 2013)

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During the course of the Integrated Design Master, the programme had courses dedicated to the exploration and discussion of potential professional opportunities for design and emerging fields for design.

During the explorations done for those disciplines I identified the public sector as promising context for my master research, as it was a new frontier for design, with a lot of opportunity and challenges that could be further explored.

The government is confronted with issues of increasing complexity such as climate change, migration and aging population. These ‘wicked’ problems are a “class of social system problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values, and where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly confusing” (Rittel, 1960 in Buchanan, 1992). And there are reasons to worry about the capacity of the public institutions to adapt to the changing landscape of the world we live in (Bourgon, 2014).

Additional drivers for transforming the way public sector bodies approach public issues are a) the growing expectation of citizens for more efficient and responsive public services; b) the incorporation of new information and communication technologies, and global trends; c) the notion of public value, democracy and legitimacy is changing and d) the public resources are not sufficient to cover the ‘wicked’ public and social challenges.

Over the past decade there has been an increasing interest in designbased approaches such as user-centred design, user experience, service design and design thinking in public sector and government contexts (Kimbell and Macdonald, 2015). This can be applied to deliver public good in the format of well-designed services. In doing so with a systemic and human-centered perspective, design can transform the way public sector bodies approach public issues in a deeper way, such as building internal design capabilities and influencing the policy decision-making and implementation processes (Design Council, 2013).

The Head of design for the UK government, Louise Downe, wrote about how the ‘wave’ of service digitization in the public sector can be an entry point to service design in the public sector, holding the opportunity to go beyond the design of digital interfaces and transform the sector (Downe, 2016).

INTRODUCTION

“To make services work for users, they need to be designed with users in mind from the very beginning. This means looking at policy, design and delivery, and, ultimately, joining up the many different parts of government working on these. Service design is a tool that can be used to do this. To deliver effective services, government has to stop thinking in departmental silos. Users don’t care about the structure of government. They don’t care which department or agency does what. They just want to get things done.” (Downe, 2016) A number of countries, including Australia, United States, Finland, and the United Kingdom have started to develop the tools and capabilities to look at how end-to-end public services can be designed. The UK Government Digital Services agency (GDS) has developed a series of common components that can be used to make different services governmentwide easier and cheaper to run. Such as the unified a payments platform GOV.UK Pay and the GOV.UK Notify, which enable direct communication via emails, text messages and letters to the service users.

For example, in the United States, the Citizenship & Immigration Services digitized the immigration applications and requests achieving a user satisfaction rate of 93% on the new online green card renewal application process. The United States Digital Service (USDS) launched a new digital application for health care at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Previously, less than 10% of applicants used the Veterans Online application due to system requirements. The form would not open for 70% of users, because they were using Chrome, Safari or Firefox as a browser, instead of Internet Explorer. A month after the application launch more than 11,600 veterans used it to apply for health coverage, receiving coverage in less than 10 minutes.

However, despite the potential impact and the apparent interest in designbased approaches for tackling public sector challenges, only a small portion of public sector bodies around the world are in fact conducting service design or other design approaches. This is due to a variety of reasons, but the lack of education in this area and limited access to professionals that can bridge design and policymaking is among the major future challenges for design in public sector innovation.

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PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION

DESIGN

DESIGN EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION

A study from the Design Council (2012) revealed that even five years ago, public sector services were already the biggest client of service design. As the use of design in the public realm increases, the demand for capacitated professionals increases as well. According to thought leaders in the context of public sector innovation such as Christian Bason (2013), Sabine Junginger (2014, 2015) and Anna Whicher (2016), the use of design in the public realm will increase, and design education is not yet prepared to meet new demand for capacitated professionals. Furthermore, besides capacitating professionals for the latent emerging demand, design education can also support the integration of the design and policymaking fields, developing “new hybrid ways of working together” (Kimbel, 2015).

The Design Council (2013) acknowledges the importance of investigating intersections between design education and public sector innovation. The recommendations for further research directions of its report ‘Design for the public good’ include “opportunities for collaboration between design [high education institutions] and public bodies” and “systematic building of policy, business and social knowledge into design education” among the issues that require either more research, development or collaborative action (Design Council, 2013).

The last couple of years saw the emergence of public sector innovationoriented programmes and courses in design schools, such as the Design for Government, founded in 2014 as part of the Creative Sustainability Master programme at Aalto University and the Parsons’ DESIS Lab, from the Transdisciplinary design Master programme, Parsons New School of Design in New York.

Both of these examples follow a pedagogical approach of client-driven project development (Hey et al., 2011) – in which an external partner provides a “real-life” challenge to be developed with or by the students and researchers – and a design studio or lab model (Koskinen et al., 2011) – which are bordered, controlled and detached environments for experimentation.

However, except for efforts such as the work from DESIS network (Manzini and Staszowski, 2015), the academic labs or studios role in public sector innovation has not yet received much attention in research. Especially, regarding the internal structures, processes of collaboration and, the challenges faced by the labs and the student teams.

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In summary, this research focused on the collaboration between students and external partners from public sector bodies through the development of practical, hands-on projects in design schools in the attempt to investigate (1) how client-driven projects in design schools can contribute to public sector innovation and (2) how design education can be used as a means to foster collaboration between designers and public bodies.

THE RESEARCH The present research had three phases: contextual exploration, preliminary research and in-depth research. It was based on the “Research Through Design” approach and used qualitative methods of inquiry for data collection and analysis, by means of both primary research methods – original research that they generate – and secondary research – research findings that have been previously published by an outside party.

The purpose of my study was to raise awareness about the potential contribution that design education can bring to public sector innovation and for the the development design practice and research in this emerging field. With the objectives of (a) increasing the contribution of existing collaborations between design schools and public sector bodies that may not be aware of the value of design for the public sector beyond ‘solving discrete problems’ and (b) fostering more educational programmes in design with this focus.

Therefore, this research is relevant to the design community of practice, design educators and researchers interested in the intersection between design and public sector innovation.

INTRODUCTION

THESIS STRUCTURE

The first part of this thesis defines the context and the problem space.

It starts with brief definitions of public sector innovation and the design space in which this research is positioned.

Then, I examine the drivers for public sector innovation and the use of design-based approaches in the public sector, highlighting the major challenges. Finally, the opportunity space of design education is explored, indicating its current state, the relevance of further research and the research questions are defined.

The second part of the thesis documents the research journey.

First, the methodological approach is defined and justified.

Then, the complete journey is illustrated with the different research phases and each phase is described with an indication of its objectives, the methods applied and the main insights.

The third part is dedicated to the discussion about the results from the research.

In this chapter, I will describe the case studies, interpret the findings, establish connections between the two individual cases and discuss the findings in the light of the hypothesis and the research questions.

Conclusion The final part of the thesis summarises the study, indicates the limitations of the research, as well as the implications of the findings, indication of future research and practical application.

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Context and opportunity space

SECTION

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

SOME KEY DEFINITIONS

PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION AND DESIGN

DESIGN FOR PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

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RESEARCH QUESTION

This research was built on the hypothesis that environments in design schools which are dedicated for the collaboration between students and external partners from public sector bodies, through the development of practical, hands-on projects, have the potential to contribute to the current (and emerging) movement of public sector innovation.

SECTION

How can client driven projects in design schools contribute to public sector innovation?

How can design education be used as a means to foster the collaboration between designers and public bodies?

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SOME KEY DEFINITIONS

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

PUBLIC SECTOR In order to understand the research question, first, the public sector is defined. After that, innovation in the field of the public sector is explained.

According to the Investment and Financial Dictionary InvestWords*, public sector is defined as: “The part of the economy concerned with providing basic government services. The composition of the public sector varies by country, but in most countries the public sector includes such services as the police, military, public roads, public transit, primary education and healthcare for the poor. The public sector might provide services that non-payer cannot be excluded from (such as street lighting), services which benefit all of society rather than just the individual who uses the service (such as public education), and services that encourage equal opportunity.”1

PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION Innovation is often perceived as a way of conceptualizing positive progress driven by new ideas, products, processes, services or systems, thus enabling solutions that meet new requirements or societal needs (Christiansen, 2013). Within the public sector, Osborne & Brown (2005 in De Vries, Bekkers and Tummers, 2014) define innovation as “the introduction of new elements into a public service - in the form of new knowledge, a new organization, and/or new management or processual skills, which represents discontinuity with the past” (ibid.).

Some authors add that innovation can contribute to increase the improvement of service and problem-solving capacity (Damanpour & Schneider, 2009; Walker et al., 2011; Walker & Boyne, 2006 as cited in De Vries, Bekkers and Tummers, 2014) and highlight the emphasis on the outcomes generated and not the invented idea or method (Mulgan & Albury, 2003).

Jesper Christiansen (2013) concludes that public sector innovation can include the initiation of an innovation project, the facilitation of an

* Investment and Financial Dictionary InvestWords http://www.investorwords.com/3947/ public_sector.html#ixzz4hnLkJtIG

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innovative process and the creation of public innovations. He compares it to a ‘mobilizing metaphor’ (Shore & Wright, 1997, in Christiansen, 2013) such as national symbols or corporate branding: “It works as a fundamental ‘organizing principle’ much similar to many policy development processes where particular concepts or ideas are presented as the inevitable path forward under the given circumstances.

However, in this case, ‘the inevitable path’ is not a clear policy plan waiting to be implemented. Rather, it is an agenda of radical change oriented in many different directions.” Christiansen, 2013).

PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION AND PUBLIC INNOVATION Innovative practices initiated by a public entity serve a public purpose. An explicit public purpose gives meaning to government actions and legitimacy to government decisions. It also opens up the potential for co-operation across and beyond government by working with the private sector, civil society, communities and citizens themselves (Voorberg, Bekkers, and Tummers, 2014 in Bourgon, 2014). Therefore, each government intervention affect the public, private and civic spheres inter-relation.

Independently of the impact achieved and the ability to predict the impact, the aim is to generate solutions to the social challenges. Therefore, government interventions are directly related to public innovation.

(Bourgon, 2014) Public sector innovation is innovation in the public sector. It explores how to improve systems and practices in order to find new and better ways of providing public services. The most significant ones are are those that contribute to building the capacity of government for public innovation. For instance: # adapting to changing circumstances and the changing needs of citizens; # building the capacity of government to invent solutions to the problems we are facing as a society; # generating a better future and improve human conditions. (ibid.)

Hence, public sector innovation is a means for public innovation.

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

DESIGN The word “design” is ambiguous, as it covers both planning of products and systems, and also what most other European languages would loosely call “formgiving.” (Lakatos, 1970 in Koskinen et al., 2011). Herbert Simon's (1996) statement is often to define the nature of the design act: “Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones” (Herbert, 1996).

Over the past decade there has been increasing interest in design-based approaches in public sector and government contexts (Kimbell and Macdonald, 2015). As design-based approaches, Kimbell means "usercentred design, user experience, service design and design thinking" (ibid.).

Design Thinking is defined by Gruber and his colleagues as “a humancentered approach to innovation that puts the observation and discovery of often highly nuanced, even tacit, human needs right at the forefront of the innovation process” (Gruber et al., 2015).

Birgit Mager and Tung-Jung David explain that "service design aims at designing services that are useful, usable and desirable from the user perspective, and efficient, effective and different from the provider perspective. It is strategic approach that helps providers to develop clear strategic positioning for their service offerings. Services are systems that involve many different influential factors, so service design takes holistic approach in order to get an understanding of the system and the different actors within the system.” (Mager and Sung, 2011).

In the report "Restarting Britain 2" the Design Commission identifies the design process and an innovation process, "one that approaches problems from the ground up and carries through solutions to implementation" (Design Commission, 2013). The report also identifies four different ways in which design is referred to in a public sector innovation context : Service design, Strategic design, Design thinking and Social design.

In this research, the term design will be used to refer to these 'design-based approaches' used in the public sector. In exceptional cases – referring to specifically to one of these approaches, or to a different approach than cited here – it will be expanded upon.

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PUBLIC INNOVATION AND DESIGN

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

DRIVERS OF PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION Most public institutions have always tried to fulfill their public mission, and this is reflected on many innovations that shape our society. To start answering this question I will quote Alex Robert, an Innovation Specialist, OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation: "Once upon a time, public sector organizations faced an environment where: # A lot of their work was highly standardized and relatively routine; # There were new challenges and problems, but there were relatively clear lines of accountability and responsibility; # Issues tended to be relatively slow moving, with some time taken before most political issues registered and became dominant issues needing a response; # There was recognition that agencies housed considerable expertise and could be expected to know what could or should be done; # They could plan with a fair degree of confidence." (Roberts, 2016)

Observing the current public sector environment, the previous cited characteristics appear to be past of a 'fairy tale'. The current situation is the opposite and the public sector institutions are being challenged to rethink the way they deliver and develop services and policies. Within this context, there is a mixture of opportunity and demand for the development of new ways of doing and thinking within the public realm, related to a confluence of aspects such as: a. The growing expectation of citizens for better public services.

This aspect can be related to the increased focus on user-centered practice in the development of products, services and systems over the last decades in combination with new technological advances. The efficiency and customization experienced in the private sector are expected and demanded in the public services as well. b. The incorporation of new information and communication technologies and global trends.

An aspect that can be seen as a pressure to keep in pace with the technological advancements and a hyper connected world, or as an opportunity to take advantage of its benefits, going beyond mere

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accommodation. Both cases are challenges for the sector, that is usually left in a reactive position: neither being an early adopter of the most innovative tech trends and tools, nor being able to act proactively about the risks that some new approaches can bring to society (e.g. side effects of innovative models like Airbnb and Uber). c. The notion of public value, democracy and legitimacy is changing.

On one hand, these changes are an imperative to cope with the declining trust from citizens in their governments (e.g. According to OECD only 40% of citizens trust their government1; the US2 and Brazil3, the public trust in government is among the lowest in history, respectively, 20% and 15%).

On the other hand, they are inspired by theories of ‘new governance’ such as the relational state (Cooke and Muir, 2012), open government initiatives (O'Reilly, 2013). In which the active participation of the citizens is in the core of the public sector mission. In this case, public value, legitimacy and democracy acquire a new value as the role of the state starts changing from the provider to the enabler. Instead of being responsible for solving the problems, it serves as a platform that facilitates the integration of partners and gives support to the co-development of public services. (e.g.

Place to Experiment4 is a platform developed by the Finnish government to foster collaborative practices and provide funding for public innovation experiments). d. The public resources are not sufficient to cover the complex public and social challenges.

In the first place, the desire to innovate the public sector has a long history which is sometimes linked to reform programs in order to meet budget cutbacks (Bekkers, Tummers and Voorberg, 2013).

Furthermore, the government is currently confronted by issues of increasing complexity. And there are reasons to worry about the capacity of the public institutions to adapt to the changing landscape of the world we live in (Bourgon, 2014). Challenges such as climate change, migration, aging population are part of the agenda of public sector organizations. For instance, in September 2015, 193 world leaders agreed to work for the 17 1. http://www.oecd.org/gov/trust-in-government.htm 2. http://www.people-press.org/2017/05/03/public-trust-in-government-1958-2017/ 3. http://www.gallup.com/poll/190481/brazilians-trust-country-leadership-record-low.aspx 4. https://www.kokeilunpaikka.fi/

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

Global Goals for Sustainable Development set by the United Nation_#. These issues can be referred to as “wicked” problems (Buchanan,1992) and require new and different perspectives often bringing several actors to work together.

In 2014, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – an intergovernmental economic organisation with 35 member countries – organised the conference “Innovating the Public Sector: from Ideas to Impact” in Paris.

During the conference the following key questions about were raised: "What can we do to ensure that the capacity of government to invent solutions will keep pace with the increasing complexity of the challenges we are facing as a society?

What do we need to do to build the innovative capacity of our public organizations to continuously uncover new and better ways to fulfill their mission?

What can we do to ensure that our public institutions and organizations are populated with innovative leaders able to unleash the creative power of the public sector and society?" (Bourgon, 2014).

According to the OECD (Daglio et al., 2015) the conventional approach to project management in public sector bodies share some common features: # Change comes from the top. The actions are planned against rational assumptions and future projections based on stable current states. # A change process is initiated against a perceived break-down requiring corrective actions aimed at reinstalling the previously prevailing equilibrium. # Contractual arrangement is the main instrument in the relationship with other stakeholders. # Service design is structured around existing organisational requirements (Daglio et al., 2015).

TYPES OF PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION As in other emerging fields of research, the adoption of non standardized terminology challenge the identification, categorization, assessment and comparison of the innitiatives. When studying the different innovation

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types, De Vries et al. (2014) observed that various studies define the same innovations differently. For instance, e-government initiatives depending on the study, could be categorized as a policy innovation or a technological innovation. Despite the blurred barriers between categories already in use, the authors adopted the following terminology and definitions to classify four types of public sector innovation: "Process innovations are focused on the improvement of the quality and efficiency of internal and external business processes.

They change relationships amongst organizational members and affect rules, roles, procedures and structures among organizational members (Damanpour & Gopalakrishnan, 2001).

Product or service innovations are focused on the creation of new public services or products.

Governance innovation are directed at the development of new forms and processes order to address specific societal problems. This includes cooperation with other partners such as citizens and private companies.

Conceptual innovations occur in relation to the introduction of new concepts, frames of reference or even new paradigms that help to reframe the nature of specific problems as well as their possible solutions" (de Vries, Bekkers and Tummers, 2014).

THE BENEFITS OF DESIGN FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR Over the past decade there has been increasing interest in design-based approaches in public sector and government contexts (Kimbell and Macdonald, 2015, Design Commission, 2013, Mulgan, 2014, Bason, 2015, IDEO and Nesta, 2017, SDN, 2016). Although design alone can't solve all the challenges of the public sector, it can influence the way its challenges are framed, and support the sector in its search for solutions. Design-based approaches such as service design and design thinking can be applied to deliver public good in format of well designed services. But in doing so with a systemic and human-centered view, it has the potential to change internal processes as well. The use of design has the potential to embed valuable and impactful practices that are not common to the conventional approaches of the sector public sector.

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

Structure communication in complex situations Most of the the issues addressed by the public sector fall into the category of "wicked" problems, which are described as a “class of social system problems which are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values, and where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly confusing” (Rittel, 1960 in Buchanan, 1992).

In this context, the capability of design to translate seemingly intangible things such as "signs, things, actions, thoughts", problems and systems into concrewte visualizations in the form of "sketch, blueprint, flow chart, graph, three-dimensional model, or other product proposal" is of great value (Buchanan, 1992).

As the Chief Executive of Nesta, Geoff Mulgan mentions, "clear visualisations of problems, and of potential solutions, can have a surprising impact in cultures dominated by blocks of prose, and the occasional data chart." (Mulgan, 2014).

Focus on the citizens Although the services and policies are developed for the citizens, it does not mean that the development process is built with their perspective in focus.

In reality, the traditional policymaking and service development processes are detached from the way the user experiences the services and most public organizations are far from having the citizens' perspective at the center of their efforts (Bason, 2015 and Design Council, 2013).

