Embedding DesignIreland’s first public sector innovation centre and the journey to develop design capabilities

Public sector = No design Mapping policy to delivery from Scottish Government (2007-2010)

2000s onwards we saw a proliferation of early public sector design models emerging that focused on building in-house capabilities

Ireland’s First Public Sector Service Innovation Centre Cork County Council

“The senior team at Cork County Council wanted to improve customer and staff outcomes county-wide and set up a centre to use and showcase service design approaches.

With a council in the process of ‘going digital’ we saw an opportunity to ensure services were led by user needs.”

James Fogarty, Deputy Chief Executive

Focus on council

Customer Service Transformation

Develop their design capability

Building a user-centered council for citizens and staff

Designing services not forms.

Moving from a lift and shift attitude.

Housing Representations

Elected Members

Housing Department

Live training project

250 Reps a month

15 minutes to process each one

5 Hours to process the

reps daily

3 Day acknowledgement

KPI with a 10 day response time

wasn’t being met

The situation was ….

Stakeholder and journey mapping Session

User Research and Interviews

Persona Development and user need

Blueprinting user stories

High level prototyping of the service

Co-designing detail of the form and service

Usabilitytesting and research

Review Meetings

Discovery

Alpha

Discovery Workshop

We had to compromise

For this project we couldn’t speak to the citizen to see why they were engaging the elected members on their behalf.

Research:User interviewsShadowing StaffObservation

We interviewed users - local and national elected members, analysed how staff ran the service and the existing data we had been collecting

It seemed really rather complicated...

Customers meet directly with Public Rep or with staff in

their office.

Liaise with reps one to one, over phone/email to

offer advise and answer and questions

Email confirmation

15 mins per applicationScanning paperwork

System very slow.Checks info

available

Norma emails user to advise query is waiting for them to answer. Chases user to answer.

Further information sought through Norma

or system updated

Not everyone updates system

Councillor gets acknowledged for

work done

Norma checks data on CCS and

ihouse

Email, Post,

Face to Face

Clinics/OfficePhoneEmailPost

Face to Face

TelephoneEmail

Face to Face

Emaill Post

CCS System

Scanning documentation

CCS SystemInternal Post

Email

Excel Spreadsheets

iHouse

Phone Email EmailPost

Clinics/OfficePhoneEmailPost

Face to Face

STA

GE

STO

RYB

OR

AD

FEEL

ING

TOU

CH

POIN

TIN

TER

AC

TIO

N

Local Rep meets Constituent

Local Rep Contacts CCC

Norma confirm receipt.

Norma inputs data into System

CCC forwards query to relevant

dept

Dept answers query, looks for further

information & updates system

Dept advises Norma of updates

CCC advises local rep of

updates

Local Rep contacts constituent

“It is time consuming to document, scan and upload original correspondence onto CCS system takes approx. 15 mins. Excluding the time involved chasing staff for answers, sending confirmation and other correspondences”

- Norma, Housing Department

Lack of clarity on what information is actually needed and useful to submit a representation

● Elected representatives send in everything they think is relevant

● Photos are not required by Council staff

● Lack of clarity around what is and is not required to process a representation

TD’s (which is the Government elected member) make a higher amount of representations than local councillors

Councillors (Local Elected Members) can ‘shine a light’ on individual cases of citizens

The Re-designStandardising data collection

Document to support elected members

Developed a workflow for housing staff

Re-designing the service:

Great engagement from elected members and staff

● Ran prototyping workshops to design what information is needed

● Breaking down the content● Co-designing the needs across

different users

Language was important

Senior management recognised how important the language was when we walked through the service visually in the co-design workshop

Usability Testing:

Testing our design with elected members

Usability testing on the YourCouncil.ie (Firmstep platform) allowed us to quickly test our designs and find out what worked and what didn’t before going live

Prototyping straight into live

Prototyping on our customer experience platform allowed us to tweak continuously and then go immediately live

Processing Reps

The processing of documents by housing policy reduced from 15 minutes to less than 2 minutes per rep. In most cases elected members are submitting relevant documents.

This means roughly a week of time saved per administrative staff member per month.

86% Decrease in time spent processing

Instant Response

The reps are getting instant acknowledgements – they were previously waiting weeks despite having a KPI of 3 days.

Nearly 75% of responses can be answered straightaway once they’re in the system.

100%Decrease in time spent waiting for

acknowledgement

Data Dashboard

A Dashboard is now always available which saves ½ day a month (6 days a year) in preparing a report for the Development Committee ½

Day a month saving in preparing data

€1Saving on every acknowledgement

and response

Cost Savings in postage

There is a cost saving in postage of €1 per acknowledgment and response.

This is a saving duplicated for the council and the elected members.

