MPS report

Methods Service Pack

Implementation of Innovative Ideas in Local Authority

by Veronica Lai

24 November 2011 Word count : 8375 Version 1.2 Project Deliverable including: 1. Project Report 2. CD-Rom 3. Project Initiation Canvas

Š 2011 London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.

The copyright of this project ( including Artwork ) is owned by Veronica Lai. All right reserved.

Idea and knowledge are the petrol of Innovation Will Hutton

Content Content...........................................................................................................1 1.0 Summary...............................................................................................7 2.0 Introduction........................................................................................9 2.1 Background & Context..........................................................................10 2.2 Framework...............................................................................................10 2.3 The Project................................................................................................11 2.4 Report structure.....................................................................................12 3.0 Process..................................................................................................14 3.1 Specialists interviews..............................................................................15 3.2 On-site observation...............................................................................23 3.3 Activities observation.............................................................................25 3.4 Secondary research................................................................................27 3.5 Visual analysis..........................................................................................29 3.6 Co-Designing...........................................................................................31 3.7 Prototyping...............................................................................................33 4.0 Functional Specification............................................................36 4.1 Why ‘Methods Service Pack’?...............................................................37 4.2 Service overview.....................................................................................37 4.3 Project Initiation Canvas.......................................................................37 4.4 Methods Portal........................................................................................37 4.5 Features and recommendations..........................................................41 4.6 Personas....................................................................................................49 4.7 The storyboard........................................................................................50 4.8 Service flow diagram..............................................................................51 4.9 Implementation blueprint......................................................................52 5.0 Conclusion..........................................................................................54 5.1 Conclusion................................................................................................55 5.2 Feedback....................................................................................................57 5.3 Evaluation..................................................................................................58 Appendix..........................................................................................................60 Bibliography.....................................................................................................72

THANK YOU

Thank you to the following individuals who without their contributions and support this project would not have been produced. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my mentor, Edith Galliers who was abundantly helpful and offered invaluable assistance, support and guidance. Gratitude are also due to the members of the supervisory committee, Iain Griffin, Susan Devitt and Katherine Maddock-Lyon, all the staff members I have met in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council ,without whose knowledge and assistance this project would not have been successful.

A special thank you to my course tutors, Alison Prendiville and Cordula Friendlander, whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject. I would like to thank all my MDes friends for sharing the literature and invaluable assistance. Not forgetting to John’s family who have been not only taking care of me but making me feel part of their family since I arrived London. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all my dear friends, especially Kevin for supporting and encouraging me to pursue this degree.

Last but not least, I wish to express my love and gratitude to my beloved families; for their understanding & endless love, through the duration of my studies.

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1.0

Summary

The following sections provide the summary of the project’s background, research process and outcome.

The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council (referred to in this report as the Council) worked with the Design Council Public Service by Design program on a Locality Pilot. In this pilot it identified for the last five years the Council have undertaken a number of projects with creative organisations / agencies to encourage and support service innovation within the organisation.

A piece of work was identified to examine the tools and techniques that had been developed through previous design projects and to generate a method of promoting them across the Council so all areas of the Council could use them. The outcome of this work was the development of a

Methods Service Pack (referred to in this report as MSP). This report describes the research, development and prototyping of the MSP.

Many previous design projects are seen to be successful and capture valuable insight however the Council found it difficult to sustain the continuation of the work and the momentum without external support. The project brief was to identify barriers to implementation of innovative approaches without external support and explore the opportunities to develop a toolkit that can practically apply design thinking into the Council workplace. The aim of the brief was to develop better services to meet the community’s need, providing more sustainable solutions to the organisation.

Joining the council as an internship in the past 5 months, the project was able to achieve high levels of user involvement in each stage.

Following the design methods’ progression in research, generating, testing and delivery to ensure the outcome can be practically applied to the Council. The research phase included conducting primary and ethnographic research, gathering information from previous project experience via interviews with officers from different departments within the Council about the implementation barriers the Council is facing. Secondary research was conducted in various source materials, including the previous project documentation.

Best practice from private and public sector. These materials established a foundation for the MSP development.

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The keys findings in the research phase were that: • There is creativity skills and knowledge within the Council • There are significant differences in the understanding and interest of design thinking within the Council • Recognition of creativity skills and knowledge are not being promoted • Value of design thinking is relativity low in the Council • Internal communication and knowledge sharing are not in practice To tackle these barriers required change management within the organisation - a structured approach to transitioning different levels of staff in the Council from a current state to a desired new approach, which is a long strategic process for the organisation. In order to create a starting point, MSP was aimed as a toolkit for skills and knowledge sharing in the Council.

Different Co-design and Prototyping methods were applied, such as a Co-design workshop with 12 staff members from the Council, paper prototyping and user testing on the final interactive prototype.

The key ideas generated from the first co-design process of the toolkit were: Leadership MSP should be support by the top management ( e.g. People board )

Ownership Set up a team to take the ownership to promote, maintain and provide recommendations / guidance on MSP

Methods Portal Intranet space that gathers all the tools and techniques from the previous projects within the Council

Accessible and Easy to Maintain It should be easy to maintain in order to keep the content up to date (e.g. intranet)

Project Initiation Canvas A template to guide users to navigate the Methods Portal

Customisation MSP’s content needs to be relevant to the Council and should accommodate different users’ needs After several refinements and discussions with project stakeholders, the MSP’s final prototype was produced in the end of October. A customised open source creative tool containing three products:

Project Space Online project collaboration platform in the intranet The project was handed over to the Council’s Modernisation team and the idea of the prototype was shared with Elevate – the IT joint venture department who is going to develop the SharePoint intranet for the council this year. The project is intent to launch in April 2012.

2.0

Introduction This section of the report describes the social background; project itself, the context it is being delivered in, the purpose and structure of this project.

2.1 Background & Context 2.1.1 The social background 2.1.2 London Borough of Barking and Dagenham 2.2 Framework

2.3 The Project 2.3.1 Background Research 2.3.2 Information Analysis 2.3.3 Co-Design 2.3.4 Prototyping 2.3.5 Project Deliverable 2.4 Report Structure

Branding and Position A strong and clear branding of MSP is needed and the position needs to be clearly defined to make sure it is being valued Strategic MSP should be suggested at any project initiation

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2.1 Background & Context 2.1.1 The social background Innovation in the public sector is in constant flux, being impacted by a range of different markets, trends and National Government agendas.

According to the Design Council – Public Service by Design, over the last 30 years governments have learned a lot about how to be more efficient, and how to take customers more seriously. The Design Council research found 89 per cent of local authorities have partially or fundamentally redesigned their service delivery in the past two years, and a recent survey by the Audit Commission found efficiency to be the main driver of service innovation among 22 per cent of authorities.

Government policy on public services is now informed by these new challenges, and some central government departments are taking increasingly innovative approaches to service delivery.

While public sectors are searching for solutions to innovate, the recent budget cuts have created a huge amount of damage to all local authorities. Significant changes through the service cuts, internal organisational restructure and redundancy caused anxiety and uncertainty to all council members.

