Digital Government

The Promise of Design Thinking

“The desire to bring new ways of thinking into government is like an insurgency,” said Joshua Marcuse, Senior Advisory for Policy Innovation at DoD. One of those ways of thinking is design thinking, also called human-centered design (HCD). To learn more about design thinking, we spoke with Zvika Krieger, Director of the Strategy Lab atRead… Read more »

How the U.S. Digital Service Defines Success

Mikey Dickerson’s measure of success is simple. If the disability claims backlog isn’t a backlog, if open enrollment on Healthcare.gov goes well, and there are more immigration services online in the next 529 days, then his team has done its job. “By the fruits you will know this,” Dickerson said Monday at the Next GenerationRead… Read more »

Tools to Clean Your Data

GovLoop’s online training addressed the concept of “bad data” with a panel of experts: • Bobby Caudill, Global Industry Marketing, U.S. Public Sector, Informatica • Murthy Mathiprakasam, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Informatica • Lori Walsh, Chief, Center for Risk and Quantitative Analysis, U.S. Security and Exchange Commission Titled “Beware Bad Data”, this online training highlightedRead… Read more »

Mobile Livestreaming: The Next Social Frontier

By Josh Delung, ICF International Every day, it’s estimated between about 300 and 600 new apps launch in Apple’s App Store alone, not counting other storefronts such as the Google Play store for Android devices. There’s a similarly overwhelming deluge of social networking sites that seem to emerge for some new niche each week. It’sRead… Read more »

Silicon Valley: Give Gov a Digital Reboot

Attention Silicon Valley talent: “Uncle Sam” wants YOU! That is, to help reinvent government via mass digitalization of citizen-facing services across the sprawling federal bureaucracy. Several generations ago, in January 1961, President John F. Kennedy famously stated in his inaugural address: Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you canRead… Read more »

Three Ways To Improve Federal Digital CX On A Shoestring

Have you read the results of the Government Business Council’s new “Digital Disconnect” survey? The results are fascinating, and I could go on for quite some time about them (just ask my dogs, who have been listening to me rant about the survey all morning). However, at the moment I will focus on the resultRead… Read more »

Collaboration, Not Enforcement in New Zealand

Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed increasing references to government agencies as enablers rather than enforcers or regulators. I think that this is a side effect of 2 ideas that are gaining acceptance: the shift in the public sector to focus on trust rather than compliance seeing the public sector as an inter-connected systemRead… Read more »

Plan Your Summer Vacation Around Customer Experience

It’s finally here. That time of year when seemingly half of the federal workforce flees the city for a well-deserved vacation. It’s a magical time for those of us who stay behind: Less traffic shortens our commutes, the Starbuck’s and food truck lines are shorter, and fewer people at meetings means more decisions get made.Read… Read more »

3 Tips for Designing Better Forms

This is the second installment of “Build Better Forms,” a series in which we review online government forms and suggest some improvements. As we discussed in our first post, a clear and intuitive form reaps many benefits: lower data processing costs, fewer support requests, higher completion rates, and greater citizen satisfaction. Let’s run through threeRead… Read more »