Search Toolkits

This playbook has been created for innovation practitioners who want to spread innovation skills, methods and tools or build an innovation capacity. It covers the design of effective learning experiences, identification and articulation of learning needs, pitching a learning offer at the right level, and connection of a team or innovation strategy with learning and development.
It contains overview of 35 methods that Nesta regularly uses in its practice. Each method description includes a short description explaining its purpose and background and how it can be used to help others think about and discuss learning for innovation.

This resource includes a framework, basic guidance and canvas for use in mapping and assessing organisational readiness and capacity development, designing and developing assessment criteria for capacity-building, facilitating strategic dialogue, supporting and assessing the impact of innovation teams and labs, and enabling structured focus on what elements should be prioritised in capacity-building efforts as well as for case production and knowledge sharing.

The DIY Toolkit was designed for development practitioners to invent, adopt or adapt ideas. It is a curated collection of design-based tools that draws on the publisher's study of many tools currently being used. The publisher has included the ones which it believes practitioners find most useful. While created for a development context, the tools are applicable to other contexts. The website contains video guidance, case studies, and associated curriculum (DIY Learn). The resource can be downloaded in many language.
Each tool is presented in terms of what it is, how to use it, the tool itself, and a case study of its use in practice.

This resource offers on ways to do things differently by introducing basic guidance on the process of design thinking. It provides guidance on how to introduce this new approach into day-to-day work in the public sector. It was developed for both policymakers and people who design and deliver public services who need to make large changes in how they serve their citizens.
It includes guidance on creating an environment set up to do design work as well as an overview of some of the most commonly used methods. It includes guidance on how to respond to challenges to this approach as well as a few tools in the appendix.

This web-based resource was designed to build an understanding of how adopting an experimental approach can be used to make policies more effective. It focuses on designing and delivering trials. It includes interactive guidance to determine which type of trial is appropriate.

DIY Learn is a set of online modules to help development practitioners understand and embed practical tools to support social innovation in their work. It contains a series of free, 2-hour courses as well as a trainers handbook. It was created for international development practitioners but is applicable for public sector staff as well.

This resource tells the stories of 20 teams, units and funds established by governments and charged with making innovation happen. i-teams, short for innovation teams, are dedicated teams, units and funds, to structure and embed innovation methods and practice in government. They are largely affiliated with Bloomberg Philanthropies and its associated i-teams program and usually within local governments.
This resource analyses the diversity of structures and approaches, their impacts, and the key lessons for other government leaders looking to emulate these efforts.

This is a tool compendium created specifically for participants of a programme in Victoria, Australia. It is a PDF containing an organised selection of the key tools used during the sessions.
It is divided into two sections:
1. ‘tools for experimental problem solving’ and aligns with both the publisher's Experimental Continuum and Six Principles for exploring the unobvious.
2. ‘tools for setting the conditions’, which looks beyond the project challenge to other factors that can impede innovation if not addressed simultaneously, e.g. team dynamics, communication and environment.

Innovate to Save was launched in February 2017 with funding from Welsh Government. The programme blends grant funding to undertake a Research and Development phase, incorporating prototyping and piloting of the organisations' ideas, followed by the opportunity to apply for an interest-free loan on negotiable terms to implement the project at scale during an implementation phase.

Repayable finance is a tool that governments can use to support innovation in public services - allowing governments to benefit from the success of innovation, and reinvest money on a regular basis in new innovations.

This guide aims to be a practical and informative tool that helps public service organisations- although most likely local and national governments - to stimulate innovation within a challenging context. Informed by experience, it aims to guide teams through the process of planning, developing and implementing a programme of blended finance for innovation.

Challenge Prizes: A practice guide provides practical guidance and support to help explore challenge prizes and offers guidance on designing and running a challenge prize.
The resource covers what challenge prizes are, guidance on deciding whether a challenge prize is right for your situation, and scoping and planning a prize--including a Challenge Prize Design Worksheet and Challenge Prize Schedule Worksheet.

This resource provides guidance on four criteria/factors (Specific Problem, Defined action, Clear Data Product, Accessible data) the publisher has found to be helpful for public sector organisations considering running a data analytics project. It also contains information on privacy impact assessments and research ethics.

Our Futures is a game for discovering new ways of engaging the public in thinking about alternative futures. The basic premise of Our Futures is that participants are randomly offered a series of constraints by drawing cards and rolling a dice, which serve as a primer for imagining a participatory futures activity. The game is played either with a group of individuals competing against each other or in teams in 30-75 minutes. The game has three different gameplay models of varying scope and complexity. The resource includes a printable card deck, game board, instructions booklet, and video explanation. The editable materials are also available on Github.

This toolkit is a guide on how to carry out prototyping and testing. The purpose of the process is to test and improve the ideas at an early stage, before committing a lot of resources to it. The tool provides a step by step guide with simple descriptions on the techniques in each phase and things to watch out for.

The prototyping process is divided into the phases:
- Doing the Groundwork
- Prototyping phase 1
- Prototyping phase 2
- Learn and Evaluate.

The document contains short descriptions and links to tools in relation to the relevant phases in the process, as well as an overall resource list at the end.