Bind GovTech: Defining public administration needs to develop open innovation solutions
category:
Research user
sector:
Public, GovTech
Date:
June 2025
The program BIND GovTech is born from the need of the Basque Government and SPRI modernize public services through open innovation. After two previous issues that have demonstrated the potential of the model (8 projects govtech executed in 2023, 122 applications from startups in 2024), in 2025, it evolved towards a more strategic approach and systemic.
preliminary analysis of The context revealed a disconnect between technological capabilities of the entrepreneurship ecosystem and public needs of innovation, recruiting processes, innovative, complex and the need to create a sustainable ecosystem of collaboration.
The design challenge
The central challenge was in how to design a system of open innovation that could identify, formulate and solve public challenges complex collaborative, agile, and focused on the end-user?
This question includes multiple dimensions: the double complexity of understanding needs of both the administration and startups, the resistance to change in organizational culture in public, the articulation of multiple stakeholders with diverse objectives and the language of translation technical and administrative challenges solvable. The challenge was not simply to connect parts, but to create the conditions of methodological and relational to the collaboration effective and generating public value.
Methodology and process
The process was structured in three main phases based on the principles of design people-centered and systemic thinking:
1. Immersion in the ecosystem
I conducted interviews with public workers, complemented with the mapping of the administrative processes existing.
This immersion allowed us to identify common patterns and points of friction in the daily operations of public entities.
2. Co-design challenges
Facilitated workshops, multi-stakeholder, using techniques of problem framing and root cause analysis. methodology included tools for getting to root causes, contextualize problems, and transform problems into opportunities.
and create the Toolkit BIND GovTech Pro to provide a structured framework with templates and assessment criteria to ensure that the challenges identified were actionable and aligned with the capabilities of the ecosystem.
Outcome and impact
The results of the process of research and design implemented in 5 challenges public formulated and validated that they represented real needs and opportunities of impact:
EJIE: Diagnosis of network infrastructures are complex
ELIKA: Transformation of the technological surveillance agri-food
IHOBE: automated Assessment of tenders of public works
Bilbao Ekintza: Automation of proposals for attraction of congress
- SPRI: System of feedback from users assisted
It created a framework of open innovation institutionalized, training of officials in design thinking and established a common language between public sector and technology.
The systemic impact included the continuing development of programs GovTech of the Basque Country, a replicable model for other regions and the strengthening of the ecosystem startup-administration.
The role of design
My role consisted in orchestrating the process of research and synthesis, facilitate sessions of co-creation and design architecture methodology of the program to.
My specific contribution included the translation of complex needs in challenges, operable, the design of experiences that empatizaran with all the stakeholders and the creation of tools that would allow the progressive autonomy of the public computers by.
The design approach allowed not only solve the immediate problems, but installed capacity of continuous innovation in public organizations, demonstrating how the design thinking can act as a catalyst for systemic change in the public sector.
