Previously, SALAR has tested support for service design by purchasing consulting services. Despite very good results, this was considered too expensive and did not contribute to organizational learning. With the Innovation Guide we have created a sought-after support that addresses those issues, and we see examples everyday of how it helps to develop better public services around the country. It also helps to spread service design as a go-to approach for development work. Today around 130 teams (700 people) have participated in our development program, from close to 100 different municipalities, regions, and national organisations from the public sector. The combination of a network of coaches/experts, digital support and physical meetings has led to a unique model that reaches out to many of SALAR's 310 member organizations (municipalities and regions) in the public sector.

To understand what support our users (mainly public sector servants) need, we work in an iterative process, repeating the steps understand – test – evaluate. By doing so we make sure that our support continues to work and be relevant in a public sector context and that it fosters the results and mindset we are aiming for. Our focus going forward is how to best scale and deliver our support. By making more of our services available through digital channels we can grow beyond our own physical limitations, as well as support members who are limited by geography and/or financial means to participate in IRL programmes and courses. We also see a need to make our support more accessible and easy to use and spread in our users' own organisations. This scaling and spreading is crucial for us to reach our long term goal – to make service design a natural part of public sector development work, and we need to approach this on different levels.

In the development process we have involved co-creators from municipalities, county councils and regions, they have in turn involved citizens in pilots and subsequent projects. We have also cooperated with the Industrial Design Foundation (SVID) for their expertise in service design. For digital support, communication, films and templates, we have collaborated with several smaller companies. Funding in the startup phase has been provided by Ministry of Social Affairs and the agency Vinnova.

The growing interest for service design in general has gone hand in hand with our way of supporting user-driven innovation. This is also happening outside our member base, within government agencies and private actors. This shows the potential for our support tools to be used by a wider audience. Our project is definitely contributing to a growing buzz around service design and service development based on user needs in Sweden.

Since 2016, around 130 teams (700 people) have participated in our development programme, from close to 100 different municipalities, regions, and national organisations from the public sector. 220 people have participated in our crash course in service design. We have created a sought-after service for our our members, and we see examples everyday of how it helps develop better public services around the country as well as spreading service design as a go-to approach for development work. By making more of our services available through digital channels we can grow beyond our own physical limitations. By developing a “train the trainer”-course we empower our more mature users (this group is growing rapidly) to implement user driven innovation within their existing structures, and to some extent to lobby for changes needed in those structures.

The public sector often has bad experiences of consultants who speak "design" and use foreign private sector examples that are difficult to relate to. Therefore we make sure all material is in Swedish, adjust and simplify vocabulary, use metaphors that are relatable and present real examples from the public sector. Development work almost always take place parallel to other work and the participants may not have much time to set aside for it. Therefore we present a simple process to follow and hold on to, with "bridges" so the groups easily know if they can move on to the next step or not. By including simple templates for each step, you can always start where you left off. Many people find it difficult to "bring home" theory and put it into practice. Therefore we include training days with a lot of learning by doing, where you can try methods and exercises before you do it “at home”. The groups also get practical templates that are engaging and easy to use.

By acquiring a deep understanding of what our members/users need and want we have given ourselves a high degree of freedom to test different ways of offering our service and support. In the startup phase, we were lucky to find a financier willing to invest in this “risky” development process of trial and error. At the same time, it was necessary to seek expertise in other sectors that could contribute to development. Throughout the process, communication with customers and clients has been important, especially when working with methods and concepts that are relatively unknown to senior management. The location of the project within SALAR has provided legitimacy during the fragile development process. Through SALAR's network and communication channels, awareness and interest in the project has been strengthened. Another key success factor is the strong belief within our team that public services can be so much better if they are built on the knowledge and demands from citizens.

Some member organisations have started to use our support tools independently, creating their own courses and development programmes around it. Some have even introduced policies to always use our model or a service design perspective in all development projects. We are even being contacted for advice from members who wish to begin public procurement processes with service design agencies. There are also several examples of government agencies that either build their user-driven innovation methods on our model or request support in their own development work. In our own organisation, collaborative projects are run with other business areas that apply the Innovation Guide in their development work, for example in the field of cultural education, childbirth care and local business development.

With regards to the development of our support in the Innovation Guide, these are some of our insights:

1. Many of the teams were not only new to development work, but also to working within projects, team work, scheduling etc. Therefore we added a team block during training day, with associated method templates and tools: “stinky fish-happy turtle” (to acknowledge fears/hopes), team rules, planning templates etc.
2. Our users have very different backgrounds and experiences, many are beginner an need for support varies. Therefore we developed various types of support. Our digital platform can be used independently by those with more experience. Beginners are offered “hand holding”, training and coaching throughout the development process.
3. Many teams experienced a lack of mandate and assigned time to work with their challenge. Therefore leadership training was included during training days, as a parallel “track”, focusing on getting the leaders to pave the way for the teams in their own organisations.
4. Initial directives from management can hamper innovation efforts, making it difficult for the group to challenge themselves. Management sometimes expects quick results within a certain area and are not open to changing the initial brief/problem formulation. Therefore we work with the leaders so they feel safe to encourage and support a culture of exploring and testing. It is now mandatory for management to follow the project team’s journey so they understand what they discover and the choices they make during the process.

Our main takeaway from the project is that the public sector needs service design to meet the demands of the future. By establishing a culture of trust, where it is allowed to try and sometimes fail, it becomes easier to see citizens as resources and begin to co-create services. We are confident that we have only seen the beginning of the ripple effects from that kind of change in mindset. In the long run this has the possibility to change the whole approach to development work in the public sector. Also, one should not underestimate the power of having fun while doing the work!