8. Stakeholders’ consultation and feedback

After all the steps have been completed, or after the TRL of the implementation is mature enough, public administrations need to ensure that the solution they propose respond to societal needs. On the one hand, public administrations have already led this assessment through the data they gathered based on benchmarking and impact and foresight studies. On the other hand, stakeholder consultation shall give a perspective on future users’ opinion.

Thus, the stakeholders´ consultation and feedback is the 8th step for the responsible use of DTs in PAs. At this stage PAs call for a new consultation (preferably with stakeholders already engaged in the identification of needs) to present the solution developed by the means of DTs application. A powerful tool to be presented, especially if the solution is a low-level TRL, is the use of storytelling. In this scenario, PAs should create different scenarios in which the DT-based solution would be used to create a visual understanding of how the solutions would be deployed and used. Stakeholders should be sufficiently informed about the functioning of the solution and possible risks it may impose.

During the consultation, which can take place online or in-person according to the capacities of the PAs, geographical range, and scalability, stakeholders are invited to comment on whether the solution seems to be practical, user-friendly, and if it responds to public needs. If the feedback is positive, PAs may proceed to the next step, otherwise revising the journey departing from the market analysis may be needed.