1. Designing public innovation
Albert Kivits & Ohyoon Kwon
3 April 2014, CHI Sparks Conference, Den Haag

2. Speakers: Ohyoon & Albert
Ohyoon
south korean
designer
friendly hacker
Albert
Dutch
likes belgium beer
social entrepreneur

3. Homeless SMS is a social
innovation project
explores how basic mobile
technology can be useful
toolkits supporting
homeless people.
most of
homeless
people own
mobile phones,
often they have
smartphones

4. Homeless SMS is a network of collaborators
giovanni
@gixworks
dick
@waag society
jonas
ohyoon
will
albert
vincenzo
@commonground
paul @BGV
partner organisations
pieter jan

5. Evolution of Homeless SMS
2010
2011
2012
2013
started at social
venture incubator in
London
achieved a proof of
concept. test the
service with 20
homeless people in
London
development partnership
in eindhoven

6. How to Create a collaborative environment for
experiments in the public domain?
How can design contribute to innovation in the
public domain?
What we want to talk about today...

7. A few basic facts about the
problem...

8. How many people are affected?
27,000
The Netherlands
113,260
England
1.6 : 1,000
2.1 : 1,000

9. family breakdowns
mental health
addiction to drugs, alcohol &
gambling
debt
...
The causes of homelessness

10. €486 million
Estimation of the annual costs Dutch
government spends for supporting
homeless people (calculated based on UK data)
Cost includes appointments with GP, shelter, housing
supports, running day centers...

11. 2 years
30% drop-outs
Getting back to the society is a slow process
however it’s not always successful

12. Homeless people remain isolated from
relationships, inspirations and opportunities

13. Are government and public services
solving the problem?
Are they a part of the problem?
The public domain is under
transformation already.

14. City of Eindhoven received 40% extra welfare budget from
national government (300M euro per year). However this
amount is smaller than that was used to spend by the
national government.
Local governments get more
responsibilities with a smaller budget
welfare
responsibilities
budget cut

15. How local governments can handle this
challenge with less budget?

16. Citizens can select
providers of welfare
services via open
tenders. Therefore
newcomers can enter
the welfare domain.
Public tenders

17. All kinds of
organisations and
institutions are
working together
with citizens as a
multi-disciplinary
team on a
neighborhood level.
WIJ Eindhoven

18. Local
governments
welfare
organisations
citizens
newcomers
All parties need
to find new
roles and new
ways of
working.

19. The Culture of Eindhoven
no natural resources and
geographical advantages
a strong culture of
cooperation, openness for
new ideas and new people
adaptive for new ideas
invite homeless sms in
eindhoven

20. from London to Eindhoven

21. Establish the development partnership
with 4 organisations in Eindhoven
lead partner/
Service design
Software
development
3 organiSations providing
services for homeless
young people
+
innovation network of
active and healthy aging
with 80+ companies

22. 2 jaarex-dakloosthuisloos
support van
hulpverleners
gemeente
psycholoog
drug- en
alcohol
support
persoonlijk
begeleider
support van
hulpverleners
sociaal netwerk in
maatschappij
2 jaar
winst voor (ex)dakloze EN
organisaties
ex-dakloosthuisloos
Value
proposition 1
Support a smoother and faster
re-socialisation

23. Measured 'outcomes'
Cost saving
€119.070
€ 51.840
1 : 3.98
Operational costs
€13.000
Bridging assumptions Cost assumptions
Value
proposition 2
Reduce missed appointments

24. Managing the
complexity of the
partnership itself is
a big task.
*minimum duration to make an appointment
with different stakeholders
1 days = clients
5 days = service workers
1 month = the steering group
2+ months = org directors

25. Making storyboards with end users

26. End users act out the
scenes and build up the
future story.

27. Staff and clients
find themselves in
the story already
Very useful way to
build up a
conversation with
stakeholders and
develop a common
language for
future scenarios

