Introducing Design Thinking to Policymaking: Iranian Polices against Coronavirus (COVID-19 crisis)

Document Type : Promotional article

Author

National Research Institute for Science Policy (NRISP)

Abstract

Traditionally, policymaking has been a logical, linear, and sequential mechanism that involves problem description, policy formulation, decision making, policy execution, and policy evaluation. However, some problems are unresolved and complicated, and cannot be solved by rational methods because they often have unintended consequences. Development thinking requires a human-centric, participatory, and iterative approach to problem-solving. This approach stresses the importance of early participation and is perfect for identifying wicked or complex problems. Technology thinking was essential for product creation and used in policymaking today as a policy innovation. This method has a five-step process, including empathy, description, ideation, prototype, testing. In this paper, COVID-19 is introduced as a multidimensional problem. It recommends the approach of design thinking to tackle this problem and then contrasts the macro-policies adopted by the National Task Force for Coronavirus Combat with the design thinking process measures.

Keywords


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