Course Catalog
Design Thinking for Public Policy
90-829
Units: 6
Description
Design Thinking presents a series of methods through which we will work to better understand andserve our intended users and audience. In a public policy setting these "users" are often citizens andothers impacted by government systems, processes and tools. So, a major component of this courseis thinking about how government can provide more effective services and products that prioritize theneeds of the user.
In this course we'll learn and apply Design Thinking to challenges that are representative of real-world problems. We'll learn how to develop insights around those we need to serve, identifying and
mapping out the real problem we're trying to solve for, and identify ways to provide and test solutionsquickly through an iterative approach. We'll also work to investigate solutions that are equitable andwork for as many people as possible - making sure that we account for extremes in our dataset andthose that otherwise might be overlooked by our own assumptions.
Once we've developed our insights, we'll go through Design Thinking processes to rapidly prototypeand test our ideas until we can settle on a solution or two that we think will work. We'll continue torefine our best ideas and abandon those that don't appear to hold as much promise as we originallythought. As we continue through this process, we'll learn how to develop personas and beginengaging representative users so that we can test our ideas and see if what we think shows promisereally meets the needs and expectations of real people.
Finally, we'll discover Design Thinking approaches to ensuring that we educate our partners andfellow citizens as we go, so that in the end we all benefit from a new way of diving into issues.
Learning Outcomes
Understand how to apply Design Thinking methods to understand what your users need, and howto meet those needs. 2.
Learn how to listen and solicit input from users in creative ways to generate new ideas quickly. 3.
Learn how to test your ideas and develop rapid prototypes. 4.
Apply methods to develop better public-facing tools and resources that result in better executionof public policy goals.