Innovation · city government
Intellectual property as a commercial tool
What would help businesses treat intellectual property as a commercial asset rather than only a legal obligation?
Business owners actively using intellectual-property thinking in commercial decisions.
Project questionWhat would help businesses treat intellectual property as a commercial asset rather than only a legal obligation?
What would help businesses treat intellectual property as a commercial asset rather than only a legal obligation?
Businesses saw intellectual property mainly as a legal obligation. The city wanted a digital platform that could help people treat it as a commercial asset.
The useful reframe
The platform could not rely on explaining intellectual property more clearly. The work first had to identify what shaped current management decisions and where a different view could become useful.
The work
From question to something a team could use.
Project work combined survey and interview design, a rapid evidence review, stakeholder workshops, and input into the platform prototype.
- 01
Examine current practice
Survey and interview questions examined current intellectual-property decisions: what businesses did, avoided, and found useful.
- 02
Bring in relevant evidence
The local patterns were not treated in isolation. A rapid review compared them with relevant literature and internal material.
- 03
Design with stakeholders
In the workshops, stakeholders worked from the diagnosed barriers and contributed directions for the platform prototype.
Capabilities used
Take a digital-service brief from research question to prototype direction.
Research design
Survey and interview questions were built around real commercial decisions rather than a generic measure of awareness.
Rapid evidence synthesis
Local findings, published research, and the client’s own material were compared. That made it possible to challenge the first explanation.
Diagnostic co-design
The barriers stayed visible while stakeholder knowledge entered the work.
Behavioral product direction
Analysis did not stop at a findings deck; it informed both the platform prototype and the choices the product team would have to make next.
What the project produced
- Survey and interview plan
- Evidence and barrier review
- Stakeholder workshops
- Prototype input
- Decision deck
Evidence
Research and design input for a new platform.
- Documented
- The research plan, evidence review, stakeholder workshops, and contribution to the platform prototype.
- Measurement scope
- Platform adoption or subsequent commercial results.
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