Case Study Report: Design Thinking and Innovation at the ATO

This report presents a case study analysis of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), focusing on its application of design thinking to solve complex issues, particularly in its superannuation reform project. The analysis explores the ATO's use of design thinking methods, theories, and tools, highlighting the importance of user-centric approaches and the principles of collaboration, co-design, and consultation. The report delves into the five phases of the ATO's design process, including establishing intent, blueprinting, design facilitation, artefact creation, and implementation. Furthermore, the report discusses the role of creativity and innovation in organizational success, drawing parallels to companies like Apple, and examines the ATO's design-led innovation process, including the 'what is, what if, what wows, and what works' framework. The report also includes personal reflections on creativity and insights gained from the ATO case study, emphasizing the impact of design thinking approaches on project outcomes and organizational change.

Opportunity discovery, creativity and design

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Executive Summary
This report contains the case study analysis which is focusing on the design thinking process. The
Australian taxation office is an organization that makes use of the design thinking process. The case
study analysis includes how the company makes use of the different methods, theories and tools
while solving the complex issues. The main focus of the design thinking approaches in the
organizations is to handle the tough and difficult issues. While designing this project, the
company has applied all the design thinking approaches and its principles to make it a successful
project. It is observed that all those projects that make use of the design thinking approaches are
the user-centric in nature. This report also includes the personal reflection and reflection is about
the understanding of creativity through the case study analysis and other insights that I have
gained while analyzing the ATO case study. The impact of these design thinking approaches is
also reflected in this report.
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Contents
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................1
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Part 1: Case study analysis..........................................................................................................................4
Part 2: Design-Led Innovation.....................................................................................................................8
Part 3: Creativity Presentation and reflection............................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................15
References.................................................................................................................................................16
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Introduction
This report is written to analyze the case study that focuses on the design thinking approaches
used by the Australian taxation office and the reflection on learning concepts in relation to the
same approaches. The design thinking approach and the analysis of the case study will enhance
the knowledge with regard to creativity and design. The case study analysis includes how the
company makes use of the different methods, theories and tools while solving the complex
issues. The main focus of the design thinking approaches in the organizations is to handle the
tough and difficult issues. The collaboration refers to the concept of working together with the
team members to ensure project success. Australian taxation office is also based on the
collaboration as the project is implemented by the various departments (Jakovich, et al., 2012).
With the help of the core design team, the organization is able to collaborate with the specialized
individual at every stage. Design thinking is highly related to innovation and brain thinking to
find out the best possible solutions to complex issues. It is indicated from the current trends that
design thinking has been shifted towards the complex projects and environments. The reflection
is about the understanding of creativity through the case study analysis and other insights that I
have gained while analyzing the ATO case study. The impact of these design thinking
approaches is also reflected in this report (Chasanidou, et al., 2015).
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Part 1: Case study analysis
Australian taxation office (ATO) is the company known as the global leader for the application
of design thinking in government organizations. ATO is considered as a great example of
transforming the capabilities to enable the design methods in large public organizations. The case
study is an investigation about the company in context to the use of end to end design methods
that provides the solutions to the individuals regarding their superannuation reform projects
(Kester, 2011). The main focus of this reform project is to design an online superannuation portal
for individual taxpayers. While designing this project, the company has applied all the design
thinking approaches and its principles to make it a successful project. It is observed that all those
projects that make use of the design thinking approaches are the user-centric in nature. The
project needs to be user-friendly to make it a success. The organization ATO ensured while
preparing the superannuation project that the online portal is user-friendly and it improved
efficiency and compliance. The project of the Australian taxation office has provided a fresh
outlook for the users and employees and enables all the taxpayers to use and engage through the
internet services provided by the company within the Australian government (Takeyama, et al.,
2016).
One of the important characteristics of design thinking approach is collaboration. The
collaboration in the Australian taxation office is inclusive and interdisciplinary. The project
introduced by the ATO is based on 3 principles which are known as three Cs including
collaboration, co-design and consultation. The collaboration refers to the concept of working
together with the team members to ensure project success. Australian taxation office is also
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based on the collaboration as the project is implemented by the various departments of the
company.
With the help of the core design team, the organization is able to collaborate with the specialized
individual at every stage (Hobcraft, 2017).
Australian Taxation Office has also introduced a design guide which is a document assisting all
the employees working project in the organization to make them understand about the design
thinking approaches. Consultation is the second principle that the organization has considered.
