Co-creating the program for the Ontario Government Service Design Unconference. Photo by Hedia Balkhi.

Service design: unconference insights

If we’re going to design good services for the public, we need to understand what the public needs. That’s at the core of all the work we do in Digital, and at the core of a lot of the work happening across the Ontario Public Service.

This past Wednesday, the Ontario government service design community hosted an unconference for public servants interested in discussing service design and how it can make our work in government better.

(An unconference is a user-driven event without any predefined content or formal speakers. There is a high-level structure and theme, but actual topics are generated by the participants on the day of the event. It’s a great way for people to self-organize into groups to discuss issues that are of interest, relevance, and value to them. You can learn more about them on Wikipedia.)

More than 90 people showed up (with twice that many on the waiting list!) to program their own conference and participate in workshops that explored the role of service design in policy-making, service delivery, communications, operations, and even human resources and procurement.

We discussed a lot and learned a lot during the unconference, and we’ll be sharing more about it in the weeks to come, but for now, here are the quick hits.

Top five things we learned:

1. Generative user research and co-creation are hugely important. Not all decisions require large-scale consultation. If you want to be successful, pay close attention to what people do, not just what they say, and involve end-users directly in the design process.
2. Service design is not a ‘one-and-done’ activity. Caring for a service is like caring for a garden; it requires constant attention and dedication.
3. It’s okay not to be an expert. Service design is a young field, especially within government. Each and every time we flex our design muscles, we grow and learn. It’s progress that’s important, not perfection.
4. It takes a community to build a community. We’re all in this together, and together we can create real change from the inside out. With all of the talent, dedication and enthusiasm we saw from the participants, I have no doubt that we will succeed.
5. Bonus: ethnography is like a ‘deep hanging out’. This was definitely a fan favourite.

If you want to hear more about what people had to say, there was an active Twitter presence during the unconference. You can follow along by checking out the #SD_uncon hashtag. I’ve collected a few tweets here to give you a quick glimpse into the day:

I’ll be back soon to talk about how we’re using some of what we learned in the work we’re doing in Digital. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please get in touch!

Dana Patton is a service design advocate on the Digital Government Team. He has a passion for creating simple, user focused online services that make life easier for Ontarians.