2.1.2 London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Like any other locality authority across the country, the Council aims to provide better services with less money. This borough is an area designated as a notional priority for urban generation; it also has one of the fastestgrowing populations in the country according to the Office of National Statistic. The borough has high areas of deprivation, a high number of minority ethnic residents an aging

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population and low adult education levels that need to be addressed in all of its work.

The Council have hired design agencies and have undertaken a number of service design projects in the previous five years. The agencies include Thinkpublic, Uscreates, Cabinet office and NESTA. Some of the Council’s staff members did get involved in these projects (referred to in this report as the Specialists) but once the supporting creative company leaves the organisation there have been difficulties in maintaining the work moving forward. Apart from that, the Council is now losing some of these Specialists due to the savings targets and reduced funding from the central government. They need a strategy to ‘self-innovate’ at the same time as securing the skills and knowledge they already have, making sure they can be shared with staff members within the organisation and be sustainable.

2.2 Framework In order to explore the potential of design thinking for enabling project officers to drive innovation in the Council, the framework for this project is to design a service / product that assists the implementation of design thinking approaches for staff in their efforts to achieve desired change.

MSP is not about providing solutions to their project but to provide a platform to share knowledge and skills and offer guidance to project officers through a process that enables them to practically apply design thinking. The framework should allow them to frame problems or opportunities differently, spur different behaviour within their organisations, or even allow them to reach different decisions on which policies or

‘Local government is in a unique position to drive innovation at all three of these levels.

As a service deliver, it can innovate at the interface between services and people’s lives. As a place-shaper it can organise a range of services in new ways that have a great impact on outcomes.

And as a part of the government it must also recognise the role it has in helping Whitehall departments re-model entire systems of services – social care and health provision, benefits and income support, and so on. To be successful at all these levels requires leadership that blends creativity and agency with determination and drive.’

Veronica Jackson & Dr Simon Duffy More than good ideas: the power of innovation in local government

Locality Pilot Project with Uscreates

services pursue.

The project scope included:

The idea of MSP is to generate a toolkit that pulls together learning from previous creative projects.

MSP should not be new ideas but a reflection of the learning and skills that already exist within the organisation from the previous work. It should reflect the key principles and practice to be used in relation to service innovation and design.

2.3.1 Background Research

2.3 The Project The Council provided the project brief in middle of July ( see Appendix 1 ) which outlined two strands of work: 1. Review the implementation barriers on creative approaches in Barking and Dagenham Council 2. Develop a toolkit which can be incorporated into future project development.

Quantitative Research The initial project’s proposal focused on the Housing services in the Council. Although data was not appropriate to MSP, literature about public sector’s innovation established good background knowledge. Internal primary research to identify the creative context in the Council.

Key learning from previous design projects with external support and the barriers the Council in applying the principles of creativity and innovation into practice. ( see Appendix 11 ) Secondary research Provide recommendations based on best practise in both the Public and Private Sector.

Observation and Shadowing Observed the Council workplaces, participated in internal meetings / activities.

Interviews There were 15 in depth interviews conducted with Specialists. (see Appendix 3 ) Interviews with external contacts were also arranged; Peter Gadsdon – Head of Strategy and Transformation from Lewisham Council, Joanna Choukeir Hojeily – Design & Communication Director from Uscreates. The interviews were open, addressing a broad thematic level rather than specific questions. This allowed for a broader and richer dialogue.

The interview also involved the collection of all relevant documents and information concerning the specific innovation process in question.

2.3.2 Information Analysis Visual Analysis Using visuals to categorise qualitative information gathered from the interviews and literatures. This created typologies that simplified these complex information.

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Visual Presentation The project was frequently reviewed by three key project stakeholders who provided guidance and feedback to the project making sure it could be practically applied to the Council in the future. A vision document was produced as the foundation and it was shared with senior management. (see Appendix 12 ) 2.3.3 Co-Design

Two different formats of co-design activities were organised during different stages of the project.

With the support from the project mentor, the project was able to get 20 potential users involved in the design process. The co-design sessions involved testing and giving feedback on the prototypes, visioning the strategic plan for the toolkit implementation and generating ideas to overcome the barriers that might occur.

2.3.4. Prototyping

2.3.5 Project Deliverable

In order to receive comments from different perspectives, these prototypes were tested with mixed group users. Some of the users are specialist and some had not been involved in any design projects and in some cases had no project management experience.

Each prototype served a different purpose in the project that helps to shape the project outcome.

The first prototype was a rough paper prototype (see Appendix 4 ) which served as a prompt to start the conversation on the topic and identify missing gaps that might not be covered in the research process. The second prototype was an Interactive prototype ( see Appendix 8 ). It mimiced the service flow, worked as a user experience testing which provided feedback as part of MSP’s deliverable.

Due to the resource and time available for developing the MSP, the final deliverable was a services blueprint, prototype and template for the Council’s Modernisation team to implement. The prototype was designed based on SharePoint 2007, however the Council is not currently using this system and so it was not possible to create the finalised version only a mock up. For details of the project deliverable please go to section 4.0 Functional Specification.

2.4 Report Structure This report is the description of the findings of that analysis, followed by design process and outcome produced. The recommendations and conclusions are based on both the findings of the design process and awareness of the context of provision and resource available in the Council.

Innovation in the public sector is not straight forward.

We know that the best ideas often come from spaces where people from different backgrounds and sectors can collabroate, share ideas and test creative ventures.

Vicki Savage The Young Foundation

Information Analysis

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Co-Design

Prototyping

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3.1 Specialists Interviews Over 15 interviews were conducted with the Specialists ( see Appendix 3 ). The interviews focused on the topics around their experiences in previous design projects and barriers to implement the innovative ideas( see Appendix 2 ).

3.0

Process

This section of the report describes the development process of MSP

3.1 Specialists Interviews 3.2 On-site Observation 3.3 Activities Observation 3.4 Secondary Research

Summary from the interviews Overall there are positive relationships between the Council and design agencies during collaborations. Only 2 interviewees were not satisfied with the project / agency, mainly because of poor communication and lack of understanding about the Council from the agency involved. Most interviewees found the process and the approach on different ways of working fresh and exciting; they agreed that these new approaches showed the Council many new insights that they had never thought of.

From the interviews it shown senior management found the tools less practical. They have more uncertainty on the new approaches and found that they sounded too good to be true.

They believe the design process these external agencies are promoting can only happen when there is enough funding to support the implementation.

Middle management on the other hand, who are more hands-on with the innovation process, see the potential of applying these tools into workplace but they do point out this will require massive changes in terms of project planning and management systems.

The general feedback from this group was positive, they were impressed with the outcomes from the external agencies but they felt disappointed that these projects didn’t take the work any further.

One of the project officer from Customer Services was involved in the 2 days creative training workshop organized by the Public Office. The event introduced design methods to senior management and officers who were involved in customers’ services, to encourage participants to ‘ Think-outsidethe-box’. The event was a huge success with 300 attendances who came up with many radical ideas.

