New emerging digital technologies are evolving at an unprecedented pace. These advancements create increasing expectations for public sector organizations. However, we do not yet know much about the processes of these organizations when approaching emerging technologies. Such early innovation processes are critical to reaping the benefits of emerging technologies. We conducted a case study of a Nordic government agency to explore how a potentially paradigm-changing idea involving blockchain,evolves through an innovation process. We investigated the characteristics of early innovation search processes as a public sector organization approaches emerging technologies. Our contribution shows 1) how the search focus shifts over time - focus can be more about the solution, the need or the need–solution pair, and 2) how the conceptualization of technology plays an important role in the process.The findings increase our understanding of innovation processes in the public sector.