Membersday on the 18th of November, 2013 Keynote Speech

1. Service Design Network
Members day: 18 November 2013
Design Council
John Mathers, CEO
Championing
great design
to improve lives

2. Our history
1944
Council for
Industrial design
1924
Royal Fine Art
Commission
1970
Design Council
1999
CABE
2011
Design Council
(inc. Cabe)
It starts with “who”…
And what matters most?

3. 5 hours per day
Ageing better
by design

4. Ode
Ode
Casserole

5. Dementia Dog
Dementia Dog
Growth
by Design

6. Economic evaluation of the impact on the
businesses… direct return for every £1
spent on design:

7. “Design is not just about
aesthetics. It’s the creative
process within the business.
Design is fundamental,
creating brands, products
and an environment for
businesses to move forward”
Edward Naylor, Chief Executive
Naylor Industries
Naylors
Naylors

8. Design Summit
“People who say they
generally trust others
dropped from 60% in 1959
to 30% in 2005 and has
since declined further”

9. Communities
by design
Tower Hamlets

10. Lewisham Emergency
Lewisham
Housing Emergency Housing Services
“68% of men and 58%
of women in England
are overweight or obese”

11. Active
by design
Working with
our landlord

12. Championing
great design
London Olympic Park
London 2012 Olympic Park

13. Beyond2012.org.uk
Design in
Business

14. Leading
Business
by Design
Key research findings
Design can add value by:!
>!
Driving innovation and opening up uncontested market spaces
>!
Differentiating products and services to attract customers
>!
Strengthening branding, embodying a company’s values and
improving recognition.
Leading
Business
by Design

15. Design in the
Public Sector
Our back catalogue…

16. Case study
- Design-led “challenge” run over a period of months
- Bringing designers together with healthcare professionals to
innovate new solutions to a recurring problem
- Overseen by the Design Council but open to anyone to participate
and bid for development funding
- One team commissioned to develop and test a solution:
PearsonLloyd, Helen Hamlyn Centre at the Royal College of Art,
Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust, University of the
West of England’s Centre for Health and Clinical Research,
University of Bath School of Management, Tavistock Institute of
Human Relations.

17. Ethnographic
research
Six hospitals visited
Over 300 hours ethnographic
research at three sites:
Guys and St Thomas’, London
Southampton
Chesterfield
Over 60 interviews with staff
and patients
A&E patient
journeys
mapped

18. The solution in
development
The solution
in situ

19. And the
impact?
Early evaluation results show substantial
improvement in patient experience
Full results available 28th November
www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-work/
challenges/Health/AE/
Value of design
to the public
sector

20. Bringing design-led innovation
to the public sector
Moving from incremental fixes to
systemic innovation
Design as an
innovation method
- Traditional policymaking relies on data, impact assessments,
and a defined policymaking cycle; but can miss user insights
- Service delivery in the public sector, whilst driven by different
goals, can learn much from private sector best practice
- Design methods can support the generation of better policy and
service delivery – removing risk

21. Public Sector
Design Ladder
Mainstreaming
design in the
public sector

22. Design in the
public sector
!
!
Wider mission
To get the value of design
better understood in the
public sector so that more
Local Government leaders
use it as a change lever and
it becomes a more natural
part of the commissioning
process

23. Design in the public sector:
Action Group
Key issues will be explored through three working groups:
Vision & proposition – to clarify what we what believe can be
achieved through the greater use of design in the public sector
Evidence & impact – to examine the gaps in the existing
evidence base for the use and impact of design in the
public sector
Commissioning – to explore barriers to the efficient and
effective commissioning of services and service provision that
optimises the citizen and delivers new services in a more
innovative and user-led way.
Workshop series
AHRC are funding the development of a workshop programme to
help us reach a bigger audience. It will be intensive, regionally
focused and build communities from different Local
Authorities around shared challenges and themes.
Starting with an intensive 2 day thematic workshops
participants will be exposed to a range of useful models, design
principles, case studies, live speakers, deep-dive workshops and
best practice visits before framing a clear and grounded project
they will deliver over the next 90 day period.
1.!Engaging!key!leaders!and!
decision!makers!on!shared!
challenges!!
2.!Facilitated!workshops!to!
understand!the!context!issues!
and!barriers!to!change!
3.!Invi?ng!par?cipants!to!explore!
the!service!problem!using!design!
tools!!
4.!Mapping!the!opportuni?es!and!
aligning!them!with!the!core!
project!goals!
5.!Shortlis?ng!&!selec?ng!the!big!
ideas!to!shape!project!briefs!and!
commission!out!to!design!industry!
6.!Support!the!development!of!
the!project!and!suppor?ng!with!
prototyping!and!commissioning.!!