‘It will be useful if these ideas are taken forward and actually built something on top of it… unfortunately the event was seen as an one off.’ Similar comments were also found from another interviewee who worked on the customer journey mapping project.

She achieved useful insights from the customer’s experiences in housing and she thought it would be useful if the key learning from this project could be shared across

Middle management on the other hand, who are more hands-on with the innovation process, see the potential of applying these tools into workplace but they do point out this will require massive changes in terms of project planning and management systems.

3.5 Visual Analysis 3.6 Co-Designing 3.7 Prototyping

Tourbank, Uscreates

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Locality Pilot’s Toolkit

Improving internal communication is on the top of the agenda since the new Chief Executive joined the Council early this year

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the organisation. Unfortunately there was no further knowledge sharing activity organised.

Interviewees including both senior and middle management are very positive about the skills and knowledge gained from the projects and show an interest to share it with others in the organisation, but they agreed the Council are very reactive in promoting / sharing information.

‘Improving internal communication is on the top of the agenda since the new Chief Executive joined the Council early this year’ stated by one of the senior management.

All interviewees mentioned there is a need of improving internal communication in the Council in order to create changes. In terms of internal skills & knowledge transfer, Children’s Services is the leading department across council; positive comments are not only coming from interviews but also reflected within the Investor In People report.

One of the Specialist from Children’s Services has been involved in several innovative projects and is now running an internal training session with all Children Centre managers on Workclub project, which is the extension after the Women in Unemployment Project ( C.A.S.H project ) . Taking the tools and techniques from the projects she has participated in, she is now hosts a monthly meeting, providing guidance and advice to the managers on setting up Workclubs in Children’s Centres. The training session is an opportunity for Children Centre managers to voice their difficulties and share experiences. She emphasised each Children Centre should design their own services that work the best in their area, due to the fact that the borough have very diverse communities. Although some Children Centre managers are struggling during the meeting, they all appreciate the organiser’s proactive support and guidance.

Apart from the training session, she also worked onsite with those

managers who need more guidance in the beginning; demonstrating the process and techniques. Children Services have a strong network of internal communication, one of the Children centre’s manager explained in the interview that all Children Centre managers have regular meetings about internal training / sharing sessions. She thinks her department have a very clear and well-structured management system.

One of the most common approaches mentioned in the interviews was ‘Co-design’.

Surprisingly there weren’t many projects implemented through Co-design afterwards and a few pilots are still in the testing process.

A senior manager explained that co-designing projects hardly gets implemented because this approach does not have strong statistical evidence support; there is a high level of uncertainly on the project’s result. At the operational level, feedback on Co-design is generally positive. The Specialist who worked on the customer

journey mapping project said the videos captured the customer’s experiences in the housing services are very useful. This was shared with the departments and after the screening they were required to come up with solutions and evaluate their own services, ‘ Some great ideas came out during the session and a few of them have been taken forward.’

The filmed interview technique used by design agencies is not only to present the customer’s insight visually but also to engage with them during filming. Customers were excited about this approach and felt the Council valued their comments. Unfortunately reactions from the front-line has not been as positive. Joanna Choukeir Hojeily from Uscreates working on the Locality Pilot project said it was big challenge to convince front-line staff to be filmed. They are very concerned about where these video will be used and who is going to see them. These reactions reflect that there are different levels of interest on these creative approaches and

These reactions reflect that there are different levels of interest on these creative approaches and also the lack of trust between staff

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also the lack of trust between staff.

The whole team involved in Barking & Dagenham’s ‘Getting There First’ project found working with the Innovators’ Council a fantastic way of stepping outside of the dayto-day and being able to think afresh about the way the Council works with residents.

Having their backing has also encouraged us to take the sort of managed risks that are critical to successful innovation. Public services are going to need more of this sort of support in the months and years ahead, and as well as getting something practical and tangible out of it for local residents, it is also great that Barking & Dagenham’s experience has been able to influence policy makers in central government.

Mark Tyson,Group Manager Policy & Partnership in Enabling Innovation Interview, Cabinet office

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During the interview process a lack of communication is identified because interviewees are not aware about projects in other departments. A few projects were doing similar work with different agencies. One head of service planned to do a project with a service design agency, however her project requirement was exactly the same with another one in a different department that was done last year. She didn’t realise that the agency had worked with the Council before.

There is also evidence showing work overlapped between departments. Different departments were tackling same problem in the same community. This comment is not only pointed out by internal staff, Joanna from Uscreates who is working on a project with the Council for less than half a year has also identified the same problem.

There were comments about previous projects with design agencies not being ‘valued’ or taken ‘seriously enough’ in the Council.

These projects often ended with

Joanna Choukeir Hojeily,Uscreates

lots of information, methods and skills but not much being delivered as an outcome. Peter Gadsdon– Head of Strategy and Transformation from Lewisham Council has assisted the Council in setting up the Transformation Team in the past 2 years. He worked 2.5 days per week in Barking. He suggests the Council should plan the next step for every project, be proactive and support the idea; they should take the project forward after achieving new skills and insight from the project.

Barriers of implementing innovative ideas in the Council are also discussed with all interviewees, the

chart below highlights key words being mentioned in the interviews, and the size reflects the number of times this word appeared. All these keywords are defined into 2 categorises (see Diagram 1 ) Time and cost are the most mentioned issues in the first layer of barriers, taking the metaphors from one of the Specialist, ‘ Time , people and cost, these are the excuses of not making coffee as well; as long as people see the “value” and “need”, they are not the concern.’ Peter Gadsdon and Joanna Choukeir Hojeily both emphasise the toolkit will only succeed when people

Diagram 1 - Innovation barriers

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Resources

System

Permission Value

Communication

Training

Culture

Leadership Process

Change Management

believe they can create impact, see the value of making changes and keep doing it to sustain the ideas. ‘ It might sound very crèche, but it is just like lose weight’ said by Joanna.

On the other hand, the second layer of barriers is more difficult to tackle. It is mainly affected by leadership and culture and strongly relate to ‘Change Management’ which requires time to establish.

This layer of barriers involves organisation changes. ‘Innovation didn’t happen overnight’ said by Joanna Choukeir Hojeily, ‘ a toolkit is not enough but support from the top management, guidance from expert are needed.’ She suggested the Council should set up a dedicated team to drive and communicate the idea. The team could visit different service design agencies and universities, learn different techniques and skills from them, then customise different methods based on the department / project need.

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The Council have worked with many knowledge training departments within the Government ( Table 1 )

There is no one size fit all solution in design thinking. Coincidently, her suggestions are reflected from successful case studies from P&G – Innovation Gym, 3M – Innovation lab and also the newly established team from Lewisham Council – The transformation Team. Lewisham Council also took part in the Public Service by Design scheme from the Design Council. Peter Gadsdon formed the team of 4 from a graduate programme, sending these members to learn the skills and techniques from external support agencies. The team is now able to support and develop projects without external support. The success of Lewisham Council is not only from the Transformation Team, Peter Gadsdon emphasised several times in the interview ‘ it is about culture and leadership’. The Chef Executive from Lewisham is the pioneer in public sector innovation, recently he launched his new book Innovate Governance, talking about barriers and context of social innovation in public sector.

