Is this Florida’s Healthcare.gov moment? How we respond will tell.
TL/DR: Florida needs a fully-funded Digital Services Agency, let’s build the talent pipeline and pay them what they’re worth. Recommend someone today!
Across the U.S., more than six and a half million people are looking to unemployment benefits for financial support in response to losing their job or income due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unemployment Benefits Applications in Florida (via mynews13.com)
Week Ending March 7: 5,325
Week Ending March 14: 6,463
Week Ending March 21: 74,313
Week Ending March 28: 222,054
In Florida, almost 230k applicants tried to file on the unemployment application website system, but were unable to for a variety of reasons. Reports of the site crashing entirely, glitching, switching back to earlier pages, or timing-out completely, losing one’s progress. This prompted many to call in, overloading the available staff and crashing the phone systems.
How did we get here, and what can we learn from it? This essay won’t be pointing fingers, although Deloitte, Rick Scott and our State Government’s actions and decisions should most certainly be held accountable. This essay will be citing the existing information folks should review if they are itching to familiarize themselves with how we can stop critical software failures like this from happening in the future.
As reported by Tampa Bay Times, $77 million was spent on the Florida reemployment website. According to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, in response to these ongoing digital challenges has now published paper applications in English, Spanish, and Creole for people to print, fill out, and mail the document(s) to Tallahassee. Sending these paper applications, besides being a temporary solution, will not be a cost effective or timely way to handle this issue. We need to acknowledge this failure to deliver digital services is a symptom of a bigger trend — the inability of the government to procure, or purchase, useful, user-centered software that meets the needs of people, not administrators. This is Florida’s “healthcare.gov” fiasco moment; we must respond, as such, with a commitment to elevate the digital services across the state.
In response to the Healthcare.gov debacle, the establishment of United States Digital Service and 18F, a digital services agency based within the United States’ General Services Administration, works to be a non-partisan, results-oriented, agile focused partner, that can empower workers within the federal government services landscape. The Department of Agriculture, Offices of Medicare and Medicade, Veterans Affairs, and a variety of other agencies have benefited from improved relationships with technologists, developers, designers, and user researchers. Every state must consider state-wide audits to fully evaluate if any existing digital projects are also failing to meet the needs of users, intentionally or unintentionally.
Thankfully, we don’t need to start from scratch. Many state level digital services are already taking shape in Colorado, New York, Georgia, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Presidential candidate Kamala Harris even introduced and ran on a bill to broaden the impact of USDS via the U.S. Digital Services Act, which “would triple the existing U.S. Digital Services funding over the next 8 years to $50 million annually, and allocate $15 million annually to expand the program to state and local governments.” In fact, multiple efforts were making their way through the Florida House and Senate to formalize a Florida Digital Service (FDS). HB 1391, which is sponsored by Tampa Republican Rep. Jamie Grant, tasked “FDS with maintaining state data, setting up testing environments to demo state software before it’s rolled out and facilitating data sharing between government agencies” according to FloridaPolitics.com. Republican Sen. Travis Hutson has also sponsored a similar piece of legislation SB 1870 that on 3/9/2020 was “laid on table”, and “substituted,” or combined with the aforementioned HB 1391. Now, HB 1391, as defined, “abolishes the Division of State Technology within the Department of Management Services and establishes the Florida Digital Service and the Division of Telecommunications within the department. The bill also creates the Financial Technology Sandbox within the Office of Financial Regulation.” Despite this crucial step, it seems only $50,000 was appropriated in “nonrecurring funds for Fiscal Year 2020–2021.” As of 3/10/2020, HB1391 is “ordered enrolled,” meaning it “has passed both houses of the legislature in identical form and has been converted into an act for presentation to the Governor or Secretary of State.” So, it appears we are at one of the final steps before having our very own Florida Digital Service (if Gov. DeSantis signs it), starting July 1, 2020. While it’s exciting to see, this $50k allocation is abysmal. We must be realistic, spend the money, and develop ongoing programs to recruit the best and brightest minds to consider a “tour of duty” in the public sector at the local, state, or federal level.
Online forms, applications, registrations, permitting and most input forms on government sites are ripe for a more mobile friendly, user-centered redesign. Only from the inside of government, with the consent of those local government team members, can improved methods be implemented. While I’m a firm believer in innovating outside the doors of government, in neighborhoods, community groups, and elsewhere; identifying those painful, first-touch experiences should be the low hanging fruit both sides of the aisle can agree should fixed, and ensured work for everyone.
In addition, dark patterns, or web designs that purposefully mislead or misdirect a user’s behavior, was apparently identified by Twitter user @BradReason in the source code on the Florida reemployment website; this must be addressed.
While load times, bandwidth, and site reliability are essential considerations when testing any web service, a crucial, earlier decision may surpass all others impacting success according to Waldo Jaquith; procurement.
“When government pays companies to build big custom software programs for them, they succeed just 13% of the time,” he tweeted back in February of this year.
Around the same time, he presented to the Michigan Senate Appropriation Committee on his year long work collaboration with Robin Carnahan at 18F in drafting a 40-page guide for legislative budget officials on budgeting and providing oversight to agile software projects entitled “De-risking Custom Technology Projects,” released August, 2019. Their solution is outlined in six parts: user-centered design, agile software development, product ownership, DevOps, building with loosely coupled parts, and modular contracting.
Watch his illuminating and entertaining testimony here:
In addition, for folks that need to be brought up to speed on the ins and outs of government procurement, I’d recommend Code for America’s Procurement 101 by Kenneth Cunanan.
In summary, Florida’s Reemployment (Unemployment) website fiasco will impact hundreds of thousands of people. The culmination of decades of disinvestment, neglect, and purposeful gutting of social services will result in Floridians going hungry, and ultimately, harming the very residents they swore to serve. Luckily, legislators were moving forward with various forms of Florida’s own digital service, and a version is being presented for signing by Gov. DeSantis. So does this mean problems solved? Nope. Not even close. But it does mean we are on the right track to equipping this new agency with the key tools and resources needed to get the job done. Our next step should be budgets and hiring. The first is easy — this is our Healthcare.gov fiasco response. We know the money is there. Secondly, Florida has an impressive list of technology and entrepreneurial veterans and students who undoubtedly will answer this call to arms. It is up to us to contact our elected officials and demand they move to support a fully funded Florida Digital Service.
Who would be on your digital services dream team? Recommend them on the form below!
Are you one of these civic minded people? Sign up to join the next era of designers, developers, UX/UI researchers, and digital specialists working for a better future on behalf of all Floridians.
#FloridaDigitalService #FundtheFDS
P.S. To all the artists & designers reading, how do you envision a FDS logo? Use #FDSLogoChallenge when sharing.
P.P.S. Don’t forget you can always start building your network of like-minded technologists and organizers at your local Code for America Brigade!
Written by Rob Davis, co-captain — Code for Fort Lauderdale Brigade
