1. Making the right decisions
How can you determine the right priorities when converting concepts into concrete projects? It is important to diverge first and to give room for ideation, but in the following phase a structured approach and focus are needed.
An aligned vision will help the city or municipality to excel as a "smart and warm" municipality with a citizen-close policy. Having a clear vision in mind is essential to measure the progress and development of a (smart) city. It gives direction for all stakeholders in the ecosystem of the smart city or municipality. A well-defined vision starts from the challenges the city is facing, such as job creation, climate change, mobility related topics, etc. It is important to define ambitious long-term goals, but it should also include local short-term objectives to achieve this longer-term big audacious goal (BAG).
But the impact of choices is sometimes difficult to predict upfront. Having a clear action plan with priorities is a good start, but the objectives have to be measurable and specific. Based on available data and statistics, KPI’s (Key performance indicators) can be defined to measure the impact.
Let’s take the modal shift challenge as an example. Before starting the project and money gets burned, the specific situation and needs within the environment have to be clarified. Eg. How many people drive to work by car, what is the share of public transport, what are the bottlenecks and so on. Based on these insights, measurable objectives can be defined. In any case one should ask the question which are the criteria to identify success?
What if impact is not as foreseen? We come back to this later in this article.