A few officers suggest if the Council were to introduce a new tools and technique process across the organisation, it would have to be structured and embedded in the system. ‘There were many ideas being introduced in the past few years, some of them were great but there was a lack of focus… I am confused sometimes, I know we have a vision but I am not sure what strategic direction we are trying to achieve,’ said by one of the senior managers. ‘We have got a great appraisal system; the council can make good use of the platform to introduce this toolkit. There is no point in adding another system on top but using the existing one,’ added another senior manager.

The Council have worked with many knowledge training departments within the Government including: London Council, Design Council and NESTA etc (see Table 1, page 18)

events found them very useful.

One of the Specialists said the tools and techniques learnt from London Council could be practically applied to his projects. The overall feedbacks collected from these specialists were positive, One of the Specialist, also this project mentor mentioned most interviewees are the ‘Creative’ early adopters in the Council. Other departments focus on routine duty and or are less customer facing have no access to these design projects and might not be aware about this topic at all.

Summarised from these interviews, the level of interest and value in these creative approaches can be reflected by their level of engagement in the design process.

Officers who were more hands in these projects are more positive and willing to take the ownership to populate these creative approaches.

They are potential key driver if the Council would like to implement the toolkit across the organisation.

Officers who took part in these

London Council A think-tank and lobbying organisation that promotes the interests of London’s thirty-three Councils. One of their training program: Service Transformation Academy is a series of training programmes on different project management skills and techniques.

UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills ( BIS ) BIS offer information on a range of services to help businesses and organisations.

They do provide regular one day conference about public and social innovation. It has a wide-ranging portfolio, covering regulation, enterprise and business support.

Design Council Aimed to helping Britain use design to build a stronger economy and improve everyday life. Mentioned earlier in this report Locality Pilot is part of the Public Service by Design program by Design Council. It is a mentoring programme that helps the Council to meeting service delivery challenges.

IDEA The Local Government Improvement and Development supports improvement and innovation in local government, focusing the issues that are important to the council using tired and tested ways of working. IDEA is working with the Council on exploring access to physical exercise to tackle the obesity issue in the borough.

NESTA The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts is an independent body with a mission to make the UK more innovative. The Council was selected in Transforming Early Years programme. Together with five other local authorities, it is a pilot project aimed to explore different, better and cheaper solutions to improving the lives of families with very young children.

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3.2 On-site Observation

Good internal communication builds a committed and high-performing workforce that is focused on achieving the council’s goals.

Informed, engaged employees are less likely to leave, more innovative and work harder for the organisation. Staff who understand what the council is doing and why can advocate on its behalf.

Ethnographic research methods including shadowing and observation were applied in the research and development process. Working in the council 4 days a week provided the advantage to observe the actual environment providing context setting.

The record of staff member behaviour and conversation, helped to understand the context without questioning, communicating with, or interacting with the user group.

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2

Sharon O’Dea,Intranet manager at the Houses of Parliament , wrote in The Guardian Local Government Network

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3.3 Activities observations

1. The corridor of Power - Senior management offices 2. Dagenham Civic Meeting room 3. Barking Town Hall Cafe 4. Redundancy in Council 5. One of the senior managment’s desk 6. Touch Down Space - Open Area in Barking Town hall 7. Department’s Notice Board 8. Housing Services Annual Report 9. Observation’s diary

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4

In order to gain a better understanding about the Council’s culture on internal training and knowledge sharing, four observations were made during the research process.

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1 : Internal Training session organised by the Human Resources department to the Accounts Team in Dagenham Civic centre

2 : Internal knowledge sharing session with Children Centre’s managers

3: Locality Pilot – Co-design workshop with frontline staff and residents

Neil Baynes - Senior Training Advisor is running a pilot internal training workshop about problem solving techniques with different departments. The workshop was organised in a small group of 5 to 6 staff members, each session used to identify what they would like to improve in their workplace.

Neil provided the group different tools and techniques in the first few workshops which they needed to carry on the project (and the workshop) without Neil’s support. The observed session was the second workshop, the attendances were fairly quiet.

Neil had to direct and encourage participants to make sure they kept the discussions going. Neil said for those departments who have less experience in collaboration / interactive workshops they might find these challenging.

Gill Wilson - Training and Employment coordinator is running internal training sessions with Children Centre managers on knowledge and skill sharing. It is a large-scale session with more than 20 attendances, including some external organisations. The session was well organised with an agenda sent out a day before the meeting.

Each attendance had their chance to voice their issues and concerns regarding the Workclub project.

Uscreates is working on the Locality Pilot project with the Council. One of the community engagement activities was a Codesign workshop with residents and front-end staff. It provided an opportunity to gather different perspectives selected locality issues.

By having residents involved, the workshop provided the Council insight about what the locality community actually need from their servi ces. Ideas and suggestions came out from the workshop can help the Council to rethink or customise their locality services.

The workshop was fun, engaging and informal, it successfully encouraged participants from different backgrounds to express their ideas. Apart from the activities, Uscreates rearranged the room in a creative and friendly environment, with colourful posters, play-doh and balloons.

Aimed to introduce new ways of problem solving to the Council. The workshop provided the knowledge to these staff members, but it is important to have a leading person from each department to maintain the work.

Gill’s event was different with the other 2 sessions visited; it was an internal meeting with specific project to discuss and share.

The physical space might not be interactive due to the number of attendances, but the two-way communication kept attendances engaged and voicing their concerns.

To summarise, Observations ( 1 ) and ( 2 ) were organised by the Council staff, these kind of activities didn’t occur very often. Both activities achieved different objectives and served different purposes.

The Council might consider adapting the engaging and fun approaches from Uscreates, for example the atmosphere they created in the room and the icebreaker activities to encourage participants involvement.

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3.4 Secondary Research Various source materials were studied to develop knowledge during MSP development.

Key source of materials Design Toolkit • • • • • •

Designing for Growth : a design thinking tool kit for manager

by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie Human Centred Design (HCD) ,IDEO IDEO Card, IDEO Service Design Toolkit, Design Flanders Service Design Network Design with Intent ,Daniel Lockton

Best Practice in the Industry • • •

Elenens Lessons : managing design in eleven global brands,Design Council Harvard business Review Creative Genius by Peter Fisk

Social Innovation • • •

1

Tools & Techique

2

Value

3

Different Levels

NESTA The Young Foundation UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills ( BIS )

Visualisation • • •

Visual Strategizing by Martin J. Eppler and Ken W.Platts Images of Strategy by Peter Burgi and Johan Roos Information is Beautiful by David McCanless

The key findings after the primary research are • There is creativity skills and knowledge within the Council • Value of design thinking is relativity low in the Council • There are significant differences in the understanding and interest of design thinking within the Council

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3.5 Visual Analysis Visualisation methods helped to analyse the information collected in different stages of the project.

5p

Blueprint Icebreaker

Solutions

Toolkits

Background Research Visualisation simplified complex information collected from the research process.

