Developing a policy design for implementation on the ground - a process of many iterations

Contrary to the established view in the literature, recent contributions to the policy design literature suggest that substantial policy change may result from small changes in the micro-level policy design, which outlines how more abstract policy formulations should be implemented on the ground. Still, there are few studies of how these micro-level policy designs are developed, and in this paper, we address this gap. To do this, we develop a theoretical framework that builds on the prevailing understanding of this process in the literature as a linear and instrumental process shaped by contextual conditions. We apply this theoretical framework to a case study of a part of a policy process which intended to introduce mission-oriented innovation policy in Norway. More specifically, we collected data through participant oberservation of the group of government officials tasked with developing a micro-level policy design and analysed the data using process tracing methods and a theory-building approach. Following this analysis, we find that to develop a more accurate understanding of how micro-level policy designs are developed, we should incorporate the potential for feedback loops and iterative developments as well as the role of small steps and discussions in order to find common ground, what is often described as sense-making.