Overview
The Public Design Hackathon is a high-intensity, coach-led design sprint where teams tackle and solve a live departmental challenge. Participants experience the full five-stage design cycle—Understand, Define, Create, Test, and Reflect—learning the tools of public design by directly doing.
Teams produce tangible, real-world prototypes and actionable insights that are documented and made shareable for future reuse across their departments.
Who is it for?
Designed for all civil service grades and professions who want to solve complex public policy or operational challenges rapidly. There are no prerequisites. Teams from the same department are encouraged to register together to address shared departmental briefs.
Learning Outcomes
- Frame complex public problems using evidence, insight, and systems thinking.
- Apply the seven universal public design practices to create and test new ideas.
- Prototype and iterate solutions rapidly with feedback from users and peers.
- Work effectively and build active networks across policy, digital, and delivery disciplines.
- Communicate design findings that influence decisions and improve public outcomes.
- Share your team’s outputs to strengthen design capability across government.
Time Commitment
1 full day (high-intensity, coach-led team sprint).
Assessment
Live prototype presentation and review by senior school coaches.
Price
£300 + VAT per head
Discounted to £250 + VAT for departmental groups of 10+.