Veronica’s project diary

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Interviews Infographic Introduction Infographic helps to present some sensitive information inUsefulness a less confronting manner. - Visual works very well to

communicate this complex topic - Good dialog was open - High quality of research / material - Learnt new techniques - Helpful to explore the concept in an interactive format rather than document

Feedback Using visuals to map participant’s Suggestions Experiencesjourney during the emotional co-design - Would be good if more senior session.

- Workshop went well management involved - Ideas were bounced - Opinion were heard - Good choice of venue and well organised

- Missing part in the beginning.

- However the overall workshop was enjoyable - Good size of mixed group

- The idea space should be used as the basecamp for this project - Ideas discussed during the workshop should be document and follow-up - Run regularly

Information Architecture Grouping the tools and techniques collected from the interviews and categorising them into the Methods Portal. ( see Appendix 7 )

UX Mapping Visualise how the user navigates the Methods Portal

Wireframe Prototyping the content layout in the Portal

Persona and Storyboarding 3 personas and storyboards were produced to represent the use case through a series of drawings, put together in a narrative sequence.

Service System Map The system map was produced as a visual description of the service flow: the different actors involved, their mutual links and the flows of services, products and information through the system.

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3.6 Co-Designing A co-design session was arranged at the end of September, focussing on the following objectives: - Generating ideas for the toolkit - Identifying the barriers and coming up suggestion for the toolkit implementation - Testing and providing feedback on the prototype Video of the co-design session in Appendix 5 Overall feedback about the workshop was positive, participants enjoyed the workshop. ( see Appendix 6 ) The topic was not new to them but compared with a long document, they were more engaged with the workshop format.

They enjoyed the interactivity in the sessions that people’s ideas were bounced around and opinions were heard. It is very much the start of the process.

Visualization is instrumental in the analysis of data as it helps in identifying patterns and structures in data set (Card et al. 1999;Tufte, 1990).

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3.7 Prototyping Different Prototyping methods were applied in this project; the first Prototype ( referred to in this section as Prototype 1.0 ) was a set of A5 cards that categorised tools and techniques that could be applied in different stages of the project, each card contained general information, ranking resources required and contact details of the Specialists.

Prototype 1.0 (see Appendix 4 )was tested with 12 council officers from different levels of the organisation during the co-design session. The objective of the co-design was to identify the gaps of the prototype and collect ideas about what medium will work best for the Prototype 1.0. The implementation blueprint was also discussed and the feedback provided opinions on how to enhance Prototype 1.0 and make it sustainable. There

were mixed comments collected.

Generally most users liked the use of visuals and agreed there was potential for Prototype 1.0 ( see Diagram 2 ).

A complete set of Prototype 1.0 can be found in Appendix 4

Other suggestions to Prototype 1.0 Customise The content need to be relevant to the council and should accommodate different users’ needs Accessible and Easy to Maintain It should be easy to maintenance in order to keep the content up to date ( eg. intranet ) Further information Frequently Asked Questions and step-by-step guides will be useful to users who are not familiar with these tools

Suggestions to the implementation plan Leadership It should be support by the top management ( e.g. People board ) Branding and Position A strong and clear branding is needed and the position needs to be clearly defined to make sure it is being valued Strategic The toolkit should be suggested at any project initiation Ownership Set up a team to take the ownership to promote, maintain and provide recommendations / guidance on Accessible and Easy to Maintain It should be easy to maintain in order to keep the content up to date (e.g. intranet)

Key words identified during the Co-design workshop about the toolkit’s implementation plan

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_ easy to understand _ open the coversation _ Good promotional tools _ High qulity of resources _ Visualisation _ useful ranking system

_ High cost production _ difficult for maintenance _ More in-depth information _ risk of people leaving _ Make it relevant

_ High cost production _ difficult for maintenance _ More in-depth information _ risk of people leaving _ Make it relevant

1

Open source

2

Sustainable

3

Branding

Customisation Content needs to be relevant to the Council and should accommodate different users’ needs After comments from the workshop were analysed and research about knowledge sharing in successful organisations was conducted, the second prototype – Methods Archive was produced and tested by a mixed group of users. Some were involved in the previous workshop and some were extreme users who didn’t have any experience in any design projects.

Overall feedback was positive. A range of suggestions was collected from user experiences about the content development.

Positive Feedback User friendly Well-designed in a simple and clear structure needed for the complex information Practical and Relevant A platform that draw the link of the

toolkit and projects Utilise SharePoint Taking what is already in existence in SharePoint and practically combining it with the creative approach in the project Improvement Avoid jargon Some of the terminology used needs further explanation ( eg.

Persona, S.W.O.T ) Key function The ‘HOW TO’ guide needs to be more prominent on the website Further explanation There are a few sections of the website which need further guidance ( eg. How to , Section Landing Page ) Naming Suggest to rename some of the key titles. (eg. ‘Methods Archive’ and ‘How to walkthrough’ )

Ownership Methods Archive is heavily driven by content and to keep it up to date, it is important to have a dedicate team to maintain it Position There are projects underway about e-learning, toolkits and internal knowledge sharing. The Methods Archive needs a clear position and to avoid duplication with other tools which may create confusion Constraint The feature and design of Methods Archive is a revolution to the council. Constraint from the council policy on style and flexibility of resources needs to be further reviewed by the council The prototype was further edited,based on some of the feedback collected as final delivery.

Diagram 2 - Prototype 1.0’s comments ( top ) and rationale ( bottom ) coming out from the Co-design session

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4.1 Why ‘Methods Service Pack’

4.0

Functional Specification

The following sections provide the detailed explanation of the MSP’s features and functionality. Recommendations on visual presentation and implementation are included.

Commonly used in IT industry, ‘Service Pack’ is a collection of updates, fixes and enhancements to a software programme. In the Council, MSP is a methods tool that provides up-to-date new problem solving and new approaches technique.

4.2 Service Overview MSP is a customised service package which contains 3 service / products that aims to enable the Council to produce creative projects without external support.

It is NOT a step by step guide and it does NOT offer a completed solution. A one-size-fits-all methodology would have been inappropriate in the service design process due to the significant differences in the starting point and approach taken by the officers.

A complete set of MSP can be found in Appendix 8

4.1 Why ‘Methods Service Pack’

4.6 Personas

4.3 Project Initiation Canvas

4.2 Service Overview

4.7 The storyboard

The Project Initiation Canvas is a project kick-off template providing generic recommendations for the service design process. These recommendations refer to some of the tools and techniques from the Methods Portal.

4.3 Project Initiation Canvas

4.8 Service flow diagram

4.4 Methods Portal

4.9 Implementation blueprint

4.5 Features and Recommendations 4.5.1 Design recommendations 4.5.2 Industry standard (UX) recommendations strategy 4.5.3 Information Architecture (IA) recommendations 4.5.4 Navigation 4.5.5 Landing Page 4.5.6 Key banner 4.5.7 Methods Page 4.5.8 +Tool Function 4.5.9 Method Page’s Template 4.5.10 Project Space Features 4.5.11 Projects Template Feature 4.5.12 Project Library Features 4.5.13 Methods Assistant

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Available in printed and digital format ( PDF ), the Project initiation serves two different purposes:

PROJECT INITIATION CANVAS ? 1. Context Existing context of the service.

