Digital government transformation needs to start with citizens

After experiencing a major flood or natural disaster, the last thing a citizen wants is difficulty filing a claim with FEMA. But that is what often happens. Unclear instructions, extraneous information and way too many steps can often cause citizens to have to do way too much to get way too little. And, it’s not just FEMA, there’s also the famous 2013 healthcare.gov launch debacle. Frustrating everyday interactions with government services can demonstrate the problem with government software systems that fail to meet customer needs, or simply fail.

These everyday frustrations were sent into overdrive when the pandemic hit, requiring digital access for every type of service—from renewing a license to getting groceries, for all people, regardless of their abilities or technology access. The disconnected, confusing, unstable and often non-existent systems were suddenly quite apparent and local government agencies were frantically trying to build what was always needed—overnight.

But projects start with big, bold plans and agendas that, even if well-intentioned, fall short of the mark, leaving unfinished projects or digital solutions that not only don’t improve efficiency or citizen access, but delay the ability to get vital services to the people that need them the most.

Well before a crisis hits, government needs to include citizens from the beginning, by applying a human-centric approach to digital transformation. It’s critical that they listen to and involve citizens, as well as civil servants, when designing new systems or services that impact everyone. Not only is it key to remove administrative burden through digital transformation, but citizen burden as well—the amount of effort a citizen needs to put out in order to obtain a service they are entitled to.

Human-centric focus on civic design
Human-centric design is helping best-in-class governments ascertain what really matters to citizens. It enables them to more quickly learn and test, prioritize and scale digital solutions, which results in reduced delivery times as well as costs, and better service for all citizens.

For example, the U.K.’s Government Digital Service (GDS) was one of the first to embed service design across the whole government to improve services to citizens through digital transformation. The U.K GDS has 10 design principles, the first of which is start with user needs. They understand that if you don’t know what the user needs, through empathy, research and analysis, you won’t build the right thing.

The U.S. Digital Service and other White House administration efforts also are focusing on human-centric design. Their mission is to “go where we’re needed most to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people in the greatest need.” The U.S. Digital Service started working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to make it easier for more people to join the discussion so that the services could meet the needs of more Americans. 

Thinking of citizens as customers
To lead by design, government agencies need to think of citizens as customers of government services. But in government you can’t choose who your customers are—you must serve a diversity of needs, such as cultural differences, disabilities, education levels and technology readiness. 

Below are some ways this can be accomplished:

Taking an outside-in approach. Before developing plans and requirements, begin with finding clarity and insight.This isn’t done behind a desk, but through discovery outside the office and immersing in the complexity and human impact of the problem, such as the ineffectiveness of a traffic light on the hearing or vision impaired. This is a service design approach, and it requires actively listening to and experiencing the concerns of all citizens. And only once that is accomplished can the right digital solution prototype be built and tested on those same stakeholders.

Use data and design to prioritize what is needed. Politics usually sets the agenda, yet civic leaders can help set the best direction by providing evidence of what most impacts citizens both through service design, as well as the smart use of data to uncover problems that are hard to see and to understand. Data plus design helps us understand where problems are, how many people they affect, how bad the experience is, and what could happen if left unchecked. Especially when it comes to securing funding for digital transformation investments, having a true understanding of citizen needs, backed by solid data is the only way to convince financial leaders.

Co-create and test with citizens. Listening is good but knowing that a new digital or analog service is hitting the mark is even better. Government IT leaders should include real citizens not only in the process of discovering needs, but also in actually developing solutions alongside civic designers. They can also prototype and test early to pivot, improve and get feedback early to be spared from costly mistakes.

The value of taking a human-centric approach to government digital transformation projects is reduced cost of projects, saving tax-payer money and civic agency time, as well as faster delivery of improved government services for all citizens. It requires a bold new approach that leads with empathy, understanding and walking a day in the shoes of citizens.

Dana Montenegro is chief design officer for Wovenware, a Maxar company, and a nearshore provider of AI and custom software engineering services. He combines design thinking with agile and lean methodologies to help customers identify their unique business challenges and find innovative ways to address them. He can be reached at [email protected].