The Institute for Labor Studies (ILS), the policy research arm of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), recognized the need to strengthen innovation across government programs and services. Motivated by a mission to serve citizens more effectively, ILS sought to introduce Design Thinking as a framework for building empathy, improving collaboration, and embedding innovation into everyday policy design.

The Challenge

Government projects often faced recurring hurdles:

• Programs launched without fully validating stakeholder needs.
• Implementation challenges due to entrenched systems and politics.
• Limited use of empathy and co-creation in policy development.

ILS leadership believed that by equipping their people with human-centered methods, DOLE could transform how it designed and delivered public services.

The Solution

On-Off Group partnered with ILS-DOLE to design a program that blended training with real application. The journey began with an introductory session to secure leadership support and quickly moved into a full Design Thinking workshop for staff.

• Participants explored empathy-driven research through interviews and journey mapping.
• Teams reframed policy challenges into innovation opportunities.
• Hands-on ideation and prototyping activities helped generate and test solutions rapidly.

Inspired by early successes, ILS launched the “Design Thinking Olympics,” a two-month program engaging DOLE offices nationwide to cascade Design Thinking practices to frontline staff.

The Results

• Greater recognition of the importance of empathy in policy and service design.
• Prototypes and solutions addressing employment facilitation and job matching were developed and pitched.
• A stronger culture of innovation, supported by reformulated core values and a commitment to scale Design Thinking across DOLE.

As Mary Grace L. Rigeur, OIC-Executive Director of ILS, reflected: “Public office is public trust. We exist to serve the public. That’s the beauty of the human-centered approach.”