4.2. Results of Case Study
The results for each process from ① to ⑦ are summarized as follows:
[① Managing a Group]: The activities, methods, and outputs of “Managing a Group” are shown in
Table 3. Two group meetings were held to help members understand the purpose of managing the working group and their respective roles within it.
The first group meeting was held in order for public servants, the designer, and experts to share information and discuss the project’s direction and management. Then, the second group meeting for all of the participants, including citizens, was held to share a specific project schedule and discuss how to divide roles.
[② Discovering of Problems and Reasoning of Needs]: The activities, methods, and outputs of “Discovering of Problems and Reasoning of Needs” are shown in
Table 4. Two field research sessions (focus group interviews), one group meeting, and one workshop were held to discover overall issues and to deduce needs.
Four parents of students were interviewed twice to verify factors of frustration and hope for their children’s education. The parents were frustrated due to a lack of opportunity to see their children’s capabilities, and they hoped that their children would get positive evaluations from others.
One workshop was carried out for four working group members as well as 30 students majoring in culinary art to examine the existing educational environment and the participants’ overall perception. The extensive information extracted from this workshop was summarized into four keywords (lack of motivation for learning, repetitive learning, insufficient practical exercise, and loss of self-confidence) through an affinity diagram.
Following the field research and workshop, the designer, public servants, and teachers had a group meeting to understand and analyze the issues and needs at hand.
[③ Joining Citizens’ Experience Worlds]: The activities, methods, and outputs of “Joining Citizens’ Experience Worlds” are shown in
Table 5. Thirteen field research sessions and two group meetings were held to identify various needs for education and understand the educational environment in context.
Students were interviewed four times to learn about the factors of their frustration in terms of education. It was found that theory-centric, repetitive learning; the absence of a role model; and negative evaluations from others worked as frustrating factors, making students lose passion for their major.
Teachers who were actual providers of education were interviewed twice to learn about their educational goals and the difficulties of educational guidance. The teachers responded that their educational goal was to help students acquire a number of certificates based on the belief that such certificates would guarantee the students’ employment after graduation. The teachers also pointed out that the failure of students and parents of students to see that the acquisition of certificates would ensure the students’ future is an obstacle to education.
Graduates were interviewed twice to learn about their regrets regarding high school education and areas for improvement from the perspective of working-level staff. They regretted that the school education failed to equip students with expertise in specific fields, and argued that school education should provide students with direct and indirect experiences for actual work.
Job consulting experts were interviewed twice to confirm the essential elements to consider for education at a characterization high school. They emphasized that social and service manners must be acquired through education, because quick and flexible adaptation to actual work is crucial. They also said that a high separation rate after employment is due to a lack of expertise, and that the possession of experience and skills in a specific field can help lower the separation rate.
Students were observed three times during the theoretical instruction and practical experience to examine their subconscious behavior. The students’ focus was significantly weak during theoretical instruction, and the level was beyond the teachers’ control. On the contrary, the students showed a relatively higher concentration during practical exercises. In particular, students who were often called by teachers or given specific missions showed much higher concentration levels during class. They even expressed a willingness to sell products that they had made successfully.
Two group meetings were held with the designer, public servants, and students to compile data from the interviews and observations into a formal reference. Also, the materials needed to carry out [④ Defining Service Core value] were produced.
[④ Defining Service Core value]: The activities, methods, and outputs of “Defining Service Core Values” are shown in
Table 6. One group meeting and one workshop were held to define core values that a service needs to deliver to citizens.
All of the members of the working group participated in an in-depth workshop to share details of ① to ③, while compiling and analyzing various needs for service. Participants defined and prioritized core values that need to be embedded in service through eight hour-long sessions that examined consensus-building and adjustment.
The service core values are shown in
Table 7.
[⑤ Developing Ideal Service Solution]: The activities, methods, and outputs of “Developing Ideal Service Solution” are shown in
Table 8. Two workshop sessions were carried out to identify a service solution embedded with core values, as defined in ④.
All of the members of the working group participated in a workshop that was formatted so that the participants felt free to suggest ideas without criticism. Most of the ideas were suggested as conceptual forms, and thus it was necessary to convert the ideas into specific service forms.
Therefore, only the designer and experts, excluding citizens, got together once again for an intensive workshop to turn the ideas into specific service forms. To that end, the participants used an idea matrix, as shown in
Table 9, to check if the service solution was consistent with the core values defined previously, and then proposed the final service solution.
Service solution: The service goal was determined as a “breakaway from [the] isolated education environment (physical and non-physical), and a “snap link program” was proposed as a solution, as shown in
Table 10.
[⑥ Implementing Service]: The activities, methods, and outputs of “Implementing Service” are shown in
Table 11. The service solution was put together as a story, and a service prototype was implemented.
The story was built around the students as the policy target to allow them to partly experience the developed service as they moved along the story’s journey. Every student in the culinary art department had 60 h of theoretical learning and practical exercises, as well as two field training sessions. During this period, two interviews along with observations were conducted, and the students’ reviews on the experience were collected.
Through this, the study could verify whether the service solution, when materialized, could offer a better experience based on the policy target’s actual experience. The students demanded longer hours for practical exercise, and more opportunities for outside field education. At the same time, they expressed a sense of anxiety over increased contact with outsiders, as well as over competition. It served as an opportunity to identify factors that may cause new problems or increase dissatisfaction when the service solution is implemented for a large number of students. Also, factors that may get in the way of materializing the service were examined beforehand by verifying whether the needs were satisfied, with public servants looking at the issue from the position of the Goryeong County Office, and teachers from the position of Goryeong High School.
[⑦ Decision of Solution]: The activities, methods, and outputs of the “Solution Decision” are shown in
Table 12. The designer, public servants, and teachers had a group meeting to decide on the final solution. The result was prepared as a business plan for a public service.
Public servants prepared a business plan (draft) that centered on citizen needs, and could attempt decision-making within the supplier organization based on the draft.