Future Leaders in Innovation Policy
Nesta
December 2019 – July 2020
Partner • Newton Fund, Innovate UK + local partners.
Location • Brazil, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam.
About
The Future Leaders in Innovation Policy is a capacity building programme designed to support mid-senior policymakers to drive policy change in their context. The project aimed to scope and design a professional development programme, as well as, to support the partners (Newton Fund & Innovate UK) to better understand how to extend and deepen effectively the impact of their investment in capability development programmes designed for policymakers.
The scope and design of the programme was developed in a period of eight months by a multidisciplinary team based in London, supported by local partners in each of the participating countries.
The project journey had to be redesigned because of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
What I did
I co-led the project’s design process. In practice, I facilitated and designed a series of qualitative research sessions with key stakeholders to gather key insights that supported the development of the programme. Additionally, I conducted various co-design workshops with all local partners (Brazil, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam) in order to collectively input and tailor the design of the programme.
I pivoted and redesigned the entire project journey to be delivered online after the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. Working quickly and within constraints, I developed a Design Sprint to define, test and iterate the programme proposal together with my team. I established new ways of working using collaborative platforms and tools that allowed me to capture all voices and views during the online engagements (which it is important to mention this was not the norm before the pandemic).
As part of the analysis work, I codified ethnographic research in order to define the programme’s learning outcomes. I ultimately shaped those outcomes and developed a proposal for the skeleton of the capacity building programme.
More on my skills…
How I’ve worked within constraints
In the face of constraints, I successfully navigated challenges to deliver a professional development programme for innovation policymakers. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, I had to adapt my original approach, transforming all planned face-to-face interactions into online delivery.
To overcome this obstacle, I proactively sought new ways of working, leveraging tools like Miro and Google Suite to facilitate remote collaboration. I invested time in upskilling the country teams, ensuring they were proficient in using digital platforms to make the online workshops effective and insightful. The original plan of seven one-week face-to-face workshops was condensed into four design sprints delivered online in half-day sessions. I meticulously redesigned the entire experience, enabling stakeholders to co-design the programme and collectively analyse research to generate the desired outputs.
Despite the constraints imposed by the pandemic, the programme achieved its original outcomes. The adaptive approach and insights gained from the design sprints were instrumental in shaping a global programme targeted at mid-level senior policymakers. This demonstrates my ability to overcome challenges and deliver impactful solutions even in unprecedented circumstances.