The creation of value is somewhat of a holy grail of public sector innovation. Yes, it is great to explore problems and opportunities, it is fine to develop new exciting ideas and it is gratifying to see those ideas tested, refined and eventually implemented. But so what? If, ultimately, new solutions do not make a positive difference to at least some part of the world, how can all the effort be worthwhile? As the quote above indicates, and as I also suggested in Chapter One, proponents of design approaches do not hesitate to claim that design creates value.

Part Two, which includes the preceding four chapters and this one, has opened up and explored design approaches as they unfold within and beyond public organisations. I have mapped the kinds of processes associated with design work and analysed how public managers engage with key dimensions of design. Now it is time to take a bit of a step back from the concrete developmental processes.

This chapter examines the patterns among the book's cases in terms of three different perspectives: what appear to have been the most significant triggers of change and transformation? What do the results, or outputs, of the design work ultimately look like? And to what extent are there signs across the cases of subsequent creation of public value – directly or indirectly – by applying design methods?

First, I summarise the findings across the previous chapters in terms of how design contributes to change processes in the cases studied. Design work unfolded across three dimensions, including the exploration of problems, generating alternative scenarios and enacting new futures. But did the design approaches nonetheless have some primary, catalysing roles? And if so, how are they distributed across the cases?

Second, I seek to chart the concrete types of outputs flowing from the design processes: what characterises the types of design outputs? What was ultimately created and decided by managers in terms of implementation? What form do some of these design outputs take? And to what extent are they not only singular ‘stand-alone’ ‘solutions’ but also imply wider-ranging organisational, management and strategic governance changes? To do this, I map the types of outputs (graphics, products, services, governance systems) that result from the individual cases.