Policy & Practice December 2018

locally speaking By Marc K. Hébert

Lessons Learned Innovating Human Services

T here’s a lot of hype around “innova- tion” these days, and, it’s interesting to many of us in government. But why? What does it promise? Saving time and money? Driving the intended outcomes of our programs? Increasing equity in the way the public and employees expe- rience service delivery? Building digital services? Yes to all. Since 2014, I’ve been lucky to co- create and lead the Innovation Office within San Francisco’s Human Services Agency. We function as an internal consultancy, helping our “clients” design services and systems. Service design is about co-creating better expe- riences with the public and employees, across digital and nondigital touch- points or parts of a service journey. 1 We “co-create” because we’re most effective when partnering with other agency employees and the public. Systems design involves understanding the interconnectedness of the inputs and outputs of individual silos within and beyond an organization. 2 Service and systems design, as we practice it, is a holistic, multifaceted approach that includes proven strat- egies from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. For example, we use Equity-Centered Design, Agile methods to build digital products, user-experience research, and Lean Process Improvement. We also draw from visual facilitation, Results-Based Accountability, behavioral insights/ economics, anthropology, and other social science research. The value of this heady list of tools and approaches is measured by how well we address the needs and experiences of the public who walk through our front doors, call our phones, and visit our website.

Origin Story San Francisco’s Human Services Agency has long been innovative. I was part of a four-person, fellowship team in 2013 that continued this tradition. We were with Code for America (CfA), a nonprofit organization that works at the intersection of technology, design, and policy. We built a text message notification system with the agency for clients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, called “CalFresh” in California. 3 The texting project offered another layer of communication with clients who continued to receive notices by mail. When the project finished, an agency executive worked with me to stand up a “Learning Lab,” which we later called an “Innovation Office.” The name changed because many agency employees thought we were part of human resources rather than a place to prototype ideas to improve service delivery. If you decide to create a similar unit in your organization, consider reading “What’s in a Name? A Lot When It Comes to Innovation” by Lauren Pollak and Katherine Wakid, Harvard Business Review, April 27, 2011.

We co-created the Office’s “north star” or guiding vision with executives: improving service delivery experi- ences and outcomes, both internally and externally. Overarching principles guiding our work include meeting the needs of the public and employees and understanding that those needs are shaped by a historical context of privi- lege, power, discrimination, trauma, and inequity. We strive to address these needs by clarifying who the stakeholders are, what they want to achieve, how we might achieve it, and what data will indicate improvement. CreatingYour Own Internal Unit If you’d like to start a unit in your department to do this sort of work, I’d offer these ideas. The team could be one person or several; fielded from internal and/or external candidates. We started with one and are now four. All of us came from outside of government. Free places to post jobs (and to get inspiration for crafting appealing posi- tions) include Design Gigs for Good, an alumni newsletter by Code2040, and

See Innovation on page 34

Grpahic courtesy of Marc K. Hébert

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