We detail the three pillars of our innovation strategy:
the principles
the use of “design thinking” and “lean start-up” methodologies
and the collaborative model
Finally, we present some specific examples of challenges and projects in which we have tested and validated the benefits of this strategy.
Because we innovate
We are immersed in a new technological revolution that is generating enormous opportunities for improvement in all sectors, including public administration, but which at the same time generates disturbing problems and challenges.
This process of accelerated change is radically transforming our business models, our habits, and society at large.
The Administration is making real efforts to digitize, but there are very few results in terms of organizational transformation and service delivery, and this is insufficient in the current context.
For the first time in history, governments are threatening to become irrelevant actors in the near future if they do not adapt to change, in the face of large technology corporations that already control personal data, mobility, digital currency, etc. Without a “strong” public administration, there is no one else to guarantee the common good and social rights: equality, justice, inclusion, sustainability, etc.
"The surviving species are not the strongest, nor the fastest, nor the most intelligent; but those that are better adapted to change. "
About contentand of evolution of species, by Charles Darwin
Innovation is the most powerful tool we have to promote adaptation to change with the goal of generating public value. Innovating is extremely complicated in the Administration because its DNA is designed to evolve in a conservative, gradual and safe way. However, in the current context of a digital revolution we have no other way, no matter how difficult: innovation or irrelevance.
What we want to achieve
The AOC's innovation laboratory was created with the aim of providing Catalan local administrations with digital services, good practices and methodologies that make it easier for them to get on the bandwagon of digital innovation so that citizens can enjoy quality digital public services. the framework of an open society, responding to the needs and expectations of the citizens of the XNUMXst century that cannot be solved with the “usual” solutions
In particular, we have three main objectives:
Increase user satisfaction and trust
To offer innovative services that exceed the expectations of the citizens, based on personalization, proactivity, vital facts and the transversal vision of the Administration.
Define methodologies and standards to facilitate innovation, minimize risks and promote scalability and replicability.
How we do it
Innovation is neither improvised nor the result of chance. In order to propose viable solutions that can be translated into real and effective projects, we must apply a method. The method responds to the “how” and is the set of activities, techniques and actions designed, planned and developed to achieve a goal.
Innovating involves a process of continuous learning and cultural change. There is no single method to innovate, but we want to share the proposal that we at AOC have tested and validated. At AOC, we promote innovation initiatives based on three pillars: principles, a methodology that combines “design thinking” and “lean start-up”, and a collaborative model.
Principles for innovating in digital public services
The people, in the middle We design public services where people are located in the center ("citizen centric"). To do this we perform a set of actions, such as workshops, requesting proposals for improvement, satisfaction surveys, studying online behavior or using advanced analytics on available data, which allow us to understand your needs, frustrations and expectations.
Open innovation We live in an extremely complex, interdependent, fast-changing world with many uncertainties. In this context, solving great challenges requires open and collaborative strategies that bring collective intelligence together and break down hierarchical and vertical management silos. We encourage the creation of open and meritocratic spaces that allow anyone to propose ideas for improvement, prioritize proposals and make comments to enrich suggestions. The ideas for improvement can be proposed by any user (public employee, citizen, etc.) with any training profile (legal, technological, organizational, etc.), without being conditioned at any time by hierarchies or positions.
Empowered by data We rely on data to improve decision-making in an objective, rigorous manner and with criteria that allow for accountability. The public administration has a lot of data and great value that we must know how to take advantage of. And in areas of interest where we do not have data, we promote initiatives to generate or collect information of public value. Data-driven government allows us to drive initiatives to evaluate and improve public policies, identify best practices, and offer innovative services in the areas of personalization, proactivity, and prediction.
Harnessing the Opportunities of the Digital Revolution We look at the latest digital technologies and solutions to build better, more efficient, efficient and sustainable public services. We learn from the best public sector initiatives globally and from the most advanced private sector experiences. And we do so from the conviction that, no matter how sophisticated they are, technologies are a means, not an end. They are very useful instruments, which accelerate innovation processes, as long as the public challenge to be solved has been defined first and the above principles have been taken into account.
Our recipe for innovation
The unique and magical recipe for innovation does not exist. At the AOC, we have opted for the “desing thinking” methodology of the Double Diamond from the Bristish Design Council, which allows the structured development of creative processes of co-design and co-creation, stimulating the generation of disruptive ideas ("out the box"). We combine “design thinking” with the methodlean start-up“, Manual of head of the entrepreneurs, for the phase of prototyping and validation that guarantees a really applicable and useful service.
The stages of our methodological proposal are as follows:
Step 1: Discover We observe the problem and collect, through studies, reports, surveys and interviews with users, the maximum relevant information that can help us to contextualize. Always with an open attitude, without taking anything for granted and avoiding preconceived ideas. At this point it is critical to empathize with users who are suffering from the problem and understand their needs, which are not always obvious.
Step 2: Define the challenge We need to deepen our understanding of the problem, understand the motivations, frustrations or unfulfilled desires of the user in their context. Next, we identify areas of opportunity for innovative services, assessing viability, impact and risks, in order to prioritize the specific challenge we want to address. The result of defining the challenge is a phrase that follows the model “How could we improve or reimagine X (goal) to achieve Y (impact)”. This is a statement broad enough not to limit creativity, but at the same time relatively focused so as not to disperse and ensure that we come up with concrete solutions.
