Experimentation Archives - Observatory of Public Sector Innovation https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/tag/experimentation/ Tue, 09 Dec 2025 15:45:29 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 From Recommendations to Real Change: How the Innovation Booster Helps Public Servants Transform Services  https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/from-recommendations-to-real-change-how-the-innovation-booster-helps-public-servants-transform-services/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/from-recommendations-to-real-change-how-the-innovation-booster-helps-public-servants-transform-services/#respond Tue, 09 Dec 2025 15:45:22 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=45089 A challenge every government faces  Every citizen has a story about a time when public services felt distant, bureaucratic, or designed for the system rather than for them. We’ve all been there — facing a form we can’t understand, an office we can’t access, or a process that seems to serve itself rather than its purpose.  Governments across the OECD know this too. That is why, one year ago, OECD countries came together to adopt the Recommendation on Human-Centred Public Administrative Services. Its ambition...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/from-recommendations-to-real-change-how-the-innovation-booster-helps-public-servants-transform-services/feed/ 0 The Devious Dozen: 12 fallacies behind innovation lab “failures” https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/12-fallacies-innovation-labs/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/12-fallacies-innovation-labs/#respond Mon, 13 May 2024 15:03:34 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=42857 Times are tough. Governments across the globe need to find ways to keep up with ever-faster changing times, move beyond the constraints of traditional approaches, and leverage innovation to improve public policies and services. One way many governments have sought to advance innovation was by establishing public sector innovation labs over the past 20 years or so. In our first post we outlined the main purposes and learnings of public innovation labs. In this post,...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/12-fallacies-innovation-labs/feed/ 0 Asking Magical Questions: Scenarios to explore the future of innovation agencies https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/asking-magical-questions/ Tue, 28 Jun 2022 07:13:37 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=31370 If your organisation had a crystal ball, what questions would you ask about the future? What would you do with the answers it received? In this post, we consider the ways in which innovation agencies – government-funded or managed institutions that provide financial and other support to catalyse private sector innovation – can use imagined visions of the future to shape present decisions. Today’s innovation agencies take on a wide range of tasks and duties,...

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]]> Building experimentalist governance in Latvia https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/building-experimentalist-governance-in-latvia/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/building-experimentalist-governance-in-latvia/#respond Wed, 14 Apr 2021 11:25:21 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=23930 This is a guest post from Johannes Mikonnen of Demos Helsinki, a partner in our recent work with the Latvian public sector. The world in which we live today calls for governments to find solutions to the most pressing challenges, and governments are falling short. Experimentation offers one particularly promising way for navigating the uncertainty and the rapidly changing circumstances of the 21st century. The Innovation Lab of the Latvian government embraced the transformative potential...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/building-experimentalist-governance-in-latvia/feed/ 0 The Diversity of Design Toolkits in the Public Sector https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/the-diversity-of-design-toolkits-in-the-public-sector/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/the-diversity-of-design-toolkits-in-the-public-sector/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2021 11:35:05 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=23291 Christian Bason, Ph.D., is the CEO of the Danish Design Centre Editor’s note: The OPSI has partnered with the Danish Design Centre to further explore the application of tools and methods to public sector challenges. This article explores the varied spectrum of design disciplines and practices and provides guidance on how to choose the best design method, drawing from the diversity of design toolkits in the OPSI Toolkit Navigator. It also signals what is next...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/the-diversity-of-design-toolkits-in-the-public-sector/feed/ 4 Call for Comments: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Primer https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/ai-consultation/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/ai-consultation/#comments Thu, 01 Aug 2019 12:49:17 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=12113 Announcement: Public consultation has now been extended to 15 September 2019.  Update: The final version of the AI primer has been published. As we mentioned in a blog a few months ago, OPSI has been working to develop a “primer” on AI to help public leaders and civil servants navigate the challenges and opportunities associated with the technology to understand how it may help them achieve their missions. Today, we are excited to launch a...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/ai-consultation/feed/ 4 Prototyping the Toolkit Navigator https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/prototyping-the-toolkit-navigator/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/prototyping-the-toolkit-navigator/#comments Mon, 30 Jul 2018 10:07:51 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=2331 Over the last few months, the OPSI team did a lot of assumption testing, prototyping and usability testing of the “meta-toolkit” concept (which we are now calling Toolkit Navigator). This web resource will offer self-service guidance to public sector staff and policymakers on existing methods and toolkits, as well as related case studies, peer connections, and capacity building resources based on their specific needs and contexts. As we launch the beta site for the purpose...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/prototyping-the-toolkit-navigator/feed/ 3 OPSI meets the French Experimental Fund for Youth https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/opsi-meets-the-french-experimental-fund-for-youth/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/opsi-meets-the-french-experimental-fund-for-youth/#respond Wed, 20 Jun 2018 10:06:35 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=1270 OPSI met with the French Experimental Fund for Youth to discuss experimentation.

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/opsi-meets-the-french-experimental-fund-for-youth/feed/ 0 Taking the Systems Work Forward: Workshop for Senior Slovenian Officials https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/taking-the-systems-work-forward-workshop-for-senior-slovenian-officials/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/taking-the-systems-work-forward-workshop-for-senior-slovenian-officials/#respond Wed, 25 Oct 2017 14:02:54 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=535 In September, OPSI launched the report “System Approaches to Public Challenges: Working with Change” on dealing with complexity in public policy. To take this work forward, we launched a series of workshops with leading countries to discuss how systems approaches could change the everyday functioning of government. We held the first one on September 6, 2017 in Brdo pri Kranju in cooperation with the Prime Minister’s Office of the Government of Slovenia. This work was...

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]]> https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/taking-the-systems-work-forward-workshop-for-senior-slovenian-officials/feed/ 0 Experimentation is the right to make mistakes https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/experimentation-is-the-right-to-make-mistakes/ https://oecd-opsi.org/blog/experimentation-is-the-right-to-make-mistakes/#respond Wed, 09 Aug 2017 12:51:18 +0000 https://oecd-opsi.org/?p=565 This blog was authored by former OPSI intern, Théo Bourgery. In the context of the OECD’s “Evidence-Informed Policy-Making” conference, I had the opportunity to interview Kaisa Lähteenmäki-Smith and Camille Laporte on the role of experimentation in the drafting of evidence-based policies. As part of the ‘Evidence-Informed Policy-Making’ conference, co-organised by the OECD’s Directorate for Public Governance and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, Piret Tõnurist of the Observatory for Public Sector Innovation ran a workshop...

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