Building and Sustaining Design in Government

Key Insights

• •

  Civic design is expanding globally at all levels of government but emerged more recently in the public sector than private.

• •

  Denmark and Singapore are early national-level adopters of civic design practices.

• •

  The U.S. federal government institutionalized civic design starting with the 2013 OPM Lab, expanding through multiple innovation labs across agencies.

• •

  City governments are rapidly adopting civic design, with over 90 chief innovation officers in U.S. cities compared to just five in 2012.

• •

  Integrating civic design with complementary skills like behavioral economics and data analytics multiplies impact.

• •

  Measuring impact quantitatively helps build buy-in, reduce risk, and scale civic design projects effectively.

• •

  Telling stories that incorporate community voices and visuals builds empathy and sustains long-term support.

• •

  Training colleagues through project-based learning and informal sessions creates new advocates and scales civic design within governments.

• •

  Proactively engaging diverse government leaders and budget officers early helps secure sustainability amid political changes.

• •

  Moving quickly into prototyping helps overcome organizational impatience and maintains momentum from ideation to implementation.

Notable Quotes