In contrast, the human centered perspective is at the core of user-centered design approaches such as service design and design thinking. The engagement with the citizens in the beginning of the process increases the chances to meet the real needs of the users and generate more effective solutions (Mulgan, 2014; IDEO and Nesta, 2017).

Useful practices, such as designing for “extreme users” in mind produces more inclusive services than designing for "average users" (Design Council, 2013). Furthermore, the methods of engagement with the users "bring freshness and clarity to public services that often take their existing frameworks for granted." (Mulgan, 2014).

Increasingly in recent experiences, this engagement can go beyond

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"empathic methods" (IDEO and Nesta, 2017) of field observations and interviews. It has the potential to engage the users to collaborate actively in the development, production phases of the service, in a way of legitimizing decision-making, providing ownership (Drew, 2016; Bason, 2012 and 2014) Additionally, it has the potential to increase the resources available to achieve social goals, as the case of 'people-powered services', in which the people is involved in the delivery of the service (Clarence and Gabriel, 2014).

PUBLIC SECTOR POINT OF VIEW: TRANSACTION BASED

WHAT CITIZENS EXPERIENCE

PROCESS

SERVICE

POLICY

WHAT GOVERNMENT SAYS

DESIGN THINKING POINT OF VIEW: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

This scheme shows the different directions in which the design thinking and the public sector approach policymaking. Using a citizen perspective, the first builds relationships and the ladder, has a transaction based approach (adapted from IDEO and Nesta, 2017).

Generate more disruptive ideas Design tools for ideation have a strong impact on creativity, structuring the generation of a big amount and more disruptive ideas (Mulgan, 2014). A study about innovation done by the design agency IDEO with more than 100 companies showed that a team that works with more than 3 ideas in parallel has more chances to deliver a innovative and working solution in the end of the process (Schwab, 2017). Therefore, fostering ideation processes and further development of the ideas can impact the results achieved.

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

"Creativity is the generation of new ideas. Innovation is the successful exploitation of new ideas. Design is what links creativity and innovation. It shapes ideas to become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers.” (Sir George Cox, former UK Design Council Chairman, in Design Council, 2013)

Test and iterate possible solutions The Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman emphasizes failure as a guiding principle for the work in natural sciences: “We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we make progress.” Designers too tend to favour rapid prototyping and iteration in the human-centered design process (Design Council, 2013 and IDEO, 2017).

However, the concept of 'learning by doing' is not part of the traditional bureaucratic practice of the public sector institutions. Rather than spending a long time in detailed planning and invest a lot of resources to test a final version of the service, they could benefit from small-scale prototypes and iteration rounds to shape the best solution. Therefore, the introduction of the iterative aspect of the design-based approaches can reduce costs, the risk of unintended consequences and failure to meet the intended needs.

Another situation in which prototypes are useful is when "there is no previous data or best practices to build upon." (Design Council, 2013). These moments are becoming more common as the public sector "is increasingly challenged to be responsive and act rapidly towards emerging or unseen issues" (ibid.). In these cases, testing iterations of possible solutions can be a useful way to learn about the problem itself.

Foster a systemic approach The 'wicked' problems faced by the public sector are complex and can not be addressed within institutional and disciplinary silos. And design methods offer "uniquely effective ways of understanding which teams, departments, experts and specialists are relevant to a problem, and engaging them in collaboration" (Design Council, 2013).

The traditional public service design is characterised by “disjointed incrementalism" – e.i. "the adaptation or alteration of services by changing

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political drivers, professional fashions, shifting institutional norms and boundaries, and the biased lessons of past experience." (Design Council, 2013). This is reinforced by the gap between policy making and policy implementation and the siloed structure of the sector (Mulgan, 2014 and Bason, 2015 and 2013). Instead of "disjointedly patching together incremental solutions to problems as they arise" design takes the entire system into account "to redefine the problem from the ground up" (IDEO, 2017).

To illustrate the topic, let's take an example given by Mulgan (2014): street homelessness. He raises the reflection about the underlying problem of the issue. "Is [it] a lack of housing or is it in fact more to do with mental illness, drink and drugs or family breakdown?" (Mulgan, 2014) The systems thinking approach adopted by service design prompts the identification of the proper questions, reframing the problem, in order to arrive to address it more effectively.

LEVELS IN WHICH DESIGN CAN BE APPLIED TO PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION The Danish Design Centre (DDC) developed the 'Design Ladder' in 2003 as a tool to measure the level of design integration in Danish businesses. The 'Design Ladder' visualised the ascending levels of sophistication in terms of how companies used design. (Design Council, 2013).

NON-DESIGN Design is not applied systematically

DESIGN AS FORM-GIVING Design is used as finish, form-giving or styling in new products/ services

DESIGN AS STRATEGY Design is a key strategic element in DESIGN AS PROCESS our business model Design is an integrated element in development processes

Danish Design Ladder: four stages of design maturity (Danish Design Centre, 2016)

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

"Stage One: No Design. Design plays little or no role in product or service development. For instance, product and service development is performed by personnel who are not design professionals. The utility of the end-user tends not to be considered.

Stage Two: Design as Styling. Design is only relevant in terms of aesthetic considerations such as style, appearance and ergonomics.

Sometimes professional designers may be involved but styling will be predominantly purchased internally or from professionals in other sectors.

Stage Three: Design as a Process. Design is considered in terms of a process or method in product or service output but is only employed at the initial stages of development. The design solution is procured externally and is adapted to the requirements of the end-user using a multidisciplinary approach.

Stage Four: Design as Strategy. Design is integral to a company’s continuous renewal of their business concept as a means of encouraging innovation. The design process is fused with the company’s key objectives and plays a role at every stage of development.

This tool inspired the Design Council (2013) to develop a similar diagnostic tool for public sector bodies and nations to work out their levels of design use and define a roadmap for progress. The 'Public Sector Design Ladder' visualises how design can be applied to the public sector in 3 different levels: "1. Solving discrete problems / service innovation At this step, the design projects are one-offs and design thinking is not embedded in the commissioning organizations. Public sector service design projects fit into this category. Projects can be very small and have very wide systemic implications. They can tackle societal problems such as malnutrition, among the elderly, violence in hospitals, and worklessness, among many others.

This category also covers design's application as a way of making technology useful and usable for people. (e.g. digitization of services and processes).

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2. Design as a capability Here, public sector employees not only work with designers, they understand and use design thinking themselves. Many design techniques are easily transferrable to non-designers and can create significant efficiencies as part of day-to-day operations.

Staff: # use the skills to solve numerous problems too small to merit the hiring of designers. # gain a shift in perspective in seeing things from the point of view of the citizens they serve. # become more adept at hiring design teams when required.

3. Design for policy Here design thinking is used by policymakers often facilitated by designer. This is a relatively new discipline and much of the work on it so far has been experimental, but the logic of designs application here is strong given that it meets some key policymakers needs: # A joined up process, from policy making to implementation # A low-cost way of mitigating risk through prototyping # A way of getting an overview of a system # A way of cutting across departmental silos and engaging people from outside government too" (Design Council, 2013).

DESIGN AS A CAPABILITY

DESIGN FOR POLICY

SOLVING DISCRETE PROBLEMS Design teams are hired for individual projects tackling discrete problems.

These can be very large and have systemic implications, but the projects are one-offs.

Design thinking is not part of the culture of the commissioning organisations.

Here design thinking is used by policymakers, often facilitated by designers, to overcome common structural problems in traditional policymaking such as highrisk pilots and poorly joined up processes.

Design is part of the culture of public bodies and the way they operate and make decisions.

This increases employees’ skill at commissioning designers, but they also understand and use design thinking themselves.

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

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THE AWARENESS AND INTEREST IN DESIGN FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR A number of countries like the United Kingdom, Finland and Norway lead the way in integrating design in the public sector. This is possible to be seen in the number of cases, specialised teams and innovation units. (Design Council, 2013; Design Commission, 2013; Puttick, et al., 2014; SDN, 2016). And it is also reflected in other aspects like incentives, opportunities and resources – such as governmental budget, research funding, opportunities for engaging in practice and educational offers. However, a research to assess the service design maturity level of different countries (Mager and Alonso, 2016) indicates that awareness and interest in design for the public sector is present in several countries.

COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNITY AND LOCAL INITIATIVES

RESEARCH

IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND COMMUNICATION

EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

FUTURE EXPECTATION

COOPERATION BETWEEN BUSINESS, ACADEMIA AND GOVERNMENT

COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNITY AND LOCAL INITIATIVES

RESEARCH

IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND COMMUNICATION

EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

FUTURE EXPECTATION

COOPERATION BETWEEN BUSINESS, ACADEMIA AND GOVERNMENT

Results from online survey conducted from July to August, 2016. Participants answered using a scale from 1 to 5. Questions: “What is the level of collaboration of the public sector with the community and local initiatives? What is the status of organization of events and conferences about the topic? How would you see the impact of service design in the public sector evolving in the next 5 years? What is the level of cooperation between business, academia and government?

How is the impact of service design on projects being measured and communicated? How is the research scenario of Service Design in the Public Sector?” (Mager and Alonso, 2016)

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COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNITY AND LOCAL INITIATIVES

EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

FUTURE EXPECTATION

RESEARCH

IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND COMMUNICATION

COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNITY AND LOCAL INITIATIVES

RESEARCH

EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

FUTURE EXPECTATION

COOPERATION BETWEEN BUSINESS, ACADEMIA AND GOVERNMENT

IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND COMMUNICATION

COOPERATION BETWEEN BUSINESS, ACADEMIA AND GOVERNMENT

EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNITY AND LOCAL INITIATIVES

EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

NETHERLANDS

COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNITY AND LOCAL INITIATIVES

RESEARCH

FUTURE EXPECTATION

RESEARCH

FUTURE EXPECTATION

IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND COMMUNICATION

COOPERATION BETWEEN BUSINESS, ACADEMIA AND GOVERNMENT

IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND COMMUNICATION

COOPERATION BETWEEN BUSINESS, ACADEMIA AND GOVERNMENT

COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNITY AND LOCAL INITIATIVES

EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

COLLABORATION WITH COMMUNITY AND LOCAL INITIATIVES

EVENTS AND CONFERENCES

RESEARCH

IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND COMMUNICATION

FUTURE EXPECTATION

COOPERATION BETWEEN BUSINESS, ACADEMIA AND GOVERNMENT

RESEARCH

IMPACT MEASUREMENT AND COMMUNICATION

FUTURE EXPECTATION

COOPERATION BETWEEN BUSINESS, ACADEMIA AND GOVERNMENT

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

Despite the interest in design in these different countries, only a small portion of public sector bodies around the world is in fact conducting service design or other design approaches. As Geoff Mulgan (2014) points out, the majority of services offers and changes being done in public sector does not involve designers nor explicitly design methods. Design still remain consigned to fairly marginal pilots and experiments (Mulgan, 2014).

Chelsea Mauldin, Executive Director of Public Policy Lab, agrees. When asked about the use of design-based approaches in public sector bodies in the United States, she stated that "some vanishingly small percentage of the public policy and the public service initiatives in United States are being influenced by design work. It would be generous to say 5%." Adding that "there’s a huge capacity for these methodologies and approaches to expand” (SDN, 2016).

CHALLENGES OF EMBEDDING DESIGN-BASED APPROACHES IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR Barriers to public sector innovation Public sector innovation is still a new field for design and the awareness of the benefits that design can bring to the public sector is not yet acknowledged by the major part of the public servants and government representatives. Christian Bason, the Chief Executive of the Danish Design Centre (DDC) and Helle Vibeke Carstensen, the Director of Innovation of the Ministry of Taxation (2012), highlight the some of the key barriers for public sector innovation such as: # The requirement to respect citizen’s rights and equality before the law implies that it can be difficult to conduct experiments, which temporarily change the rights or benefits of certain groups of citizens; # Incentives for sharing tasks and knowledge amongst public sector organisations are not very high; # Often, funding for new and risky public ventures is extremely limited; # Many of them still are very hierarchical and bureaucratic; # In most countries, the public sector is highly sectorialised – vertically between administrative levels, and horizontally between distinct policy domains;

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# Fear of divergence can hinder the exploration of new ideas; # Risk-taking is typically not embraced, but discouraged; # Too many innovations stay locked in their location of origin, not spread, scaled or diffused. (Carstensen and Bason, 2012)

Design aspects that can be barriers for its integration within the public sector context The Design Council (2013) recognizes that some characteristics of design can be barriers to its entrance in the public realm: # The term 'design' itself is confusing, embodying a multitude of meanings. # In some countries (e.g. Brazil), the design profession is not regulated and represented in the same way as other professions (such as law and engineering). This aspect can make it harder for non-designers, or prospective design commissioners, to understand where to go, and to feel assured of quality and impact. # It is not clear that a sufficient proportion of the design community is ready and prepared to respond to this massive public service challenge, and the career paths that prepare designers to work in this way are limited. # The measurable impact of applying design to public service challenges has rarely been consistently documented. (Design Council, 2013)

Current major challenges for design-based approaches in the public sector context Furthermore, in an article published by the website Stanford Social Innovation Review, Christian Bason (2013) highlights three major challenges for design in the public sector that stand out on a global scale: a) creating authorizing environments; b) opening up bureaucracy to coproduction; and c) building and accessing capacity. (Bason, 2013) a. Creating authorizing environments.

Although new entities (“labs,” “centers,” and “spaces”) are created to help design take root, there is still a formidable challenge in embedding this approach within government. Ensuring funding, anchoring change in the organization, getting management buy-in, and actually executing the new ideas and solutions are all difficult.

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

b. Opening up bureaucracy to co-production.

Human-centered design forces organizations to take a much broader, collaborative, and inclusive view of who needs to be part of the process of co-creating initiatives that will actually work in the real world. It is severely challenging to the command-and-control logic of hierarchical organizations and to the linear (if unrealistic) logic of the policy-making process. c. Building and accessing capacity.

Public sector organizations cannot rely solely on internal expertise for design-led innovation; they simply do not possess enough people (if any) with those skills. Design education has yet to catch up with the growing need for service and systems design, and designers need to learn how to interact more effectively with government. (Bason, 2013) The problem space, or opportunity space of the present research builds upon the gap in design education, mentioned by Bason in the third challenge. In the following chapter, this topic will be further explored, and the consequences and possibilities of design education for public sector innovation will be unfolded.

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DESIGN FOR PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION IN DESIGN EDUCATION

"Design education has yet to catch up with the growing need for service and systems design, and designers need to learn how to interact more effectively with government." (Bason, 2013)

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

41

THE PUBLIC SECTOR'S DEMAND FOR PROFESSIONALS WITH DESIGN EXPERTISE

According to a research from the Design Council (2012), public sector services were already the biggest client of service design five years ago. For instance, the United Kingdom Government Digital Services (GDS) employs 250 designers (SDN, 2016).

Public sector services Telecommunications Financial services Other services Business services IT and software services Retails and distribution Don’t know Hotels and catering Energy services Source: 98 responses Source: 98 responses

0

10

20

30

40

Service design client sectors, Scoping Study on Service Design: Arts & Humanities Research Council (question 07), Design Council, ESRC, Final Report 2012

Anna Whicher (2016), Head of Design Policy at the International Design and Research Centre (PDR) at Cardiff Metropolitan University, acknowledges the dramatic change in the landscape for design policy in Europe since 2010. She relates that to the inclusion of design, for the first time, in the European Commission’s policy Innovation Union, the roadmap for stimulating innovation across Europe. Whicher suggests that the "coming years will see more widespread use of design within the public sector, policy and enterprises" (Whicher, 2016). And the growing demand for design services, will challenge design research, practice and education, since the "increased use of design can create a scenario where

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there is not sufficient design expertise to respond to market demands" (ibid.). Therefore, she recommends that "design education must be ready to meet new demand by rejuvenating curricula and adapting their education provisions to match the needs of fast-changing market" (ibid.).

DESIGN AND PUBLIC POLICYMAKING: IN THE SEARCH FOR NEW HYBRID WAYS OF WORKING The researcher Sabine Junginger published two articles concerning design education and the public sector, one in the book 'Design for Policy' (2014) and the other in the Design for Europe blog (2015). In both articles she raises a perspective about the gap of design education for public sector innovation that goes beyond fulfilling the demand for professionals. Instead, it concerns the development of the design field of research, practice and education focused on public challenges.

"Around the world, design is emerging as an essential activity that not only produces consumer goods but also leads to a range of important design outcomes in the public sector – in the form of public services and public policies. Yet, there is surprisingly little information available on how different design skills, different design methods or even different modes of design thinking can support policymakers, public managers and the many civil servants involved in these design activities.

In addition, the question of what kind of design education is relevant for the public sector has yet to be answered."

(Junginger, 2015) The author notes the raise of 'public innovation labs' offering educational approaches tailored to the needs of the public sector and the challenges civil servants face. (Junginger, 2015).

Public innovation labs, which are also referred to as policy labs, innovation teams, innovation labs, innovation units and innovation funds come in a variety of formats. (Puttick, 2014). The European Commission (2016) defines policy labs as: "dedicated teams, structures, or entities focused on designing public policy through innovative methods that involve all

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

stakeholders in the design process. Practitioners describe these efforts as design or evidence-based approaches, which places the end users at the center of each stage of the policy-making process. After proposals are formulated, they are tested and validated through various forms of experimentation. In addition to co-creating and re-imagining policies and public programs, Policy Labs also undertake a wide range of activities such as preparing prospective studies, organizing creativity workshops, or instilling a sense of empowerment in civil servants through training and other learning activities" (European Commission, 2016).

Junginger acknowledges the importance of these lab's presence and actions as an "indicative of the awareness of human-centered design in the public sector" (Junginger, 2014). Nonetheless, they can only "fill this educational gap on a local level" (ibid.). She argues that, leaving design education to the innovation labs is not sustainable.

Firstly because any innovation initiative actively seeking to effect changes in the way we make and implement policies. Therefore, they need to satisfy a myriad of demands at the same time, such as the operational aspects of their initiative, the political and strategic justifications for their work, and they have to do actual project work in order to be able to deliver ‘proof’ (Junginger, 2015).

And second, because the public sector is huge, and there is currently a need for people who can bridge design with policy, policy with design.

However, there are "hardly any design programmes that seriously engage with policy issues and prepare students to work within a government environment" (ibid.).

Junginger adds that "if we are seeking to change the way we go about policymaking and policy implementation, it is our task and challenge as design educators and design researchers to support these new public managers and the new policy makers" (Junginger, 2015). In order to achieve this, "new approaches need to be generated, envisioned and pursued proactively to give shape to future policies and desirable social outcomes" (ibid.)

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The researcher Lucy Kimbell (2015) adapted a model from a study of interdisciplinarity to analyse the relations between the design and policymaking in the UK Policy Lab, which identifies three ways in which disciplines engage: A) SERVICE MODE

one field (e.g. design) supports another (e.g. policy making) by providing the expertise - such as creating visualization of journeys, mapping issues, reframing questions.

B) CHALLENGE MODE:

one’s discipline way of approaching problems and solutions calls into question the assumptions, claims and methods of another.

