Taipei
Urban Regen
Think Tank
year : 2018 & 2019 (partner project)
client : Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office
position : Principal Investigator and Product Manager
Feb. 23rd, 2018, I was consulted by Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office (URO Taipei) to present on the topic of new urban governance. I introduce the concept of design leadership and its integrated role on how to transform the mental model of public servants through co-redesigning a better collaborative system in public sector, then some insights learnt from "Tainan Cogeneration", a previous project I had directed commissioned by Cultural Affairs Bureau, Tainan City Government.“ How might we transform government bureaucratic system through reinventing policy making process and the co-creation of Open Government Data (OGD) ? ”
symptom : Bureaucracy, Democracy, Urbanization, Digital Divide
After the sharing, the division chief and her staffs approach me and explain the critical situation they are confronting, that their policy instruments had lost track on the development of urban community empowerment these years and they aren’t sure how to deal with it.
Following some self-initiated research and interviews that clarify the problem context of urban regen policy and governance development, I propose the concept “Open City Think Tank” and believe it could not only be a feasible solution, relieving the pain points of policy makers during the administrative, planning, and decision making process of potential policies, but it could also be a valuable asset to the future urban regen to Taipei. Later, I was consulted regarding to the tender specification of "Taipei Urban Regeneration Think Tank” and become the successful tenderer in the open bidding procedure.
▰ Awareness ▰
政府官僚體制與傳統的管理方式長時間壓迫著公私部門雙方承辦的自我成長，不僅導致公部門基層人員高度流動、公私協力品質與執行成果的劣化，長篇大論的成果報告書不易於人與機器閱讀，缺乏系統化的成果無法提供政策規劃者有效比較研究，未經授權的資料混雜於報告書中，也難以開放供民間有效再利用。每年花大量時間蒐集建檔的資料價值隨著時過境遷而失效，等同浪費了數以百計的標案執行經驗以及檢討政策的寶貴機會。
面對資本主義和整體環境變遷的挑戰，傳統的都市治理模式失靈，政策規劃者對社區資源、社會基層的理解逐漸脫節，政治決策者也因此無法掌握有效的證據，正確地切入結構性社會問題，窺見轉型的機會並對症下藥。
▰ Big Idea ▰
Behind every significant policy there is a true thinker contributing meaningful data through clicks and taps day by day.
Objective
1）Turn meaningless administrative tasks into a series of meaningful and constructive actions
2）Build a Context Aware and Linked Opne Data multidisciplinary integration platform that empowers policy making process and evidence-based governance capabilities of URO civil servants
Key Results
1）與都更處一同建構雙向的資料索取與回饋機制，持續增進雙方人員對開放資料、開放知識管理的共同理解，並依據上述經驗於期末辦理一場給108年度都更處和廠商的履約協作教育訓練
2）以扎根理論為基礎，梳理近3年都更處標規／廠商履約報告書的知識架構，建構台北市社區工作智庫的基礎資訊架構、資料結構、重點資料集欄位與開放資料表，產出一份以開放資料為基礎，政策脈絡清晰、問題意識明確、能幫助都更處研擬未來政策的關鍵報告
3）辦理1場專家會議、3場焦點工作坊、6場以上的焦點族群訪談，對執行團隊運用扎根理論所得出的假設進行修正，並開放都更處所有人員的全時參與和即時回饋
4）設計出以證據為政策規劃基礎的智庫原型並進行6次以上的使用者測試、以及2個月以上的功能迭代修正，逐步培力、建構公務員對智庫核心功能架構的使用想像，並產出一份使用性整體評估與分析報告書
5）設計能有效幫助公務員減輕伴隨開放資料業務而來行政負擔的設計工具與政策工具，並協助無痛導入到組織行政程序
6）設計一份簡單易懂、具良好閱讀性的智庫原型操作手冊，辦理一場手冊使用教育訓練，並將過程以電子形式紀錄供未來都更處教育訓練使用
7）設計一份進階版執行計畫草案，規劃原型未來五年內的設計與擴充運用
▰ Solution ▰
Taipei Urban Rgen Think Thank is a Context Aware (CA) and Open Linked Open Data (OLOD) multidisciplinary integration platform for future policy making of urban development. Through reinventing the framework of public-private sector collaboration and replacing the bad experiences with meaningful and playful ones, Think Tank empowers the open policy making process and evidence-based governance capabilities among policy stakeholders while strengthening a more constructive and sustainable partnership.
