Questions/Answers

In the context of a bureaucratic and closed public administration, that did not question assumptions, overlappings, and was too afraid to fail, LabX was created, in 2017, as a safe space aiming to improve the delivery of public services through a user-centric approach focused on the needs and expectations of citizens and companies. Its methodology based on research, co-creation and experimentation allowed for the Public Administration to advance beyond obvious solutions, controlling costs, risks and to learn with the lessons taken from the successive efforts to improve. Currently, LabX - Centre for Public Sector Innovation is a unit integrated in the Agency for Administrative Modernisation (AMA) and assumes the mission to contribute to the ecosystem of innovation in Public Administration by promoting the renewal of the offer of public services, suited to the real needs of citizens and companies. Therefore, the overarching goal is to provide better public services from the point of view of citizens and companies, by pursuing the objectives of: promoting the optimisation of the use of public resources; ensuring a sustainable and regenerative public system for the future; integrating participation, transparency and accountability in the developing solutions process. The action model is structured around three areas: innovation in public services, administrative simplification, and citizen participation. LabX upholds a vision of an administrative modernisation powered by digital, but conceived, managed, and dynamically accomplished by people, from inside and outside of the Public Administration.

LabX was created upon the ambition of redesigning and improving public services, by collaboratively working with public entities and civil servants and by promoting users’ participation. It encourages the adoption, implementation and replication of innovative delivery solutions across public administration at a national level. Through the engagement of citizens in the process of research, co-creation and experimentation, it strives to ensure that the specific needs of users are met, in order to deliver enhanced public services, while developing and systematically incorporating a broad and inclusive participatory ecosystem in the public management, taking into consideration each organizational and cultural context.

To improve public services to all citizens and encourage everyone’s participation in order to deliver simple and inclusive services is the baseline of LabX’s work. 10 Reduce inequalities — In the context of Portuguese participation in the Open Government Partnership, LabX is committed to promote inclusive and non-discriminatory public services to respond to the needs of ethnic minorities, migrants, people with disabilities, among others. 16 Peace, injustices and effective institutions — LabX collaborates with public entities in promoting participation, encouraging joint decision-making and the creation of collaborative management models. Recent initiatives include: —development of the “Public Administration Participation kit” aiming to promote civil servants’ participation in management models; — “Methodological Guide for the (Re)design of Public Services” for public entities which promotes the active design of services with citizens and workers; — “Methodological Guide for Human Rights-based Public Services” aiming to disseminate good practices to public administration; — project “Civic Space Scan”, to evaluate the environment for civic participation in public governance and public life. Additionally, one of the initiatives planned for 2022, “Collaboration for Sustainability”, intends to carry out collaborative experimental projects with public authorities to strengthen the achievement of the SDGs, in particular in the areas of education, environment and health.

LabX work relies mainly on its own multidisciplinary and experienced team to conceive and manage the projects. By promoting the participation of citizens and companies, it engages the target communities of public services users while ensuring that solutions are adapted and adopted. The collaboration and combining efforts with other civil society entities is also key to multiplying the impact. When necessary to use external services, the Portuguese public procurement rules ensure the principles of equal competition apply. LabX initiatives seek sustainable consumption through the minimal use of natural resources and the dissemination of good environmental practices.

For instance, in 2020, LabX promoted an experimental fast-cycle project "Self-Service Accelerator" that sought to respond to a major challenge faced by public services in Portugal: a portion of citizens who, although possessing the necessary digital skills, still have low levels of use of digital public services (DPS). Among other consequences, the underuse of the DPS potential or the option for face-to-face service for public services that have digital versions persists. To address this challenge, this project aimed to develop a solution that would allow these citizens to use the DPS autonomously, while at the same time stimulating and empowering them so that in the future they can use them by their own means, whenever they need them. The recipients of the solution were: (i) young people starting their careers; (ii) digital services users with limited or no use of the State's digital services; (iii) active and autonomous retirees. At the end of this project a low fidelity prototype was tested with those citizens, combining the definitions of the physical component, technical equipment, and user experience in DPS, consolidating a set of learnings and guidelines to inform future developments.

