Practica

skill sprints

hands-on practice with new tools your team can apply right away

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Practica’s Skill Sprints are 1 - 3 day, facilitated training sessions designed for public-serving institutions that want to improve customer experience (CX).

In just a few days, your team will build targeted human-centered design skills while working through a focused, customer experience challenge. Together, you’ll grow as a team and leave with practical skills, a shared language, and a clearer path to improving how people experience your services.

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skills

Explore our skills workshops, tailored to your team’s schedule. Focus on building a single skill or combine workshops to create a learning experience that fits your needs.

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Intro to HCD

Explore how human-centered design can transform public institutions and improve customer experiences.

Three people are sitting on a carpeted floor, closely collaborating as they sketch on a long sheet of paper. One holds a drawing, another points, and there is a roll of tape nearby. Their faces are not visible.

storytelling

Learn to craft compelling, human-centered stories that engage others and build support for your public sector initiatives.

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User Research

A practical workshop for getting research done inside public-sector constraints.

journey mapping

Learn how to create and use journey maps to visualize user experiences, uncover challenges, and make meaningful improvements to public services.

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HCD for the public sector

Explore how human-centered design can transform public institutions and improve customer experiences.

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storytelling

Learn to craft compelling, human-centered stories that engage others and build support for your public sector initiatives.

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user testing

Learn how to plan and run effective user tests to ensure public services work for the people they’re designed to serve.

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Implementation

Learn how to navigate the real-world challenges of implementing human-centered design projects in public institutions.

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public communications

Learn how to apply proven design principles to make government websites, forms, and materials clearer, more accessible, and user-friendly.

case study: ohio state department of jobs and family services

  • When families apply for public benefits, they're often in a moment of crisis — what they need most is a fast, clear path to help. Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services recognized that the landing page for their self-service portal was an opportunity to make that first step easier, and brought together 30 leaders from across the organization to take it on.

  • Civilla facilitated a three-day Skill Sprint in Columbus, bringing together ODJFS leaders alongside the IT vendor team responsible for updating the portal. Participants walked through the portal together on day one and interviewed Ohio residents who had recently applied for benefits, hearing firsthand about the moments of confusion and frustration they encountered. On day two, participantsthey synthesized what they'd heard, sketched prototype ideas for a redesigned landing page, and got direct feedback from residents. The sprint closed with a set of concrete recommendations for the IT vendor — ones they had helped shape themselves, making implementation far more likely.

  • Teams that had never worked side by side left with shared language, new skills, and a set of ideas recommendations based directly in feedback from residents. They also experienced the value of talking with customers directly - how interviews can quickly inform what changes are most important to make to improve customer experience -  and have taken that ethos back to their day-to-day work. Several teams have since integrated user interviews into other projects to improve CX. .

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relevant

created for public servants

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targetted

customized for your needs

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practical

designed to immediately apply skills to CX challenges

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I appreciated the modern and progressive content. I felt like I was actually LEARNING! It gave me a lot of tools that I can directly apply to my work.

Christine Hauschildt, Hennepin Health

You know your team best. Let’s talk about skills you want to develop.

We'll work with you to design a skill sprint tailored to your team's CX priorities so you can build the right skills in just one to three days.

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more ways to learn through practica

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accelerators

Six months of deep human-centered design practice that builds your team’s capacity for improving customer experience. Through interactive workshops and targeted coaching with experienced Civilla instructors, your team will make meaningful progress on a project by applying new concepts in real time. 

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online courses

Free, self-guided online learning to strengthen your human-centered design instincts. Sign up on your own or as a team and get tools, templates, and insights from real Civilla projects that can apply to your work in public service.  

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