QUT Engages Federal Departments in Co-Designing the Future of Employment

On Wednesday 7th June 2017 a team from the QUT Design Lab led a strategic design thinking workshop for policy makers involving participatory co-design methods at the Explore Design Conference 2017 — a whole of government initiative, responding to a growing desire across the public sector to use design thinking to collaboratively develop more impactful policies.

Over 70 participants from various government departments were present while Dr Manuela Taboada, Dr Oksana Zelenko, Dr Deb Polson and PhD Student Carla Amaral showcased a hands-on methodology to generate future-thinking strategies around resilient employment and capacity-building systems that might support the transformation of future services in light of local and global changes.

Through a unique and carefully crafted set of activities, participants had direct hands-on experience of the design thinking process applied to the complex context of global change and increasingly collaborative policy development. In the end, the process was unpacked to reveal the methods, results it generated and how they can potentially be translated to policy.

As a result, the workshop created direct opportunity for key stakeholders to consider authentic service value for our communities through participatory design thinking processes.

The process was fully conceptualised, designed and produced by the QUT Design Lab team with the contribution of Dr Ingrid Van Putten from CSIRO.

Design Thinking Team Members:

Dr Manuela Taboada

Dr Oksana Zelenko

Ms Carla Amaral

Dr Glenda Caldwell

Dr Ingrid-Van Putten (CSIRO)​

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