Search Toolkits

This canvas and associated guidance is is a strategic management and lean startup template that can be used the to describe, design, challenge, and pivot a business model to deliver different values or in different ways. It consists of 9 elements: value proposition, customer segments, customer relationships, channels, key partners, key resources, key activities, cost structure, and revenue streams.
It can be used individually or in a group. It works in conjunction with the Value Proposition Canvas and other strategic management and execution tools and processes.
This canvas has been widely used and many variations exist, including those adapted to a non-business context. When adapting to the public sector context, "customers" may be considered stakeholders or users and "revenue streams" may also include outcomes or impacts.
It was originally intended to provide a more nimble and understandable replacement for a business plan.

This guide is a facilitation toolkit for staff at Horizons and others interested in practising the Horizons Foresight Method in their own organizations. Its aims are to build foresight literacy in general, to explain the Horizons Foresight Method in particular, and to build capacity for horizon scanning in the Canadian federal government and other organizations. It provides a detailed description of concepts and processes, divided into 6 modules. Modules include facilitation guides, tip sheets, exercises, and other resources.

Ethnographic Experiential Futures, is a protocol for surfacing and documenting existing images of the future. It combines Ethnographic futures research, EFR, a protocol for surfacing and documenting existing images of the future. Experiential futures, XF, is a family of approaches for vivid multisensory, transmedia, and diegetic representations of images of the future. The hybrid approach puts together two modes of futures research and practice in a step-by-step guide. Its intent is to help groups develop a future-oriented mindset.
Familiarity with futures and foresight methods is strongly recommended.

Platform Design Toolkit is based on the tradition of service design thinking and the publishers intend it to overcome the limitations in traditional, linear, business modeling approaches. This methodology is based on a multi-sided, ecosystem based, platform model instead of a traditional product or service design. Those interested in building their "government as a platform" strategy or building a suite of digital or non-digital products or services would likely find value in this approach but should be adapted for a public sector context.

A part of the Australian Public Sector Innovation Toolkit, this provides guidance on what horizon scanning is and how to do it. It includes assessments, checklists, and specialised information about techniques.

This mini-book is based around the Cynefin framework, a contexutalisation and sense-making framework developed by Dave Snowden. The resource provides an overview of the Cynefin framework and use of narrative research, guidance and a tool for developing shared sense-making, and tools and guidance for developing a portfolio of experiments for different types of problems, distinguishing between complicated and complex problems.
The publisher requires a free login in exchange for downloading the resource.

The GovLab's Public Problem Solving Canvas is an online interactive canvas based on twenty questions to create and develop your public interest project. These twenty questions are designed to help you refine your understanding of the problem and those whom it affects; express your Big Idea; and turn that idea into an actionable strategy in the real world to the end of improving people's lives.

This resource provides South Australian Government organisations with guidance on the development and format of their digital strategies, which they distinguish separately from an information and communications technology (ICT) strategy. The toolkit contains guidance on the development and format of digital strategies, a digital maturity assessment tool, a digital transformation prioritisation tool, a digital strategy template, and an implementation plan template.

This Field Guide is designed to support new-to-foresight practitioners in incorporating future thinking and foresight into everyday projects. In addition to describing methods (including purpose, pros, cons and considerations for each), it also provides guidance on how to advocate for a foresight related project or approach in your organistion, cultivate a futures/foresight mindset, and build a team.
The ""zombies" referenced represent an unexpected and unlikely event for humanity. Stories about the potential of a zombie apocalypse prepare us for a new world full of uncertainty and risk.

This canvas is a strategic design tool for developing descriptive models of transformative futures. It asks users to name the logics stabilizing the dominant regime — and then imagine how such logics might stabilize an alternative in terms of narratives, goals, core values, governance & practices, and physical inputs.
Requires email address in exchange for download.

The author provides step-by-step guidance on how to conduct a short term strategic planning workshop based on knowledge management and contextualisation frameworks used by the private company Cognitive Edge. The publisher's suggests that it can be used to conduct pre-hypothesis research project to understand a complex problem. The outputs are comprehensive sets of cultural indicators, knowledge objects (comprising both codified and experiential knowledge artefacts), and large volumes of tangible suggestions to address complex issues. Another key objective of these processes is to increase the levels of interaction and dialogue between key stakeholders whether internal to an organisation or external, thereby establishing new social networks, or increasing the cohesiveness of existing social networks. Previous experience with the Cognitive Edge frameworks and methods is helpful when approaching this resource.

