Towards Simpler, Faster, Better

Editor’s Note: “From a little spark, may burst a flame.” — Dante Alighieri (Ontario’s Digital Action Plan)

As anniversaries go, this one is pretty special.

Two years ago, I joined the Ontario Public Service (OPS) as its first Chief Digital Officer and Deputy Minister Responsible for Digital Government.

In Ontario, like most other places world-wide, most of our laws and rules were not designed with the internet in mind. In some cases, the laws dictate outdated modes of delivery, such as requiring signatures on paper or delivery via registered mail. Over time, internal red tape has piled up, preventing digital practices and holding back public service teams from putting user needs at the centre of the design process. All digital government practitioners have heard the phrase, “We can’t do that” at one point.

Our work focuses on creating the conditions where digital government can become a reality. This includes introducing new ways of working, delivering better online products and removing barriers to becoming a modern organization.

Becoming simpler, faster, better

Enter the 2019 Simpler, Faster, Better Services Act.

Mike Bracken, former head of the UK’s Government Digital Service, has said “If you want to make transformation happen and make it stick, you need to be radical in changing how your organization works, but incremental in changing what it delivers.”

The Ontario government has taken a bold step towards changing how we work through this proposed bill, which sets out to:

• harmonize the domains of digital, data, and technology
• encode digital delivery, open data principles, and data sharing practices into law
• knock down obstacles that keep us from operating as a modern organization

It will also mean a title change and new responsibilities for me. Under the proposal, the role of Chief Digital Officer would become Chief Digital and Data Officer, with responsibility for data stewardship organization-wide — the first integrated role of its kind in Canada.

We’ll have more details to share in upcoming blog posts from the team. For now, I’d like to shine a light on three key enablers of simpler, faster, better government.

1 — Modern, digital-first services

As digital becomes the channel of choice for more people, individuals have come to expect easy and intuitive online access to services, which deliver greater convenience, at lower costs. Modernizing the way that we design and deliver services will enable teams to meet Ontarians’ needs from the start. We’re starting with ServiceOntario’s top 10 most popular services, which include transactions related to licence plates, driver’s licences, health cards, and vehicle registration.

Personal data should only have to be produced, maintained, and stored once. We’re working on new data controls that would make it easier for people to ‘tell us once’ when interacting with their government. On the inside, this means enabling teams to build systems that can ‘speak’ to one another, so that the online service experience feels familiar and easy, every time.

To do this, we’re untangling years of built-up legal and regulatory netting that prevents digital delivery and data sharing, across the organization.

2 — A new approach to data

Data is reshaping the world around us and transforming sectors world-wide. Industries and businesses are created, every day, based on the data, “big” and “small,” that surrounds us.

Government can lead by example — opening our vast inventories of non-sensitive data to improve transparency and generate new business ideas. Under the government’s proposal, open data would become the default, unless there’s a compelling legal reason to keep it confidential. This new norm will also ensure that data can be used more effectively to design programs and online services across government.

In parallel, we’ve also publicly launched Ontario’s first Data Strategy to build public trust and confidence, create economic benefits, and deliver better, smarter government. It’s no secret that digital information about us and our interactions is being collected, stored, analyzed, and used to drive decisions. Through a series of public consultations and a Minister’s Task Force, we’re exploring how we can protect you as residents and consumers, while also helping businesses (and government) to innovate in the digital economy.

3 — 21st century standards

Following in the footsteps of global leaders like the UK and US Digital Services, we introduced a beta Digital Service Standard (DSS) in 2018. The DSS is a 14-point guide to delivering consistently good online services, including understanding user needs, establishing the right team and testing products with Ministers.

Under the Simpler, Faster, Better Services Act, the DSS would go ‘live’ — woven into the required DNA of launching or redesigning government services to deliver a seamless, end-to-end user experience. Additional tools like our Service Design Playbook, Accessibility Guide, and lean and design thinking will help us root out service inefficiencies in both our front and back offices.

Related to this effort, we’re also working to modernize the broader ‘operating rules’ of government to ensure that our organization’s policies are fit for the digital age, enable agile delivery, and empower multidisciplinary teams to work with users.

Accelerating change takes all of us

Scaling change depends on every person and program across the Ontario Public Service, working together to put people first.

The creation of my current role as Deputy Minister of Consumer Services announced the exciting responsibility for the end-to-end customer experience of government. We now have all of the critical pieces together in one ministry to make lasting change with digital transformation, delivery, and policy — ODS, ServiceOntario, and our consumer policy hub — not to mention shared services and IT in the Government Services half of MGCS.

ODS is here to support everyone working to transform how Ontario provides services to make them flexible, interoperable, scalable, and “digital by default.” To help teams confront a problem and not be afraid to tackle it in a new way. To help others learn about agile, lean, user research, DevOps, and other fundamental capabilities that enable continuous improvement of products and services. To help decision-makers know their investments will be successful, because their teams know, and can articulate, the user need being addressed.

Thank you to Minister Walker, and everyone in Cabinet, for giving our work time and attention, and accelerating the path to digital change through this expanded mandate.

Thank you to the digital government pioneers who were here long before there was an ODS, and to the communities around us whose feedback has informed this milestone.

Thank you to the talented and dedicated people of the Ontario Public Service for your relentless passion, unbridled optimism, and hard work. Finally, Happy 2nd Anniversary, ODS! It’s another new beginning for us. Simpler. Faster. Better. Together.

Onward!