The Strength / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats

Project Title : Department :

Date :

3. Methods

6. Proposition

Methods that enable your team to understanding the project’s context, generate ideas and testing the service before implementation.

Suggested Online method

Co-Design

4. Users Suggested Online method

S.W.O.T.

Suggested Online methods

/

£ 8. Resources Resources that support the service (eg: time, cost and knowledge etc )

Suggested Online methods

Brief

Visualisation

Understand the user not only from demographic and geographic information. Also their behaviour and psychological point of view.

The objective of the project try to achieve.

Define the measure of success.

/

5Ys

7. Activities Service touch point involved from preservice, during and after-service.

Suggested Online method

Service Matrix

2. Stakeholders People who are involved in the project / service. From project authority, service provider to users.

Also the relation between them.

Profile

9. Sustain

Persona

Methods to sustain the project and maximise the result and impact.

5. Have Your Say Comments / metaphors from the users and service provider about the existing services.

Suggested Online methods

Suggested Online method

Suggested Online method

Actors Map

Co-Design

organisations and design experts in the industry. Although there are many formulas from different agencies and organisations, their key objectives and processes are similar ( see page 38 ).

• Identify the problem(s) • Generate ideas from different perspectives • Testing the ideas • Implement the project and evaluate it This canvas aims to create a shared understanding of the service design process, facilitating the description and discussion within a project team. It is important to notice here that, this canvas is not a compulsory procedure. It is served as a guide to assist the progression of a project that creates, delivers and captures values.

Suggested Online methods

Service System

Journey Mapping

Storyboard

Blueprint

Project Initiation Canvas

Specification

4.4 Methods Portal Methods Portal is an intranet portal gathering all the tools and techniques from the Council. The portal is intended to build on the intranet system and can be accessed by all staff.

The structure is based on Microsoft SharePoint 2007 platform (referred to in this report as SP2007 ) which the Council is now implementing on both the external website and the intranet (due to be launched in April 2012).

• Promotional tool during the introduction period of the Methods Service • Project kick off template Inspired by the Business Model Generation ( Osterwalder & Pigneur,2009 ) the Project Initiation Canvas was designed based on the best practice from successful

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PROJECT INITIATION CANVAS ? 1. Context Existing context of the service.

The Strength / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threats

Project Title : Department :

3. Methods

6. Proposition

Methods that enable your team to understanding the project’s context, generate ideas and testing the service before implementation.

Suggested Online method

Co-Design

Understand the user not only from demographic and geographic information. Also their behaviour and psychological point of view.

The objective of the project try to achieve.

Define the measure of success.

/

/

ÂŁ 8. Resources Resources that support the service (eg: time, cost and knowledge etc )

Suggested Online methods

Brief

Visualisation

4. Users Suggested Online method

Date :

5Ys

7. Activities Service touch point involved from preservice, during and after-service.

Suggested Online method

Service Matrix S.W.O.T.

2. Stakeholders People who are involved in the project / service. From project authority, service provider to users.

Also the relation between them.

Suggested Online methods

Profile

9. Sustain

Persona

Methods to sustain the project and maximise the result and impact.

5. Have Your Say Comments / metaphors from the users and service provider about the existing services.

Suggested Online methods

Suggested Online method

Suggested Online method

Actors Map

Co-Design

Suggested Online methods

Service System

Journey Mapping

Storyboard

Blueprint

Specification

Project Initiation Canvas

SharePoint Standard Template ( left ) * and Cusomtimse Template ( right )

4.5 Features and Recommendations 4.5.1 Design recommendations There are many limitations from the standard SP2007 templates. It is recommended to develop a set of customised templates for MSP that allowed more flexibility on the styling and functionality. ( see above images )

Accessibility Recommended screen size is 1280 x 1024 pixel, it is the most common browser resolution without scrolling. The portal should be best supported by Internet Explorer 6.0 and above.

Access by Screen Reader for disabled audiences and the font size should be adjustable.

4.5.2 Industry standard (UX) recommendations strategy

4.5.3 Information Architecture (IA) recommendations The portal is divided into 6 main sections by the nature of the content:

2

3

4

5

6

1. Tim Brown’s Basic Design Process 2. Designing for Growth - Design Process 3. Design Council’s Design Process Diamond 4: IDEO Human Centred Design - Design Process 5: Service Design agency- Engine - Design Process 6: NASA’s Elementary School Standards-Based Engineering Design Process

( 6 ) Project There are two main features in this section, which will be discussed further in Section 4.0

2 1. First level content - Category 2. Second level content - Methods

4.5.4 Navigation Navigation should reflect the first and second level of the website and be placed on the top of the website.

Visual Recommendations Use Colour codes to differentiate between the categories for easy reference.

Tools should be listed by alphabetical order for quick browsing.

Functionality Recommendations Each category should have their own landing page that lists out all the methods with a short introduction.

Content Recommendations Brief introduction about the category can be provided on the roll-over navigation

Projects library Archive current / previous projects from the Council

Images sources :

(1) http://quidd110.wordpress.com/mod-2/ (2) Design for Growth

by Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie (3)Design Council (4)IDEO (5)Engine Service Design Agency (6) NASA

The different tools and techniques gathered from the interviews are categorising by these six areas.

Project Space Online project collaboration

1024 pixel

1

Usability World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - the international standards organisation for the World Wide Web created standards and guidance for web developers as best practice.

Details of the specification for development can be referred to www.w3.org . Validation tool is also available for code auditing.

( 1 ) Research ( 2 ) Analysis ( 3 ) Co-Design ( 4 ) Testing ( 5 ) Documentation

1

1280 pixel * Source of image : Micosoft TechNet ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/sharepoint/bb407286 )

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4.5.5 Landing Page

1

Landing page should provide an introduction about the portal. It should be well divided into four key areas.

4.5.6 Key banner

2

Content & Visual Recommendations: ‘Methods Assistant’ should be placed in the key banner to help people who are new to the MSP or the project development process.

After the majority of the users are familiar with the website, the key banner area can be replaced by other recently launched project(s).

Functionality Recommendations: Click check function can be applied on the key banner to check how many users are still using the Methods Assistant before the new banner arrangement.

3

4

Quick Access Content & Visual Recommendations: ‘Quick Access’ should highlight the recently updated methods.

Other recommendations:

4.5.7 Methods Page

Site Search: The Search Engine should provide quick access for users who are looking for a specific method / project in the portal.

Each Method Page contains one tool or technique’s information, including

Discussion: The portal can provide a discussion forum using the Forum Web application (SP2007).

The Specialists need to provide the content, related materials or templates and their contact details.

Any users who are interested in finding out more about the specific information can contact the Specialist.

3 5

6

Content & Visual Recommendations Content can be placed in a tabbed table to avoid a long page scrolls.

