“Co-creation” and “design thinking” are trendy themes – the topic of innumerable conferences and a growing number of academic papers. But how do we turn co-creation into a reality for Europe’s 508 million citizens? In Co-Creation of Public Services: Why and How, Co-VAL’s new Policy Brief, co-authors Francesco Mureddu and David Osimo propose a ten-step roadmap for delivering genuinely user-centric digital government. The authors argue that it is time to put co-creation at the core of government functioning.
According to the authors, “today, co-creation is a mature subject. There is an extended theoretical and applied research effort underway, led in many places by members of the Co-VAL consortium, whose research informed the new policy brief. And there is a solid professional community, ready to deliver, and staffed by people with clearly identified job profiles, such as “user researcher” and “service designer.” There are even success stories of entire countries that scaled up design thinking at national level, such as Italy’s Government Commissioner and Digital Transformation Team and the United Kingdom’s legendary Government Digital Services.”
The policy brief builds on research findings and cutting-edge analysis developed at the “Understanding Value Co-Creation in Public Services for Transforming European Public Administrations” project, or Co-VAL. Co-VAL is a 12-partner research consortium, co-funded by the European Union. The policy brief was launched at the High-Level Summit on ‘Co-Creation’ and ‘Design Thinking’, organised by the Lisbon Council, in Brussels.