C) PARTNER MODE

two or more fields integrate and combine resources resulting in new hybrid ways of doing things. (Barry et al. 2008 in Kimbel, 2015)

According to this model, the generation of the "new approaches" advocated

by Junginger (2014) can be achieved in the "partner mode", in which the design and policymaking disciplines "integrate and combine resources resulting in new hybrid ways of doing things" (Kimbel, 2015). In other words, besides capacitating professionals for the latent emerging demand, design education can also support the integration of the design and policymaking fields, developing new hybrid ways of working together.

The Design Council (2013) acknowledges the importance of investigating intersections between design education and public sector innovation.

The recommendations for further research directions, report 'Design for the public good', include "opportunities for collaboration between design [high education institutions] and public bodies" and "systematic building of policy, business and social knowledge into design education" among the issues that require either more research, development or collaborative action (Design Council, 2013).

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

DESIGN IN HIGHER EDUCATION ENGAGEMENT WITH PUBLIC SECTOR BODIES The emergence of public sector innovation-oriented programmes and courses in design schools The Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) Network is an international network of design labs committed to promoting design for social innovation and sustainability which believes that: "design schools (and, more generally, design-oriented universities) can become places where new visions are generated, new tools are defined and tested, and new projects are started and supported.

If a worldwide movement towards sustainability calls for the best possible use of all existing resources, design schools, with all their social capital in terms of students’ enthusiasm and faculty experience, should be considered a very promising social resource and a promoter of sustainable change" (Manzini and Staszowski, 2015).

During the last couple of years, it is possible to identify the emergence of design programmes focused on the engagement with policy issues and in preparation of students to work within a government environment start to appear, such as the Design for Government in Helsinki.

The Design for Government (DfG) is an studio model course that matches civil servants with multidisciplinary student design teams. The programme was founded in 2014 as part of the Creative Sustainability Master programme at Aalto University. It consists of a client-driven course in which students apply design methods to address complex governmental and public sector challenges by briefs commissioned by governmental departments and ministries in Finland.

Additionally, institutions that already offered service design and multidisciplinary design education are introducing projects in partnership with public entities with the policy and public sector innovation perspective such as the Parsons' DESIS Lab, from the Transdisciplinary design Master programme, Parsons New School of Design in New York. The project "Designing for Financial Empowerment", for instance was initiated by Parsons' DESIS Lab. It is a cross-sector initiative to explore how service

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design can be used to integrate financial empowerment services into existing human services, in collaboration with the City of New York, Citi Community Development (SDN, 2016).

NORWAY Oslo School of Architecture and Design

UNITED KINGDOM Royal College of Art King’s College London College of Communicaition Glasgow School of Arts

FINLAND Aalto University Design for Government Aalto Pro - programme

SPAIN Mondragon University

LATVIA Digitalguru.lv, Vidzemes augstskola

NETHERLANDS

UNITED STATES

TU Delft Universitat van Amsterdam

Austin Center for Design Parsons School of Design California College of the Arts Savannah College of Art and Design

SOUTH KOREA Ewha University AUSTRALIA

BRAZIL

RMIT University

EGC/UFSC

CHILE Escuela de Diseno

SOUTH AFRICA Bertha Centre for Social Innovation

It is possible to identify the raise of design educational programmes moving into the domain of public sector innovation. These examples are from online survey conducted from July to August, 2016. – Adapted from SDN, 2016).

Client-driven projects and the design lab model As cited above in the example of Parsons and Aalto, an approach to design education for public sector innovation takes place through practical collaborations between design universities and public sector institutions by means of client-driven or challenge-driven projects in which an external partner provides a "real-life" challenge to be developed with or by the students/researchers.

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

Recently, Mulgan, Townsley and Price (2016) wrote an article about the challenge-driven educational model and how real-life problems can fuel learning. The authors point out that these projects are an "important strand of change" in the model of university education. They "develop students by putting them up against difficult problems and challenges for which there are no established answers. Instead students to draw on many disciplines to solve them; they have to work in teams; and they have to collaborate with organisations outside higher education." Furthermore, this model "re-emphasise one of the founding principles of some ancient universities: a focus on questions rather than answers as the key to deep learning."

(Mulgan et. al, 2016).

The paper 'Professor-driven, student-driven, and client-driven design projects' suggests some of the advantages that students may gain from the client-driven design project experience. It defines client-driven design project as: "A design project in which the specifications are determined mainly by a client's needs will likely draw on more than what is taught in any one class. It will impose constraints and pressures preparing a student for a job involving design, including time pressures, cost containment pressures, and pressures of meeting important specifications. It will tend to encourage students to brainstorm for ideas and to consider alternative designs. It will tend to encourage adequate testing of the product. It may involve some opportunity for negotiation over the specifications. It will help the student acquire the habit of maintaining a customer focus." (Hey et al., 2011) These challenge-based projects can happen in a dedicated space, provided by the academic institution with educational purposes (i.e. there is a set of established "rules" for the collaboration – such as timeframe, participants and methodology – that are applied to several projects – that usually happen at the same timeframe). This setting can have different configurations, being a specific physical space (e.g. Parsons DESIS Lab) or an optional course within a program (e.g. Design for Government). The funding for the projects also varies. With possibilities that range from a unique funding covering all activities of that specific program or having the project sponsored by the external partners, covering the costs of the projects developed for them.

Despite the differences in the format and funding, these academic spaces have several aspects in common regarding the way they approach design

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and the collaboration, which are referred as design studio model or design lab model (Koskinen et al., 2011).

The role of these "design labs" in design research and education is explained in the book 'Design Research through Practice: From the Lab, Field, and Showroom'. They recall the first version of such models in design education, the Bauhaus studio model, which eventually "became too limited to respond to the demands of increasingly complex and growing industries." (Koskinen et al., 2011). The authors emphasize the bordered, controlled and detached environment of a design lab. Studying things in a laboratory means that something is taken out of its natural environment and brought into a controlled area where it can be subjected to experimentation (ibid.). And that environment creates a protection for experimentation: "The researcher manipulates the thing of interest in the lab to learn how people react to it while holding other things constant� (Koskinen et al., 2011).

In the context of public sector innovation, the important role played by policy labs, innovation teams, innovation labs, innovation units and innovation funds (Puttick, 2014) is recognised and explored in research (such as Puttick, 2014; Puttick et. al., 2014; Mulgan, 2014; Kimbel, 2015; Bason, 2012) and events (such as Labworks, 2015 and Lab Connections, 2016). And supported by a forthcoming initiative being developed (2017) by the innovation foundation Nesta, the i-school. Which aim is to support a number of governments and innovation labs on building better innovation capacity (Christiansen et. al., 2017).

However, except for efforts such as the cited work from DESIS network (Manzini and Staszowski, 2015), the academic labs or studios role in public sector innovation has not yet received much attention in research.

Especially, regarding the internal structures, processes of collaboration and, the challenges faced by the labs and the student teams.

This research builds on the hypothesis that spaces in design schools dedicated to the collaboration between students and external partners from public sector bodies, through the development of practical projects, have the potential to contribute to the current (and emerging) movement of public sector innovation.

CONTEXT AND OPPORTUNITY SPACE

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Research journey

SECTION

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

1. CONTEXTUAL EXPLORATION

2. PRELIMINARY RESEARCH

3. IN-DEPTH RESEARCH

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Research journey The present research is divided into three phases: contextual exploration, preliminary research and in-depth

1. CONTEXTUAL EXPLORATION WHAT WAS DONE The first research phase examined the context of public sector innovation and use of design-based approaches in the public sector.

research.

IN ORDER TO

It was based on the “Research

context.

Through Design” approach and used qualitative methods of inquiry for data collection and analysis, by means of both primary research methods – original research that they generate – and secondary research – research findings that have been previously

• Investigate and define the research • Investigate and define opportunity spaces for the research.

• Define the research question.

HOW • Literature review • Qualitative and quantitative questionnaire

published by an outside party. The

• Semi-structured interviews

following overview summarizes

OUTPUTS

the findings and results of each

• 'Design + Public Sector Innovation'

research phase, which will be further explained in the following chapters.

framework • Service Design Impact Report: Public Sector (publication in collaboration with the Service Design Network – Appendix A) MAIN INSIGHTS From the analysis of the first research phase, I propose a framework for design-based practices for public sector innovation.

NEXT STEPS The 'Design + Public Sector Innovation' framework will serve as a basis for the investigation and analysis of the contribution that design schools – most precisely dedicated spaces/moments to develop client-driven hands on projects in design schools – can achieve in the public sector innovation

2. PRELIMINARY RESEARCH WHAT WAS DONE The second research phase examined the research questions and the proposed framework in an exploratory exercise of scenario building and a participatory session using the scenarios as a participatory generative tool.

IN ORDER TO • Explore the context, the opportunity space and the research question.

• Test the application of the 'Design for Public Sector' framework.

• Explore potential formats of engagements between higher education in design and public sector bodies • Explore potential contributions of this engagements to public sector innovation.

• Understand the perception of the students, one of the main stakeholders of these proposed educational models using a participatory approach.

HOW • Future scenarios • Generative session MAIN INSIGHTS • Collaboration is regarded by the majority of the students as a means of designers and design school to achieve impact in society.

• The students' assumptions regarding these engagements can affect the contribution to public sector innovation.

• The lack of awareness about public sector innovation and the potential impact of using design-based approaches to address it, can hinder deeper levels of contribution, beyond 'discrete problem solving'.

OUTPUT KISD futures: Scenarios NEXT STEPS The exercise was important to understand the context, the framework and the relevance of the research. However, the level of the discussion was very superficial and lead the direction of the research to focus on real cases in which this engagements were already happening. In order to (a) understand how these collaborations happen; (b) investigate in which ways these engagements are contributing to public sector innovation; (c) identify collaboration issues that could affect the contribution to public sector innovation; (d) envision ways in which the contribution can be increased.

3. IN-DEPTH RESEARCH WHAT WAS DONE In the third research phase I investigated two design school environments dedicated to the engagement between students and public sector bodies through the development of practical, hands-on projects: ① The Design for Government, a design studio model course from the Creative Sustainability Master programme, Aalto University – Helsinki, Finland. ② The MediaLAB Amsterdam, a multidisciplinary studio from the School of Design & Communication, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences – Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

IN ORDER TO • Understand how these collaborations happen.

• Investigate in which ways these engagements are contributing to public sector innovation.

• Identify collaboration issues that could affect the contribution to public sector innovation.

• Envision ways in which the contribution can be increased.

HOW Instrumental case studies OUTPUTS • Collaboration journeys • Contribution assessment MAIN INSIGHTS • These engagements can contribute to the current (and emerging) movement of public sector innovation and moreover, to design education and design research in this context.

• Despite the stakeholders lack of awareness about public sector innovation in the context of the MediaLAB project in collaboration with the Municipality of Amsterdam, the engagement contributed to the three levels proposed by the 'Design + Public Sector Innovation' framework.

• The lack of awareness about the contributions can risk their identification and the accountability of the specific engagement with the design school.

• These environment have latent aspects that foster collaborative conditions, which are not offered by other players in the ecosystem of public sector innovation (such as design agencies and policy labs).

WHAT WAS DONE

DESIGN FOR GOVERNMENT

The Design for Government (DfG) case study was done by secondary research, by means of a content analysis of the material published by and about the programme. In order to investigate which conditions supported the engagement with public sector bodies and in which ways they impact the contribution to public sector innovation.

HOW Secondary research of online documentation

WHAT WAS DONE

MEDIALAB AMSTERDAM

The MediaLAB Amsterdam case study was done by primary research, using a set of participatory generative methods (Sanders, 2012) in order to (a) understand the stakeholders' perspective about the engagement in deeper levels, (b) identify engagement issues and (c) generate opportunities for the collaboration between the design school and public sector bodies.

During the 3 months in the field I had two levels of focus: the context of the MediaLAB and the activities of a specific project commissioned by the Municipality of Amsterdam – the City without waste project.

HOW • Secondary research • Participatory observation • Define the lab • Context Mapping • Generative cards

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METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

RESEARCH JOURNEY

RESEARCH THROUGH DESIGN Sir Christopher John Frayling (1993, in Godin and Zahedi, 2014) introduced the idea of research through art and design, an approach to scientific inquiry that takes advantage of the unique insights gained through design practice to provide a better understanding of complex and future-oriented issues in the design field (Godin and Zahedi, 2014). The present research was based on the “Research Through Design” (RtD) approach for the following reasons: " The research question – "how can…"– aimed to envision new possibilities to design practice and education. Knowing that design provides adaptation to individual systems. “Changing existing situations into preferred ones” (Simon, 1996 in Godin and Zahedi, 2014) or “improving quality of life" (Jonas, 2007 n Godin and Zahedi, 2014) is intrinsic to both the research objectives and the design goals of RtD (Godin and Zahedi, 2014). # The research journey was unfolded according to the findings from the previous phases. RtD is about creating knowledge through actionreflection in a design process (Jonas, 2007 in Tieben, 2015). According to Downton (2003 in Godin and Zahedi, 2014), the value of this kind of investigative theory is that it explains and also becomes “a vehicle for acquiring and shaping knowing”, that assists in future design activities (Frankel and Racine, 2010). " The framework created as a visual synthesis of the context served as a tool for the following steps of the research. Ken Friedman (2000, in Frankel and Racine, 2010) defines design as both a "making" discipline and an integrated frame of reflection and inquiry. The author argues that design inquiry seeks explanations as well as immediate results (Frankel and Racine, 2010). Alain Findeli (2004, in Godin and Zahedi, 2014), former professor at Université de Montréal, redefined RtD as the closest to the actual design practice, recasting the design aspect of creation as research (Godin and Zahedi, 2014). " The research actions navigated in a space between theory and practice. According to Schneider (2007 in Frankel and Racine, 2010), research through design may combine the practice-based research approach of practitioners with reflection and a research question that “is not restricted to the product on which research is being conducted (Frankel and Racine, 2010).

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" The research actions navigated in a space between specific and general contexts. The most important aspect of RtD is that it seeks to provide an explanation or theory within a broader context. Buchanan (2007, in Frankel and Racine, 2010) calls this a “Dialectic Strategy” (Frankel and Racine, 2010).

PARTICIPATORY TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES Participatory Design was made popular in Scandinavia in the 60's and 70's.

Its original focus was to democratize the process of workspace design.

(Koskinen, et.al. 2011). In this context, "Participatory Design refers to the activity of designers and people not trained in design working together in the design and development process. In the practice of PD, the people who are being served by design are no longer seen simply as users, consumers or customers. Instead, they are seen as the experts in understanding their own ways of living and working. They are seen as valuable partners in the design and development process" (Sanders, 2013).

Sanders and Stappers (2012) developed a model to cluster co-creation tools and techniques into three main categories – “what people say”, “what people do” and “what people make” – with the aim to access different types of human knowledge – explicit, observative, tacit, and latent (Sanders and Stappers, 2012). The authors argue for a combination of methods in order to "understand the experience domains of the people we are serving through design" (Sanders, 2003).

SURFACE

WHAT PEOPLE

say think do use

DEEP

know feel dream

TECHNIQUES

KNOWLEDGE

interviews explicit observations generative sessions

observable tacit latent

Different levels of knowledge about experience are accessed by different participatory techniques (adapted from Sanders and Stappers, 2012).

RESEARCH JOURNEY

Using the mapping exercise as an example, the material generated can be used as inspiration and contain valuable data, but beyond the maps (“what people make”), there is also the opportunity to explore how they behave while making the maps (“what people do”) and how they would explain and present the map to others ("what people say”).

Sanders, Brandt and Binder (2010) proposed a framework that organizes the tools and techniques for participatory design. The authors add another layer on the previous classification – the purpose of using the tools and techniques, described along four dimensions: # for probing participants; # for priming participants in order to immerse them in the domain of interest; # to get a better understanding of their current experience; # the generation of ideas or design concepts for the future – for instance by creating and exploring future scenarios (Sanders et al. 2010).

The participatory tools and techniques were applied in the different phases of this research, they will be described and explained in the following pages using these dimensions: ACTIVITY

METHOD

individual collective

say do make

PURPOSE probing priming understanding generating

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1. CONTEXTUAL EXPLORATION

RESEARCH JOURNEY

During the course of the Integrated Design Master, the programme had courses dedicated to the exploration and discussion of potential professional opportunities for design and emerging fields for design. During the explorations done for those disciplines I identified the public sector as promising context for my master thesis, as it was a new frontier for design, with a lot of opportunity and challenges that could be addressed by my research.

However, being an emerging field, the sources of literature and scientific papers are limited. One reason for that is that many initiatives of embedding design in the public sector are either shared internally within the organization, or still ongoing and were not yet documented. In addition, it is more common to find material from Europe and US, while some countries and regions are not being represented yet. This leads to potential knowledge gaps in regard to the research of this topic.

For this reason, it was essential to make use of the existing material – secondary research – but also generate more material – primary research.

Therefore, I engaged in a collaboration with the Service Design Network_# to conduct a research about the impact of service design in the public sector.

In this phase, I applied qualitative primary research methods such as online survey and semi structured interviews with practitioners and researchers from this field.

In this context, I identified the opportunity space (see section 1) to investigate further the engagement between design schools and public sector bodies.

LITERATURE REVIEW "[...] research process usually involve finding already completed research in the public domain, and using this knowledge to help situate yourself as a researcher and focus your research question" (Gray and Malins 2004).

"The contextual [or literature] survey and review is an essential process for several reasons: # by surveying the context in which you are working you increase your understanding of it in a general sense, both historically and in contemporary terms;

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# more specifically, you are selecting which particular pieces of information relate directly to your research area and can evaluate them critically for relevance and significance; # in the process of survey and critical review, ‘gaps’ in knowledge can be identified, which help to focus your research question" (Gray and Malins 2004).

In this stage have I investigated the current knowledge production about public sector innovation and the documentation of the current involvement of design within the sector. The literature review served to gather existing definitions and categorizations about public sector innovation and to understand how design research was addressing the topic. It was also base of the development of a theoretical framework that informed the structure of the online qualitative survey and the questions from the semi-structured interviews.

Some challenges for this phase of the research were: # the open character of the definition of innovation, and its aims (De Vries, Bekkers and Tummers, 2014); # different categorizations of types of innovation (De Vries, Bekkers and Tummers, 2014, World Government Summit, 2016); # different terminology to identify same practices or the other way around. (e. g. e-government as a policy innovation or a technological innovation) (De Vries, Bekkers and Tummers, 2014); # and the different references to design – service design, design thinking, strategic design, social design (Design Council, 2013).

QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE QUESTIONNAIRE ACTIVITY

METHOD

individual collective

say do make

PURPOSE probing priming understanding generating

RESEARCH JOURNEY

The questionnaire was promoted internationally by the Service Design Network channels. The members of the editorial board also shared the survey with their contacts and community around their organizations in different parts of the world. The survey was online from July to August, 2016, gathering responses from 190 participants from diverse countries.

QUESTIONNAIRE CONTRIBUTIONS

THE NETHERLANDS

The objective of the questionnaire was: # to reveal patterns about the service design practice in the public sector in the global perspective; # to gather data to map the differences of the practice and value of service design in the public sector of different countries and continents.

The questionnaire has quantitative and qualitative questions. The first part focused on the profile and projects developed by the participant and the second part focused on the country perspective.

