Capsulab is Coboi lab’s monthly knowledge capsule. We want to share our internal research on topics such as innovation, labs and multi-actor projects, among others. And, from there, generate concise and practical content and materials with the aim of sharing the key learnings.
In this capsule we talk about:
What is the life cycle of a public policy lab? How can we improve its resilience? Anna Whicher , Head of Design Policy at RDP (United Kingdom), developed a framework to establish, review, and evaluate policy labs. Policy labs can be vulnerable to political shifts , budgets changes, and uncertain contexts. Therefore, it is important to foster their resilience and legitimacy, and to evaluate their impact.
The framework for establishing, reviewing and evaluating policy labs consists of four components: proposition, product, people and process. This framework emerges from exploratory research through interviews, workshops and immersive work with policy labs.
1) The proposition refers to the lab’s vision, governance, financial models, and success metrics. It is important for labs to develop a long-term vision to enhance their resilience and legitimacy. Labs are often established as a one-year experiment. After their creation, they should develop a vision for the future that is continually reviwed in light of changing environments and priorities.
2) The product relates to the lab’s service offering, and how it aligns with the users needs. As the lab begins to develop a “market” for its services, its projects may evolve. It is also crucial that labs apply innovation and design methods beyond their own walls.
3) People refers to the methods, skills, experience and leadership required for the lab. In the early statges, labs often rely on agencies, consultants or academics and then they aim to internalize this expertise as the lab gains notoriety and the demand for their services grows. When external consultants leave and a lab seeks to build its internal capacity, a structured transfer of knowledge is essential. It is important to have a multidisciplinary team of experts not only in public policy and service delivery, but also in innovation and design methods.
4) The process refers to the user journey of lab participants, the criteria for selecting projects to be developed and the way in which good practices will be shared. It is also vital to build a community to improve credibility, integrate new approaches, evaluate their interventions and share case studies.
This model has been developed and tested iteratively, but it’s still in its early stages of development and aims to encourage further researche to develop, monitor, and evaluate public policy labs.
Source: Whicher, Anna (2021). Evolution of policy labs and use of design for policy in UK government. Policy Design and Practice.
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