Design Examples

Our Sample Portfolio of Designs from Design Labs™: 1994 - 2009

Performance Audits -   “Aligning Resources to Contribute to What Matters” -  2010

• Office of Auditor General of British Columbia
• In brief: The overall charge to the Design Lab was to create breakthrough ideas to respond to the question:  How can the Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia best contribute to what matters to the people of British Columbia now and into the future?
• See the full design here.

Leadership – “Leadership for the 21st Century: a Catalytic Strategy” – 2009

• Bush Foundation and University of Minnesota
• In Brief – The design charge was to create a strategy that encourages and supports new acts of community leadership relevant to solving 21st century problems by building community capacity with a goal of 90,000 acts of leadership encouraged or enabled 14,250 community issues addressed.
• See the full design here.

Portland@Home – “Merging Housing Functions from Two Agencies into a New Bureau” - 2009

• City of Portland, Oregon
• In Brief – The purpose of the design was to design a new housing bureau for the City of Portland. The design helped shift thinking from creating units of affordable housing to creating “home”.
• Results – The design ideas have become central to the creation of the new bureau.
• See the Design Lab charge and full design here.

Mental Health and Substance Abuse System – “Attaining Health and Self-Sufficiency” – 2009

• Clackamas County, Oregon Department of Health, Housing and Human Services
• In Brief – The County system had not been looked at for many years and was experiencing financial constraints. Extensive stakeholder input indicated a desire for a system with increased access, better quality of life for consumers, more consumer involvement and control in recovery, and a financially sustainable and operational system.
• Results – The Board of County Commissioners has approved either going forward with or continuing to plan for all elements of the design.
• See the Design Lab charge and full design here.

Reinventing Audits – “Contributing to Making Government Work Better” - 2009

• Washington State Auditor
• In Brief – The purpose of the design was to identify how the State Auditor could use its resources most effectively to make government work better, cost less and help deliver results citizens’ value.
• Results – Performance audits are being improved in order to provide greater value for citizens
• See the Design Lab charge and full design here.

State Level Health Care Reform –Taming the PAC-MAN of Government - 2007

• Public Strategies Group
• In Brief – PSG conducted its own Design Lab to develop solutions to the need for health care reform. The result was a paper prepared by David Osborne based on these principles:

• Prevention is better and cheaper than care.
• Personal behavior determines health outcomes—and it must change.
• Incentives should reward better, cheaper care, not more care.
• Health care is a team sport: integrated, managed care is most cost- effective.
• Information technology can improve quality and lower costs.
• Our approach to end-of-life care is misguided and expensive.
• Everyone should have health insurance.

• See the “white paper” on health care here.
  

Older Adult Self-Sufficiency - “A System of Self-Sufficiency” – 2001

• MN Department of Economic Security, State Services for the Blind
• In Brief - The purpose of the design was to reach more people and reach them earlier – all aimed at helping adults with vision loss regain or keep their personal independence. The design builds the conditions for a universe of self-sufficient blind persons, empowering them to determine what self-sufficiency means and to self-select resources needed.

Arts Grants Processing - “Grants Processing Design and Implementation” – 2001

• New York State Council for the Arts
• In Brief – Conceptualizes arts grants processing anew – by taking advantage of e-government and challenging traditional review practice (one at a time at certain times of the year). Creates a fiscal and quality risk-based model. Frees up time to re-invest in the most risky and for arts leadership to enrich the overall state of the arts.
• Results – Removed 50-60% of review time, shortened the cycle and burden for applicants, and maintained process integrity.
  

Tax Equity - “Achieving and Maintaining Property Tax Equity Across New York State” – 2000

• New York Office of Real Property Services
• In Brief - The purpose of the design was to help achieve property tax equity in New York State. This design makes the costs of continued inequity painfully obvious to citizens.
• Results – National winner of Award of Achievement from IAAO.

Health Care Consumer Access - “The Health Rx- A Single Point of Entry for Health Care Consumer Assistance and Advocacy” – 1999

• Minnesota Department of Health
• In Brief - A consumer information system and advocacy service for citizens seeking answers to questions about health care and health insurance coverage. This design replaces “one size fits all” with nested services, each layer of which offers more personalized navigational and diagnostic service for a price.

Child Support – “A Design for a Child Support System for the New Decade” - 1998

• MN Department of Human Services, Child Support Division
• In Brief – With the intent to improve compliance with child support payments, this design was the first to start from the complier’s point of view. Crafts a compliance system that responds according to whether and why non-custodial parents comply with their court-ordered obligations.
• Results: This situational compliance design changed the national debate regarding child support.

Accountability in “K-12 Education – “We Choose to Be Accountable – A Design for the Minneapolis Public Schools” – 1997

• Minneapolis Public Schools, 1993-1997
• In Brief – Defines accountability as meeting or exceeding expected performance. This design presents a performance management framework useful for any K-12 system. Components include clear expectations, improvement targets, feedback, and consequences based on performance. The design applies each to the major stakeholders within a school system - students, families, classroom instructors, schools, district offices, and the School Board itself.
• Results – Turned around declining student achievement. Foundation pieces vibrant after 10 years, including an annual district improvement agenda, quality schools improvement processes, and public reporting on achievement
• See full design here.

Agent for Children – “Separating Management of Schools from Accountability” – 1997

• Cincinnati Public Schools
• In Brief – Distinguishes purchasing results for kids from operational management of schools (i.e. steering from rowing). New way to view the responsibility of School Boards.
• See design here.

Foster Care - “A Redesign for the Purchase of Services System” - 1995

• Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
• In Brief - An award winning design for the Illinois foster care system. It features nine measures of a child’s welfare and how to purchase these outcomes from non-profit child protection organizations (such as Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Service) based on performance. A performance based resolution of years old federal court consent decree.
• Results – Went from national headlines for child death to national headlines for increased safe, permanent placements. More children moved to adoption in FY1999, than in the entire period from 1987-94.
• Won the Ford Foundation/ Harvard Innovations in American Government award, 2000.

Family Services – “Scott Family Net” - 1994

• Scott County, Minnesota
• In Brief - A multi-agency safety net of services where "any door is the right door" for families. Service providers know of each other and manage cases across organizational boundaries. Families help direct what they need. The design uses web and telephone technologies to respond to family questions and share one file for the family.
• Results – One-stop for customers.

Internal Services – “Enterprise Management” – 1991

• Minnesota Department of Administration (design funded by Center of the American Experiment)
• In Brief – This award-winning design was the first to separate internal services into monopolies, utilities, and enterprises and develop management principles and approaches for each. Shows implications for customer ownership, choice and financing.
• Results – Semi-Finalist in the Ford Foundation/ Harvard Innovations in State and Local Government awards program.