Policy & Practice December 2018

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start building digital services as soon as possible. 6 Digital services are helping the public do what they need online. 7 It doesn’t require building apps. 8 Digital solutions that scale are not necessary to start an internal service and systems design team. We focused first on improving processes in the lobby and on the phone that were public- and internal-facing, as well as form and information design, lobby wayfinding, feedback loops internally and externally; all without building digital products. We then added digital and design expertise to the agency. My initial (failed) strategy was to train other staff how to do service design. 9 We survived by moving from an educational-based approach to addressing discrete problems. That is, sharing service design tools with ad hoc teams of employees to solve immediate needs. Our sweet spot for change has been where employees and the public feel pinch-points in a service journey. Internal buy-in is there and clients really want improvement. “TheTheory of Change in Government Is Broken” Harvard Kennedy School Lecturer in Public Policy, David Eaves, shared those words with our executive educa- tion class last February. His point was the service delivery needs of the public and frontline employees, including col- leagues in IT, tend to surface very late in policy change efforts. Unfortunately, during a pilot or the implementation phase it’s challenging to accommodate their perspectives. Policy is done to them, not with them. Our team aims to co-design services and systems between digital and non- digital experiences with and for the public and frontline employees. 10 We go about this by practicing the above- mentioned principles to try and create greater equity in service delivery expe- riences. 11 For example, when a new form is created, we ask how to make it user friendly for English and non- English speakers, as well as those who may have physical or cognitive impair- ments. To be clear, this is ongoing,

aspirational work. It’s not something we achieve absolutely. It motivates us, and shapes our tactics. Possible Next Steps A provocation for you, dear reader, seeking to transform your department or program: How might you champion service and systems design over the next 12 months? How could you create a prototype of the creation of your own continuous service improvement team or build out the expertise of a current group of people doing such work? What could you do in the next two weeks? Consider sending a calendar invite to some allies to discuss over lunch or donuts. Once gathered, identify a single strategic priority on which you all are currently working (or wish to more fully). Then choose a bite-sized chunk. Ideally, this would be some- thing you have strong top cover for, as well as data to measure progress. It should be an area where frontline employees and the public are feeling pinch-points and really want change. If the conditions are right, you could think bigger: What would it take for someone to lead the effort full time? Yes, full time. It’s a priority, right? Whatever form your innovation effort takes, those involved need the power to be experimental. They must question organizational culture and process norms. Nothing and no one should be out-of-bounds. Another “must” is an environment where mistakes are learned from instead of leading to punishment or shame. Encourage project transparency, with wide sharing of what they are doing, and why. Communicating this regu- larly can help build institutional and public support. The authors of A Beautiful Constraint , AdamMorgan and Mark Barden, encourage us to reframe con- straints as “a limitation, or defining parameter; often the stimulus to find a better way of doing something .” Our agency’s executives allow us to be inspired by the challenge to make constraints beautiful. After all, we

the Public Interest Job Board of Code for America. Be sure to co-create the “north star” with this new unit. The team should report to the head of the department or someone who reports to this person. People need “top cover” to do such work. Give it to them. It was the one condition for me joining the agency. It’s hard to imagine being effective without it. Finally, the team should have a dedicated space stocked with white- boards, post-it-notes of all sizes, easel and butcher paper, plenty of markers and blue painters’ tape, a projector or screen for presentations and group collaboration, as well as laptops and software of their choosing. Prioritizing the Work Develop criteria to select projects. Questions we ask include: Are we uniquely suited for this project? What’s the strategic importance or wider impact? What data do we have or need? How will success be measured or recognized? Are we wanted or invited to help? Beware how daily urgencies can detract from achieving larger, longer- term priorities. 4 Protect the team’s time by using current project manage- ment techniques. We adapted an Agile methodology known as “scrum.” 5 We produce outputs in two-week chunks tied to strategic, 12-month outcomes linked to a multiyear plan. Future work lives in a “backlog” going out two to eight-plus weeks. Every two weeks we share what worked and didn’t, and then plan our next two weeks based on these reflections and backlog. A daily “stand up” gathers us to share what we did yesterday, plan to accomplish today, and what may be blocking our progress. Internal government innovation teams may not gain traction and close for a number of reasons, including the struggles of project prioritization. Reduce this friction by making quantifi- able progress on strategic initiatives, meeting the most pressing needs of the public and frontline employees, adequately communicating impact, and

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