IMPACT: A Foresight Game is a serious board game that teaches you to think critically and imaginatively about emerging technology and the future of society.
It's goals for players:
/ Learn the basics of futures thinking including some of the key terminology
/ Learn about the latest advances in science and technology (neurotech, nanotech, artificial intelligence, IoT, biotech, robotics)
/ Practice thinking about how these emerging technologies could evolve and the various ways they could influence society

The game is best played with 3-6 players and lasts 60-90 minutes.
Cost: $65

This playbook defines smart cities through human experiences, including 3 "mindsets" (lenses to understand) and 6 "plays" (ways to start). Originally developed for the City of Calgary, Canada, it offers ways to document, prioritize and advocate for individual human experiences at the nexus of networked technology, data and urbanism. It promotes embracing complexity and designing responsive systems, policies and governance around people for people-centered smart cities. Both PDF and slide deck are available.

This toolkit was developed to help us cope with the rapidly changing world, such as global networks and autonomous drone fleets—that have never existed before. The publishers suggest that we need new stories and new mythologies to tell us how these things fit into our lives and make sense of these transformations.
The toolkit contains a card deck exploring different colored "archetypes" or ways of making meaning and each includes different ways of understanding Interactions, Environments, Symbols,Design, Perspectives, and Voice.

This online repository contains knowledge products, tools, inspiring practices, and projects to guide those interested in developing a research and innovation system that puts societal needs and desires at its center. The repository can be filtered by who it is useful for, topic, expertise required, related social challenge, category, and language.
The site also offers a self-reflection tool to assess your research and innovation practice on the basis of Ethics, Gender Equity, Governance, Open Access, Public Engagement, and Science Education

This resource contains a method library and playbook for commonly used strategic foresight tools, organised by a guiding framework of five planning phases (perspective, opportunity, solution, team, and vision). While it does contain the tools themselves, the resource also contains extensive guidance on each method, including overall guidance, examples, instructions, insights, tips, and tool templates. It also contains overall guiding principles, underlying theories, and considerations for using and sequencing the methods as an integrated methodology. This resource is extensive but organised and navigable. It is oriented toward a growth-focused private sector context but can be adapted for use in the public sector. The resource can be downloaded for free or purchased as a physical copy.

This document gives you the information you need to create your own lab. This could be a UNICEF lab—or could simply be a space of creativity that is aimed at solving significant global problems through the application of dedicated local resources.
It provides background on labs, defining a lab's purpose, budget and scoping, and examples of different lab models (outreach/training, product development, service development, operational research, and content broadcasting).
It also includes interactive worksheets for creating lab proposal Terms of Reference as well as examples TORs.

A tool to help cities and public administrations better orient and diagnose themselves regarding their innovation profile and maturity.
The tool includes a self-analysis quiz, a map to help navigate concepts and trends and compose your a custom menu. It also includes guidance for setting an innovation strategy.
Sonar comes in the form of a newspaper printed in A2 format that can be used in a group setting . This resource is available in French.

The resource was designed to help organisations: develop a clearer understanding of the range of purposes of collaborations, reflect on the partnerships they have established, and focus on ways to strengthen new and existing partnerships by engaging in discussion about issues and ways forward. The resource contains guidance as well as an interactive partnership assessment tool.
Although it was created with the health sector in mind, it is relevant for other sectors as well.
For innovation projects, Part 2: Choosing Partners may be problematic to assess since partners, approaches, and core business may be unknown.

Liberating Structures is a web resource that includes a collection of 33 results-oriented collaboration patterns have been developed and refined through field testing over a 10+ year period in a variety of sectors including healthcare and business.
They are intended to complement conventional practices for organisational design and strategy design. They are designed to be used in an inclusive collaborative setting.
Associated books (for sale) and video guidance is available to assist those getting started with this approach.

Information and resources to guide United States federal employees working on challenges and prizes. It includes guidance on each challenge phase, from preparation to execution and also provides guidance on different types of challenges. It includes case studies and a list of resources for more detailed guidance and support.

This resource covers five key roles in a public innovation ecosystem: Problem Solver, Enabler, Motivator, Convener, and Integrator. For public administrations wanting to make an impact on a societal challenge, it helps identify where to start, and how the administration fits in with other actors already focused on the same or similar challenges. By understanding which of these five roles to assume when launching an initiative, organisations may be able to more effectively deploy their resources, partner with other organizations, and reduce redundancies. The resource is based on an examination of innovation initiatives in the United States, but may be applied elsewhere.

The MaRS Library contains articles, templates, reports, workbooks, reference guides and videos covering a range of topics, including accounting, funding, governance, intellectual property, leadership, legal issues, marketing, product management, selling, social innovation, strategy and talent.
It is intended for an entrepreneurial context, but it can be adapted for a public sector organisational context.

The guide offers practical guidance to local government officials on how to build a culture and practice of innovation and give local leaders an action-oriented framework for breakthrough
innovation. It lays out nine “Imperatives” towards this end, with concrete action steps for each to help cities get started, along with illustrative case studies.

Challenge Prizes: A practice guide provides practical guidance and support to help explore challenge prizes and offers guidance on designing and running a challenge prize.
The resource covers what challenge prizes are, guidance on deciding whether a challenge prize is right for your situation, and scoping and planning a prize--including a Challenge Prize Design Worksheet and Challenge Prize Schedule Worksheet.

