Public Sector organisations are under pressure. Meeting the needs of community, partners and other stakeholders is a challenge. Design thinking offers new tools for connecting with people – at all levels. It starts with understanding the needs of people in order to ensure solutions are appropriate.
Following the successful collaboration on design policy and design management projects, the Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region (RRA LUR) invited PDR to integrate design thinking into its day-to-day operation. The PDR two-day workshop introduced key tools and processes that can be applied to any project or programme from identifying a problem and synthesising the knowledge of different stakeholders through to visualising ideas and prototyping to refining and implementing a solution. These tools have helped RRA LUR to introduce new ways of working and put citizens at the heart of new project development. The workshop covered:
Mapping and prioritising stakeholders
Understanding and capturing user perspectives
Creating journey maps
Prototyping techniques
Communicating process and progress
Capturing and measuring success
Choosing effective communication formats
What designers can do for public sector projects
Design thinking and cultural change
Dr Anna Whicher
Head of Design Policy
Professor Andrew Walters
Director of Research