According to the principle of consultation, the organization understood the few points of
stakeholders. It is analyzed that the Australian taxation office has gathered the viewpoints and
opinions of employees and other stakeholders implementing and designing the superannuation
portal for the employees and users. According to the Third principle, co-design is also involved
while designing the project. The main focus of co-design is to involve all the users in designing
solutions. It was Easy for the Australian taxation office to design the portal as per the needs of
the users. The needs of the users are clearly analyzed and understood through co-design principle
(Kembaren, et al., 2014).
It is found from the case study analysis that the Australian taxation office has also followed the
integrative process at the time of using a design thinking approach. The design process of the
Australian taxation office is very complex. It is also analyzed that the iterative design process
makes the superannuation project more complex and it has a high degree of engagement with the
stakeholders. This engagement with stakeholders resulted in the high participation of parties in
the design process (Baha, et al., 2018).
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Moving further, the design process of the Australian taxation office has also aimed to:
 Understanding of intent
 Focus on the user-centred approach
 Ensure the design visibility
 Effort in collaboration with the interdisciplinary teams
 Pursue a disciplined process
 Develop a Blueprint for bringing change
It is observed that the Australian taxation office has focused on the five different phases of the
design process including an understanding of intent, designing, blueprinting, and
implementation. All these phases are playing a very important role in designing solutions and a
great amount of knowledge has been generated through this research.
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1. Establishing intent: Intent is the most important point in the design process and it refers
to the intentions of the organization and government behind the change in designing. The
main purpose of establishing intent is to analyze and understand the strategic vision from
the viewpoint of policymakers.
2. Blueprinting: This is the second phase that Australian taxation has followed while
developing and building design products. Blueprint of the design is always created for
developing and building design products. While creating the blueprint for the design
solutions the most important factor that needs to be considered was the speed that helped
in achieving a high level of results.
3. Design facilitation: From the case study, it is identified that the Australian taxation office
has two different design roles including design facilitator and information designer. Both
individuals are employed to work in collaboration. The roles and duties performed by
both individuals were different in nature (Russo, 2015).
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4. Artefacts: Design artefacts visual and physical expression of the designs. The main
purpose of creating visual artefacts was to empower and breed collaborative design
thinking.
5. Collaboration and responsibility: The collaboration reflects the working of the teams
together to ensure project success. Australian taxation office is also based on the
collaboration as the project is implemented through the working together of various
departments. With the help of the core design team, the organization is able to collaborate
with the specialized individual at every stage.
6. Design implementation: This was the last step for the development of the superannuation
portal. It's very important that all the design products, service and systems in an
organization need to be incorporated within the current systems of taxation (Bucolo &
Matthews, 2011).
Part 2: Design-Led Innovation
Creativity is the ability of organizations to act in new and innovative ways and it can also
demonstrate as innovation and invention. Creativity and innovation in an organization play a
very important role to achieve success. For Example, when an organization uses creativity and
innovation in the organization to explore the unidentified territories, it results in increasing the
revenue of the company and affects the performance of the employees working at the lower
levels (Ogilive, 2015). For Example, Apple Company makes use of the design thinking
approaches while developing its new products which makes this organization more successful.
Creativity and innovation also played a very important role in solving the problems of the
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organization that leads to gain a comparative advantage for many businesses(Australian Taxation
Office, 2013).
It is observed that from the case study as well as from various other resources that rate of success
of the design-led companies is high in comparison to the other business organizations. From the
textbook “Designing for growth”, it is clear that design thinking is effective for bringing
organizational change and strategic developments with the purpose of achieving growth for the
future. The textbook also explained that the design thinking approach is very useful to handle the
complex problems through understanding the needs of the individuals involved in the reframing
of problems(Australian Government, 2015).
Design processes need to be implemented very carefully otherwise the outcomes led to achieving
negative outcomes like a failure of the new systems. For example, in the article titled as "failure
to launch: learning about design the hardware", the Australian taxation office decided to
establish an enterprise content management system in the organization but it failed because of
the time frame and magnitude of the changes (Köppen & Schmieden, 2016). It is also found that
the new system was not suitable for the users which are another reason for this negative outcome
of lack of design thinking. Therefore, it is very important to understand the needs of the human
through brainstorming and adopting hands-on approaches.
As per the understanding of design thinking approaches, it is found that the design thinking
process involved in the stages namely what is, what if, what wows and what works (Plattner,
2018). According to this thinking process, visualization is the tool used to identify what is the
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project. On the basis of this theory, the project of ATO is about the superannuation model
(Bucolo & Wrigley, 2014).
