Fostering a DX-promoting mindset and the acquisition of design thinking skills for Sagamihara City government employees

Challenges:

In Sagamihara City, there was a growing need to solve increasingly complex and diverse administrative challenges, including population decline and an aging society with a low birthrate, by starting with the fundamental needs of its citizens.

Across a wide range of administrative service areas, plans were underway to promote DX (Digital Transformation) in order to streamline operations through the use of digital technology and fundamentally transform the very nature of administrative services, all with the goal of realizing a city that is comfortable for its residents.

To instill the importance of understanding citizens' needs within the organization and to build a system for proposing administrative services, the cooperation of an external partner with specialized knowledge and a proven track record in design thinking was sought.

Solutions:

Monstarlab, participating in the project, assigned a UX designer who also serves as a lecturer for their design education program, "Monster Academia."

Assuming the realization of municipal DX, they conducted training to habituate a way of thinking that carries out operational reforms with a citizen's perspective (i.e., design thinking) in order to improve the ideal form of administrative services and the citizen's experience value. They visualized citizen needs by conducting workshops and interviews with municipal employees, successfully achieving a shared understanding within the training team.

Furthermore, by adopting a curriculum that alternately implemented workshops (input) and practical application in their work (output), they not only ensured understanding of design thinking but also broke it down into practical methods.