Gender inequality is a general requirement when LabX is designing services. In a concrete example, LabX, as coordinator of the National Open Administration Network, conducted an initiative targeting gender equality. By providing appropriate pedagogical content, tutorials and training programs to the attendants at the Citizen’s Shops, considering the new challenges of society,it worked towards the skilling of the workers in accordance with inclusion and non-discrimination guidelines. The development of this project had the collaboration of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality , the High Commissioner for Migration and the National Institute for Rehabilitation.

In addition to the projects abovementioned, there are other two we wish to highlight related to youth: 1.) “Redesign and revitalisation of the “PONTO JÁ Network” in collaboration with the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth (IPDJ). This network provides counselling to young people on health, sexual education, vocational guidance, or accounting support to youth associations, amongst other services. To meet the needs and motivations of youth and the delivery of services in the spaces of the network, 1520 younger citizens’ participation was elicited, and 5 interviews with IPDJ Regional Directors and 3 interviews with information technicians were carried out. Also, 25 technicians and managers of the IPDJ were trained in public service design. 2.) “ON@18”, to support the relation of young people with public administration and public services. LabX has developed a single access point to public services through a webpage that brings together all the services concerning youth. In order to test solutions of the two projects, LabX created a live laboratory in the network PONTO JÁ to test the initiatives and collect feedback from young users with the prospect of continuous improvement and subsequent replication in the remaining stores of the PONTO JÁ Network.

In 2016, the Ministry of Presidency and Administrative Modernisation launched the challenge of developing an experimental project, focused on innovation and with the aim of transforming public administration. The creation of LabX intended: 1) Engage citizens, companies and decision-makers in the process of identifying real needs/opportunities for the design of new services; 2) Designing new public services, redesigning existing services, understanding where blockages exist and promoting the use of currently complex and difficult to use electronic services; and 3) Empower public administration with methodologies that promote innovation through design. The success of the implementation of LabX is also revealed by its recent expansion and consolidation as unit of the Portuguese Administrative Modernisation Agency: in 2021 LabX became LabX-Center for Innovation in the Public Sector, not abdicating the work methodologies developed, but promoting a greater dissemination of these to the Public Administration. Some of the key developments include the establishment of the Network of laboratories in the public administration, the creation of a network of innovators that already has 860 innovators, the training of civil servants and the development of projects in partnership with public entities.

A main obstacle is the bureaucratic and hierarchical public sector, where the focus lies more on the compliance with rules and less on simplification and interoperability. In this sense, LabX promotes the dissemination of information and best practices across public entities with a focus on experimentation, user-centricity and interoperability. The unwillingness revealed by several entities regarding innovation, often based on the fear of risking and altering known and established forms of work, has proven a barrier. Seeking to mitigate this difficulty, LabX’s training and mentoring actions encourage entities to grow competencies in more collaborative approaches, to become autonomous in innovation processes.

LabX was the first Public Sector Experimentation Laboratory in Portugal. Its initial objective was to redesign and innovate public services as well as to become a safe space for experimentation and testing of innovative projects in the public administration. Currently, LabX-Centre for Innovation in the Public Sector stands out for its cross-sector support to the entire public administration contributing to an increasingly efficient public administration closer to the citizens. It seeks to boost innovation and help public sector to adapt to emerging demands in society, through administrative simplification, reduction of bureaucracy, removal of useless procedures and participation of all.

LabX was designed following the examples of various international experimentation laboratories of support to public administration. The team also attended an initial training, promoted by NESTA, an international reference in this matter.

LabX collaborated with the Tax and Customs Authority in evaluating the performance of the virtual assistant (chatbot) of the Finance portal, by developing a multidimensional tool to measure the levels of maturity and requirements for the introduction of an AI solution in the Portuguese Public Administration. The model encompassed 4 domains: Legal, Organizational, Social and Technological. LabX co-leads with Belgium the OECD Digital Democracy Thematic Group, which focus on the potentialities of technology and new forms of civic participation to respond to new challenges, considering the changes in the way citizens interact, mobilise and engage in decision-making processes.