Pixar’s Rules of Storytelling provide guidance on developing and telling a good story, an important skill for building consensus around a new idea or project.

Designed with the assistance of the CNFPT and the DGAFP, this game is inspired by "Chutes & Ladders": a board game where the team must realize the major stages of their project, and sometimes encounters ladders (these "little miracles" that win several boxes at once) and chutes (these pitfalls that push back the project carrier). The resource is in French.

Innovate to Save was launched in February 2017 with funding from Welsh Government. The programme blends grant funding to undertake a Research and Development phase, incorporating prototyping and piloting of the organisations' ideas, followed by the opportunity to apply for an interest-free loan on negotiable terms to implement the project at scale during an implementation phase.

Repayable finance is a tool that governments can use to support innovation in public services - allowing governments to benefit from the success of innovation, and reinvest money on a regular basis in new innovations.

This guide aims to be a practical and informative tool that helps public service organisations- although most likely local and national governments - to stimulate innovation within a challenging context. Informed by experience, it aims to guide teams through the process of planning, developing and implementing a programme of blended finance for innovation.

This is a collection of tools developed through transforming leading innovation management theory into hands-on, easy-to-use, actionable innovation tools. The tools are organized in the categories: Culture, Business model, Validation, Pitching, Technology, Strategy, Problem discovery and Ideation. Each tool contains a description and a step-by-step guide telling how to approach it. The resource also includes guides, videos, posters, quizzes, etc., which provide knowledge within the field of innovation management and design thinking.

This toolkit is targeted towards impact entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, partnership brokers and facilitators, and accelerators supporting impact entrepreneurs who are initiating value chain partnerships, partnerships where organizations seek to integrate existing or create new value chains. The Partnership Co-design Toolkit (P.ACT) includes four stages of co-design and 12 tools, each building on the previous, to bring partners closer, to developing a complete partnership model, and get ready to commit. The toolkit is designed to maximize partnership success and offers four features:
1) Co-design process: A four stage co-design framework to ensure inclusive participation and continuous engagement of all partners.
2) Value focus: Emphasis on defining both the value created and the value captured through the partnership. It focuses the partners' attention on generating value for their customers and beneficiaries as well as for their organisations.
3) Collaborative approach: Individual self-assessment and reflection alongside collective problem solving, constructive dialogue, decision making, and action planning.
4) Modular use: Enabling users to diagnose their partnership needs and helps them identify the right tools to move their partnership forward.
The resource includes step-by-step instructions, illustrative examples, worksheets to document outputs, facilitator tips, and templates, including some editable planning spreadsheets and checklists.

This toolkit allows organisations to change their mindset and move from a project-oriented approach towards a platform-way-of-working that is designed to tackle complex problems. The toolkit was developed and tested by the Danish Design Centre in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and 40+ country offices. The toolkit consists of several mapping exercises. After using the integrated Mission Statement Generator to create an ambitious yet realistic mission statement, organisations explore their ecosystem by identifying actor clusters. The organizations then explore and understand the interactions between the different clusters by organising them into a value system map. Finally, by mapping out the organisation, organisations define relevant channels and touchpoints within their ecosystem. In addition to the toolkit itself, video tutorials for leaders and country case studies are also included.

The transition game is an adapted version of “Le jeu de la transition” developed by the French Think Tank FING (Fondation Internet Nouvelle Génération) and adapted to a national defence environment, covering topical areas such as cyber and information warfare, man-machine teaming, and situational awareness and reconnaissance.

It guides groups through several steps:
1) Think about how different context factors and "internal tensions" shape today's state (ordering principles, norms, tensions, etc.),
2) How future trends, innovations and initiatives transform today's state, including chances and opportunities, and which actors play a role, and,
3) Describe how the story of transition can be told from today's situation to the implementation of a new solution in a possible future state

The output stories may take different forms, including text or comics, but is up to the facilitator to define. The resource is available as an Excel file that automatically populates a Transition Graph based on inputs. According to the publisher, the ideal parameters for the workshop are groups of 7-10 individuals and about 4 hours. The website also includes rules for moderators and example outputs.

This resource is a generative tool for creating new metaphors to help understand the world in new ways, reframe problems, generate new ideas, and imagine different futures.

New Metaphors has been developed by the Imaginaries Lab, a design research studio based at Carnegie Mellon University, and working internationally. New Metaphors is a set of 150 cards and a number of simple, fun workshop formats which enable idea generation and new ways of thinking about issues creatively, from specific problems within an interaction design or UX team or organisational context. The entire resource, including cards, worksheets, and introduction booklet, can be downloaded and the website includes additional guidance as well as a metaphor auto-generator.

The publishers intend for this resource to be applied and used in real situations, whether by designers or by anyone looking to reframe ideas or generate new approaches.