1

2

7

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Key visuals can help users to visualise the methods and how it works. Please be reminded the wrong resolution of image will affect the quality. Format and size of the image should be provided in the template. ( Section 3.4.3 ) When using Icons to categorise different functions of each tools the index should be provided on the same page ( eg: pop-up or JavaScript show-hide layer )

Methods Portal 1. Landing Page 2. Methods Assistant 3. Analysis Method Page 4. Project Page 5. Testing Method Page 6. Documentation Method Page 7. Projects Library

• General overview • Step-by-step guide • Recommendations • Frequently Asked Questions • Useful information

(1) Quick Access (2) Icons Index (3) Key banner

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SharePoint Features Highlight:

Microsoft SharePoint 2007

Forum

Document Library

Content Editor

is a web application platform developed by Microsoft. First launched in 2001. SharePoint is typically associated with web content management and document management systems, but it is actually a much broader platform of web technologies, capable of being configured into a wide range of solution areas.

SharePoint is designed as a broad, central application platform for common enterprise web requirements.

SharePoint’s multi-purpose design allows for managing and provisioning of intranet portals, extranets, websites, document & file management, collaboration spaces, social tools, enterprise search, business intelligence, process integration, system integration, workflow automation, and core infrastructure for third-party solutions. SharePoint’s core infrastructure is also suited to providing a base technology platform for custom developed applications. source from MSDN Blogs (Microsoft Corporation)

How ‘ +Tool’ Work

1. Found a ‘method’ relevant to your project

2. Click on the +Tool button

3. Select the project you would like to share this method

4. Click OK. Added method message should shown.

5. Go to the selected project space.

6.You may share or assign the method with your team.

.In terms of content, avoid using jargon write in a simple and easy to understand language.

Functionality Recommendations Apply Document library (SP2007 Web application) for different types of file to share in the Useful information section.

4.5.8 +Tool Function Inside the key visual, there is a +Tool button. When the user has found a method relevant to their project, they may add this method to the project space in a simple one-click button.

Task List

Visual Recommendations The design of the button follows the common social media sharing panel design that most people are familiar with.

Functionality Recommendations Users who are working on more than one project need to select which project space they would like this method appear on.

Method’s Template

Team Calendar Sync Outlook Calendar

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4.5.9 Method Page’s Template The Method Pages Template should be provided to all Specialists, they are the key content providers for the MSP ( see Appendix 9 ) Content & Visual Recommendations Content requirements should be provided in the template ( e.g.

Maximum word count, Specification of attachment and image size ) Functionality Recommendations The proposed Method Template is a digital form link with the database in SP2007. Specialists will receive an email with the Template’s URL, information they provide will directly submit to the database for the Modernisation team to review and publish on the portal.

4.5.10 Project Space Features Most features suggested in the following sections are included in SP2007. Features highlighted with * need further customisation.

Task List * After the user clicked on the +Tool button on the selected tool, the item will appear on the Methods task list. The user can select Share or Assign.

Project Task list * Please see +Tools in Section 3.5 Office communicator Office communicator provides the online messaging platform for one-to-one or one-to multiple chat function within the project group Discussion / Blog / Forum The project group may set up their own discussion forum to discuss project related matters.

Other projects Projects with similar research groups / target audiences / communities / service types will be displayed for users to reference on other projects which might provide

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Project Space

useful information or insight.

Documents / Media Library The Document and Media library are the file sharing applications which come with version control and user record to allow multiple users editing on the same document.

Related projects Projects with similar keywords will be displayed in the related projects section.

User’s access right Only users invited by a Group owner (The user who created the project space) have access right to the project page to edit / upload / delete the content. The group owner can limit the access of selected content or documents or access control can be assigned through SP2007 File Properties.

4.5.11 : Projects Template Features

4.5.12 Projects Library Features

Users are required to fill in the basic information about the project ( eg. Project title and Department) when they create the project space.

Group members are required to fill information in to the project space during the project progression. A case study report will be generated after the project completion and information can be shared within the Council.( see Appendix 10 )

Current and previous projects will be listed in the projects library and can be accessed by all staff members in the Council.

Functionality Recommendations: The default ordering of projects are listed by the latest date, but users might filter or re-order the projects in the table by : Departments: Department who initiated this project Keywords: Keywords (Tag) of the projects applied, for example: Housing services, pension or healthcare.

User group Keywords (Tag) of the users related, for example: 50+, unemployed women, teenagers

Service Type Keywords (Tag) of the service related, for example: Frontline services, internal services and research projects.

project page to edit, upload or delete content. Others can view these project pages as read-only, they may contact the group owner for access right permission.

User’s access rights Only users invited by the Group owner have access rights to the Project Space’s Benefits

Projects Library’s Benefits

•

•

• •

•

•

Information sharing within the team to avoid duplication of work Version control for documents / files Sharing the workload of writing the case study report during project progression.

Case study report can be generate from the CMS after project completion and will be store in the project library.

New project member can find out about the project’s status and background.

•

•

Projects information and knowledge sharing within the council.

Departments who working on the same community or similar services can sharing their research and resources.

Archive all the projects document in one place

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4.6 Personas MSP was designed to all project related staff in the Council; the following personas represent 3 different types of users.

Persona ONE Name : Mavis Age Group : 25 - 30 Years in the council : 5 years Specialist: YES Knowledge about design methods Low

High

Experiences in previous design projects Low

High

Level of interest in creative approach Low

High

4.5.13 Methods Assistant Persona TWO

The ‘Methods Assistant’ is designed for users who are not familiar with service design methods. It provides guidance on which methods they should look at in different stages of the project.

Content and Visual recommendation This section is recommended to place in a separate popup browser, so that the user can refer back to the main browser (the Methods Portal) for detail content.

The content should emphasise these recommendations are not a stepby-step rules but they are creative approaches recommended by previous projects. Templates should be provided in each stage for users to do a ‘self-check’.

Inspiration

Implementation

Ideation

The design thinking process is best thought of as a system of overlapping spaces rather than a sequence of orderly steps.

Name : Alex Age Group : 25 - 30 Years in the council : 2 months Specialist: NO Knowledge about design methods Low

High

Experiences in previous design projects Low

High

Level of interest in creative approach Low

High

Persona THREE Name : Paul Age Group : 45 - 55 Years in the council : 17 years Specialist: NO Knowledge about design methods Low

High

Experiences in previous design projects Low

High

Level of interest in creative approach Low

High

Tim Brown

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4.7 The storyboard

4.8 Service flow diagram

Scenario ONE - Mavis needs to help the Children Services department to run a research project on engagement to increase the usage of Children Centres.

1) She knows there are some methods related to this project. She uses the methods portal to search for the methods and share the link with other project members through a project space.

2) She uses the Project Initiation Canvas in the project kick off meeting as a toolkit to facilitate the meeting.

3) In this project they created a new research approach inspired by MSP. After the project launched, they submitted this new method and shared their experiences and key learning.

Scenario TWO - Alex was assigned to follow up a project that was in progress for 2 months. Unfortunately, some of the project’s contacts in his department have left the Council.

1) Alex was invited by another project member to access the Project Space to read the documents and information about this project.

