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Design Thinking In Government

PDR Research

Design thinking is a user-centred approach to solving problems. It can make processes within government more inclusive, user-friendly and innovative. Public officials can be equipped with a series of tools to explore the user perspective in their day-to-day work. Design thinking can infuse creativity within the decision-making process and can provide a constructive interface between government and citizens.

This course will introduce the fundamentals of design thinking within the context of government. The basic elements of the problem-solving approach will be explored through hands-on learning. Participants will be presented with a series of policy and services challenges – for example, how to get more international investors in your region, how to make online government services more accessible to hard-to-reach citizens, how to improve decision-making processes within public administration or a policy challenge of your choosing. Over the course of two days, the participants will explore these challenges using four design thinking tools – stakeholder mapping, personas, journey mapping and rapid prototyping.

More and more, we are supporting governments to use design methods to engage the public in co-creating policies and services. We believe there are significant synergies between the design process and the policy process; both are concerned with applied problem-solving in a structured cycle ideally involving users at every stage of development.

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