To maximize mutual understandings on correct uses of Think Tank, enhence the quality of Open Data and strengthen the value of openness, there are tools, resources and tips inclduing ‘Open Checklist’, ‘Project Open Data Form’, ‘URO persona’, ‘Open Project Resume’ and ‘Think Tank Manual’ specifically designed for public-private sectors within the user journey, dedicating to empower the competence of URO officers. The project itself also proves to be a meaningful process for it convinces both parties to adapt to the standard for Open License Agreement, fundamentally change the collaborative landscape of policy making.
Taipei Urban Rgen Think Thank is a long term project commissioned by Taipei City Urban Regeneration Office, comprising four stages in terms of users. The focus group in the first phase has centered on URO civil servants, second phase will be focused on URO tenderers and their cooperative communities, third phase will be potential UR policy stakeholders from academia and industry. At last, the Think Tank will be open to all citizens of Taiwan.
▰ Achievement ▰
1）Successful implementation and good disruption
Taipei Urban Rgen Think Thank is now successfully implemented at URO. After finishing the first phase of project, URO sefl-initiate more than 20 working meetings to discuss and reflect upon their learning expriences from this project, assigning an internal project lead and come up with their own discipline on future policy making. Afterward, I was commissioned as the Product Consultant of Taipei Urban Rgen Think Tank in 2019.
2）Good performance on Usability Test
Half of URO employees participate in the prototype testing of Think Thank and agree:
100%
Intuitive Use
100%
Self-Learnable
100%
Task Success
100% (open), 70% (task) /mediumTask Efficiency
95%
Task Performance Evaluation
score 72
SUS Evaluation
3）Post-Training Assessment from URO officers’ perspective
With current understanding toward limited functions and data of Think Tank prototype, 88% of URO employees participate in the training and assessment and agree:
92%
Understand the relationship between personal practice and Think Tank
83%
Believe Think Tank can help new employee orientation
83%
Believe Think Tank can improve public-private collaboration experience
92%
Believe Think Tank can empower policy making collaboration
83%
Believe Think Tank can help UR policy making
92%
Believe Think Tank can help facilitate insightful discussions with tenderers
92%
Willing to implement Think Tank in own workflow
4）Post-Training Assessment from tenderers’ perspective
5）審查意見&words from 承辦
Random sampling on URO tenderers in 2018
100%
Understand the relationship between personal practice and ‘Open Government Data Form’
100%Believe ‘Open Checklist’ can improve public-private collaboration
100%
Believe ‘Open Checklist’ can facilitate insightful discussions with URO
100%
Willing to apply ‘OGDF’ and ‘Open Checklist’ in personal practice with URO
▰ Product Discovery ▰
00. Aligning OKRs with clients and team
00. Aligning OKRs with clients and team
( Project Roadmap )
01. Literature Review and building the Grounded Theory for product discovery
( Value Chain of Taipei Urban Rgen Think Thank )
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( Domain knowledge analysis )
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( Contextual Mapping of recent UR policies in Taiwan )
02. Define shared values of community engagement and narrow down the data to 20 key projects that could represent the diverse spectrum of urban regeneration strategy in Taipei for further critical review
( URO workshop I-1 )
( Share Value of Community Engagement mapping )
( URO workshop I-2 & I-3 )
( Current collaborative journey investigation )
( URO Persona /example )
( Contextual Data Analysis, Semantic Differential and Knowledge Structure Mapping )
( Key Report xxx)
( URO workshop II )![]()
( Notes from discussions )
( Open Project Resume /example )
( Underlying problem of pain points from previous public-private collaboration experiences and potential solutions proposed by design team )
( Advanced Think Tank Prototyping for furthur UX insight probing and testing )
( Project Open Data Form /example )
( Open Checklist )
( Journey Map Of Open Checklist & Think Tank in terms of stages and users )
( Information Architecture of each Project Dataset /example )
( Think Tank Service Road Map in terms of stages, tasks and touchpoints )
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( Prototype Testing of Think Tank & Advanced Think Tank )
06. Open to dialogue and feedbacks from stakeholders for furthur iterations through training activities
( Think Tank URO internal training )
( Think Tank 2018 URO tenderer training )
07. Open the project to civic communities and society
( The entire project ‘Taipei Urban Rgen Think Thank’ is open on Hackfoldr )
team