Empirical Studies on Design Thinking Training Course for Government Officers

Abstract

Design thinking is a measure to enable human-centered policy design. METI, PA, and MEXT have released declarations and guidelines on design thinking, human-centered design, and service design. However, the authors could not find such training courses in the last five years at Hokkaido Regional Development Bureau of the MLIT who handles national land and infrastructure management. The authors conducted an employees’ training course on design thinking at Hokkaido MLIT, where trainees find problems and solutions at Tobetsu Town following the design thinking approach. The achievements include improving ideas being more human-centered than pre-course assignment, high recommendation rates, and enhancing trainees’ capabilities, especially in pushing forward the projects and listening.