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PARTICIPANTS’ PROFILE Practicing SD for the PS, not a government epmloyee Practicing SD for the PS, a government epmloyee Academic, active in the field of SD Public servant Practicing SD, not experienced in SD projects Academic, active in the field of SD Government representative Policy maker Answers for the question "5.Which of the following best describes you?" The alternatives were given and the participants could choose all that applied to their case.

The graph above portrays the profile of the participants. The data collected was based on the personal judgment of the participants, which were mainly from the service design community of practice. Therefore, result don't show the public sector perspective. Instead, they portray the perspective of those who were already in contact with design in the public realm.

SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS ACTIVITY

METHOD

individual collective

say do make

PURPOSE probing priming understanding generating

"The semi-structured interview is a key method of enabling dialogue and deep engagement with participants while retaining focus on a particular topic. Thoughtful structuring of the interview questions will take the participant on a mental journey from the specific to the aspirational to the tangible" (IDEO, 2011).

I conducted 17 semi-structured interviews with designers and civil servants that were applying service design approaches to address public challenges.

Three of the them were in-person, and 14 were done via video conference call. The duration of the interviews ranged from 45 to 90 minutes.

The interviews followed a structure (see Appendix B) but were adapted to address the specific context of the interviewee, according to the organization the interviewee represented, interviewee's role and practice.

RESEARCH JOURNEY

The semi-structured interviews served to identify: # different ways in which service design is being applied in the public sector context; # in which ways design can impact the public sector the challenges of applying design in the public sector context; # further opportunities for the practice of service design in the public sector context; # particularities and similarities of the practice of service design in the public sector context in different countries.

Interviewees* Alex Nisbett Head of design at Livework (UK) Ariel Kennan Director of Design and Product, Center for Economic Opportunity New York City Mayor’s Office of Operations (US) Aviv Katz Innovation Unit (UK) Carrie Bishop Director, FutureGov (UK) Chelsea Mauldin Executive Director, Public Policy Lab (US) Cleber Sant’anna Service Designer, Tellus group (Brazil) Damon O’ Sullivan Damon O’Sullivan, Founder & directorof Thick (Australia) Hiroshi Tamura President of Re:public Inc. (Japan) Jeroen van Mierlo Senior Advisor to Chief Information Officer in RVO (The Netherlands) Jo Blundell Director of Future Public (UK) Lars Elmgreen Senior Design Strategist, MindLab (Denmark) Liana Dragoman, User Experience Researcher and Strategist at City of Philadelphia’s Office of Open Data and Digital Transformation (US) Mikko Koivisto Lead-service Designer, Hellon (Finland) Seongwon Yoon Project Manager, Suyu Market Korean Institute of Design Promotion (Republic of Korea) Sarah Brooks Chief Design Officer, Veterans Affairs (US) *Two interviewee partners chose not to have their answers attributed to their identity.

The interviews were transcribed and analyzed with the method of affinity diagram, gathering the data in bigger categories. By this categorization, the different interviews and national perspectives could be linked under the same topics. The interview transcripts were not authorised to be published in the present publication, therefore I will either use the published pieces, anonymised data or the direct conclusions from the analysis.

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ANALYSIS "Frameworks are reflections on designs, implemented theories, debates and the design process; they are generalised from the designs and prototypes. Frameworks are a form of intermediary knowledge: the knowledge resides between abstract theory and design practice" (Dalsgaard & Dindler, 2014, in Tieben, 2015).

According to IDEO (2011) Create Frameworks is a method to Identify patterns. They are a visual representation of a system that shows the different elements or actors at play and highlights the relationships between them. They recommend the use of frameworks to develop or build upon key insights.

"A good framework will help you see the issues and relationships in a clearer and more holistic way. Discuss what the framework implies for constituents, for other actors in the community, and for your organization" (IDEO, 2011).

'Design + Public Sector Innovation' framework I was inspired by the 'Public Sector Design Ladder' from the Design Council (2013) to create a framework as a synthesis of the findings from the contextual exploration phase, in order to guide the inquiry during the research process.

The 'Design + Public Sector Innovation' framework will serve as a basis for the investigation and analysis of the contribution that design schools – most precisely dedicated spaces/moments to develop client-driven hands on projects in design schools – can achieve in the public sector innovation.

The framework was build using the data from the first research phase: A

Levels of design implementation in the public sector (Public Sector

aaDesign

Ladder, Design Council, 2013)

B

Types of public sector (De Vries, Bekkers and Tummers, 2014)

C

Engagement between design and policimaking related disciplines (Barry

aaet D

al. 2008, adapted in Kimbel, 2015)

Challenges to embed design in the public sector (Design Council, 2013

aaand

Bason, 2013)

RESEARCH JOURNEY

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DESIGN + PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION

1 A

3

Solving discrete problems

Design as a capability

Design teams are hired for individual projects tackling discrete problems.

Design is part of the culture of public bodies and the way they operate and make decisions.

These can be very large and have systemic implications, but the projects are one-offs.

This increases employees’ skill at commissioning designers, but they also understand and use design thinking themselves.

Here design thinking is used by policymakers, often facilitated by designers, to overcome common structural problems in traditional policymaking such as high-risk pilots and poorly joined up processes.

Conceptual innovations

Governance innovation

Conceptual innovations occur in relation to the introduction of new concepts, frames of reference or even new paradigms that help to reframe the nature of specific problems as well as their possible solutions.

Governance innovation are directed at the development of new forms and processes order to address specific societal problems. This includes cooperation with other partners such as citizens and private companies.

Design thinking is not part of the culture of the commissioning organisations.

B

2

Product or service innovations Product or service innovations are focused on the creation of new public services or products.

Design for policy

C

Service mode

Challenge mode

Partner mode

Design supports policy making by providing the expertise such as creating visualization of journeys, mapping issues, reframing questions;

The way design approach problems and solutions calls into question policy making assumptions, claims and methods.

Design and policy making integrate and combine resources resulting in new hybrid ways of doing things.

D

Barriers regarding desgin aspects

Barriers regarding building and accessing design capacity for public sector innovation

Barriers regarding organizational and cultural aspects of public sector organizations

Such as opportunities for design education for both designers and policy makers/public servants.

Such as hierarchical, bureaucratichighly siloed structure – vertically between administrative levels, and horizontally between distinct policy domains.

Such as the multitude of meanings of the term 'design', design as a non-regulated profession (e.g. Brazil), lack of paths that prepare designers to work in the public sector, lack of consistent documentation about measurable impact of applying design to public service challenges.

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2. PRELIMINARY RESEARCH

RESEARCH JOURNEY

In this phase, the research questions and the proposed framework were examined by means of an exploratory exercise of scenario building and a participatory session using the scenarios as a generative tool. Furthermore, the insights from this exercise served to define the directions for the research.

The workshop took place at at Cologne International School of Design (KISD), during the Master Colloquium. Which is part of the Master program, as an opportunity to share the current research status with the other master students. Instead of just presenting my research I conducted this 90-minute participatory workshop session. The workshop had 12 participants.

KISD is a design school with an interdisciplinary program and could be a potential space to foster the collaboration between students and external partners from public sector bodies, through the development of practical, hands-on projects. The students would be one of the stakeholders affected by the potential addition of this collaboration in the programme. Therefore, it was important to understand how they would feel about and envision the engagement with public bodies.

The students from the master at KISD have different nationalities and different design backgrounds (e.g service design, industrial design, user interface, urban design). Their multicultural and multidisciplinary point of view was an interesting space to conduct the preliminary research exploration.

FUTURE SCENARIOS This activity was inspired by the Speculative Critical Design approach of of Raby and Dunne (2013). In their work they tangibilize alternative realities in objects, videos and scenarios in order to provoke reactions and discussions about critical issues of society. According to Rosson and Carroll (2002), scenario-based design is "a family of techniques in which the use of a future system is concretely described at an early point in the development process.

Scenarios are stories, they consist of a setting, or situation state, one or more actors with personal motivations, knowledge, and capabilities, and various tools and objects that the actors encounter and manipulate. The scenario describes a sequence of actions

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and events that lead to an outcome. These actions and events are related in a usage context that includes the goals, plans, and reactions of the people taking part in the episode." (Rosson and Carroll, 2002).

The choice of this method was due to: # its ability to tangibilize possible formats of engagement between the design university – in the case, KISD – and public sector bodies testing the proposed framework; # and its concrete yet rough characteristic, which supports the tangibilization of concepts without a commitment to the ideas expressed.

Allowing the participants of the workshop to have empathy for the described situation and express their feeling about it.

Building the scenarios The scenarios were build from the findings of the previous research regarding the context of design for public sector innovation, synthesized in the 'Design + Public Sector Innovation' framework.

KISD FUTURES

1

2

3

KISDcityLAB

KISDgovLAB

After the threat that a public space used by the students for exhibitions and cultural activities space would become private, negotiations lead to an agreement of KISD using the space actively to engage more interaction between citizens and public issues, by means of design.

All the public services of Germany will need to become digital and KISD was called to help in the process, setting a design lab inside the government. The biggest challenges are: a) the civil servants dealing with the services are not being included in these processes of change b) design is only regarded as the ending phase of the process, to implement the digital interfaces.

KISAD – Köln International SchoolAgency of Design

The complete scenarios can be found in the Appendix C.

Because of financial cuts, KISD will be closed. An idea of a different business model is to have an academicagency format with external partners, both private and public, funding the program.

The European Commission agreed to partially fund the program if the focus were on public innovation.

RESEARCH JOURNEY

GENERATIVE SESSION ACTIVITY

METHOD

individual collective

say do make

PURPOSE probing priming understanding generating

The session audio was recorded and the topics raised during the discussions were clustered using the method of affinity diagrams.

"The method of affinity diagram uses patterns, themes & experience models. As Ilpo Koskinen and his colleagues explain, �these diagrams cluster similar observations into groups, whereas other observations are in different groups. These clusters are then named.

Analysis proceeds by grouping these clusters into still more abstract clusters. This process generates an abstract interpretation of data, and it is used as a starting point for design. This is done with PostitÂŽ notes and whiteboards" (Koskinen et al., 2011).

During the analysis process, the main topics were clustered using sticky notes.

(Image by Aline Alonso)

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INSIGHTS The most important learnings from the workshop session were: # The assumptions about the unilaterality of the engagement. The students assumed that they would be working for the external partners, and not with them. “Are we going to be working for them? That is unpaid labor!� – said one of the participants. Even when they had the possibility to imagine different formats of collaboration, all groups had a stigmatised assumption that the students would work like an agency as service providers. # The lack of awareness about how design could contribute with public sector challenges beyond the "discrete problem-solving" (Design Council, 2013). The role of design was clearer when talking about redesigning a service or improving the digital interface of digital applications. While the transformations in the processes of the public sector organization or designing policies were far from the experience and understanding of the students. # The political and ethical issues of the collaboration between design academic institutions and public sector institutions, which could be affected by the government context of the country.

Main insights The main insights from this preliminary research phase were that the students' assumptions regarding these engagements can affect the contribution to public sector innovation; and that the lack of awareness about public sector innovation and the potential impact of using designbased approaches to address it, can hinder deeper levels of contribution, beyond 'discrete problem solving'.

About the method The method showed to be effective in order to focus the participants attention on the topic and foster discussion. The session brought up personal opinions and assumptions about the public sector, the university role and the collaboration formats proposed. It also raised discomforts about the engagement with external parties, examples of previous experiences and references of other formats of collaboration.

RESEARCH JOURNEY

Challenge During the session, it was a challenge to give the participants enough information about the future scenarios and make them picture themselves in those contexts. I assumed that the potential connection of design and the public sector could be illustrated by the scenarios. But the public sector context and the transformations that design is achieving in the sector were too far from the experience and understanding of the students.

At the same time, including more text and more detailed information could make the activity longer and less engaging at first sight. And this could open the possibility of changing the focus of the activity to question the context itself instead of developing the proposed formats and discussing about its consequences. The use of other media, with more focus on the storytelling, such as a video could convey the scenario in a simpler way, with a deeper level of details and transport the participants to that future context.

This aspect can serve as a indication of the gap between design education and public sector bodies reinforcing the relevance of exploration and further research about the topic.

Conclusions and next steps The exercise was important to understand the context, the framework and the relevance of the research. However, the level of the discussion was very superficial and lead the direction of the research to focus real cases that already started this engagement. In order to (a) understand how these collaborations happen; (b) investigate in which ways these engagements are contributing to public sector innovation; (c) identify collaboration issues that could affect the contribution to public sector innovation; (d) envision ways in which the contribution can be increased.

During the session the students were divided in groups to explore one of the proposed scenarios, and afterwards they would present their ideas the group. (Images: Aline Alonso)

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3. IN-DEPTH RESEARCH

RESEARCH JOURNEY

According to Yin (2003) a case study design should be considered when: # the focus of the study is to answer “how” and “why” questions; # you cannot manipulate the behaviour of those involved in the study; # you want to cover contextual conditions because you believe they are relevant to the phenomenon under study; # or the boundaries are not clear between the phenomenon and context (Yin, 2003 in Baxter and Jack, 2008).

An instrumental case study (Stake, 1995) "Is used to accomplish something other than understanding a particular situation. It provides insight into an issue or helps to refine a theory. The case is of secondary interest; it plays a supportive role, facilitating our understanding of something else.

The case is often looked at in depth, its contexts scrutinized, its ordinary activities detailed, and because it helps the researcher pursue the external interest. The case may or may not be seen as typical of other cases" (Stake, 1995 in Baxter and Jack, 2008).

Research proposition for case study "Propositions may come from the literature, personal/professional experience, theories, and/or generalizations based on empirical data. These propositions later guide the data collection and discussion" (Baxter and Jack, 2008).

In the case of this research the propositions were directly related to the research questions: 1. Client-driven projects in design schools can contribute to public sector innovation.

2. Design education can be used as a means to foster collaboration between designers and public bodies.

And the "Design + Public Sector Innovation' framework proposed in the first research phase, served as a filter during the investigation and afterwards in the analysis, to assess the levels of contribution of the engagements.

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The two contexts have very different profiles These specific contexts were chosen because of their different awareness and maturity levels regarding public sector innovation, which allowed the research to draw relevant conclusions to a broader spectrum of design education programmes, regarding their awareness and maturity levels about public sector innovation. That is to say, design schools that were not yet engaging with the public sphere; design schools starting to engage with public bodies; and environments in design schools in which the collaboration focus is not public sector innovation – MediaLAB Amsterdam; and, a model that are already recognised by its contribution – Design for Government.

The Design for Government course can be positioned in one extreme, having an internationally recognised programme (Christiansen et al., 2017) for the capacitation of multidisciplinary students with design capabilities for public sector innovation with 4 years of experience developing projects for public sector bodies. Additionally it is embedded in a national context in which both design and public sector innovation have a history of engagements and achievements (Christiansen et al., 2017; Aalto, 2015; Pitkänen et al., 2012).

On the other hand, the MediaLAB Amsterdam programme is rooted in the digital media and its implications to citizen engagement. Although its vast experience in developing projects with private partner organizations (more than 70 projects developed), it developed its first project in which the solutions proposed to address the project-brief had the potential to affect public policy issues, during the present research (2017) commissioned by the Municipality of Amsterdam. In this context, neither the student team, or the lab staff nor the external partners from the Municipality were aware of public sector innovation and the impact that design could achieve in the public realm beyond providing a possible solution to the 'problem' stated on the briefing.

RESEARCH JOURNEY

CASE STUDY 1: DESIGN FOR GOVERNMENT Helsinki, Finland Part of the Creative Sustainability Master programme, Aalto University since 2014 programme 14-week projects / annual, starting at Spring number of students per year 25 (mostly from Finland, Master students) number of projects 21 (developed in collaboration with public sector bodies) number of project commissioners 11 (from public sector + other institutions such as a living lab, research institutes and an innovation funds) examples of project topic How changing building standards can enable independent living, how sustainability policy impacts on plastic bag usage, how school children learn about health and nutrition, how the work of civil servants in the future. mission The aim of the program is to introduce design as a valuable competence in strategic policymaking, and to create opportunities for designers work at this level. programme structure Human centered design – using ethnographic methods and engaging with users and stakeholders; systems thinking – connecting different thoughts in the individual stories into a bigger picture; and behavioral approaches – from behavioral economics, providing different options for design touchpoints.

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CASE STUDY 2 MEDIALAB AMSTERDAM Amsterdam, The Netherlands Part of the part of CREATE-IT, the applied research centre of the School of Design & Communication at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences since 2009 programme 20-week projects / biannual number of students per semester 20 (from different countries, different profiles including Master, Bachelor and professionals in training) number of projects • first project developed in collaboration with public sector during the period of the present research • more than 70 (developed in collaboration with private / non-profit organizations) examples of project topic smart ways of waste management, transition to smart energy systems, sustainable and smart tourism, better use of userdata collected from different digital applications, measuring emotions with virtual reality technology mission The focus of all research projects is the innovative character of the digital applications and 'citizen empowerment’.

“What impact does the rise of digital media technologies have on society?”, “How can digital media be designed to optimise benefits for citizens?”, “How can professionals from a wide range of domains and fields – from fashion to musea, from policy-makers to game-designers – serve their public in new ways?”, and “What societal risks do these developments have?”.

MediaLAB Amsterdam aims to operationalise these and other questions and create proof-of-concepts and prototypes that help support research around this theme. programme structure All the projects follow a methodology created by the lab, the SCREAM which is based on the combination of human-centered design methods and Scrum, an agile framework for managing product development, which is usually used for software development.

RESEARCH JOURNEY

DESIGN FOR GOVERNMENT

The Design for Government case study was done by secondary research, using the material published by and about the programme. In order to investigate which conditions supported the engagement with public sector bodies and in which ways they impact the contribution to public sector innovation. A complete list of the material can be found in the Appendix D. Design for Government is an studio model course that matches civil servants with multidisciplinary student design teams. The programme is part of the Creative Sustainability Master programme at Aalto University. The course runs for 14 weeks once a year and the students apply design methods to address complex governmental and public sector challenges by briefs commissioned by governmental departments and ministries in Finland. It started in 2014 and 21 hands-on projects were developed in collaboration with 11 Ministries and other institutions such as a living lab, research institutes and an innovation fund. Students have worked on issues including: how changing building standards can enable independent living, how sustainability policy impacts on plastic bag usage, how school children learn about health and nutrition, how the work of civil servants in the future.

Final presentation from 2014-2015 academic year. (Source: 2015, Final Show – Appendix D)

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LIST OF PROJECTS

2014

comissioner

topic

Ministry of the Environment

Accessibility of Buildings Reducing the Use of Plastic Bags

2015

Prime Minister’s Office

Project Piazza

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry

Primary Producer’s Notifications School Fruits and Vegetables

2016

2017

Finnish Ministry of the Environment

Waste prevention by extending (electronic product) lifecycles

Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications

Bottom-up ‘mobility as service

Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Ministry of the Environment with with SITRA and Motiva

A Model for Regional Sustainable Circular Food

Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Prime Minister’s Office, and Ministry of Transport and Communications

Civil Servant 2.0: Future work of civil servants

THE FINNISH SCENARIO OF DESIGN AND PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION It is important to acknowledge that the environment in which the DfG course is inserted in is very particular because of the Finnish public sector innovation scenario and the awareness of the design value (Aalto, 2015 and Pitkänen, 2012). Therefore the commissioners from the public sector, if not already aware of the impact design has the potential to bring to the public sector challenges, have resources, incentives and best practices to support the understanding of it.

