Innovation Insights

The pain points of innovation solutions

Orange Sparkle Ball operates at the intersection of government, industry, and academia, leveraging insights from each market segment to help the others.

Excerpt from Evolve Blog: Driving Change in Government with Lorena Molina-Irizarry, US Census Bureau

In our Evolve discussion with Lorena Molina-Irizarry from the US Census Bureau, Lorena brings to light the complexities of working across innovation areas that touch different sectors:

In complex government projects, Lorena stresses the importance of human-centered design thinking as it grounds the process and refocuses the team on their core objective. Lorena explains, “The government serves people, so the only way to actually understand the end user’s needs on any given challenge or problem is to engage them in the process.” To get stakeholders involved, the value they will receive through their participation in the project must be clearly communicated. Their knowledge and perspective are invaluable to the project, and in return, they get access to data experts that would otherwise be extremely difficult to connect with. This also gives end users the opportunity to be a part of the process during co-creation rather than after the fact and invites them to be a part of a valuable, carefully curated network. The outcomes of the partnership are communicated as a value proposition that is both mutually beneficial and instantly beneficial, and Lorena concludes, “This innovative process brings in a different view of what product and technology development could look like between industry and government and between government and communities themselves.” Those involved experience the power of this approach and the results it can produce.

Orange Sparkle Ball Perspective:

Across our work in innovation we commonly see these types of dynamic partnerships evolve across the sectors Lorena mentions. In an effort to create lasting change, corporations must partner with local governments to get the permissions needed to test new solutions, local governments must seek academic institutions to gain insights on cutting edge research, industry must collaborate with academic institutions to source new technologies, and the list goes on. Collaboration across industry, government, and academia is critical to creating lasting, impactful solutions that have a proper outlet for implementation and adoption.

Despite this need and the cutting edge work happening in each area, there is currently a lack of common language and vision across these sectors. As a result, communication and partnership can be challenging - even surrounding similar goals and shared benefits. By better connecting the dots between these groups, we can more effectively propose, test, and implement innovative solutions.

Writing by Ashley Touchton, Design Strategy Consultant at Orange Sparkle Ball, Inc.