“Enjoyed the course immensely. It should be mandatory for all civil servants.” —course participant, September 2024
Civic Design Studio was The Lab’s flagship course on how to apply equitable design to complex challenges in the public sector. I led the immersive, multi-week course in September 2024, orchestrating a team of 7 expert design strategists who facilitated the classes and coached teams.
- 29 participants on 17 teams from 6 states and 8 federal agencies
- 100% of end-of-course survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the course strengthened their ability to frame problems equitably and effectively.
- 100% agreed or strongly agreed that the course strengthened their ability to enable equitable and participatory design processes.
- Net Promoter Score for participants was 47.
- Teams went on to implement course projects at their state health agencies and federal departments.
- In the months after the course, state agencies teams working on modernization of the Women, Infants, and Children program shared progress on their projects in a monthly community of practice. These included a comprehensive redesign of training and onboarding for WIC staff at one state health department, and an inclusive and affirming program for current WIC clients to teach new clients how to shop with their nutrition assistance benefits at another health department.
Want to know more about the projects and results of the course? Get in touch.
Civic Design Studio overview (contact to access)
Mindset shifts were evident in participant reflections:
- “[I used to think…] Solutions from from the top, taught by the middle, and implemented at the bottom. [Now I think…] Implementing solutions is done best in collaboration with all involved from the beginning to the end.”
- "I used to think that I struggled to think out of the box. … Now I think that I am creative and capable of finding new innovative solutions to problems and I have the tools to apply all of my ideas."
- "I used to think that it would be hard to include Client feedback in our staff training … Now I think that there are ways to include client feedback through tools I learned about."