"Finnish government is well ahead in making these changes and there is this really empowering network of people who are enabling this change." (Seungho Lee, course founder – Mini-documentary)

The City of Helsinki is among the first cities in the world to hire a Chief Design Officer.

Anne Stenros started in her position in september 2016, with the aim of strengthening strategic development and the use of design thinking in planning public services, and enforcing the experimentation culture of the city.

RESEARCH JOURNEY

Finland is recognised by its global leadership in experimental governance The recently launched a digital platform entitled Kokeilun Paikka (Place to Experiment) to support the government’s key goal of supporting an experimental culture to find innovative ways to develop public services (World Government Summit, 2017).

There is an actual demand for designers in the public sector.

In a case study article for the Design for Europe blog, the course leader Ramia Mazé (2017) claims that the DfG course was created out of an urgent sense that designers are needed in the realm of public policymaking. She explains the history in which the DfG is build upon. Such as the grew popularity and recognition of the topic during Helsinki’s time as a World Design Capital in 2012 and through the influential work of the Helsinki Design Lab, which was powered by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra until 2013. (Mazé, 2017)

Experts network The programme also builds on existing expertise from the Aalto University courses in User Inspired Design and Designing for Services (Mazé, 2017).

And the teaching staff is expert on the topic of public sector innovation with experience in practice and research about public sector innovation. And counts with a network of thought leaders in the field (e.g. Chelsea Mauldin (Public Policy Lab), Kit Lykketoft (Mind Lab), Marco Steinberg (Snowcone and Haystack, former director of strategic design unit at the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra), Outi Kuittinen (Demos Helsinki)

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MEDIALAB AMSTERDAM

"The MediaLAB Amsterdam is an interdisciplinary studio where students and researchers work together on innovative and interactive media research projects for Creative Industries.

It conducts applied research on innovative interactive media applications together with partners from the creative industries and education. The research projects focus on urban screens, locative media, data visualization, interactive TV, gaming, the future of publishing and e-learning. At their core, the focus of all research projects is the innovative character of the digital applications." (MediaLAB, 2017).

The projects developed there share a focus on citizen empowerment. It is part of the research department of the School of Digital Media and Creative Industries of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

The format of the studio is changing and aims to include more public sector bodies as project partners According to Marco van Hout the Lead Design Research form MediaLAB, the format of the lab is evolving. He mention a big step since 2013 when the MediaLab changed form and "agency" to a "design lab", not only developing projects but having human design method at the core of their development.

In the summer semester of 2017, for the first time, they had the Municipality of Amsterdam as a project partner.

At the moment the MediaLAB Amsterdam is developing a new programme concept. And this opened space for reflection about the current practices and opportunity for improvement. The new programme proposes a format for education joining Bachelor, Master, PhD and professional training.

By means of challenge-driven projects developed in collaboration with external partners, under the theme of new technologies' impact in society.

The program will be funded by the government and by the project partners.

And they aim to include more public sector institutions as projects partners.

RESEARCH JOURNEY

The MediaLAB Amsterdam is located in the HvA Studio, at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences campus. (Image by Aline Alonso)

PROJECT: CITY WITHOUT WASTE Commissioner: Department of Spatial Planning Services of the Municipality of Amsterdam (De Dienst Ruimtelijke Ordening) • Tim Ruijs, City Planning Consultant (Stedenbouwkundig adviseur) • Wahbe Rezek, City Planning Trainee The project team: team coach: Marco van Hout, Lead Design Research at MediaLAB • Beatrice Costa, Politecnico di Torino, Master in Eco-Design, Torino, Italia • Raquel Villa, ETSAM - Universidad, Politécnica de Madrid, Spagna • Leon Hollander, University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands • Max Mallon, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands • Kazumitsu Yoshida, Neuromagic Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Developed project abstract: Not enough citizens of Amsterdam are visiting the waste collecting points. A research was conducted on the theory of planned behavior in order to determine which factors influence this behavior the most. It was found that the aspects of one’s subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and current behavior are all significant predictors of the act of throwing away bulky waste at the waste points. A modern, eco-friendly and cost-efficient system was created, named ‘Tag It!’. In this system one has to tag their waste with geolocated stickers. The stickers have a minimalistic design and vary on the variables type of bulky waste, time priority and size of the bulky waste. Moreover, a mockup of the online platform was created.

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SECONDARY RESEARCH The first step was to understand how the MediaLAB communicated its activities to the public. In their website was also possible to see more than 70 projects done by the students, as well as a blog documenting the process.

The lab also has a booklet to explain their program to potential partners and students. And additionally, I had access to different versions of the proposal for the Digital Society School, being developed and iterated to meet the external feedback from the lab network, the University of Amsterdam policies and the Municipality of Amsterdam demands. The analysis of all this material created a basis for the next steps of the on site investigation.

This was important to understand how MediaLAb positioned itself.

PARTICIPATORY OBSERVATION PARTICIPANTS Students Commissioners MediaLAB staff

ACTIVITY

METHOD

individual collective

say do make

PURPOSE probing priming understanding generating

"City Without Waste" project team meeting with the commissioner in the Municipality of Amsterdam.

(Image by Aline Alonso)

RESEARCH JOURNEY

During the first month I observed the activities of MediaLAB. On the first weeks having the focus on the management of the lab: participating in meetings to discuss about partnerships, about the new website project, about the 'Digital Design Society' proposal, etc. The following weeks were more focused on the students activities, in which I observed the dynamics of the projects: for instance, participating in presentations, team meetings, meeting with the partner, visit to the partner organization and final presentations.

DEFINE THE LAB PARTICIPANTS Students Commissioners MediaLAB staff

ACTIVITY

METHOD

individual collective

say do make

PURPOSE probing priming understanding generating

The primary aim of these environment in design schools is to provide learning experiences. By this perspective, the "users" are the students that will take this learning journey. They are the "experts" in the use of the resources offered by the design school space (in this case, the MediaLAB), they will be directly impacted by the relation with the external partners and they are the ones who will externalize the activities produced by these spaces, in the shape of projects. Therefore, assessing their experience is important to understand what is the actual context of the lab and the impression that they will leave, as the front-line interaction with the partners.

Junginger and Sangiorgi (2009), cite Rousseau's (1995) description of fundamental assumptions as ‘‘the often unconscious beliefs that members share about their organization and its relationship to them’’ (Rousseau, 1995, in Junginger and Sangiorgi, 2009). The authors defend that the assumptions of employees "have a stabilizing effect on the organization and form the ‘core’ of an organization’s culture around which behavioral norms, values, behavior patterns and artifacts or products evolve." (Junginger and Sangiorgi, 2009). Hence, understanding the 'unconscious beliefs' the students have about MediaLAB can reveal the 'core' culture that shape the daily practices of the lab.

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Therefore, I invited them to define MediaLAB to different audiences: an old lady, a child, a potential industry partner, a potential government partner. By means of an online questionnaire tool, which would allow the expression of their perceptions without the need to identify themselves. My intent was to understand the student's perception about the MediaLAB environment, the first qualities that comes to their minds and the assumptions about its value to specific "stakeholders". For the analysis, I clustered the words and expressions used in topics and counted the times that the appeared for each of the audiences.

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE THE LAB TO‌?

AN OLD LADY agency/company multidisciplinarity / multi-cultural

A CHILD fun/creativity/ freedom

agency/company

agency/company

problem-solving

collaboration

collaboration

learning experience

social goal

social goal

research

multidisciplinarity/multi-cultural

learning experience

design

methods

Makers lab (3D printers, laser cutters)

creativity/ freedom

problem-solving

human centered

human centered methods

A POTENTIAL INDUSTRY PARTNER service/agency/company team-work

A POTENTIAL GOVERNMENTAL PARTNER problem-solving agency/company human centered

multidisciplinarity/multi-cultural

collaboration

problem-solving

learning experience

methods

methods

curiosity/creativity/freedom

creativity/ freedom

design

social goal

research

multidisciplinarity / multi-cultural

learning experience social goal human centered

RESEARCH JOURNEY

Interesting insights from the answers, revealing some of the students' perceptions: # We are working for the partners, not with them: The concept of being an agency or a company that work for (and not with) external organizations is present in the majority of the descriptions, having its "first place" in the answers to the industry partners. This in combination with on site observations and conversations confirm that the partners are seen as clients and don't have an active role on the project. " We provide solutions: Several times this service provider concept is combined with the concept of problem solving (instead of exploration).

Which reflects the expectation of bringing solutions instead of criticizing or exploring different points of view. " Freedom, fun and creativity are not important for the external partners: Freedom, fun and creativity were only present in the answers for the "child" (one exception, for an explanation for the old lady). This can indicate that these aspects, which are present and are very unique characteristics of the lab when compared to other organizations, are not not judged, by the students, as an important feature in the professional realm. " The social aspect of the projects are not a priority: Social goal, was present in all categories, being mentioned only once or twice in each.

Although all the projects are supposed to have in common the focus on 'citizen engagement' and the integration of technology in society, his points that not all the students experience, or judge this factor as important to communicate the lab.

CONTEXT MAPPING "The term context mapping indicates that we think this information should be presented as a map indicating roads, dangers, and opportunities to the traveller, not as a mere route prescribing a fixed solution. Just like the traveller who uses the information on a map to negotiate his way through the terrain without confusing the map with the terrain, the designer uses the context mapping information to make his way through the design process" (Visser et al., 2005)

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PARTICIPANTS Students Commissioners MediaLAB staff

ACTIVITY

METHOD

individual collective

say do make

PURPOSE probing priming understanding generating

The input from the meetings and informal conversations that I participated and engaged in during the first weeks of field research, was mainly connected with the project's topics (e.g. recycling and waste management) or with specific phases of the project (e.g. how do we show the results of the interviews in the presentation?). It was very hard to access the relation with the teacher, the other members of the team or with the external partners detached from the aspects of the project level. Therefore, I chose to use context mapping as a technique to access (and stimulate themselves to access) other levels of knowledge, regarding the engagement with the commissioners and other actors during the project process.

Students doing the mapping exercise. I used chocolate to bring them to my room and have conversations while they were drawing the maps. (Image by Aline Alonso)

RESEARCH JOURNEY

In order to access deeper levels of the stakeholders' experience at MediaLAB, I invited the participants to visualize the relations between the people and organizations involved in the project. The activity was done by 9 students and by the stakeholders of the 'City without waste' project, commissioned by the Municipality. The method proved to be a useful tool to start and support a conversation about aspects that would not easily come to the conversation.

HOW WOULD YOU REPRESENT WHO IS /WAS THE INVOLVED IN YOUR PROJECT IN A STAKEHOLDER MAP? Imagine that your experience at MediaLab is a game. You are not alone, there are other players as well - they have an active role. But not everyone is a player, some of them are game characters only, they can be part of the game from the beginning to the end, other just appear in specific phases‌ Not all the people / organizations you expected are in the game yet? They are the ghosts!

1. Use different colors to represent Players, Characters and Ghosts 2. Position them in circles - the most important, the more in the center 3. Use lines to represent the relations between them - the thicker the line the better the relation 4. Use the tracing paper to make the changes you would like to have in the game - any character that should be a player? is there a relation that should be changed? ghosts should be player or characters?

This will be a personal view of your experience, not from your group. I have color pens and more paper on my desk... and some nice chocolate! :-)

The instructions of the mapping activity were given in a piece of paper, personally to students. With an invitation to talk about it while they were doing it or afterwards.

The instructions made use of the games metaphor to focus the activity on the organizational and structural aspects of the engagement, and take the focus out of the project's topic. Research about play and games within the design field is expanding into diverse directions. Habraken and Gross (Habraken & Gross, 1988 in Brandt et al., 2011) suggest the use of them as a metaphor that can be used as a research tool: "Many have used the game

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metaphor as a way of understanding and/or organising participation. On a general level the philosopher Wittgenstein (1953, in Habraken et.al., 2011) sees the notion of language-games as constituting human practices" (Habraken et.al., 2011).

The activity also encouraged the participants to think critically about the engagements and give suggestions about how the relations could be different. I asked the participants to explain the map, either while they were drawing or after it was ready. This added another layer of meaning to the visualizations and served as a conversation starter to deeper discussions such as trying to find ways to have the different student teams in the MediaLAB communicating and sharing more knowledge, or how the commissioners could get more involved during the process.

Some maps had complex layers of information (below), others were very simple (left). They served to start deep discussions about possible types of engagement in the MediaLAB environment.

RESEARCH JOURNEY

Main insights # Unstable roles during the project In all the maps there is a clear separation between the 'student team' and the 'external partners', they are not seen as being part of the "same team" and doing the project together.

However, there relations can change in specific moments of the project.

During the meetings and presentations, for example. Raquel Villa, one of the members of the 'City without waste' project team noted the different language used on an e-mail from the partner: – "Now it looks like we are in the same team...", she was referring to the email communicating more details about the project final presentation to the Municipality, after the development of the project.

From the mapping activity and the conversations engaged by it, it was also possible to identify that the project coach's and the external partners' roles were not defined, and they vary from project to project. This aspect can be good, in the sense that allows adaptability. However, the different expectations about those roles and responsibilities can generate conflicts or frustrations during the process.

"Maybe I expected that the partner would be more hands on and wanted a creative design solution. I´m saying this, not really because of our team situation exactly, but more a general feeling that I perceive [in other teams]" (Raquel Villa, member of the 'City without waste' project).

# Opportunities for collaboration and engagement From the student's perspective, there are wishes to increase the collaborative practices and engagement with other actors. They see opportunities to: • strengthen the collaboration with the project's coaches, other coaches of MediaLAB and between the different project teams; • engage with other researchers studying the topic, and other relevant stakeholders such as other organizations, for instance as inspiration regarding best practices.

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GENERATIVE CARDS The discussions generated by the contextual mapping activity suggested opportunities of collaboration and engagement with actors that were not yet involved in the process of projects development, as well as opportunities to collaborate with the current stakeholders in innovative manners.

Inspired by these "collaborative" possibilities, I used the 'Design + Public Sector Innovation' framework, and proposed a set of questions to sparkle conversations focused on relevant topics to public sector innovation.

PARTICIPANTS Students Commissioners MediaLAB staff

ACTIVITY

METHOD

individual collective

say do make

PURPOSE probing priming understanding generating

I was inspired by the generative tool "What if‌ cards", from the 'Generative Design Method'* toolkit developed by the Make Tools. And instead of simply asking these questions, I chose to put them in cards which could be used in diverse research activities in group or individual sessions, as a brainstorm for possibilities of engagement and contribution to public sector innovation.

"What if‌ cards are "a deck of cards each of which contains a provocative image or statement about the future. The cards can be used for sorting, clustering, categorizing, prioritizing, choosing, etc.

They can also be used for stimulating idea generation" (Generative Design Method Cards, Make Tools).

The cards were used they in individual conversations with the students and the commissioners from the Municipality and in a generative session with a potential future partner from the Municipality that didn't know MediaLAB Amsterdam, 2 students and one member of the teaching staff.

*MakeTools is a language that can be used by everyone for harnessing and directing collective creativity toward positive change for the future. It offers consulting services and education to people and organizations that see the value in using collective forms of creativity to address the environmental, social and cultural challenges we face today. It was founded by Liz Sanders. http://www.maketools.com/

RESEARCH JOURNEY

HOW CAN THE PROCESS HOW CAN THE PROJECT BUILD DESIGN CAPABILITIES WITHIN THE PARTNER ORGANIZATION?

SUPPORT THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT/ IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT BY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS?

WHAT DO YOU WANT YOU LEARN WITH THE PROJECT? HOW CAN THE PROJECT ENABLE SHARED LEARNING FOR ALL THE INVOLVED?

HOW CAN DESIGN METHODS

HOW CAN THE PROCESS SUPPORT THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT/ IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT BY CITIZENS?

HOW CAN THE PROJECT/

BE DISSEMINATED TO MORE

PROJECT TEAM BE MORE

AREAS OF THE PARTNER

INVOLVED IN THE PROCESSES

ORGANIZATION(S)?

OF THE ORGANIZATION(S)?

HOW CAN THE PROJECT GIVE

HOW CAN THE KNOWLEDGE

HOW CAN THE KNOWLEDGE

SUPPORT TO RETHINK POLICIES

GENERATED BE BEST SHARED

GENERATED BE BEST SHARED

AND PROCESSES WITHIN THE

WITHIN THE PARTNER

WITH OTHER ACADEMIC

PARTNER ORGANIZATION(S)?

ORGANIZATION?

INSTITUTIONS?

HOW CAN THE KNOWLEDGE

HOW CAN THE KNOWLEDGE

HOW CAN WE COLLABORATE

GENERATED BE BEST SHARED

GENERATED BE BEST SHARED

WITH (OTHER) PRIVATE

WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS?

WITH THE CITIZENS?

ORGANIZATIONS?

HOW CAN WE COLLABORATE

HOW CAN WE COLLABORATE

WITH OTHER UNIVERSITIES/

WITH CITIZENS? HOW CAN

ACADEMIC LABS IN THE

WE INVOLVE THEM IN THE

PROCESS?

PROCESS?

HOW CAN WE COLLABORATE WITH (OTHER) NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS?

"These are very specific questions that you never ask yourself when you start a project. By asking this specific question you may come up with specific ideas that can be very helpful for the process and it can shape the process of course. I think that is very good! If you have a copy for me, I would like to have them, actually" (Wahbe Rezek)

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GENERATIVE SESSION USING THE CARDS

Images by Aline Alonso

After the session one of the students commented that these questions were never raised during the project and yet, "they are really important because they can change the way we work here at MediaLAB" (Raquel Villa).

Marco van Hout, the Lead Design Research at MediaLAB, also stated that the session raised very important discussion for the lab.

RESEARCH JOURNEY

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"The municipality is working for the HOW CAN WE INVOLVE OTHER DEPARTMENTS OF THE PARTNER ORGANIZATION(S) IN THE PROCESS?

people of Amsterdam, they pay the taxes right? Our users are the people, but sometimes this focus is missing. They showed that you can go on the streets and be really engaged with people, and that is something that is not happening

a lot in the Municipality. And the personas showed that we don't have one kind of people, they are different kinds of people and we need to think about their needs, what they can do, what they want to do, how we can help them or use their power... You have to think about a solution for all of them.

I think a lot of these methods that are so user centered can be implemented more in a lot of different areas of the municipality. And help how they work for the users, for the people.

The best way to do this is to do workshops or something that they can show the Municipality in some way how you can use those things. Maybe it is not necessary to go to the solution part, only this first phase of analysis would have this impact. Involving them in the first part of the project, don't make them make concepts but let them be involved on our team's research on the first stage of the project. (Wahbe Rezek)

"That is a huge question‌ I think that HOW CAN THE KNOWLEDGE GENERATED BE BEST SHARED WITH THE CITIZENS?

if you are using user centered design, and asking people on the street, you are already telling them a little of what the municipality is doing. This is a very good first step. But with this you don't

show them the result‌ maybe you can do more user involvement in the concept generation. You can do that together with citizens. But it is important to be realistic. It is very hard to find citizens.

