A service design experiment in the Municipality of Turin to overcome organisational silos

In order to set up an experiential learning framework to support the introduction of new knowledge in the organisation and to foster cross-sectorial cooperation, in 2016-2017, in the Municipality of Turin a group of employees took part in the experimental project of codesigning a new service (To-Home). Social integration, work integration and housing problems typically come together and affect the same families, but they are treated with separate measures by different sectors of the Municipality. The objective of the new service was thus to provide a comprehensive solution and foreseeing the identification of an external subject for a joint public-private delivery. The analysis of the experimentation shed light on a few critical issues connected with the embedding of service design in the public sector. In particular, the necessity to bridge the gap between ideation and implementation of the service and the connection between service (re)design and organisational transformation emerged as the most relevant questions.