LabX guarantees its adaptability and transfer of knowledge to the public administration entities through training and mentoring in experimental projects. For example, LabX assists in the creation of similar laboratories (like LxLEM – Experimentation Municipal Lab of the City Council of Lisbon and LouléXLab – Experimental Lab of the City Council of Loulé/Algarve): the supporting process starts by training the leading team of the new project to be able to implement the methodology in context. This training lasts 5 days, 3 of which in an immersive training in the scope of the project. After that, LabX monitors and mentors the team, during a 9 to 12 months range period. In a wider perspective concerning the overall public administration, LabX also offers civil servants an 18 hour service design course to promote and disseminate its methodology.

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LabX team currently consists of 1 director and 5 elements: 1 graphic designer, 1 content designer, 1 service designer, 1 utility specialist and 1 sociologist. The first three years of LabX were financed by European funds. Presently, as an organisational unit of the Administrative Modernization Agency, the budget is ensured by this entity.

Currently the LabX budget is allocated and managed by AMA, since LabX is one of its organic units. However, LabX presents self-funding initiatives, such as the constitution of experimentation laboratories that are paid by the entities that benefit from the monitoring and training of LabX. This funding is adjusted to the scope of the project and guarantees a commitment on the part of the receiving entity. Also training in design of services is funded by the entities or workers taking the course.

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The evaluation of the work developed by LabX occurred 3 years after the implementation of the laboratory both internally and externally. A Progress Evaluation Report extensively detailed all the projects, activities and results of LabX. Full report in attachment. An evaluation was also carried out in the framework of the Progress Assessment of the ESF Support to Public Administration (PAPA). This report provides the history of the LabX project, the main challenges faced, the difficulties reported during the implementation process, as well as the results and impacts achieved. Full report in attachment.

The indicators for the evaluation of the PAPA, used in 2019 for impact measurement, are summarised in the number of projects developed (14), the partnerships established with public authorities (45), the number of participants involved (~7000) and the products delivered (47). The assessment considered the “Project journey: from conception to delivery”, including Context of the project; Purpose; Main challenges and difficulties; Key developments and events during the implementation process; Key results and success factors; (Expected) impact on business, as well as on the administrative system in general; Lessons learnt: the role of ESF financial support.

This ESF support has contributed to transform public administration and to make it more responsive to evidence-based decisions in order to respond to the real needs of citizens and companies. The ESF has enabled LabX to have a team exclusively allocated to this purpose and gave it the necessary resources to develop the projects, to ensure that the schedule is met, as well as to reinforce the dissemination of experience at national and international level.

Currently LabX — Center for Innovation in the Public Sector constitutes an organic unit of the Agency for Administrative Modernisation, which is a public institute, integrated into the indirect administration of the State, endowed with administrative and financial autonomy and its own assets. AMA is supervised by the Ministry of State Modernisation and Public Administration, under the direct responsibility of the Secretary of State for Innovation and Administrative Modernisation. It works with public entities and civic associations, among other, in a regular basis, aiming at bring innovation and meet users’ needs to the public service.

The design of LabX sought inspiration and collaboration with a renowned international entity, NESTA, for development and training. The work of LabX is by nature collaborative, as reflected in its scope of action: (1) for example, when projects are suggested by an entity, LabX collaborates with the entity in the development of the project, always seeking to engage workers and users and facilitate the contacts between entities to build more robust solutions; (2) when outlining guidelines, LabX seeks, when possible, the collaboration of relevant entities and to observe best practices examples. It is noteworthy the involvement of participants in the evaluation of the initiatives carried out by LabX, including in the evaluation of concerning the first three years of implementation carried out by an external entity.

One of the main lessons learned is the need to increase the visibility of LabX in order to reach all public entities and motivate them to innovate, simplify and bet on citizen participation, to build better and more efficient public services. It is only through the involvement of the whole public administration that effective change will be possible, and this should start with collaboration between entities, the need to gain a national dimension and replicate initiatives by sharing experiences.