As a Design Educator at The Lab @ OPM, I worked on a small team to write a new version of our introductory course on human-centered design for civil servants.

The instructional approach for the course was grounded in the gradual release model of teaching:

1. First participants read and critically examined rigorous examples of real-world, high-impact service design artifacts. In this case, we focused on the journey maps and research produced as part of the government-wide customer experience work on “Recovering From a Disaster.” (See the Performance.gov archive here. Note that the Recovering from a Disaster materials were created for a separate project prior to my time at The Lab @ OPM.)

   

2. Facilitators then model practical methods using examples from those rigorous artifacts.

   

3. Facilitators then scaffold support for participants to practices those methods in a whole-group setting where they can get feedback.

4. Finally participants practice the methods in small-group settings in breakout teams. They focus on a realistic but fictionalized design prompt. This allows them to practice methods like discovery interviews and problem with one another in a low-risk setting. With this practice and the models and methods in hand, they are equipped to try the methods in their daily work.

   

Course Details

Foundational elements of human-centered design include centering real people; generating ideas to address challenges; and test and refining those ideas to ensure they address people’s needs. This 2-day course (4 hours each day), focuses on the foundational element of centering people, and touches briefly on generating and testing ideas. A follow-up course will focus on Prototyping and Testing. Civil servants will learn by analyzing examples of major federal projects that leverage people-centered research to generate insights that can power more effective and equitable service delivery. They will also learn by starting small and using components of the same human-centered approach to address challenges in their own work.

Learning goals

• Analyze high-impact human-centered design work in a federal context in order to understand opportunities afforded by a design approach
• Understand the role of design in government service delivery
• Understand how discovery research centers the needs, experiences, and emotions of people (as opposed to systems and organizations), and practice applying discovery research methods
• Understand how sensemaking can generate insights that lead to new ideas for how to design experiences, and practice applying sensemaking methods
• Understand and apply methods for framing problems in order to address the right challenge, disrupt biases, and expand the range of possible solutions
• Understand, develop, and apply design criteria that align with opportunities and constraints for the project
• Understand the purpose of testing ideas in a human-centered design process

The tools, methods, and mindsets covered in this course are broadly applicable to any internal or public-facing government project or service. With this foundation, learners can move on to the Lab’s separate courses on idea generation, prototyping, and testing to address clearly defined challenges.

Overview Materials