Lessons learned from 2020
It’s been an eventful year to say the least!
While uncertainty has remained a daunting theme for this year, there are undeniable things that we at the DIO are grateful for. We are thankful to have been privileged to work with our partner ministries, the vendor community, and many others towards our common goal of making government work better. We are also particularly happy and proud to have welcomed more than 60 new team members to the DIO over the past year.
As we prepare to say goodbye to 2020, we asked the DIO team to share their top lessons learned from the past year. Read on to see what some of our team members had to say.
Radical empathy, now more than ever
Life wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for most of us before the pandemic. But 2020 brought home the importance of having radical empathy towards our users, colleagues, those around us, and even ourselves. A driving force at the DIO is providing better public services to Albertans and that entails understanding their needs, pain points, and aspirations and treating all with good will and the respect that we all deserve. This year pushed us to be even more cognizant of the real humans that comprise and support our organizations, and that is something that we can take with us into 2021 and beyond.
Doing things “right” and “now”
Now, more than ever, ‘digital by default’ has taken on more urgency. It can literally mean life or death for users as we scramble to move “in person” services online. Maybe you think I’m being macabre or dramatic, but as a person with an immunocompromised father, I dare you to try to convince me that accessing government services is worth risking his life. I am heartbroken that my parents will be unable to spend my son’s first Christmas with my family. However, I am grateful we live in an age where technology has come along far enough to offer my family a safe alternative. This alone reignites within me the importance of addressing user needs as quickly and as compassionately as possible.
“Now” is our required timeline for protecting one another and providing you your services safely. As we consider the how, my father’s voice echoes in my mind: “If you’re going to do something, do it right the first time.” The intersection of ‘now’ and ‘right’ is where digital shines. I will admit, the DIO has a very specific vision of what “digital” means: user-centred service design, in an agile methodology, combined with modern/open source technologies. My lesson for 2020 is that compromising on any of those pieces is not an option.
Every compromise is a step away from the user (you). Every step away from the user moves the needle away from our true needs. We cannot afford the time and money required to slog through customizing one-size fits all systems in an attempt to meet requirements that are not reflective of reality and do not meet user needs. The DIO’s vision, or ‘secret sauce’, as I like to think of it, translates into small, meaningful features providing immediate value to you — the user, the Albertan, the recipient of income support, parents of children in childcare, seniors and the family members supporting them, and on and on. This is how we can do “right”, “now”, in 2020, and hopefully, beyond.
Internalizing the cost of not doing things “right”
The 2020 discourses at work and outside had a leitmotif for me — externalities. My co-authors on this post refer to “doing things right”. Externalities, as discussed in Public Economics and all its downstream applications, mean we will not “do it right” unless we also bear the costs of not doing it right. Unless we internalize the costs of our actions, there isn’t an incentive for change. The DIO has initiated this conversation in the Government of Alberta (GoA). I hope it continues.
Design unlocks the cost saving potential of digital transformation
Digital return on investment (ROI) depends on more than technology. Simply swapping in one system for another is not enough to save money (and in fact it has a good chance of costing more). As we develop new digital services, we don’t see the benefit to the bottom line unless we can also do some critical design and transformation work:
• Understand the needs of our users, based on direct observation and behavioural interviews (preferably in the field, but we’ve learned to do this remotely this year). This yields much deeper insight than requirements workshops or working groups.
• For many of our services, the users are both Albertans and also public servants — we need to understand the needs of both to craft the most effective and efficient solutions.
• Redesign work, not just design software. Digital transformation is not just working to design new software — it is also about designing new jobs…ones where staff can focus on the outcomes that matter most for Albertans, instead of wrestling with things like administrative overhead or data entry from one system to another.
• Out of the box solutions struggle to offer a good experience for complex services. Forcing the square peg of existing work into the round hole of off the shelf software comes at a heavy cost that is paid in staff productivity, employee engagement, and citizen experience. Custom solutions enable transformative change that fits based on understanding of needs and accelerates productivity and self-service adoption.
Spending time and resources on user research, design and usability testing, rather than training and documentation for internal facing products, pays off! Over and over, we hear, “This is so simple” or “Can I start using this tomorrow?” from users, even for complex tasks.
Half the solution is often a great problem
As an architect coming onboard this year, I was not familiar with service design and thought it was analogous to Business Architecture. Now having worked directly with a Service Designer and having gone through the DIO process, I now can’t picture working on another product without the use of user-centric Service Design (whether in addition to business architecture or otherwise)!
When digital solutions are proposed to solve problems that have real-world interdependencies (like logistics, external organizations, extended timelines, etc.), the larger context, and especially the end-user context, must be considered. This year for COVID response, we were tasked with working on a variety of proposals and proof of concepts that may or may not see the light of day, based on feasibility and the day-to-day changing circumstances around the Government’s COVID response. The team discovered that it’s not enough to deliver a successful digital solution that only solves for one part and then shifts the burden onto other areas of government or onto partners, if they would not be successful with an increased burden. If the new/improved digital solution only solves part of the larger problem, it could result in an overall failure and needs further consideration before release/implementation.
Laying the groundwork for digital transformation takes time and patience
The year in review insights suggest, amid a global pandemic, all governments were forced to move in some way to digital service delivery. We did that! And so did many of our colleagues across the Government of Alberta. But how we did it made the biggest impression on me. There is a lot of “unsexy” yet essential work in digital transformation, but there can be great value and reward plowing through the duller edges of digital transformation. Like the archaeological expeditions of poring over budget documents and asking just one more time how that legacy system actually stores the pdf application file.
In keeping with the COVID theme, we have learned that the heroic work of saving lives can only be done when essential services are in place and well maintained. In order to “do digital”, we have needed to invest effort in core functions like platform and procurement (cue our DIO Pre-Qualification Request). There is more work to be done, and my holiday wishes, to steal from a friend of the DIO, include a day when government procurement is as easy as plugging in a charger because the electricity system just work so that you can be on your way.
As we’ve had to rethink how teams work, we appreciate them more than ever
2020 has been challenging and unprecedented in too many ways to count. But because of that, successes and “good” things are all the more meaningful and bright. The DIO team grew significantly this year — we’ve hired and onboarded more than 60 new team members, all during the COVID pandemic! All of this has happened virtually.
As teams meeting and working remotely, getting on the same page does take effort, and particularly some repetition for emphasis. But when given the space to practice their craft, you can see these teams of talented people just bursting at the seams with productivity and projects absolutely flying. It has been incredible to watch these cross-functional “Super Teams” assemble and begin tackling some of the biggest challenges in government.
The importance of doing good work has never felt more urgent, but it becomes less intimidating when you’re tackling it with passionate, talented people.
…and pets, too!
With everyone working from home, getting to know our furry family members and getting pet cameos in virtual meetings have truly been a source of joy!
Please stay tuned for updates from our teams about their work and achievements in the new year! Happy holidays and best wishes for 2021 from the DIO Team!
