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Namma GovJam 2017

A sister of Global Service Jam, The Global GovJam is a similar high energy design event with a focus on bringing creativity and problem solving to the world of public sector services. We at Icarus saw this an opportunity to apply the Service Design framework to this context of the creating better public services. The focus for us was to experimentally bring together government officials, citizens, designers, researchers and anyone interested in improving public services, in a room together for 2 days. Once again, jammers would work together in small teams and focus on prototyping solutions rather than discussing problems or presenting ideas.

Namma GovJam 2017 was hosted at the BMTC premises in Shanti Nagar Bengaluru and we were delighted that officials from the BMTC, KSRTC and DULT could jam with us! We had an equal representation of enthusiastic citizens and together they formed small, well balanced teams. Teams set about framing a challenge around real observed needs and delving into the challenge area through street research and conversations with customers. Our jammers were encouraged to test their prototypes early & often and make each version better than the previous.

The jam opened up new ways of working and looking at problems and taught us the immense value design can bring to the public sector - especially when there are opportunities to look at systems and services holistically – from the point of view of those who create, deliver and use them. NammaGovJam was a taste of a quick, fun way to work through practical solutions to big, serious problems. 

Icarus co-hosted NammaGovJam with the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. Their extensive experience in research across the world and on the ground delivery of public sector services in transportation in India, kept our jammers grounded and focussed on tackling real challlenges.