Frameworks for Evaluating Innovation in the Public Sector

Founded in 2010, four graduates of the management school at Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo launched Instituto Tellus to inspire more innovative models in public management. In order to create a more dynamic, efficient, transparent, and citizen-centered state, Instituto Tellus aims to connect civil society and the government through design thinking and reflective action to co-create innovative solutions to public challenges. The primary scope of the Capstone project was to create evaluative frameworks for Instituto Tellus’ core programs as they seek to measure their impact. The Capstone team conducted stakeholder interviews with staff and clients, and worked with core staff to define complex relational concepts while emphasizing process and impact goals. Researching evaluation methodologies relevant to public sector innovation led the team to propose tailored evaluative tools for Instituto Tellus to measure the impact of their work to change citizen's lives through social innovation in the Brazilian public sector.