Published on Sep 25, 2017
Based at the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM), The Lab at OPM is a practice-space that fosters innovation through human-centered design. We build the Federal Government’s ability to develop innovative and lasting solutions to complex public and cross-sector challenges.
Human-centered design is a creative and strategic approach to solving challenging problems. It blends design, strategy, qualitative research and entrepreneurial thinking. Our method puts people at the center of our process, taking into account their complex behaviors, mental models and needs. By using this approach to problem solving, we identify and address the root causes of problems, rather than the symptoms. This approach can be useful in improving team performance and results at many points in the procurement life-cycle.
The discipline of human-centered design quickly generates ideas and tests new prototypes that meet the true needs of stakeholders. As a result, we create and implement impactful and sustainable solutions.
Human-centered design is the perfect fit for members of the Acquisition Community looking to:
- Develop innovative approaches to procurement.
- Leverage interdisciplinary acquisition teams for project success.
- Build resilient customer relationship through Design Ethnography.
- Use qualitative and quantitative data to improve procurement success.
- Improve procurement policy.
- Learn innovative approaches to clarifying customer requirements.
- Improve long-range needs forecasting.
The Lab uses three strategies to accomplish our mission: Teach, Lead, Do.
Teach
We deliver classroom and project-based training that builds the Federal workforce’s ability to integrate human-centered design into their day-to-day work. Through our courses, teams learn how to approach problem solving from different perspectives, interact collaboratively with colleagues and tap into their creativity to move past roadblocks that hold them back from improving the services they deliver.
We have trained over 1500 employees from different agencies across the Federal government. Every month, we teach an open enrollment three-day workshop that develops design skills that are critical for procurement success including critical thinking, collaborative problem solving, data analysis and synthesis. We also work with agencies to develop customized learning programs that include workshops to suit our partners’ needs and provide a worthwhile learning experience. Beyond workshops, we provide ongoing coaching opportunities to help workshop participants apply what they have learned to their day-to-day work. After going through our training, many public servants have found different ways to apply this creative approach to their jobs.
Lead
We are focused on fostering the development of a connected federal community of creative innovators. We work with agencies to think through what innovation means for them and develop customized innovation programs to meet their unique needs. We provide advice and support at the policy, programmatic, and individual level by helping agencies successfully build new, innovative approaches, methods, and cultures. We leverage public and private sector design expertise networks to give innovators from across the Federal Government access to the most recent advances and best practices in design-led innovation. Through strategic partnerships and project work, we demonstrate how human-centered design can be paired with other innovative approaches such as the Agile and Lean methodologies. We also bring current government innovators together to share lessons learned and build a community of collaboration.
Do
We train and coach partners through the design process to build their ability to use human-centered design techniques to develop new ways of efficiently meeting their mission objectives.
Our design projects are in-depth partnerships that pair experts from The Lab with Federal agency project teams to use the design process to tackle complex problems. We recruit design experts from the public and private sector to bring an informed, innovative perspective to our partners’ challenges.
Our use of design helps our partners to seek out the root causes of problems and use human centered design techniques to produce tangible results. When we partner with a federal agency, our first focus is to build human-centered design capability with that agency through training and hands-on project work, so that the agencies are able to independently build their human-centered design capacity.
Contact us to learn more about achieving procurement excellence through human centered design: For more information on the LAB and/or to check out our space check out our website at lab.opm.gov or email us at LAB@opm.gov.