Everybody wants to give their opinion but it is very hard to find citizens that really want to put time, effort and be involved. The question is also: How can we get citizens to get more involved? For the Municipality, it costs a lot of time to have user involvement during the entire process" (Wahbe Rezek).

RESEARCH JOURNEY

COMMENTS ABOUT THE CASE STUDY AT MEDIALAB Being in the field was very important for diverse aspects, specially because: # I could develop a relation of trust with the students. Besides taking part in some of their meetings and presentations, the informal conversations were also valuable to have a deeper understanding about their experience during the project process. Frequently some student would come to my desk or, during a coffee break, ask about my research and share their experiences.

Sometimes these encounters would end up in long talks about their personal feelings regarding the project, the environment of the lab and the relation with the partners. Most likely, I would not be able to capture this impressions in a planned manner. # Being there also allowed me to participate in organizational and strategic meetings of the lab. For instance, for internal projects like the new website which initiated a discussion about the documentation of the projects and how to best portray MediaLAB's activities to the external world. Or for the selection of potential partners of the DSS, which revealed the values brought by external partners to the system. Being included in these gatherings gave me the opportunity to have an overview of the activities of the lab, what was happening and, at the same time get deeper thoughts on the processes.

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Analysis

SECTION

ANALYSING THE THE ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN DESIGNERS AND THE PUBLIC BODIES

ANALYSING THE CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION

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ANALYSING THE THE ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN DESIGNERS AND THE PUBLIC BODIES

ANALYSIS

In order to analyse the findings, the method of affinity diagram was used, and the clustering topics were then, organised in a sort of journey to represent the engagements. The case study from the Design for Government, is a synthesis of different projects and the MediaLAB case, refers to the project investigated with the Municipality of Amsterdam, with some additional findings from the students' perspective about the engagements and about the MediaLAB context.

DESIGN FOR GOVERNMENT

1. PRE-PROJECT The collaboration starts with the co-creation of the project brief to address current policy issues.

"The process takes months discussing with the public servants about the current policy challenges they have and what kind of [governmental] programs they are running next year." (Seungho Lee – 2017, transcribed from Mini-documentary) Example of project brief: "The goal of this project is to produce fresh ideas for Valtsu regarding extending the electronics waste stream. Questions may include: How can lifecycles be made to last longer? How can this be supported by governmental means (taxation, laws, regulations)?

What are systemic and behavioral factors? How could repair and maintenance be more attractive and profitable?" (Briefing 2016)

The briefing process: 1. the teaching staff participates actively in this phase, and help in the choice of a policy challenge;

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2. the ministries are asked questions that unfold different aspects of the project including “Where are we now?”, “Who is the target group?”, “Where do we want to be?”, “How are we going to get there?” and “How will we know we’ve arrived?”

3. the teaching staff refines the descriptions into “project-sized briefs"

2. PROJECT START The project starts with a workshop with relevant stakeholders In the 2015 briefing, for example, the reasons for starting with a workshop are clear: "listening to and observing the people potentially engaged with [online platform] in the future, identifying and mapping out the gatekeepers, and co-creating with a wide variety of stakeholders." (Briefing 2015)

A blog post from the project team describes the first meeting of the porject, a workshop session using design games to understand deeper levels of the problem together with the commissioners. (Source: Work-in-progress blog post – Appendix D).

Defined roles and expectations The clients are referred to as facilitators. They have a defined role in the project: "to provide contacts within the department or other public sector institutions, provoke the students with their expert knowledge, and provide necessary resources during the project."

(Seungho et al. 2015)

ANALYSIS

3. PROCESS Teaching blocks # Human centered design – using ethnographic methods and engaging with users and stakeholders; # Systems thinking – connecting different thoughts in the individual stories into a bigger picture; # Behavioral approaches – from behavioral economics, providing different options for design touchpoints.

Involvement of more people from the department and from other public sector bodies Additionally, periodic events are organized to present to a wider audience of civil servants and members of the public, in the format of workshop sessions, midterm presentation.

In the public mid-review presentations, the teams had the chance to discuss the projects with people that were not directly connected with the projects. (Image by Seungho Lee. Source: Midreview presentation – Appendix D)

4. PROJECT END Presentation shows processes as well as outcomes.

Student teams present their projects on stage, including the challenge, the process and the results.

Final presentations attract a lot of public servants There is a growing interest in the course and topic. This can be seen in the rising audience numbers in the final presentations each year.

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"More than 180 people attended the final presentations from the 2015 course including public servants from five ministries, the Prime Minister’s Office, three municipalities and 13 government agencies, eight NGO and foundations, 15 design or business consultancies." (Mazé, 2017)

Final presentations are also used to discuss broader issues of design for the public sector Beyond the Student teams presentation their projects on stage, including the challenge, the process and the results. The public servants in the audience give feedback about the results and the process. And the teaching staff introduces the value of design in the public sector, how the course works and other initiatives from the Finland government.

"What do we mean by design when we come into the government sector, when we meet you and the societal challenges that you posed to us?" Ramia Mazé explains the new frontier of design in her opening speech (transcribed from Final Show 2016)

The Final Shows gather a wide audience from different ministries as well as other interested stakeholders from public and private sector. On the right, the feedback form used by the audience to evaluate the projects. (Source: Final show 2015 – Appendix D)

Teaching staff raise discussion about the further development of the projects and the future of the use of design in the public sector.

"How applicable is this approach for the current challenges in Finland? Where should we begin? What other problems should we tackle?" (Final show 2015)

ANALYSIS

Discussion after the students' presentation. (Source: Final show 2015 – Appendix D)

5. PROJECT END Structured feedback about the process A feedback round in the format of a workshop where the the stakeholders of the project discuss what worked well in that year and what could be improved.

"Yes, we were tired, but we did our best to leave a note for the 2nd generation of DfG in the coming year. Best of luck!"

(Final Show 2014)

Feedback session about organizational aspects, after the Final Show 2014 .

(Source: Final show 2014 – Appendix D)

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6. BEYOND THE PROJECT the organizational and cultural aspects form the projects were used as material for research Since 2015, the course staff and students have collaborated with Demos Helsinki and Avanto Helsinki in research commissioned by the Prime Minister’s Office to examine how that unique approach could be operationalized in the Finnish Government. The research aims to advise and make a suggestion about an operational model in the Finnish government that would allow the incorporation of behavioral insights in the policymaking process. (Seungho et al., 2015). The course project serves as a "rehearsal", or a prototype being iterated and adjusted, to be better adapted to the reality of the public sector institutions. At the same time, it advocates for the model by involving the departments and ministries in the practice of design during the projects.

Besides the classes the project includes: 20 interviews and seven public events and workshops which attracted approximately 250 civil servants, designers, researchers, students and people interested in developing government and its policymaking. (Annala et al., 2015). The final research will be published in July of 2017.

Building a community around the topic / design school Besides the projects developed by the students and the classes, the DfG teachers also contribute to other events that develop the growing field of design in relation to the government and public sector. Such as presentations and interviews, organize and contribute to conferences, workshops and training and design research.

The emphasizes is on the educational importance of the course for the design field During the development of the project, the students are asked to reflect critically on how the design role, the responsibility and ethics of design should be developed as we address public sector problems and challenges.

"The programme asks important questions about governance, democracy, implementation of public policy and about the public good." (Richard Hylerstedt, from the 2015 class – Mini-documantary).

ANALYSIS

Awareness about new frontiers/possibilities to (design) education "I am impressed about the amount and quality of the work done.

It almost feels like it is not only the future of government we are talking about today, it is the future of education as well" (Juha Leppänen, CEO at Demos Helsinki – transcribed from Final Show 2015).

Embedding design in the the public sector context requires mutual learning "DfG is actually an experiment to bring design into a new context, in which it has not been much [present] before. Designing policy is a new field. And we need to start teaching our students how to understand a handle this. This is one way of doing this. And it also require a lot of learning from the institutions about what design can actually do and how it can help" (Juha Leppänen, CEO at Demos Helsinki – transcribed from Final Show 2015).

The design field is expanding and this brings new meaning and methodologies to design. "(...) this expanded view of design is put into practice in this course.

We can say we are finding the new frontiers, the new education in design. Where will design head in the future? Where are the professions thar can serve a wider number of people? Where can it serve the public in a much broader sense?" (Ramia Mazé transcribed from Final show 2016).

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MEDIALAB AMSTERDAM

1. PRE-PROJECT Briefing process and communication Communication of the briefing can be considered as an issue in the case of the 'City without waste' project. During the interview session with the partners from the Municipality, both of them said that the the solution proposed by the students did not answer the initial question. However, when I asked what the initial question was, each one had a different focus: "How can we find a solution for the bulky waste on the streets of Amsterdam?" (Wahbe Rezek, City Planning Trainee) "How can we get more people to bring their bulky waste to the waste recycling facilities?" (Tim Ruijs, City Planning Consultant)

Expectations "My expectations were high and low, together. You know they are students and don't have the professional capacity to make in depth research (not having the time and the data needed). But on the other hand the expectation was a bit high because they have a very nice way of working, a large set of methods and "machines" [He was referring to the 3D printer and laser cut] that are very bold to do a different type of research to what we can do" (Tim Ruijs)

2. PROJECT START Hand-on from the start "It was a very positive thing that they already did something for the first meeting. They had some prototypes, some ideas. It was not very high quality, not really good solutions, but they were already doing something. It was a surprise!" (Wahbe Rezek)

ANALYSIS

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3. PROCESS Workshops and Master classes for students Besides the contacts from the external partners, the students have workshops and masterclasses from guest experts, from HvA or other universities and the support from a coach from the MediaLAB staff. Depending on the project, the team can have other researchers involved.

Sprints All the projects follow a methodology created by the lab, the SCREAM which is based on the combination of human-centered design methods and Scrum, an agile framework for managing product development, which is usually used for software development.

Agile way of working "The sprints are nice! So you have a project, you have 6 moments where you work fast towards a final "thing" for that moment. You conclude a phase. So that makes it really high intensive productive way of working" (Tim Ruijs).

Design 'things' as tangible ways to discuss the project "That was a nice aspect about the MediaLAB method: they have a nice approach with the sprints, so you have a lot of contact moments. And in between some period of a lot of work. And the method they use always delivers sort of a product or a 'thing' in the meetings (Tim Ruijs).

Every three weeks, the students would have something to present. They did different kinds of games, some videos, and other "things" to tangibilize concepts. (Images by MediaLAB Amsterdam. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/92746637@N06/with/35479328381/)

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Meetings to present, not to co-create "We could have had more involvement in the project, more meetings or longer meetings. But we had every 3 weeks one hour free schedule for this and everything had to happen in this hour.

In my opinion, 3 weeks is too long and one hour is too short. They need half an hour to present. We need half an hour to discuss. And we would need a half or an hour more to get them come up with solution for the next step." (Wahbe Rezek)

Tangible tools and prototypes " We had several sprints, they did a lot of things‌ They had a lot of digital things. This is not something we can do here at the municipality. They had a lot of digital tools, that really "quick and dirty" could make something visible. They built an app and you can really click through it, even if it's a mock up, this is really helpful.

Because you get the feeling: "Ah, this is how it is going to look like, this is what you are going to do. And you can get a step deeper into the content. What you are going to do with it, who you are going to address it to, how does this process work‌" (Tim Ruijs)

Playing with the research data "To understand the personas they created 2 different games. The games were amazing, and you can see that they put a lot of time in it." (Wahbe Rezek)

The 'Persona games' done by the students served to share the research data in an innovative way. The commissioner of the projects liked it so much that they asked to take it to the Municipality and show to more people there. (Image by MediaLAB Amsterdam.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/92746637@N06/with/35479328381/)

ANALYSIS

The importance of empathy "In the second meeting again they surprised us a lot, they showed that they were really looking into what people think and what people see in the waste management. How their current experience is with the current system. They went on the streets and they started asking people, we don't do it here a lot." (Wahbe Rezek)

The MediaLAB Amsterdam process is based on Human-centered design. The students are taught methods and techniques to engage with citizens and take user's perspective to propose solutions. (Image by MediaLAB Amsterdam.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/92746637@N06/with/35479328381/)

Inventive ways to engage with citizens "For example in the beginning they did this "confession bin" where you can go in and answer some things about your experience with your bulky waste. It was very interesting, we were really surprised because it was really something new." (Wahbe Rezek)

The 'Confession Bin' was a way to engage the citizens to tell stories about their experiences with their waste. (Image by MediaLAB Amsterdam. Source: https:// www.flickr.com/photos/92746637@N06/with/35479328381/)

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It is easier for students "Their methods were really interesting. These are students with a lot of time. It is a luxury that as a professional you don't have. They did a lot of research. That is very complex for the Municipality. They just went out with a questionnaire and asked 250 people on the street: Hey, what is your opinion about this? For students that is really easy.

For the municipality, you can not just do this. It is more complex. Your questions need to be more balanced, you need to hire a professional agency." (Tim Ruijs)

Free-pass for creativity "(...) you want to leave the students free. Because if you steer too much it became our project and not their project. So when you are looking for creativity you need to let them be free a little bit." (Tim Ruijs)

Commissioners were not deeply involved in the process to reframe the initial questions with the students "I am happy with the result, though the results don't really answer the primary question we have asked. It is sonth of a nice adventure with a nice result." (Tim Ruijs)

The solution proposed was a system that addressed different aspects from the citizen's perspective, not from the siloed structures of the Municipality "It is good material. There is good research into why this could be a good solution, how it works and so on. But it does not answer my question. I am the guy from Waste collection points, and they switched to the waste collection truck system, which is my colleague's responsibility. So I am looking forward to see his reaction!" (Tim Ruijs)

The solution proposed was a system named ‘Tag It!’. In this system one has to tag their waste with geolocated stickers. The stickers have a minimalistic design and vary on the variables type of bulky waste, time priority and size of the bulky waste. (Images by MediaLAB Amsterdam.

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/92746637@N06/with/35479328381/)

ANALYSIS

Lab fest The solution of the project was presented in the Lab Fest, a kind of showroom of projects from the 'labs' of the university

The Lab Fest was open to the public. And the team built a stand to present their solution enacting a selling situation. (Images by MediaLAB Amsterdam. Source: https://www.flickr.com/ photos/92746637@N06/with/35479328381/)

The project was not shared with the department, only the two commissioners had access to the process, during the meetings "Tomorrow they will present the project to more people of the Waste team, for the first time. And they will present their process and their final concept. I don't know how they are going to react. If they are going to use the solution‌" (Wahbe Rezek)

Awareness about the process It can be a coincidence, but after the generative sessions with the commissioners from the Municipality, the students received an email to make sure to include the process in the final meeting. They even extended the meeting in order to have time for that.

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ANALYSING THE CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLIC SECTOR INNOVATION

ANALYSIS

From the first research phase I proposed a framework, inspired in the 'Public sector design ladder" proposed by the Design Council (2013). It gathered different aspects regarding the collaboration between designers and public sector bodies and their implications. More than a synthesis of the research phase, the framework aimed to serve as a guideline for the data collection and now will serve as a diagnosis tool to evaluate the contribution of that engagement provided to the commissioner of the projects.

DESIGN FOR GOVERNMENT

MEDIALAB AMSTERDAM

1 Solving discrete problems Product or service innovations Service mode Barriers regarding desgin aspects

In both contexts, the collaboration between the students and public servants happened by means of the development of a practical, hands-on project. The students worked on a project brief to develop solutions for a current challenge from a ministry or a governmental department. Although the project briefs points to specific challenges, or "discrete problems" to be addressed during the project, both the Design for Government course and the MediaLAB contributed to public sector innovation in the three levels.

Therefore the challenges, or discrete problems in focus served as a "way-in" to designers in the Ministry or public sector department.

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DESIGN FOR GOVERNMENT

2 Design as a capability Conceptual innovations Challenge mode Barriers regarding building and accessing design capacity for public sector innovation

Staff gains a shift in perspective in seeing things from the point of view of the citizens they serve.

The Ministerial Advisor from the Ministry of the Environment, Taina Nikula expresses her awareness that the contribution of the project develop with the students, goes beyond the final solutions proposed. In a recent documentary about the course, she declares: "The work gave us new ways of looking into the challenges, how to maybe solve them, what are the different ways to go through and how to involve different actors in [the process of ] solving the problems" (Taina Nikula – transcribed from Mini documentary)

Staff acknowledges the value of building design capabilities internally "It would be good for us, for our future work, to get more knowledge. [It would be good] for all the civil servants, or most of them, working with legislation and policy tools to get courses in designing services and processes, so we would be able to combine in our everyday work, both empathy and systems thinking." (Taina Nikula – transcribed from Mini documentary)

ANALYSIS

3 Design for policy Governance innovation Partner mode Barriers regarding organizational and cultural aspects of public sector organizations

At the final show, presenting the proposals of the teams in 2015, the head of development of the Ministry of Finance, Virpi-Einola Pekinnen gives her impression about the program. In her speech she mentions several aspects of cultural and organizational change.

Staff gets an overview of a system "I think that this kind of cooperation between government and university is an excellent example of an open government. And how an open government works. Meaning that open government is not only that civil servants are allowing other than themselves to participate, but that we actively invite others to our processes. To build bridges between different actors, between civil servants and others in the society.

These groups also understood very well that any kind of successful change requires a heavy investment in people and culture. An intelligent organization create strong networks of all kinds. And use these networks as a primary source of problem solving. And this is a good example of this new way of problem solving" (Virpi-Einola Pekinnen – transcript from Final show 2015)

The project is a way of engaging people from outside government I, personally see a huge number of possibilities of this kind of cooperation in the future also. Because it is extremely valuable to have a variety of people with different backgrounds, culture and kinds of education to solve similar problems as these. I personally hope that we scale up and this kind of cooperation will continue

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and we will have more and more good examples and future talents" (Virpi-Einola Pekinnen – transcript from Final show 2015).

The project is a way of cutting across departmental silos In 2017, for the first time both projects involved multiple ministries and the development of these projects will demonstrate the ministries commitment to the kind of collaboration and crossover thinking necessary for addressing complex societal challenges. This kind of project is not common in the siloed structures of the public sector, which is usually organized by departments and ministries.

The project challenges the way the commissioner thinks The commissioner of one of the projects in 2015, the Science Specialist of the Prime Minister’s Office, Anna-Kaisa Lahteenmaki-Smith comments about the collaboration with the university. She explains that besides opening new perspectives, giving the public servants at the Prime Minister’s Office new instruments and a set of new tools, she also thinks it is really useful and healthy to challenge the public sector way of thinking by opening up to the students. (Mini documentary) "We have benefitted from working with the DfG in many ways, but I think that the main way was that we actually created a platform to work together with students. And this collaboration has to be followed to a collaboration with other universities and with other groups of students, to open our thinking and challenge us. I think that kind of challenge is really welcome" (Anna-Kaisa Lahteenmaki-Smith– transcribed from Mini documentary).