We think this is roughly €12,000 a year in savings for the council and elected members

Cost Savings in staff

We’ve cleared the backlog so much so that the staff member we had been working with has been freed up to work on other projects and initiatives two days a week. 2

Days a week for staff members now free

The real value of the service emerged through this work

Reps are service co-producers in supporting some of the most vulnerable and marginalised in our communities.

We’ve hooked housing

Our short intervention created an appetite for more Service Design. We’re now looking at repairs, enquiries and grants.

Learning Lunches

Winning Hearts and Minds

“For me, the greatest part of the process had to be changing people’s mind-sets. Initially we weren’t given the go-ahead to work with elected members. After taking senior management in housing through the process, they got onboard, organised information and training workshops. I skipped back to the office”

Karen Fitzgerald, Customer Service Transformation Team

Where now?

Multiple projects underway using Service Design approaches

From library services to flood risk, planning to environmental reporting

We’re now collecting and analysing data on what works

We can follow transactions by service users to continuously tweak our services and we are in control.

Data is our new material.

We’re creating the business case to feed upstream.

We’re analysing our performance against Government digital standards, and producing reports contrasting service performance and maintenance possibility pre and post design.

Where now?

Wider strategy for embedding design

Taking a holistic approach to developing the capability inside the organisation

Building design capabilities

We’ve been focusing on building the capabilities of organisations whilst we deliver live projects

Making Service Design stick

What we learned from the reality of delivering new services through to live

DormantUnconscious incompetence

The organisation doesn't recognise it isn't performing or

where weaknesses lie.

Design deficit

No resource for design or literacy to recognise the value

Starting BlockConscious

incompetence

The organisation are making the first steps to improve and are at the planning stage of

how to do this.

Clean Slate

Solo lead or one design expert, often organisation will be

smothering this person to a clear goal to scale or build a

team

SprintingActive Unconscious

Incompetence

Have started trying to improve, but are doing more harm than

good through unfocused efforts.

Lift and Shift

Small team focusing on user-centred approaches and

service improvement to a dedicated team offering a UX/CX service across the

business

StretchingConscious

incompetence

The organisation are making active positive improvements and have a scalable plan in

place to develop their capabilities.

Design as a service

Small UX/CX team working on products and services offering skills across departments and

teams to a solidified and scalable model for growing

capability org wide

RunningUnconscious competence

The organisation have scaled their approach across

departments and teams with competence growing in improving products and services and building a sustainable approach.

Embedded Design literacy

Larger UX/CX centralised team working on products and

services and other departments start using embedded

designers, work across multiple groups full time. Non designer move to design literate in the

business. Moving to non designers becoming design

fluid.

PacingConscious

competence

The organisation are using user-centred approaches

across all areas of the organisation and literacy is high

across all teams.

User-centred organisation

Design is alive and living across all processes internal to

the business. The end users are always considered and projects are delayed if the

design isn't delightful. Consistent conscious act of ensuring the sustainability of the user-centred approach

across the whole organisation.

Lear

ning

St

yle

Typi

cal

App

roac

hD

esig

n C

apac

ity

A centralised team can begin as agitators and influence others

The CST team in this context are agitators, spreading the approach

Don’t make assumptions and map the dark matter

Don’t always think people don’t want to do this or it can’t be done, be strategic in understanding the dark matter and find ways around barriers

The projects need to land

We need ownership through service managers or product owners to ‘own’ the service. Find who these owners are.

Find the right people for the job

If Senior Management Team put people onto projects, they have to be the ‘right’ people for the job. Find the people who really want to make change happen.

Build and grow external networks

Look at your development pipeline of talent and building the network to bring them in-house/work alongside you

Build a consistent playbook

Playbooks are great but don’t focus too much on the tools. Build the playbook as you deliver services.

Speak the right language

Speak in the terms and terminology that people feel comfortable with.

Don’t complicate it, keep it simple.

Don’t ‘be the agency’.

Help build the capacity in the organisation in their language, their tools on their terms.

Support from both ends

You need senior level buy-in but nurture a grassroots agenda to grow the movement

Have a strategy that looks ahead

Map your service needs and what citizens need to do to prioritise your resource

Build the sustainable design products

Recognise the central team, in time, will need to refocus their effort on building scalable products for design

Communication matters

Get communication capacity onside to support the message of what you’re trying to do

Use live projects to train

They highlight the actual reality of scoping, designing and delivering a live service

Work live and learn as you go

Let people have the space and time to learn as they go

Build live in the platforms you will go live

Impact over ‘case study’

Don’t get obsessed with service design to ‘show the process’.

Show the impact.

This may seem small, but this is only 1 of 600 services, and a snapshot of what Service Republic will do.

The reality of delivering services in local government is tough but this start has been transformational for us.

Gracias!www.yourcouncil.ie@servicerepublic @wearesnook