28. Pitching the project together with staff
members

29. =Signing up the partnership contract...
phase 1
basic service
& pilot
phase 2
further development
& scale-up
phase 3
testing & problem fixes
12wks, 21K 16wks, 30-40k 24wks, 10-20k

30. Product functionalities

31. Start small, release early and learn from
users’ feedback
1. CORE
SETTING UP AN ESSENTIAL
‘SPINE’ OF THE PROJECT.
2. ROLL-OUT
growing users through
ITERATIONS, testing
propositions, DISCOVERIES
AND learning from FAILUREs.
3. REFINING
consolidate WHAT WORKED.
2
3

32. core
Setup a “design team”
A small and engaged group of staff
and clients giving feedback on
service development

33. core
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pilorfase
ThumbsApp Service kits

34. The weekly prototyping plan
core

35. roll-out
Staff & client introduction

36. roll-out
Message workshop with young people

37. roll-out
Kracht SMS workshop

38. Heb je zin in iets fruitigs? Maar vind je het prijzig? Scoor
bij Jumbo een galia meloen voor maar 1 euro! Fijn
weekeind! - ThumbsApp
19/7 17:00
role
prototype
Young people contribute to
running the service ✔
WORKED!

39. Value
proposition
test 1 Weekly information messages
Heb je zin in iets fruitigs? Maar vind je het prijzig? Scoor
bij Jumbo een galia meloen voor maar 1 euro! Fijn
weekeind! - ThumbsApp
19/7 17:00
“I really laugh about
this message. Because
I know it is written by
Sandra”
- emma
Emma went to a supermarket and
bought a mellon
“I like to recieve
something fun messages.
Not all SMS needs
to be serious and
businesslike. I love this
message particularly!”
- Mourad
✔
WORKED!

40. Value
proposition
test 2
Group message: staff can send one
message to many clients
Hallo Allemaal, Vandaag 29 Juli moeten de grijze
bakken buiten gezet worden! Fijne avond! Team
Changes
29/7 18:15 “it was great to see
garbage bags on the
street after cindy send
out messages. previously
i never have seen that”
- trudy
young people took out the garbagebags outside
✔
WORKED!

41. Value
proposition
test 3
Hoi Carlos, tot zo om 13.00
uur bij DUO. Denk je aan je
identiteitskaart? Groetjes Inge
1/8 9:45
Hallo Kies, ik zie je vanmiddag om 13.00 uur bij jou
thuis. Heb je al het aanvraagformulier van moeder
gekregen? Groeten Inge
25/7 10:00
“missed call does not
deliver any information.
But I can say something
via SMS and clients do
read it”
- inge
Appointment reminders
“I know how important
going to appointment is.
However I have a lot
of appointments every
week and I am often too
chaotic”
- Joris
✔
WORKED!

42. Value
proposition
test 4 Free SMS for young people
X
didn’t
work!

43. Mourad Fijn dit is een sms via Tumpsapp, start met mijn
naam en je kan een sms via Thumpsapp sturen. Ik ben
aan het oeffenen. Trudy
1/8 10:46
Mourad hoi yassine, niet erg. De afspraak is om 10uur.
Groeten inge (Inge)
15/8 7:52
you can message young
people before they
come. If you prepare
them, they already
know there will be a
conversation.
- trudy
new
discovery
SMS is used as a conversation starter
✔
WORKED!

44. Takeaways
for organisation directors, managers, frontline
staff, service users & entrepreneurs
working with them
people involved in
public innovation

45. Innovation cannot be supplied by
consultants. Give your people
mandate and time in innovation.
1. for organisation directors

46. Invite your partners in decision
making processes.
2. for managers and team leaders

47. 3. for frontline staff
Find yourself if you’re early
adopters, followers or last movers.
Adoption is the matter of time.

48. 4. for end users (citizens)
Think about your interests and
what you’re good at. You may be
invited to use them for others.

49. Role of designers

50. Stay in touch,
Homeless SMS is spinning off.
We’re developing a public innovation
company helping cities recycle proven
and open source solutions.
Thank you.
@albertkivits @ohyoonkwn