Toolkit Navigator
A compendium of toolkits for public sector innovation and transformation, curated by OPSI and our partners around the world

This resource was designed to empower everyone to take a human-centred design approach. It was designed specifically for the Queensland Government in Australia but is valuable for anyone interested building an understanding of human centred design and how they can use it. The resource includes sections What is BCD, Why do HCD, and How to do HCD, each with detailed guidance and instructions. The website also includes detailed operational support guidance for procuring human-centred design work,…
This is a free, self-paced, 3-5 hour course designed to build your capacity for bringing a design approach to complex problems. The course is intended to: develop a design mindset, define a problem, and dig deep and clarify problems. The publisher also includes downloadable toolkits as part of the course.
This online interactive playbook is intended for teams to work better together in order to get things done. It is organised into Health Monitor (checks and activities for building team health), individual plays (filterable standalone activities), and game plans (series of plays for common use cases). The playbook organises the materials by project, service, and leadership team type, provides detailed instructions on how to run the plays and offers downloads of materials. Since many plays are…
The resource was developed for IFRC and National Societies to develop their literacy around data, but it could easily be applied to other organisations. It aims to promote responsible data use and develop data readiness. It has been tailored based on these audiences:
The Data Curious, who needs an ‘on ramp’ to learn and be exposed to the data basics.
The Data Advocate, who sees relevance and and wants to improve their skills and/or offer support.
The Data Active, who are motivated to…
The Design Process Mini-Guide is five-page document outlining a design process taught at the Stanford d.school. The school gives this resource to students after a short design experience, to help solidify the takeaways and abstract the experience to useful framework. The publishers suggest using the document in conjunction with an action-oriented design experience, such as their related Gift Giving Project and Wallet Project. This resource is on an older archive version of the d.school website.…
The Gift-Giving Project is 90-minute (plus debrief) fast-paced project though a full design cycle, intended to give learners a tangible experience with design thinking. It is intended as a group activity (from 2 to 100+ participants) with a facilitator.
Learners pair up to interview each other, come to a point-of-view of how they might design for their partner, ideate, and prototype a new solution to "redesign the gift-giving experience" for their partner. The resource includes a handout, a…
This resource includes a method and guidance for developing and getting comfortable with storytelling to engage your audience and collaborators in your project. It includes an 8 step process to developing and creating a "sticky" story to inspire and persuade others into action. It includes a downloadable guide with examples and tips and tricks as well as a checklist for evaluating your story.
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…
The toolkit addresses the many complexities of devising and advancing digital skills at policy level. It maps out how digital skills take their place within a wider framework of soft, twenty-first century skills. It offers guidance on bringing together – and leading – different stakeholders and moving forward under one clear and focused framework.
This online library contains over 400 facilitation resources, available with free login. Tools are organised by topic: Team, Energiser, Idea generation, Issue resolution, Explore and understand, Action. They include information such as time required, group size, difficulty, materials, step-by-step instructions, tips, and variations as well as user comments.
This private company also offers free and paid session planner software using the methods in the library.