The long slog of public service design

Designing public services is difficult, slow and frustrating. That’s because changing how a service works end-to-end, front-to-back, and across channels doesn’t happen in a snap.

Instead, it takes countless people from various organisations and backgrounds to change just a tiny part of it.

With services tied to policy, funding cycles and parliamentary terms, dealing with these factors can be tricky when you want to improve outcomes for people. This session tells stories about how to keep momentum and get things done.

Building new digital transactions is often fast and sometimes easy. Changing the rest of the service is not. Redesigning a letter, replacing a legacy IT system, or getting a revised piece of legislation in front of parliament to get rid of wet signatures can take several months or, more likely, years.

Reworking how a service works end-to-end, front-to-back, and across channels takes enormous resilience, stamina and persistence.

Participant takeaways:

• Learn how and where to get started when designing public services.
• See examples of long slog service design.
• Get recipes for resilience.
• Discover rewards that keep people.
• Compare different approaches at different states.

Themes:
Transformation, change management, digital transformation, self-care, motivation, Long Term.