ANALYSIS

MEDIALAB AMSTERDAM

2 Design as a capability Conceptual innovations Challenge mode Barriers regarding building and accessing design capacity for public sector innovation

Staff gains a shift in perspective in seeing things from the point of view of the citizens they serve.

"MediaLAB shows how we can think from the people's perspective: user-centered design" (Wahbe Rezek).

"I am from the design world in which we make personas and games to create consciousness, to make people realize what they are working on. But for the coordinator Tim, it was really something new. Actually I had conversations with a lot of people here in the Municipality and I presented the personas, for example, and it was really surprising for them: "Wow! We are always thinking about how to make thing efficient or financially attractive but we never think about how the people will experience it. And we are working for the people actually, so it is strange that we are not thinking about their behaviour and their motives" (Wahbe Rezek).

Staff uses the skills to solve numerous problems too small to merit the hiring of designers "It is funny because three-four weeks ago Tim [the other partner form the Municipality] started to make a game for an internal meeting here in the Municipality. It was a really nice game, people were really happy and very surprised. They gave Tim a lot of credits

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for it. But I think Tim got the idea from here [the engagement with MediaLAB]. He never did anything like that before. A game in a team meeting?! I think this process [of the MediaLAB] is really something new for such organization. And I think that if you show more [of the design methods and process], the organizations could use more, they would be ready to use it" (Wahbe Rezek).

3 Design for policy Governance innovation Partner mode Barriers regarding organizational and cultural aspects of public sector organizations

The project is a low-cost way of mitigating risk through prototyping During the final presentation in the Municipality, the students received an informal invitation by the Team Manager of Waste Chain Optimization, Albert van Winden, to pilot the project in one of the districts of Amsterdam in the coming semester. The solution they delivered matched the agenda of the Waste Chain Optimization department, which was investigating the possibility of changing the policy of bulky waste collection. And they would like to have the MediaLAB Amsterdam and the students develop the pilot with the same process, in order to test the citizen perception.

Before any formal agreement, the proposal will need to be approved by the Municipality Council.

ANALYSIS

The project is a way of cutting across departmental silos and engaging people from outside government The solution proposed by the students involved a new stakeholder in the process of bulky waste collection, the second hand shop owners. This would alleviate the work of the waste collection team, since the new stakeholders included would deal with part of the bulky waste.

“It is good material. There is good research into why this could be a good solution, how it works and so on... But it does not answer my question. I am the guy from Waste collection points, and they switched to the waste collection truck system, which is my colleague’s responsibility. So I am looking forward to see his reaction!” (Tim Ruijs)

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Discussion Design education as a means to foster collaboration between designers and public bodies, contributing to public sector innovation

SECTION

1. SMOOTH WAY-IN FOR DESIGN IN PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS

2. SAFE ZONES FOR EXPERIMENTATION

3. SPACES FOR MUTUAL LEARNING

4. CATALYSTS OF NEW NETWORKS

5. DEVELOP PROJECTS ACROSS PROJECTS

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The findings from the case studies reveal that these environments in design schools, which are dedicated to the collaboration between students and external partners from public sector bodies, through the development of practical, hands-on projects, can contribute to the current (and emerging) movement of public sector innovation. And moreover, to design education and design research in this context.

From the analysis of the engagements during the projects, it is possible to identify aspects that foster collaborative conditions which are not offered by other players in the ecosystem of public innovation (such as design agencies and policy labs). Therefore, these environments in design schools could be regarded as a kind of "collaborative playground" that can contribute to public sector innovation bridging design and public sector bodies, encourage an active exploration of innovative engagement models and consequently, foster the development, in practice, of a new hybrid way of working together.

1. SMOOTH WAY-IN FOR DESIGN IN PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS

Commissioning a design agency to a project can be a headache to a public department. And this situation is not even experienced by government institutions that are not aware of the value of design to public innovation.

Collaborating with a group of students from the university require less effort and resources than hiring a design agency or consultancy. Of course, the aims and final outputs are different and one should not substitute the other. However, the mutual learning and exploration present in the collaboration with the students is a low-risk and low-complexity introduction of the design approach and methods into the public sector institution.

An innovation expert, from a South African university shared her experience during an interview (during the first stage of the research), she wanted to collaborate with a public hospital using design, but the doors were not open to this kind of engagement. The situation changed when she joined the university teaching staff:

DISCUSSION

“When I joined the university, the senior policymakers said to me that we could even sign an agreement because the institutional framework now was right to engagement. The university comes with an environment where people would experiment new projects into new things and do research. They found it very safe vehicle to engage with.� (Innovation Expert, South African University, in SDN, 2016 SDN, 2016).

Once design is being applied in the organization, the experience and contribution can serve as an advocate for the value of design approaches in the support of public sector innovation in spaces where there are no initiatives with this aim.

Barriers addressed: This 'collaborative condition' can contribute to overcoming of barriers regarding aspects of design which can prevent its entrance in the public realm indicated by the Design Council (2013), such as: # The term 'design' itself is confusing, embodying a multitude of meanings; # In some countries (e.g. Brazil), the design profession is not regulated and represented in the same way as other professions (such as law and engineering). This aspect can make it harder for non-designers, or prospective design commissioners, to understand where to go, and to feel assured of quality and impact. # It is not clear that a sufficient proportion of the design community is ready and prepared to respond to this massive public service challenge, and the career paths that prepare designers to work in this way are limited. # The measurable impact of applying design to public service challenges has rarely been consistently documented (Design Council, 2013).

It also has the potential to address one of the 3 major challenges emphasized by Bason (2013), the creation of authorizing environments. He claims that although new entities such as policy labs "are created to help design take root, there is still a formidable challenge in embedding this approach within government.

Ensuring funding, anchoring change in the organization, getting management buy-in, and actually executing the new ideas and solutions are all difficult" (Bason, 2013).

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2. SAFE ZONES FOR EXPERIMENTATION

Koskinen and his colleagues (2011) state that “Studying things in a laboratory means that something is taken out from its natural environment and brought into a controlled area where it can be subjected to experimentation” (Koskinen et al., 2011).

In this case, having the university as an anchor point, and the learning aspect in the spotlight, the projects developed by these environments can be excused from political, economical or feasibility aspects and allowing them to explore "the room of the non-obvious in a safe-to-fail context" (Christiansen et al., 2017).

In the words of one of the MediaLAB's public sector partners "Let us [Municipality] deal with the complex part. The students are here for the ideation, creation of concepts they only have to check if it is a little bit feasible and the rest will follow. Feasibility is not important. Concepts are. Concepts that are likely to be realistic." (Tim Ruijs) The students are in a privileged position to experiment. They are excused, if not encouraged “to ask stupid questions” (Work-in-progress, blog post), which might dig up new ideas beyond the imagination of an inside expert.

They are also praised to do "quick and dirty" (Tim Ruijs) prototypes and interventions that provide agile learning about the problem or the proposition. Their main asset is to bring a fresh, outsider's perspective to the situation.

The journalist Suni wrote her impressions about the Design for Gorvernment final presentation, referring to the it as "creativity and a better future in a bubble" (Suni, 2016).

DISCUSSION

In an article from UK's innovation foundation Nesta, the DfG programme is recognised as a global leadership in experimental governance, "strategically introducing experimentation into policy-making and public innovation initiatives." (Christiansen et al., 2017). Jesper Christiansen and his colleagues (2017) highlight the benefits of embedding experimental approaches in the public sector: "Experimental approaches accelerate learning by systematically testing assumptions and identifying knowledge gaps. What is there to be known about the problem and the function, fit and probability of a suggested solution? Experimentation helps fill these gaps without allocating too much time or resource, and helps governments accelerate the exploration of new potential solution spaces" (Christiansen et al., 2017).

Barriers addressed: This 'collaborative condition' can contribute to overcoming of barriers regarding experimentation in public sector organizations: # Risk-taking is typically not embraced, but discouraged; # Fear of divergence can hinder the exploration of new ideas; # Often, funding for new and risky public ventures is extremely limited (Carstensen and Bason, 2012).

3. SPACES FOR MUTUAL LEARNING

As part of an academic institution, the learning aspect comes in the first place. The skills are developed in practice during the development of the project with a partner from the external organization. And the learning experience can potentially be expanded beyond the students, to all the stakeholders of the project.

The use of design in the public sector is an emerging field for the design both as practice and discipline. Therefore, the knowledge of how to do it, and how to teach it is under construction. During the collaborative

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development of the project, both the students and the organization need to understand the value of design and the potential impact it can achieve, and learn together how to handle this new way of thinking and working in the public context. As well as the educational institution, which needs to learn which are the skillset needed in this context and how to better build this capacity in the participants.

"DfG is actually an experiment to bring design into a new context, in which it has not been much [present] before. Designing policy is a new field. And we need to start teaching our students how to understand to handle this. This is one way of doing this. And it also require a lot of learning from the institutions about what design can actually do and how it can help" (Juha Kronqvist, founding member and teaching staff –transcribed from Final Show 2015).

"We can say we are finding the new frontiers, the new education in design. Where will design head in the future? Where are the professions thar can serve a wider number of people? Where can it serve the public in a much broader sense?" (Ramia Mazé – transcribed from Final show 2016).

Barriers addressed: In this case, contributions to building and accessing design capacity for public sector innovation can be addressed: "Public sector organizations cannot rely solely on internal expertise for design-led innovation, they simply do not possess enough people (if any) with those skills. Design education has yet to catch up with the growing need for service and systems design, and designers need to learn how to interact more effectively with government" (Bason, 2013).

4. CATALYSTS OF NEW NETWORKS

The educational institution offers a neutral zone for engagement with citizens and institutions. This is an opportunity to engage with different departments and ministries of the public sector, which are not used to

DISCUSSION

working in collaboration. And also to include more actors in the system, being stakeholders affected by the issue or stakeholders that can contribute to the solution. Enabling, for instance, an even deeper level of citizen engagement, in which they can be invited to collaborate in the project development.

"They just went out with a questionnaire and asked 250 people on the street: Hey, what is your opinion about this? For students that is really easy. For the municipality, you can not just do this. It is more complex. Your questions need to be more balanced, you need to hire a professional agency" (Tim Ruijs) It also creates an environment in which private sector organizations can contribute to public challenges in collaboration with the public sector organizations, since the direct link with public sector can be highly bureaucratic or non-existent. An example of the possible public private partnership enabled by these academic labs frameworks is the project "Designing for Financial Empowerment" initiated by Parsons' Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) Lab, in New York.

A cross-sector initiative to explore how service design can be used to integrate financial empowerment services into existing human services, in collaboration with the City of New York, Citi Community Development (SDN, 2016).

Barriers addressed: This can overcome organizational and cultural barriers of public sector organizations: # The requirement to respect citizen’s rights and equality before the law implies that it can be difficult to conduct experiments, which temporarily change the rights or benefits of certain groups of citizens; # In most countries, the public sector is highly sectorialised – vertically between administrative levels, and horizontally between distinct policy domains; # Many of public sector organisations still are very hierarchical and bureaucratic; # Incentives for sharing tasks and knowledge amongst public sector organisations are not very high; (Carstensen and Bason, 2012) # Opening up bureaucracy to co-production (Bason, 2013)

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5. DEVELOP PROJECTS ACROSS PROJECTS

The collaborative playgrounds have a basic structure for the collaborations which is followed by the different projects. For instance: The are 4 projects per semester, with 1 or 2 partners each, the duration of the projects is 20 weeks, they make use of the same methodology and organizational structure. Every semester, it starts all over and this basic structure repeats itself with different constellations of people and focusing on different project briefs.

Taking a macro perspective, each project can be seen as a unit of experimentation. The learnings from the previous experiences, especially regarding organizational and cultural aspects of the collaborations, can serve as improvement for the next round of projects, therefore, iterating the "rules" and frameworks of collaboration.

Furthermore, this cross-project perspective holds the opportunity to build another level of knowledge, taking advantage of the same engagement frameworks. For instance, tools and methods used during the different projects can also be assessed and compared, building knowledge about organizational and cultural aspects of the engagements.

Besides organizational and cultural aspects, the practical projects can support research about several topics such as the learning experience and the educational aspect, the integration of the university and the partners, the knowledge sharing, impact measurement, communication and collaboration during the project.

For instance, in the Design for Government programme the organizational and cultural aspects form the projects were used as material for research commissioned by the Prime Minister’s Office to examine how that unique approach could be operationalized in the Finnish Government. The projects serves as a "rehearsal", or a prototype being iterated and adjusted, to be better adapted to the reality of the public sector institutions.

DISCUSSION

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Conclusion

SECTION

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS

OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

FINAL REFLECTIONS

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This research was built on the hypothesis that environments in design schools which are dedicated to the engagement between students and external partners, through the development of practical, hands-on projects, have the potential to contribute to the current (and emerging) movement of public sector innovation.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS: How can client driven projects in design schools contribute to public sector innovation?

How to use design education as a means to foster the collaboration between designers and public bodies?

The research questions had an intentional dual meaning, leading the inquiry into two directions: # present-oriented: the investigation of current contexts of engagement between design education and public sector bodies, and # future-oriented: the envisioning of ways to engage with and contribute to public sector innovation.

The purpose of my study was to raise awareness about the potential contribution that design education can bring to public sector innovation and to the development of the design practice and research in this emerging field. With the aim to (a) increase the contribution of existing collaborations between design schools and public sector bodies that may not be aware of the value of design for the public sector beyond 'solving discrete problems' and (b) to foster more educational programmes in design with this focus.

The research was based on the “Research Through Design� approach and used qualitative methods of inquiry for data collection and analysis, by means of both primary and secondary research methods in three phases: contextual exploration, preliminary research and in depth research.

From the the initial investigation about the context of design for public sector innovation I proposed a framework, synthesizing the relevant aspects of the engagement between designers and public sector bodies. More than a visual synthesis, the proposed framework was envisioned as a guiding tool for the following steps of the research.

CONCLUSION

The 'Design + public sector innovation' framework supported the exploration of the opportunity space and the research questions in a preliminary exercise of scenario building. The scenarios were used in a generative session with students from the Cologne International School of Design in order to (a) explore potential formats of engagement between higher education in design and public sector bodies, (b) explore the potential contributions of this engagements to public sector innovation, and (c) understand the perception of the students, one of the main stakeholders of these proposed educational models using a participatory approach.

The main insights from this preliminary research phase were that the students' assumptions regarding these engagements can affect the contribution to public sector innovation; and that the lack of awareness about public sector innovation and the potential impact of using designbased approaches to address it, can hinder deeper levels of contribution, beyond 'discrete problem solving'.

These insights led the direction of the research to focus on real cases in which this engagements were already happening.

In order to (a) understand how these collaborations happen; (b) investigate in which ways these engagements are contributing to public sector innovation; (c) identify collaboration issues that could affect the contribution to public sector innovation; (d) envision ways in which the contribution can be increased.

With this purpose, I investigated two design school environments dedicated to the engagement between students and public sector bodies through the development of practical, hands-on projects: 1) The Design for Government, a design studio model course from the Creative Sustainability Master programme of Aalto University in Helsinki.

2) The MediaLAB Amsterdam, a multidisciplinary studio from the School of Design & Communication at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

The investigation of these contexts had different focus and, therefore, different methods were used. The Design for Government case study was done by secondary research, by means of a content analysis of the material published by and about the programme. In order to investigate which conditions supported the engagement with public sector bodies and in which ways they impact the contribution to public sector innovation.

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Whereas the MediaLAB Amsterdam case study was done by primary research, using a set of participatory generative methods (Sanders, 2012) in order to (a) understand the stakeholders' perspective about the engagement in deeper levels, (b) identify engagement issues and (c) generate opportunities for the collaboration between the design school and public sector bodies.

These specific contexts were chosen because of their different awareness and maturity levels regarding public sector innovation, which allowed the research to draw relevant conclusions to a broader spectrum of design education programmes, regarding their awareness and maturity levels about public sector innovation. That is to say, design schools that were not yet engaging with the public sphere; design schools starting to engage with public bodies; and environments in design schools in which the collaboration focus is not public sector innovation (e.g. MediaLAB); and, the benchmarks that are already recognised by its contribution (e.g. Design for Government).

The Design for Government course can be positioned in one extreme, having an internationally recognised programme (Christiansen et al., 2017) for the capacitation of multidisciplinary students with design capabilities for public sector innovation with 4 years of experience developing projects for public sector bodies. Additionally it is embedded in a national context in which both design and public sector innovation have a history of engagements and achievements (Christiansen et al., 2017; Aalto, 2015; Pitkänen et al., 2012).

On the other hand, the MediaLAB Amsterdam programme is rooted in the digital media and its implications to citizen engagement. Although its vast experience in developing projects with private partner organizations (more than 70 projects developed), it developed its first project in which the solutions proposed to address the project-brief had the potential to affect public policy issues, during the present research (2017) commissioned by the Municipality of Amsterdam. In this context, neither the student team, or the lab staff nor the external partners from the Municipality were aware of public sector innovation and the impact that design could achieve in the public realm beyond providing a possible solution to the 'problem' stated on the briefing.

CONCLUSION

The 'Design + public sector innovation' framework was used during the investigation of the case studies, and afterwards in the analysis, to assess the levels of contribution of the engagements.

How can client driven projects in design schools contribute to public sector innovation?

The findings reveal that environments in design schools which are dedicated to the collaboration between students and external partners from public sector bodies, through the development of practical, hands-on projects, can contribute to the current (and emerging) movement of public sector innovation and moreover, to design education and design research in this context.

In both contexts studied, the collaboration between the students and public servants happened by means of the development of a practical, handson project. The students worked on a project-brief to develop solutions for a current 'problem' from a ministry or a governmental department.

However, by using design-based approaches during the development – such as engaging with users, developing "design things" (Koskinen et al., 2011) to make issues and ideas tangible and prototyping solutions in context – both the Design for Government course and the MediaLAB touched aspects beyond the first level of contribution – 'discrete problem solving' and 'service mode' – and generated awareness, discussion and even actual impact in deeper levels – 'design as a capability' and 'challenge mode'; and 'design design for policy' and 'hybrid mode'.

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Despite the stakeholders lack of awareness about public sector innovation in the context of the MediaLAB project in collaboration with the Municipality of Amsterdam, the engagement contributed to the three levels proposed by the 'Design + Public Sector Innovation' framework. This leads to a conclusion that these types of engagement can achieve deeper levels of impact even when they are not aware of it.

Nonetheless, the lack of awareness about these contributions, can risk their identification and the accountability of the specific engagement with the design school.

This awareness issue can be illustrated by the example of the game developed by Tim (one of the partners of the Municipality of Amsterdam project at the MediaLAB) to facilitate a meeting with his colleagues at the Waste Management Department of the Municipality. When I asked Wahbe Rezek, one of the commissioners from the Municipality, if he could see any impact brought by the engagement with MediaLAB, he took a while to think and answered: "It is funny because three-four weeks ago Tim [the other partner form the Municipality] started to make a game for an internal meeting here in the Municipality. It was a really nice game, people were really happy and very surprised. They gave Tim a lot of credits for it. But I think Tim got the idea from here [the engagement with MediaLAB]. He never did anything like that before. A game in a team meeting?! I think this process [of the MediaLAB] is really something new for such organization. And I think that if you show more [of the design methods and process], the organizations could use more, they would be ready to use it."