2) Alex was able to see what projects other departments are now doing.

3) Since he has never been involved in a design project before, MSP provided him an introduction about service design process.

Scenario THREE - Paul has worked for the Council for more than 15 years, but has never collaborated with a design agency before. He saw the e-newsletter promotion about the Methods Portal and set up a Project page for online collaboration with his team.

1 ) He found some project members started sharing methods on the project space. Some of the input seems to be relevant to his project but he is not sure about outcome. He contacted the Specialist who has experience on this method in previous project for details.

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2 ) He has assigned the tasks to the team and checked the progress on each of the tasks.

3) During the project development, the team have worked on the project case study together and have a clear objective about the project.

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Risk Management Back-up solution for system fail in the intranet needs to be planned in advance.

Measurement

Accelerators Vision

Evaluation Promotion

Risk Management

Implementation of

Feedback

Service Design Toolkits

BLUEPRINT

Next Step

Piloting Suggest a small pilot of MSP within a few departments before the official rollout. Selection of these departments should be a mix of advanced users and extreme users. Different feedback is valuable for enhancement before implementation across the Council.

Systems Leadership Training

Budget Goal

Piloting

Process People Support

Team

BEFORE

4.9 Implementation blueprint Inspired by Geoff Mulgan’s Public sector innovation checklist for public agencies or organisation departments who seek to improve their innovative capacity. ( 2009 ) MSP blueprint was designed based on the context within the Council, some of them are recommendations made by officers during interviews and co-design workshops.

Divided by three phases – Before, during and after implementation.

There are seventieth elements recommended to consider: Vision Set a vision for the project and the long-term benefits it would bring.

Leadership MSP is aimed to be implemented across the organisation, support from the top management is essential.

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Toolkits

Measurement Value and measure of success needs to be defined in the early stages.

There should be a review annually to evaluate the impact of MSP to the Council.

DURING Recognition

Team A dedicated team needs to be set up to act as the key driver. The team needs to take the ownership of MSP, maintain the content and keep it up to date and relevant.

Training Due to the high turnover rate in the Council, there is a risk of losing the skills and knowledge of the staff.

The dedicated team or some other selected officers within the Council needs to learn the design methods from these experts to sustain these knowledge and skill in the Council.

Accelerators Apart from the maintenance team and top management support, each department should nominate some key supporters and promote MSP based on their service nature. ( eg: Group Managers can promote / initiate this toolkit in all project kick-off meetings )

AFTER

Policy

Toolkits MSP’s content needs to be up to date.

Recognitions MSP should be recognised by top management and be given a defined position in the Council.

Feedback There should be regular consultation to receive feedback from users. The Modernisation Team should moderate these comments for further action.

Evaluation Regular evaluations, survey and focus groups (selection of users from different levels in the council) should be conducted to evaluate the service for improvement.

Policy MSP should be promoted as part of internal staff empowerment policy. (eg. Investors in People) Next Step MSP is just the beginning of the ‘ Implementation of Innovative ideas’ in the organisation, the Council should plan a system to support and sustain this work.

Change is one thing, progress is another.

Change is scientific, progress is ethical.

Change is indubitable, whereas progress is a matter of controversy.

Bertrand Russell

Budget To sustain MSP, top management needs to source resources both financially and as part of dedicated employee time.

Promotion MSP should be promoted through various channels across the council. ( eg: the intranet, internal training sessions or e-newsletters ) At the same time, Group managers from each department should reinforce this toolkit in all internal communications and encourage members to apply MSP practically into their projects.

Systems MSP should collaborate with the Learning Pool as part of the internal training work.

Implementation blueprint generated during the Co-design session

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5.1 Conclusion ‘Implementation of innovative ideas in public sector’ - MSP was started as a massive global issue that almost every government are struggling with. In the beginning, it was hardly defined what an MDes project can produce in 5 months with the limited knowledge and resources toward this subject area.

5.0

Conclusion

The following sections summarise the project, feedback from the Council and evaluation.

5.1 Conclusion 5.2 Feedback 5.3 Evaluation

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Although the project brief was given by the Council in the beginning, MSP has not been a straightforward development to the ‘ultimate’ toolkit to innovate the local authority. MSP heavily involved the Council staff members in every single stage of qualitative research, co-design and prototyping. It has not only provided a Council’s perspective but also helped share the ownership of MSP which has now been handed over to the Council.

MSP emphasised the purpose is all about exploring different possibilities and providing suggestions of different approaches rather than project development rules. Utilising the resources inside the organisation is not only a sustainable approach but also

making staff members feel being valued by the organisation. Taking the quote from Will Hutton’s book Them and Us, it said ‘ideas and knowledge are the petrol of innovation’ Implementation of MSP won’t be an easy process due to the existing organisational culture.

They do require ‘proof’ in the decision process; their concern of risk taking approaches will be another barrier. Shifting people’s thinking towards ‘doing things right’, rather than ‘doing the right thing’ would be a big challenge in the Council. Due to the fact that the previous design projects were hardly sustained; it is fair some of the Council’s staff members commented Design projects as a ‘fluffy thing’. But Ogilvie argued in his book Designing for Growth that ‘Design thinking is not abstract, it can do for organic growth and innovation what TQM did for quality.’ Having a clear vision and giving permission from the top management would be the starting point of the process.

helps the Modernisation Team take the project forward and built a strong foundation for implementation. Based on the best practice from the industry, a successful organisation needs both innovation and implementation.

Innovation without effective implementation can easily lead to a succession of bright ideas that never somehow take off, and which easily leave behind a trail of ‘innovation fatigue’ and even cynicism. Taking the motto from the world leading health care company Abbott: ‘Plan the work, then work the plan.’ (Fisk, 2010 ) The term service innovation may have multiple meanings.

However, in relation to this project innovation relates to the implementation of new ways of working and organisational processes through the use of the toolkit. This is where the innovation is.

Although MSP didn’t deliver as a ‘final product’; the supplied documentation and prototype

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Social Context

LBBD’s Challenges

Barriers of Implementation

Change Management’s difficulties

Issues on ‘The Toolkit’

Intractable social problems

Culture

Different level of understanding

Leadership

Expectations

Funding cut

Knowledge Tranfer

Practice

Strategies

Sustainable

Old institutons VS New challenges

Values

Vision

Process

Accessible

Innovation

Implementation

Change Management

Blueprint*

Methods Service Pack

FEEDBACK FROM THE COUNCIL

“Veronica’s research has been extremely useful in helping to shape Barking and Dagenham’s thinking about how we use design methods and techniques in projects to improve public services, and also how we support our staff to develop their skills to use these methods. The research provides a blueprint for how the organisation can create a “self-service” portal for staff and project managers wanting to find out about research and other techniques to capture customer experience and to channel creativity thinking. Overall, the outputs from the project have been of a very high quality and will be used to shape how the Council designs and rolls out a toolkit going forward. We are very appreciative of Veronica’s contribution.”

Iain Griffin | Client Officer Modernisation & Improvement Team Progression from Social Innovation to Methods Service Pack

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