Design-led innovation in the public sector

WHEN entering a government permit office, virtually everyone would prepare themselves for a certain amount of boredom and confusion. But resignation may well turn to surprise (or even shock) if that office is Singapore's Employment Pass Service Centre (EPSC), where foreign professionals go to receive their visa to work in the city-state. The ambience more closely resembles a luxury hotel lobby than a grim government agency - an impression reinforced by the roaming reception managers who greet arriving applicants, directing them to a waiting area with upholstered chairs and skyline views.

In a new case study, Designing the Employment Pass Service Centre for the Ministry of Manpower, Singapore, Professor Michael Pich and I explore how even public organisations are beginning to use design to find and tap innovation opportunities where few have thought to look. In the case of Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM), a design-led transformation of a single facility was the starting point of a drastic reconsideration of what a government agency could be.

Efficiency is not enough