How to build a high-powered design team

This article is written by Bryanne Gilkinson, director of CX design and digital product at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, Canada

What justifies public service if not the desire to do right by people? Delivering on good intentions, however, can be challenging for public servants operating in complex systems.

That is why we’re seeing the rise of internal design teams dedicated to developing better government services.

It’s not unusual for departments to operate in silos. One team may easily create a service without considering how well or even whether that service integrates with another. An employee may never know what other interactions a customer had with their organisation before or after they assisted them. This can result in disjointed end-to-end service experiences that both beneficiaries and employees struggle to make sense of.

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Good service design disentangles complexities by anchoring design decisions in the needs of the people they impact. Broadly speaking, good services end up delivering inclusive, helpful, and simplified experiences.

After several years of building an award-winning design team in the public sector, my best advice for doing so is as follows:

Build empathy

The work of a design team must begin with a deep commitment to understanding the experiences of the people it serves. This cannot be rushed. Through research, you equip yourselves with the customer stories that will create the case for change, and the data to make a difference. Once your colleagues understand that the status quo is insufficient, then the attention, resources, and leadership support you require will be easier to access.

When your team can confidently and credibly advocate for the people you serve, find every opportunity to position them as the voice of the customer. Focus on situations where decisions are being made. In these settings, your team can help reframe complex problems, evaluate options from a customer lens, probe unexplored perspectives, and generate options that are more likely to withstand the shocks and stresses of future events. The value that designers can provide in these contexts is unique, and will quickly build confidence in your team.

Earn trust

It is critical that you earn the trust of both your colleagues and constituents. Gain credibility by building expertise in the intricacies of your organisation. When you understand why things are the way they are today, you will have far more productive conversations about how things could be in the future. The viability and feasibility of your designs will improve, winning the trust of your colleagues along the way. So, get into the weeds of your operations. Look at data, listen to calls, read legislation and policies, shadow frontline employees, and learn how documentation is used to make decisions and process transactions.

If you want others to run faster, be the one to take the lead and set the pace.

Always preserve the integrity of your customer research, even when the truth hurts. Upholding your objectivity in the midst of others’ discomfort or disagreement is difficult. Holding a mirror up to an organisation takes courage. However, the way in which you do this will be the difference between provoking adversaries and making allies. Start by recognising that everyone is doing their best. Ill intent is rarely the reason services fail. Rather, it is more often than not the systems through which services are delivered that make human-centred experiences difficult to offer. With time, the integrity of your research will generate the trust and respect needed, both internally and externally, to deliver greater impact.

Demonstrate expertise

The value of having an in-house team may not be clear to everyone at first. Some may be tempted to outsource the work. To preempt this conversation, distinguish yourselves by offering a suite of customisable services aligned to business objectives. And, when delivering work big or small, seek to amaze, inspire, and outperform expectations.

To help your team rise to the occasion, formalise new job descriptions early on. Resist the urge to repurpose an existing role for the sake of speed or continuity. New jobs will build confidence in your expertise, deliver critical clarity to team members, and enable you to recruit diverse talent.

Be experimental

One of the most challenging cultural characteristics to overcome in government is aversion to risk. Before championing transformation, understand that there are good reasons for caution around unknowns. Public agencies are subject to a high degree of scrutiny, and deal with complicated power dynamics, vocal stakeholders, and unrelenting media interest. Understandably, change does not happen without deliberation.

To build confidence in your approach to change, employ an experimental mindset. State in specific terms the expected result of implementing a proposed idea. This forms your hypothesis. Then, proactively identify what must be true in order for this new idea to work. These are your assumptions. Describe how you will test the core hypothesis and determine whether those assumptions are valid.

Throughout this part of the process, it is important to demonstrate how testing new ideas with diverse customers early and often ensures that the right problem is being solved. Many hypotheses can be tested with very inexpensive and simple prototypes, so be thoughtful in determining what you need, whether it’s a paper sketch, a storyboard, a 3D model, a wireframe, or anything else. The thing about prototypes is that they can literally be created out of anything, even a role play or a simulation. That's what makes them special and impactful.

Finally, make sure to share precisely how you changed ideas, based on what you learned when you put them to the test.

Cultivate creativity

Hire people who bring diverse talents, perspectives and lived experiences. Encourage your team to take inspiration from unexpected places. For example, what can be learned from a doctor about delivering upsetting news, from a writer about storytelling, or from a luxury sales associate about customer service?

Ultimately, your team should become a microcosm of the changes you are trying to make. If you want others to run faster, be the one to take the lead and set the pace.

With the availability of products and services increasingly just one click away, government agencies are facing mounting demands for more human-centred services. Building a high-impact service design team will equip you to meet this opportunity, and will guarantee that you secure the trust of your colleagues in the process. — Bryanne Gilkinson

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