24. How will participants benefit
Exploring common challenges: insights into how they scope, shape and
brief design projects for commissioning around their own challenges
Learning by doing: developing leadership skills and capabilities by
applying insights directly to a live project
Peer to peer learning: Develop peer group learning and professional
development experiences that are project focused
Design awareness: participants will be more design aware and more likely
to submit follow-on applications to products and services already available.
Measurement and evaluation: buddied with a Research Fellow
participants will be encouraged and guided through how to capture and
transfer knowledge inside and outside the organisation.
Why it matters
-
Increase adoption and develop local advocates
-
Communicate a compelling case for design in the public sector
-
Develop the market – create opportunities by raising
awareness of other programmes and initiatives
-
Uncover key themes and challenges to transfer knowledge,
build awareness and scale up new services nationally

25. An evolving
definition of
design
Design as an innovation method
“And so the role of designers is
changing: A designer ‘tended to be
solely focused upon the making of things
in the industrial economy … [now] a
facilitator, researcher, co-creator,
communicator, strategist, capability
builder and entrepreneur’”
Yee J et al. 2009

26. Design as an innovation method
Discover
Define
Develop
Insight into the problem The area to focus upon
Deliver
Potential solutions
Solutions which work
Design Council on design
1
Multidisciplinary design: utilising
interdisciplinary skills to enhance project
outcomes
2
People /user centered: using people as
the pivot point to ground innovation and
shape interactions
3
Measurement and impact: showcasing
value and demonstrating benefits by
measuring tangible improvements

27. Adoption of design principles
-
Increased number of organisations and sectors are adopting and
practicing design:
-
using principles across change and improvement strategies
-
embedding systems to influence culture and transform teams
-
adopting peopled centered approaches to enhance
product and service quality
-
innovating with tangible touch points to make customer experiences
better and more streamlined
-
deploying design-led propositions that differentiate and
create market value
-
employing whole systems thinking to reducing costs, improve
performance, ensuring a valued return to the triple bottom line.
Challenges and
opportunities for
design

28. Key observations
- design as the method to define the problem as much as it is
the means to solve it
- design is being used as the convener, shaper and facilitator –
being consultative, listening and then finding a way forward
- design is integral – no longer just a nice to have
- design can be a shaper of skills and a leader of teams
However…
- lack of a clear compelling offer is confusing the market
- language and terminology used is not consistent or easily
understood
- design is not the panacea… how best to integrate with other
disciplines
How do we respond to these
barriers to adoption?
-
design is seen as decorative and informal, and not strategic
-
procurement processes disadvantage (and bewilder) design
agencies
-
not seen as a safe investment for challenging social problems
-
first instinct is to reduce (Lean) not to innovate
-
complex organisational structures and politics makes it difficult
and challenging and burn on an agencies resource and burn
project time
-
reputational risk of doing things differently particularly
in a time of austerity
-
lack of hard evidence

29. Bridging the gap?
Public sector needs to become more
enterprising and agile to compete in a
deregulated market place
Private sector needs to shift
from corporate to social
values to earn trust
Key points for the design sector
-
keep it simple and don’t overcomplicate the offer
-
unify on language and be more concise when demonstrating value
-
start with measurable objectives and track the impacts to
prove the results
-
sell the benefits as well as the features and make it compelling and fit
the audience understanding
-
we need to ensure the quality supply is there meet the expected
increase in demand
-
be more humble - we need to work with others to do this!

30. Thank you
@designcouncil