How the design thinking process works in government

Design thinking works much the same in government services as it does for any other organisation. But working with governments can be challenging here's some tips to working better with your government clients.

How the design thinking process works in government

Tuesday, 13 September 2022  — 
 Design-Thinking, Government

Governments and other large-scale organizations use the Design Thinking Double Diamond process to improve the quality of their services. The process starts with discovering problems that need to be solved. Then, the team analyzes those problems. They come up with a solution and then implement it. In government, this often means helping citizens with issues like homelessness or crime. Still, other organizations may use the process to address issues like customer satisfaction or employee retention and engagement.

Government improvement efforts like this often fail because people don't know how to apply the process in an effective way. You can make it easier by using the Design Thinking Double Diamond Template. It's a simple tool that will show you which steps you need to complete and in what order to conquer challenges in your organization.

Discover

The first phase in the Discover phase is to research and understand user needs and challenges through various research methods such as interviews, surveys and observations. Understanding your challenges will help you define the project's scope and scale. It will also help you identify opportunities to improve existing public services.

This phase will focus on defining the vision and goals of your project and the services needed to achieve those goals. To ensure maximum user value, your digital services must be designed with input from your users and customers.

Discovery considerations should include user persona development, journey mapping, requirements definition and design thinking principles such as empathy.

Define

Once you have collected user insights, define your solution and craft a compelling vision representing digital technology's role in achieving your goals. A good vision should focus on the user's needs, be unique and communicate the value of digital services. Your vision should be concise and memorable if people are to engage with it.

Define questions such as:

  1. Who are your users?
    1. What does your solution do for them?
      1. What are they trying to do?

        The Define phase involves gathering requirements and drafting business cases. It helps identify necessary partnerships and stakeholders for your pilot project. In addition, it identifies how your organization will manage the implementation process and acquire the necessary skills to successfully deliver your project.

        Design

        The design phase focuses on the problem definition and the questions you defined in the previous phase. It leverages agile development's power to ideate, conceptualise and prototype. Rapid prototypes let you test and refine your ideas before investing time and money in fully-developed products.

        Design considerations include user research, customer journey mapping; interaction design (site map, wireframe, site map) and user stories (product backlog). Iterative designs are used to prototype features, test with users and refine the design iteratively before launching the final product.

        The design phase also enables you to discuss the risks associated with the delivery and build process with your teams to identify mitigation strategies for each. You aren't just designing solutions and products. You are designing the methods and frameworks for delivery.

        Delivery

        The Deliver phase is the most exciting part of the project life cycle. It's where you turn your prototype into a working product. The Deliver phase involves the final product delivery, project management and production support.

        The Deliver phase may involve the development of code delivery and version control; road map creation, project management and operations support. It may include physical services, road trips, training, and provision of field staff and customer service officers.

        Once your product is finished and launched, you will deliver training and support to users and customers to help them start using your digital service. The success of the Deliver phase relies on a certain amount of planning and preparation. You must pre-empt and mitigate risks as you embark on your project. For example, a poorly planned launch can disrupt your service operations and damage your agency's reputation with citizens and partners.