(Wahbe Rezek) If this question were not asked, it is possible that this contribution would never be perceived nor attributed to the engagement with MediaLAB and exposure to design-based approaches. Additionally, the unintentional contribution tends to be superficial and opportunities such as mutual learning are not fully exploited. Therefore the awareness can be pointed as a key factor in order to increase potential contribution to public sector innovation issues.

CONCLUSION

How to use design education as a means to foster the collaboration between designers and public bodies?

From analysis of the engagement processes in both contexts, it is possible to identify latent aspects that foster collaborative conditions, which are not offered by other players in the ecosystem of public sector innovation (such as design agencies and policy labs).

Therefore, these environments in design schools can be regarded as a kind of "collaborative playground" that can contribute to public sector innovation bridging design and public sector bodies, encourage an active exploration of the experimental and innovative organizational possibilities and consequently, foster the development, in practice, of new hybrid way of working together.

These "collaborative playgrounds": 1. enable a smooth way-in for design in public sector organizations; 2. are safe zones for experimentation; 3. are spaces for mutual learning; 4. are catalysts of new networks; 5. offer the possibility to develop projects across projects.

These conditions are 'latent' because they even though potentially present in these environment, it is not always evident or realized by the all the stakeholders involved on the engagement.

Hence, the awareness – of both collaborative conditions and the potential impact of design to public sector innovation – plays a major role in the contribution. Therefore, in order to increase the contribution of the

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referred engagements to public sector innovation it is important to raise the awareness among the stakeholders, including the members of the design schools, the students and the commissioners of the projects.

For this purpose, I conclude this research with two recommendations to actively exploit – by making the most of the existing conditions – and explore – by enabling conditions that were not explicit in current programmes, as well as fostering the implementation of new programmes and environments with these conditions in design schools – 'Collaborative Playgrounds' for Public sector innovation in design schools.

Firstly, I suggest the application of the 'Design + Public Sector Innovation' framework in these environments as a tool to plan, evaluate, classify and build knowledge that can be shared with other design schools in order to build a collective knowledge about the topic.

Framework as a planning tool that could be used before the project starts, to set the partnership, support the briefing process and plan the project activities, actively seeking to contribute to specific aspects of public sector innovation during the project development, beyond the original projectbrief. Such as raising awareness about the value of design or teaching design thinking methods public servants. The use of the framework at this moment of the project would also help to raise awareness about the potential levels of contributions for all the stakeholders involved..

Framework as an evaluation tool that could be used during the process as a self-assessment about the progress of the engagement in terms of contribution to public sector. This would encourage the stakeholders involved in the project keep the focus on the process and on the organizational and cultural aspects of the engagement. The use of the framework during the process could also support the mutual learning among the participants of the project, in the search of strategies to reach the goals established and to critically think about the achievements and how to improve them.

Additionally it would generate an evolutionary timeline of the process regarding the impact, enabling the design school to evaluate the projects, identify patterns across projects and possibly improve aspects that are hindering the contribution.

CONCLUSION

Framework as a classification and knowledge sharing tool that could be used to register possible issues in the engagement, or challenges regarding the embedding of design into the public sector, as well as the proposed and tested "solutions" to address those issues, challenges and specific objectives.

This practice have the potential to generate a databank of adapted tools, tips and design "moves" to address specific aspects of the engagements.

For instance, the 'persona game' that was developed by the students at the MediaLAB to share the data of the research with the partners from the Municipality. Or guidelines and material to do introductory workshops of design methods to the partners.

This practice can be shared with other projects teams or to other design schools, fostering a collective building of knowledge, from practical experiences of engagement with public sector bodies.

And secondly, a call to action to the design academic community and the community of practice which is interested in, or already engaged with public sector innovation to develop and promote a "Collaborative playground" manifesto. The five collaborative conditions identified in this research – smooth way-in for design, safe zones for experimentation, spaces for mutual learning, catalysts of new networks, develop projects across projects) could be a starting point. This manifesto would serve to inspire design schools to exploit and explore these latent, unique collaborative conditions as a mean to develop hybrid ways designing public services and policies. A network of such as the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) Network, the innovation foundation Nesta or the Design Council could coordinate these efforts.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS It is not the purpose of this study: # to develop an extensive research about the current design education scenario, but rather build on top of some spotted opportunities to explore possibilities that can be then, transferred to a broader perspective; # to give a definite answer to the research question but instead, to explore one of the many possible approaches and generate awareness about the opportunities to explore the topic, support discussion and further research.

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I should make clear that I have intentionally not chosen to study a broader sample of contexts that would provide an overview and comparison of different settings in a superficial manner. Instead my intention was to focus on practical aspects and deeper levels of the engagement between design students and public bodies, in order to generate a results that could potentially be adapted to other contexts. My contribution can serve as a the starting point of further exploration and discussion about the topic.

Therefore, the nature of my data does not allow me to determine whether this situation is the same in other design school contexts, especially regarding cultural factors, such as the maturity of design (service design) in the particular country, the public sector innovation context and the political situation of the country.

This issue was raised in the discussions of the generative session with the master students from KISD during the preliminary research phase. The students came from different countries and for some of them, the ethical and political issues of working with (or for) the government have are very relevant and certainly affect the engagement and the potential contribution.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The investigation of other contexts in which design is not recognised as a strategic approach or in which public sector innovation is not a reality, can add complementary perspectives to the present study. The use of the framework proposed in this research can help to structure the research proposal for other case studies, also leading to further testing and evolvement of the framework as a research tool.

As mentioned before, the practical application of the framework to other purposes is another direction for further investigation in the future. The 'Design + Public Sector Innovation' framework proposed by this research has the potential to be applied during the process of development of collaborative projects between design schools and public sector bodies as a planning tool, evaluation tool, classification and knowledge sharing tool.

And furthermore, by practitioners applying design-based approaches in the context of the public sector, with the potential to be further developed into an impact assessment tool.

CONCLUSION

The test these uses in context and the adaptation of the framework to support those specific moments within the collaboration between designers and public bodies can be a valuable contribution to this study area.

FINAL REFLECTIONS Exploring this topic made me feel really positive about the future opportunities for the design field. During the research I came across very inspiring people and examples of initiatives in which design is being used to shape a better world, more inclusive, democratic, sustainable and fair.

Public services serve vast numbers of people and they are the largest employers worldwide. Furthermore, the intervention of the government in the public sphere modifies behaviours and influence the way people live in inumerous levels. Beyond that, public sector also sets the 'rules of the game' for private sector innovation. I believe that the impact of designbased approaches in public sector innovation, and consequently in public innovation and social innovation is a seed to significant transformations in society. And if my original motivation to do this engage in this research journey was a personal search for my role as a designer in order to contribute to a better world, I can assure that this quest found very inspiring answers.

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APPENDIX

APPENDIX

A SERVICE DESIGN IMPACT REPORT: PUBLIC SECTOR Part of the research in this phase was done during the production of the “Service Design Impact Report: Public Sector" (SDN, 2016) in collaboration with the Service Design Network (SDN). The team had Prof. Birgit Mager, as the coordinator and Mirja Hopiavuori, as a designer and researcher.

The Service Design Network (SDN) is as a community building platform, supporting the service design practice and research globally. On one hand, it aims to strengthen the community of practice, on the other, generate awareness of the service design value, by means of events and an award organization, and curation and creation of content.

Service Design Impact Report: Public Sector (SDN, 2016). (Image by Aline Alonso)

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The research phase engaged more than 200 participants around the world. In blue, the countries that participated in the qualitative and quantitative questionnaire. And the green marks show the interview partners's location on the globe (SDN, 2016).

The aim of the publication was to develop a global overview of the service design practice in the public sector for the service design community – both agency and client side – interested in the current service design practice in the Public Sector. In addition, the report is written for Public Sector decision makers who may be unaware of the potential impact of Service Design approaches. (SDN, 2016) An Editorial Board was gathered co-create the structure of the publication and edit the material; influential thinkers were invited and briefed to write articles; the service design community was involved in the online survey, and through a Facebook page* dedicated to the publication. In total, more than 200 people contributed to the research process. It is important to mention that the network, the communication channels and reputation of SDN were very important assets for this research, granting and facilitation access to key people and resources.

https://www.facebook.com/sdnpublicsector/

APPENDIX

B SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Can you describe your relation to the Public Sector and to Service Design?

What was your trajectory, the opportunities, the challenges, that brought you to the position you are now?

2. Can you describe the current state of design approaches application in the public sector in your country? And how the institution you belong to relates to that?

3. In addition I would please ask you to comment the topics below, as metrics to help to exemplify the maturity of the country in this sense: # status of organization of events and conferences about the service design in the public sector; # number of educational courses and institutions teaching service design for the public sector / public sector innovation; # level of cooperation between business, academia and governmen; # level of cooperation with citizens and existing initiatives of local communities; # number of organizations and labs that are actively producing research concerning the topic # level of involvement in publications specialized in the topic (for example reports, books, blogs, case studies).

4. Where is it possible to see the impact of the use of service design in the public sector? How is this impact being measured? How is it being communicated inside the public sector and to the citizens?

5. What are the biggest challenges in applying SD in the public sector in your country? What stops ‘design’ of being applied consistently and to have bigger impact in the public sector?

6.What is already being done to overcome these challenges? And could be done in the future?

7. What are the next steps and how do you see the evolution of the application and impact of SD in the public sector of your country?

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C KISD FUTURES 1. KISDcityLAB Last week, Cologne went to the streets to protest against the decisions in the in the public realm that were made without the public involvement. The main complain was the recent approval of the EberPLAZA. The project that would build a mall and a big parking-lot on top of Eberplazt station and end up with the square and the underground space that was frequently used as a cultural scenario for events and exhibitions. Followed by the several changes on both the public Health insurance system and the Unemployment insurance system on the last month. Some part of the demonstrations were also addressing the “Refugee Quarantine Protection”, as it has been called by the media, from the last year. After the Big Demonstration of 05.11.2021, StadtKöln agreed revoke the decision of EberPLAZA and transform the space into a citizen-government hub to explore possibilities of citizen involvement in the decisions and active engagement on the transformations of the city and public services.

Some representatives of Köln International School of Design were closely involved in the Big Demonstration movement and on the meetings for the agreement. One of the ideas is to create a KISDcityLAB. The lab will serve as a direct touchpoint with the citizens and have design as a tool of engagement and facilitation of discussion and action.

Tomorrow a new meeting will take place and the idea will be presented.

We will need to communicate the KISDcityLAB. How could this new version of KISD work? (description, objectives/benefits, skills) Who could be involved? (stakeholder map) How would the program be? ( journey map) Let’s explore the processes by an example of a project (story board, acting)

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2.KISDgovLAB According to the Digital Agenda 2016 – 2022 from the federal government, Germany would need to have all the public services digitized by the year of 2020. A pure interface approach to substitute the previous services for digital version is creating a big caos on the system and there are not much designers available in the country to work with it. The entire system need to be redesigned and that include the service offers, the processes and overlaps between services and departments.

TH Koeln just signed a contract to have part of KISD working for these changes.

And now is the moment to plan how the KISDgovLAB, to be created inside the government facilities will work.

The biggest challenges are: # The public servants are not feeling included in the changes, it is a top-down decision: “We have been working with the same process for a long time and now they want us to change everything! I don’t understand why they are doing it... It will just make my life more complicated!” said one public servant from the Auslanderbehorde Cologne. # The different departments of the government don’t work together and the communication between them is very slow or nonexistent. Design is only seen as the end producer of digital interfaces, communication, products and spaces. The trust and openness to involve design from the start of the processes are difficult because the value of design as a research and strategic tool is not recognised by the public servants nor by most of the decision makers of the sector.

You will need to communicate the KISDgovLAB: How could this new version of KISD work? (description, objectives/benefits, skills) Who could be involved? (stakeholder map) How would the program be? ( journey map) Let’s explore the processes by an example of a project (story board, acting)

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KISAD - Köln International School-Agency of Design Since the big depression of 2018, lost of cuts have been made in the public system. The TH Köln was spared so far, but there is nowhere to run...

KISD will need to be closed! Of course the students that still need to finish their program will have the chance to do it in the next 2 years. But from beginning of next year, 2022, no more new students will be accepted.

Lots of meetings and discussions have already taken place and one alternative seems to stand out: how can KISD be self- sustainable? The challenge is to find different “business models” that would allow the program to continue.

One idea would be to make KISD an agile school-agency that would partner with both public and private institutions in each project to bring value for the city and local community. These partners and projects would would help financing the school, inviting teachers and covering the costs of the projects at start, and if the system works, we could even dream bigger...

The idea needs to be tested as soon as possible, so it prove its value while the program is still going on... And hopefully KISAD will be able to accept more students by the next enrolment period already! Thanks to its reputation, the international and regional networks were also sensibilized by the decision and future perspectives of the school. And some entities would be willing to prototype this new model. The EU Commision already guaranteed their partial but constant funding, if they are involved in the projects and if the focus of KISAD and their projects is Social and Public Innovation. Phillps, Deutche Bahn, Deutsch Telekon and even Google also stated they would be open for conversation!

We need to present a proposition for KISAD next week!

How could this new version of KISD work? (description, objectives/benefits, skills) Who could be involved? (stakeholder map) How would the program be? ( journey map) Let’s explore the processes by an example of a project (story board, acting)

APPENDIX

D DESIGN FOR GOVERNMENT

In order to make the reference more consistent and meaningful, I attributed tag to the Design for Government course material cited in the text. The complete reference list of the cited material can be found here.

Mini-documentary: Mazé, R. (2017, June 22) New mini-documentary about Design for Government! Retrieved from http://dfg-course.aalto.fi/2017/newmini-documentary-about-design-for-government/ Briefing 2014: DfG (2014) Design for Government course 2014. Retrieved from http://dfg-course.aalto.fi/briefs-in-academic-year-2013-2014/ Briefing 2015: DfG (2015) Design for Government course 2015. Retrieved from http://dfg-course.aalto.fi/briefs-in-academic-year-2014-2015/ Briefing 2017: Mazé, R. (2017, January 27) Projects announced for DfG’17!

Retrieved from http://dfg-course.aalto.fi/2017/projects-announced-fordfg16-2/ Final Show 2014: Plastic Bags, Littering and recycling team. (2014, May 29) DfG Final Show – May 28, 2014. Retrieved from http://dfg-course.aalto. fi/2014/dfg-final-show/ Final Show 2015: DfG. (2015, June 15) DfG 2015 Final Show in slides and photos. Retrieved from http://dfg-course.aalto.fi/2015/dfg-2015-final-showin-slides-and-photos/ Final Show 2016: Mazé, R. (2016, September 13) DfG’16 Final Show – in video, slides and pictures! Retrieved from http://dfg-course.aalto.fi/2016/ dfg16-final-show-in-video-slides-and-pictures/ Final Show 2017: Mazé, R. (2017, June 29) 2017 Final show in videos, slides and pictures. Retrieved from http://dfg-course.aalto.fi/2017/2017-finalshow-in-videos-slides-and-pictures/ Work-in-progress blog post: DfG. (2017, March 12) Design Games and Food Cycles. Retrieved from http://dfg-course.aalto.fi/2017/design-games-andfood-cycles/ Mid-review presentation: Karlsson , P. (2016 , April 12) View the midreview presentation slides. Retrieved from http://dfg-course.aalto.fi/2016/ view-the-mid-review-presentation-slides/.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I like to think of this Master as a journey, where I put myself into the most amazing and challenging situations of my life – personally, professionally and academically speaking. Those were the moments in which I have learnt the most and these lessons will be reflected in my all my future steps.

Those moments, those learnings and this research would not be possible without the presence and support of the amazing people that I had the blessing to have around me – even if they were far away. During these last years, I found true friendship, love and partnership that worth more than a title or a degree.

It would be impossible to mention all the amazing people that made a difference during the entire journey, and even before, supporting my decision to engage in this. I would like to send a big thankful hug to each and everyone who was there for me, who believed in my project or who was just trying to understand what I was doing – "But… is this design?"

I have no doubt about who should be the first of this list, my mom, Claudia for all the flowery "good mornings" and for being the best supporter and friend that I will ever have. My Grandma Mirian for all the sweetest, tenderest, lovely Whatsapp messages (yes, my grandma has Whatsapp!).

Cinthia, my eternal Didi that have always been my academic role model.

And the little Catarina that added a ray of sunshine in my day every time I listened to her voice. André, Ana Lu, Carolzinha and Fernando, which I "carry" with me whenever I go. My "tio-pai" Roberto with all the funny videos and words of motivation.

Prof. Birgit Mager for great amount of trust deposited in me during the entire journey and for demanding nothing above the best that I could give, pushing me beyond the levels that I could imagine to reach.

Prof. Philipp Heidkamp for all the support, attention and respect since the first day of the Master – and even before, since the first contact by email – that made me feel safe to keep going, even if I was not exactly sure where to.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Marco van Hout and Gijs Gootjes, firstly for the opening the doors of MediaLAB, giving me access and freedom to propose any crazy idea I could possibly come up to. And secondly, for sharing the amazing energy of working for something they really believe in, which was present in all our meetings and conversations encouraging me to do the same.

I would also like to thank the 'MediaLABers', both the staff – Felipe Escobar and Pavel van Deutekom – and all the students that shared their deepest thoughts about their projects. A special thanks to the 'City Without Waste' team – Beatrice Costa, Raquel Villa, Leon Hollander, Max Mallon, Kazumitsu Yoshida – and the commissioners – Tim Ruijs and Wahbe Rezek. Also to Jesse Klijn and Michèle Muller, for being curious and wanting to contribute to the research. Anne Marleen Olthof, for believing in the project and motivating me in our conversations.

To the 'Master Family', that took this journey as well and "Narrowed it down!" Patricia Friess, for the awekening the child inside of me in the most needed moments. Nahal Tavangar, for all the calming words, the long talks about life (and thesis). Mary Risk, for all the motivation and energy pushing me to do my best in every single moment. Mariana, for all! For the home-sick shelter, giving me a daily doses of Brazil, for literal shelter in her room and her kitchen, for the "crisis of laughter" during the very last stressful days.

Cynthia Bravo for magically taking care of me from far away and for all the informal mentoring sessions over Spyke and Facebook. Ines Stadtmädchen amazing support that kept me going on when I thought I had not more energy to give. Linda Hafeneger for the sweetest advises, the words of friendship and the amazing feedbacks. Tanja Müller for all the 'episodes' and for being there for me always that I needed, just next door. Aurora Furtado, for all the light and heat that you brought to Cologne with you.

Leander van de Visse for taking care of me and being 'literally' the best partner I could ask for during the most stressful days of my life – and for all the other moments too.

And finally, I would like to thank the little angels that helped me a lot in the final days: Paola Lazcano, Amr Fathy, Lydia McLuen, Rafael Andreoni and Frejya Harris.

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Com muito amor, para Sergio Roberto e Waldecir.

“If you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at change.� Max Planck