Introducing a week of exclusive content focused on the art of delivering government services
Welcome to How to Design a Government Service – a special week of content dedicated to the art of delivering digital services for citizens and public sector professionals.
Over the course of the next five days, we will be bringing you a range of content focused on service design and delivery, covering everything from the earliest stages of discovery, right through to supporting live services that are already being used by thousands of employees, or millions of citizens.
The theme of each the first four days will be loosely grouped around the core stages of an agile project: discovery; alpha; beta; and live. On Friday, to cap off the week, on Friday we will publish our research into government service assessments, and shed a light on what factors typically dictate whether or not a service makes the grade, or is sent back to the drawing board.
Our reporting and analysis will feature a wide range of exclusive content, including interviews, features, research and expert opinion.
The week begins with insights from Government Digital Service director general Alison Pritchard, who tells us why the organisation still has a major role to play in building services. We also present the findings of PublicTechnology research into the vastly varying extent to which government departments are pursuing the agile procurement processes enabled by the Digital Marketplace.
Meanwhile, our partner for the week, BJSS, lifts the lid on what makes a successful discovery phase and the importance of operating across organisational boundaries.
The lead designer for the health service’s website, NHS.UK, writes about the service-design response to the coronavirus crisis, and why – however scary the added weight of responsibility may feel – it is important to stay focus on users and outcomes.
And we also have a five-point guide to how to pass a GDS alpha assessment; top tips include involving your assessors in the process, and understanding how much research is enough.
We hope you enjoy How to Design a Government Service; stay tuned throughout the week for more exclusive content, all of which can be accessed here, or by clicking the ‘Service Design Week’ tab at the top of any page on our site.