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What is?
The project in which ATO was involved is the superannuation model which begins with the
understanding and visualization of the business idea. The main emphasis needs to be on the
specific problem that the organization wants to solve and there is need to consult the experts to
find out more about the areas of improvement. The focus of the model is also on the engagement
of staff and stakeholders and emphasizing more on understanding the needs of the users of the
new designs. The information related to this needs of individuals to be calculated through
brainstorming and a high level of employee engagement (Ambrose & Harris, 2014).
What if?
At this stage, the ATO needs to consider the new possibilities, trends and uncertainties. The
company ATO needs to identify the outcomes of the online portal of superannuation on the basis
of market trends and uncertainties(Dam & Siang, 2019). This stage of the design thinking
process involves the future of the projects. Some researchers called this as the stage ideation.
Ideation stage helps in generating some more ideas with the help of brainstorming sessions. This
stage of the design process involves into the generation of the ideas where the organizations give
an opportunity to its employees to think out of the box to identify alternative solutions for the
problem defined (Terrey, 2012).
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What WOWS?
This stage involves launching and learning of the projects from the real world. Design thinking
method is going to be used to understand the business idea in a better way. Design thinking is a
methodology which provides a solution-based approach to solve complex problems(Media,
2017). The prototype and testing is completely an experimental phase which provides the best
solutions for identified problems. These solutions are implemented on the prototypes and are
either accepted, improved on or rejected depending on the experiences of the users (Sedgwick,
2013).
What Works?
This stage of the design thinking process involves the testing of the solutions and the final
outcome by using top-most solutions. The outcomes that obtained during this stage involves into
the redefining problems and providing information to the design thinkers to consider the need of
the employees or users, how the user thinks and analysis of the behaviour and
feelings(Mukherjee, 2018).
Importance of Design Thinking
This business idea involves various activities such as the Market analysis, SWOT analysis,
marketing strategies and setting up budgets and timelines and generating funds for the
implementation of the business idea. A SWOT analysis is important to analyze the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats of establishing the new design systems. This will help the
new business idea to position itself in the industry by utilizing its strengths and overcoming its
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weaknesses. The Market analysis involves the analysis of the market trends, our target market
and competitive markets. It is analyzed that the industry is growing because of the increasing
demand for the product and services in the market (Mintrom & Luetjens, 2016).
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Part 3: Creativity Presentation and reflection
The recent activity of mine in relation to the creativity presentation was very successful and
useful for me to learn more about design thinking and the significance of creativeness in the
organizations. Creativity is the most significant concept that leads to creating an opportunity for
individuals as well as increases the chances of growth. The presentation given by me during the
course work was very useful as it provided me with an opportunity to apply my creativity. I came
to know that there are three levels which must be well understood before applying the creativity.
The first one is the discovery which is the lowest level of creativity. Whenever an individual
discovers something, always leads to an invention or an innovation. Innovation took place after
the discovery of something. The innovation always involves the implementation of the discovery
before anyone else does the same thing. Moving further the creativity is the last step and at this
point in time, it turned into something more interesting and innovative ideas (Bucolo &
Matthews, 2011). This creativity presentation reminded me of the company where I worked as an
intern last year that involved in the business of home accessories. During my internship, I found
that there was one of an employee who comes up with an idea of using detachable palettes in the
sandwich maker so that it could be used as a waffles maker as well as doughnut maker.
Therefore, the new machine would work as three machines so that the consumers do not need to
buy three different machines as this one machine worked on the behalf of three machines.
Therefore, the idea of this staff member has been encouraged by the organization and considered
to develop a new product. Also, that product becomes the unique product of the organization and
it increases the customer base. From this experience, I have learnt that design thinking is really
important for the organization to bring interventions. I have also realized that while using the
design thinking approach, it is very important to encourage and engage the staff members so that
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a lot of Ideas can come into the organizations (Dam & Siang, 2019). The case study analysis
includes how the company makes use of the theories, tools and methods while solving the
complex issues. The main focus of the design thinking approaches in the organizations is to
handle the tough and difficult issues. Design thinking is highly related to innovation and brain
thinking to find out the best possible solutions to complex issues.
