Author: Laura Kirchner, policy expert at Gobe Studio.
There is too much innovation that does not reach the public institutions, especially in the digital field. Startups, scaleups and digital SMEs that are impacting the digitization process of many industries such as financial or health, are not approaching the public customer due to different barriers. In this context, new govtech ecosystems emerge as a way to bring new solutions from non-traditional providers to the public sector.
In order for them to collaborate, we need to encourage on the one hand the demand for this type of solutions by the public institutions and on the other hand to boost the supply of govtech startups. There are different policies, tools and regulations to activate both ways and today we want to talk to you about govtech open innovation processes as an approach to boost the demand of govtech solutions.
The main objective of govtech open innovation processes is to reduce the gap between public institutions and govtech startups by creating pre-commercial spaces where public teams can identify and test new digital solutions and thus inform their future demand for technology in a more open, transparent and competitive way. With this we want to achieve:
- Bringing innovative solutions from new suppliers to specific challenges of the administration.
- Develop dynamic capabilities in the participating teams to identify, test and scale new digital solutions.
- Open the digital supplier market to a more diverse offer.
And how do we achieve this? At Gobe Studio we structure the govtech open innovation process in five phases:

Definition of challenges
A good problem attracts a good solution, thats why the open innovation process needs to start by identifying with the public teams challenges they face in their area of work, with the aim of starting with the analysis of the problem instead of launching into suggesting solutions.
This type of procedure is not common in the public sector, and is achieved by incorporating service design methodologies. What we want to achieve is the definition of “good problems” which focus on the real needs of the people or the civil servants, differentiates causes and effects and involves transversal teams that otherwise would not work together due to the operational structure of the institution.
After the analysis, a clear and concise challenge definition is articulated, with enough information to be able to communicate it, inspire good solutions and attract other types of suppliers. This phase introduces a new concept: problem-based work, which comes from the Stanford University School of Government's theory of the "Problem Solving based approach".
Dissemination of the challenge to the innovative community
Once the challenge is defined, a call is opened to invite digital startups and SMEs to submit their proposals for solutions to the challenge. But contrary to what is usual in public tenders, in this case, we must take an active role in the search for new suppliers and approach them.
In order for the community to respond to the call for solution and to identify the best quality solutions for the institution, two aspects are important:
- On the one hand, investing in the entrepreneurial and innovative ecosystem of the territory on an ongoing basis to promote the supply of this type of solutions.
- On the other hand, articulate the relationships with actors in this ecosystem, such as accelerators, incubators, technology centers, universities and investors to disseminate the call and reach the maximum number of entrepreneurs possible.
In addition, the effort must be complemented by an intense scouting exercise and direct contact with startups to invite them to participate. The objective of this phase is to have a more diverse and competitive innovative offer than usual.
Knowledge exchange:
This phase is fundamental for both worlds to lay the foundations for their collaborative work. Given the differences in their operations and culture, it is advisable that both actors receive training on how to work together. To this end, we invite to create spaces and dynamics of rapprochement between the teams of the public administration and the innovative companies interested in solving the challenge. For example, semi-structured meetings such as pitching, rounds and interviews, so that the institutions get to know better the solutions offered and the innovative companies get to know much more information about the problem and its context.
Experimentation and piloting:
Once the call for proposals is closed and the company with the most appropriate solution to respond to the challenge posed is chosen, the piloting process begins. One of the differential aspects of govtech open innovation is that in the pilots not only the technological performance of the solution is measured, but also many other impacts in the context of the specific public service: impact on the way civil servants work, on the trust generated in the citizen user, on the sustainability of the process, in short: if the piloted solution provides public value.
To achieve this, at the start of the pilot we work with the institution and the innovative companies to jointly define a framework for evaluating the solution, the process for collecting evidence and learning, and the indicators for assessing the pilot. This phase helps institutions to approach the world of experimentation and evaluation, learning to set objectives and measure results with data, and thus be able to make more informed decisions. We cannot conceive of a pilot without evaluation.
Diffusion of the govtech case and scaling of innovation that works:
Once the pilot is completed, a govtech case summarizing the process and learnings is produced. This piece is useful for both teams:
- It allows to have evidence to inform future tenders or internal technological developments and to make the experience known to other institutions that have similar problems and may be interested in knowing about the application of this specific solution.
- It allows to give visibility to the company and its solution to help them in their commercial process with other institutions.
This form of information sharing is also new for management. Communication of innovation is an important point that should not be forgotten. The govtech case helps to make visible its entire work process, what has worked well and not so well, and the institution can begin to communicate in a different way its way of working on innovation.
To scale the tested and evaluated innovation, two areas are worked on. On the one hand, the redesign of the service is proposed to integrate the functionality and value of the piloted solution. On the other hand, tenders are promoted which, by design, open the competition to this type of innovative, technological and specialized companies.
If you want to know more about govtech labs, feel free to contact me at laura@gobe.studio.