Step 3: Idear With the help of users we generate a multitude of ideas and concepts with a totally open and creative mentality, without limitations or conditions. We do not prejudge during ideation: there are no good or bad proposals. We try to add, correlate, interact the initial ideas to generate new proposals. Emerging ideas are organized, evaluated, and prioritized with meritocratic criteria. As a result, we end up with one or a few proposals that will need to be detailed and tested in the prototyping phase.
Step 4: Prototype and evaluate The starting point is the design of the model of a first prototype (called minimum viable product) that responds to the main frustration of users, although it has a very limited functionality. From here, we work on short-term projects, in an iterative and incremental process, performing experiments and validations with users, which allow us to learn and evolve or correct the prototype, to the implementation of a pilot and deployment . In this phase, the “lean start-up” method, widely tested by entrepreneurial companies, is very useful
Collaborative model
To achieve these goals it is imperative to foster digital transformation that includes realistic change management actions at the organizational, service and cultural levels.
Given the municipal plant, where 90% of municipalities have less than 20.000 inhabitants and therefore have very limited resources and capacities, these objectives can only be achieved through collaborative initiatives that identify best practices, add the intel Collective intelligence and provide shared technological platforms and innovative solutions that guarantee economic sustainability and efficiency. This is the main value we provide from the AOC.
Areas of innovation, challenges and projects
The innovation projects we are promoting are grouped in the areas that we have considered strategic to drive digital transformation and have as a starting point a public challenge to be solved. From the challenge we look for technologies or solutions that can help us solve the problem, and not the other way around, which is a very common mistake.
Below, we highlight a project for each area. The complete list of projects can be consulted in the sectionInnovation of the AOC website.
Scope: Easy processing
Project: e-TRAM 2.0 Challenge: Make the processing with your mobile phone easy, agile and secure Proposed solution: Develop a new version of the e-TRAM electronic processing solution currently used by more than 1.000 local entities, based on the "first-mobile" philosophy that, in an effective way, makes it easier for citizens to carry out any procedure and management with the administration. anytime and from anywhere and in a very usable way with your mobile phone, as they are already doing with many private services. Some procedures have taken advantage of some of the features that mobile phones have, such as image capture and geolocation. Status: Prototype available in AOC laboratory
Scope: Digital Identity
Project: Remote identification of the citizen using facial recognition Challenge: How can we strengthen the citizens' registration system via the Internet so that it is safer and avoids unnecessary travel? Proposed solution: Remote registration using facial and image recognition solutions for official identification documents, combined with video recording and validation by an operator. These solutions, widely used in the banking sector, provide robust evidence that allows the verification of identity with a substantial (average) level according to Regulation (EU) No. 910/2014 […] on electronic identification and trusted services for electronic transactions in the internal market, known as the eIDAS Regulation. Status: Performing the second proof of concept.
Scope: Empowering the citizen
Project: MyGov, the administration in your hands Challenge: How can the Public Administration, based on its data on citizenship, offer a personalized, proactive and trusting relationship? Proposed solution: MyGov, is a “first-mobile” application that integrates an inter-administrative citizen folder with a user-centered design, with easy and agile access to its actions with the public administration; with detailed information on the queries made to your personal data and your access to public portals; and with a service of subscription of periodic notices of the formalities realized, with a transversal vision. In addition, it includes (currently under development) a service of personalized and proactive recommendations, in the field of social benefits, based on the data available to the public administration. State: Prototype available in AOC laboratory
Area: Collective intelligence
Project: Collaborative space for proposals for the improvement of AOC services Challenge: How can we collect and manage ideas and proposals for improving AOC users easily, openly and transparently? Proposed solution: We have implemented the UserVoice solution to facilitate the collection, management, voting and monitoring of proposals for improvement in relation to AOC services, by citizens and public employees, in a systematic and continuous manner. In addition, we have an AOC laboratory section where we published the alpha version of the new AOC services to gather the opinion of users who want to try them. State: In production. AOC Ideas and Suggestions Space
Field: Methodologies for measuring and evaluating
Project: Economic savings from the use of digital administration Challenge: How can we rigorously assess the economic savings involved in the use of digital administration? Proposed solution: We have designed and implemented our own methodology for calculating savings, given that previous studies carried out at European and national level did not respond to our requests to have the detailed methodology for calculating savings, which would allow us to guarantee their rigor. The methodology developed has been based on the following actions: -Identify the main digital administration services with the greatest impact -Define the user cycle for each of the services and identify the steps in the process in which there is a saving with respect to face-to-face processing. -Calculate the detailed savings associated for each step of each service, broken down for citizens and for the public administration -Verify the validity of the estimated savings through the supervised completion of procedures or actions by an anonymous user. - Interviews with users (citizens and public employees) to validate the perception of savings generated by electronic processing State: Study available on the AOC website, Innovation section
Conclusion
In the face of the opportunities and threats of the digital revolution, our duty is, as public servants, to be courageous and take risks.
We have an obligation to propose, apply and learn from new methodologies, technologies and innovative initiatives that allow us to respond to the needs and expectations of the citizens of the XNUMXst century, and preserve the fundamental role of governments in ensuring the general interest and social rights.
As a popular quote goes, "the best way to predict the future is to invent it."
Miquel Estapé, Carme Callés and Jordi Parodi Subdirectorate of Innovation and Strategy of the AOC
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