To add more, through this course, I have also learnt about the concepts of design thinking
approach and creativity that boost the performance of the organization and abilities of the people
to innovate something new. I found that innovation is a totally knowledge-based activity which
needs to be expanded through the activities like working on different projects or different team
members. To Increase the level of creativity and innovation, it's very important to encourage and
appreciate the people that coming up with ideas in the organization. I have identified from the
presentation experience that the team members who are creative and innovative are always
contributed to achieving long term success (Hobcraft, 2017).
The case study analysis also helps me to understand the concepts, principles and processes used
by organizations while designing a new system or any product. This presentation has increased
the area of my knowledge which I can use in my future career. This presentation has a great
positive impact on me as this presentation to enhancing my knowledge and efficiency to work in
future organizations. I felt that the principles that followed by the Australian taxation office were
very significant as the project's success was only possible through design thinking and creativity
(Kester, 2011).
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Conclusion
The main focus of the design thinking approaches in the organizations is to handle the tough and
difficult issues. Design thinking is highly related to innovation and brain thinking to find out the
best possible solutions for complex issues. It is indicated from the current trends that design
thinking has been shifted towards the complex projects and environments. From the case study
analysis, it is found that the Australian taxation office has also followed the interative process at
the time of using a design thinking approach. The design process of the Australian taxation office
is very complex. It is also analyzed that the iterative design process makes the superannuation
project more complex and it has a high degree of engagement with the stakeholders. This
engagement with stakeholders resulted in the high participation of parties in the design process.
The organization ATO ensured while preparing the superannuation project that the online portal
is user-friendly and it improved the efficiency and compliance. The project of the Australian
taxation office has provided a fresh outlook for the users and employees and enables all the
taxpayers to use and engage through the internet services provided by the company within the
Australian government. The most important characteristics of design thinking approach are
collaboration. While designing this project, the company has applied all the design thinking
approaches and its principles to make it a successful project. It is observed that all those projects
that make use of the design thinking approaches are the user-centric in nature. The project needs
to be user-friendly to make it a success.
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References
Ambrose, G & Harris, P 2014, Design thinking: the act or practiceof using your mind toconsider
design.
Australian Government 2015, Reinventing the ATO – Program Blueprint, <
https://www.ato.gov.au/uploadedFiles/Content/CR/downloads/program-blueprint-march-
2015.pdf>
Australian Taxation Office 2013, Reinventing the ATO – ready, willing and underway
<https://www.ato.gov.au/Media-centre/Speeches/Reinventing-the-ATO---ready,-willing-and-
underway/>
Baha, E, Gray, D & Sturkenbaum, N 2018, Good Design-Driven Innovation.
Bucolo, S & Matthews, J 2011, Design Led Innovation : exploring the synthesis of needs,
technologies and business models.
Bucolo, S & Wrigley, C 2014, Design-Led Innovation:Overcoming Challenges to Designing
Competitiveness to Succeed in High Cost Environments
Chasanidou, D, Gasparini, A & Lee, E 2015, Design Thinking Methods and Tools for
Innovation.
Dam, R & Siang, T 2019, Design Thinking: New Innovative Thinking for New Problems.
Hobcraft, P 2017, Improving the Potential for Innovation through Design Thinking.
Jakovich, J, Schweitzer, J & Edwards, M 2012, Practicing: Handbook of design-led innovation.
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Kembaren, P, Simatupang, T & Wiyancoko, D 2014, Design Driven Innovation Practices in
Design-preneur led Creative Industry. Joournal of Technology Management and Innovation, vol.
9, no. 3, pp. 1-15.
Kester, D 2011, Design for innovation: Facts, figures and practical plans for growth.
Köppen, E & Schmieden, K 2016, Failure to Launch: Learning About Design the Hard Way.
Media, P 2017, Design thinking for communications professionals: how design thinking
processes can help you shape organizational stories that connect.
Mintrom, M & Luetjens, J 2016, Design Thinking in Policymaking Processes:Opportunities and
Challenges. Australian Journal of Public Administration, pp. 1-12.
Mukherjee, D 2018, Design Thinking: Turning Challenges into Opportunities.
Ogilive, T 2015, Designing for Growth: a design thinking tool kit for managers
Plattner, H 2018, An Introduction to Design Thinking: Process Guide
Russo, S 2015, Design and Taxes: a case study on design thinking in the Australian Taxation
Office.
Sedgwick, S 2013, Capability Review: Australian Taxation Office
Takeyama, M, Tsukui, K, Yamaguchi, H & Matsuo, K 2016, Design-Driven Service Innovation
– A Method to Change the Meaning of a Service.
Terrey, N 2012, Managing by design –a case study of the australian taxation office.
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