Building and Sustaining Design in Government
Summary
While the use of design in government is on the rise, there is a question about whether this way of working in government can be sustained in the long-term. If you are interested in building design capacity in government, do you start with a dedicated team of experts, or with grassroots frontline staff? Using examples from city governments from around the world, this presentation will explore the pros and cons to each approach, its impact on sustainability, and the additional factors that help embed design in government (i.e.: senior leadership buy-in, dedicated resources, storytelling, measuring impact, etc.).
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
"Design in government is growing at all levels around the world, but the public sector really only began using this approach in earnest about 10 to 15 years ago."
"Integrate additional innovation skills like data analytics and behavioral economics to amplify the power of design."
"Measuring impact is not just nice to have, it’s critical to hold ourselves accountable and to catalyze change at scale."
"Telling your story with visuals and resident quotes builds empathy and helps government stakeholders feel connected to the work."
"Build time into your project plan to capture your story at key milestones so you don’t lose critical elements."
"Teaching others through hands-on projects and training sessions creates long-term advocates and grows your design footprint."
"You have to plan ahead for sustainability; no one else will do it for you—you are your own best advocate."
"Bring government stakeholders out into the community so they can see and feel the problems firsthand and build empathy."
"Moving fast into prototyping helps keep momentum going beyond the fun ideation phase to actual implementation."
"As a contractor, use case studies and data-driven examples to paint the picture of what civic design can achieve even if you’re outside government."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Whiteness isn’t about color; people of all colors can reinforce white supremacy."
Victor UdoewaBeyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
March 26, 2024
"Most categories are fuzzy; there’s no clear boundary between what’s in or out."
Peter MorvilleThe Architecture of Understanding
May 13, 2015
"The boss’s son is no longer the default backup boss; there are now written rules accessible to all."
Sam LadnerHow Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight
March 9, 2022
"Templates outline workflow models that encourage peer feedback before insights get published to the main hub."
Michelle Bejian Lotia Anne-Marie MorellRolling Out a Repository: How Zapier Centralizes Insights from Across their Organization
March 28, 2023
"At Atlassian, many confident non-researchers were already doing lots of research, which was an opportunity and a challenge."
Leisa ReicheltOpening Keynote: Operating in Context
November 7, 2018
"If we’re really centering it on people and experiences, consider life before place, and place before technology."
Sarah GallimoreInspire Progress with Artifacts from the Future
November 18, 2022
"The task objects are central to a popular conceptual design approach called OOUX."
Joerg Beringer Thomas GeisScaling User Research with AI: Continuous Discovery of User Needs in Minutes
September 10, 2025
"Design is always going to be subjective, so you have to figure out what quality looks like in your organization."
Peter MerholzCustomer-Centered Design Organizations
June 8, 2017
"Closing the loop by understanding when and why recommendations don’t get adopted is probably the most easily actionable piece of advice I can give."
Dalia El-ShimySo You've Got a Seat at the Table. Now What?
March 31, 2020
