Public innovation · Policy Lab, UK Cabinet Office · 2015

Helping policy-makers respond to citizens' needs, with design.

Role
Service designer. Tools, research materials, methods and service prototypes.
Users
Civil servants and policy-makers working with Policy Lab, in the UK Cabinet Office.
Scope
Research, service design, methods, workshops and events.
Status
Policy Lab is still up and running inside the Cabinet Office.
A paper model of a street with houses, a taxi and a bus, used to prototype a public service
Prototyping a service on a table, with paper houses and toy cars.

A safe place to try new ways of making policy.

How might we help policy-makers respond to citizens' needs?

The context

Policy Lab is a design-led space inside the UK Cabinet Office, where civil servants are encouraged to take a more integrative approach to policy-making.

With user-centred design techniques and digital tools, it gives them a safe environment to experiment with and test new ideas. That opens room for innovation inside government, and for more effective and inclusive policy development.

What I made

A toolkit for designing policy.

The pieces of a framework for innovation and public service design.

1Tools

Card decks for discovery and change.

2Research materials

To bring citizens' needs and experiences into the work.

3Methods

Ways of working for policy teams, run in workshops and events.

4Service prototypes

Like a street modelled on a table, to try a service idea.

Policy Lab Discovery and Change cards with sticky notes and marker pens on a table
Discovery cards and Change cards, ready for a session.
Hand-drawn cards that read I'll be a witness, laid out on a table
"I'll be a witness" cards.
A participant holding a card that reads: How can more people decide to go to mediation to resolve disputes (rather than court)?

Starting from people

"How can more people decide to go to mediation to resolve disputes, rather than court?"

A policy problem, written as a question about what people decide to do.

In the room with policy-makers.

The methods and events built a creative, collaborative setting where policy-makers grew their skills and toolkit.

Civil servants around a table covered in cards and notes during a workshop
A large event with civil servants seated around tables in an ornate government hall

What it led to.

Better policy, and more centred on human needs and experiences.

Today

Policy Lab is still up and running.

It has become a successful space that radically improves policy-making through design, innovation and people-centred approaches within the UK Cabinet Office.