Q&A
Putting people at the heart of public service - A conversation with Gina Garvey GINA GARVEY advocates and advises on service design for public and private sector organisations around the world. Her passion for service design led to a master’s degree at the Politecnico di Milano, and that enthusiasm has continued through many roles, including a stint at IDEO Munich. GERALD SCANLAN, General Manager of Careering Options, sat down with her to talk about service design, human-centred design, and design thinking approaches and what it can mean for the public service. In a nutshell, what is human-centred design? Human-centred design (HCD) starts by looking at the perspectives of the people using a product, service, or system. You get a deep understanding of the people you are trying to serve – their needs, experiences, and desires. Next come tangible prototypes for improving a product, service, touchpoint, or experience, which is tested and refined before settling on a solution. HCD delivers what I describe as “360-degree goodness”; good for the end-user, but also good for the organisation, society, and the environment.
Is there a snappy visual? Of course! One I use is the IDEO Design Thinking diagram that poses three conditions for successful innovation: •
Desirability – customers and users want to use it
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Feasibility – it is technically feasible to deliver
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Viability – it’s sustainable within existing operating or business models.
In the public sector, we have often started with what is viable and feasible, leading to solutions that no one wants to use. The IDEO diagram challenges designers to frame constraints from the user perspective and find the sweet-spot where the three conditions overlap. IDEO Design Thinking diagram
It is both an ethos and an approach – a belief that to truly serve people, their experiences and voice should be at the heart of the improvement or innovation. Why is it relevant to the public sector and not just tech startups? HCD delivers fit-forpurpose solutions in complex environments. It challenges public servants to serve end-users first, and it responds to their innate drive to bring their best to their daily work. HCD also brings the humanity of those we serve into the room, helping designers build dignity, respect, and equity into public services. For the sponsoring organisation, HCD leads to more sustainable and efficient business processes, higher take-up rates for services and interventions, and less re-work. How does HCD relate to service design and design thinking? Service design is a general term for end-to-end approaches to designing services and experiences. Design thinking is an innovation process using HCD principles. Common to both are a bunch of tools and methods, such as ideation, journey mapping, prototyping, story boards, service blueprints, and, of course, the Post-it note. 30 PUBLIC SECTOR December 2020
Tell me more about curiosity Creativity and curiosity are the engine of HCD. Good design starts from a place of curious listening and naive inquiry. If you want to understand how to improve a bus ticketing service, you have to ride the bus! Who is on the bus? Where do they get their tickets? Where do they wait and for how long? Is it warm and safe? Who gets on without a ticket? This is my favourite part of HCD but is often skipped with cries of “no time, no time!” – but without it, you have nothing. While you are observing and experiencing, conversations happen. More questions emerge, and your assumptions are tested. Design research tools allow progressively deeper insights into the problem and potential solutions. How do you keep track of all the moving parts? At the end of a design process, you should be able to apply the “golden thread” test. Can you trace an imaginary golden thread back from the finished product or service to each step in the design journey: from the discovery process to the insights, from insights to ideas and prototyping, to iterating and customer testing, to solutions. For me, the golden thread is an integrity check – enabling designers to challenge the assumptions, biases, and judgments that systematically disadvantage users and allow service providers to remain smug and complacent. Crucially, if you need to go back to prototyping, or another stage in the process, you can “pick up” the thread and go from there.
