A CROSS CONTINENT COLLABORATION ON EMBEDDING DESIGN IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR THIS IS A THINK PIECE PRODUCED BY DESIGN MANAGERS AUSTRALIA AND SNOOK (SCOTLAND) Both companies have worked extensively with the public sector in a variety of formats across the globe. This is a collaborative piece that depicts a synopsis of the environment from working on both the inside and outside of the public sector as consultants, public servants and product/service owners. This piece highlights environmental-related issues, opportunities and current barriers that face embedding service design practice in the public sector. It culminates in a series of design principles and actions that we would like to see adopted and recognised at a strategic level in government, leading towards improved circumstances for the design process, allowing designers to flourish and add value to the development of public services. It is important to note this is not an academic work but is based on both companies’ experience of practicing and building design capability with the public sector from the inside, exterior and on the edge of the organisation. This paper is supported by academic research and design theory.
“[Practitioners] frame the problem of the situation, they determine the features to which they will attend, the order they will attempt to impose on the situation, the directions in which they will try to change it. In this process, they identify both the ends to be sought and the means to be employed.” - Schön, 1983