embedding design | snook & cork county council

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

250Reps a month

15 minutes to process each one

5 Hours to process the

reps daily

3Day 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

Usability

testing 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

application

Scanning

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/Office

Phone

Email

Post

Face to Face

Telephone

Email

Face to Face

Emaill

PostCCS System

Scanning documentation

CCS System

Internal Post

Email

Excel Spreadsheets

iHouse

Phone Email Email

Post

Clinics/Office

Phone

Email

Post

Face to Face

ST

AG

ES

TO

RY

BO

RA

DF

EE

LIN

GT

OU

CH

PO

INT

INT

ER

AC

TIO

N

Local Rep meets

ConstituentLocal 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 updatesCCC 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-design

Standardising 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

Dormant

Unconscious

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 Block

Conscious

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

Sprinting

Active 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

Stretching

Conscious

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

Running

Unconscious

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.

Pacing

Conscious

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.

Learn

ing

Sty

le

Typ

ical

Ap

pro

ach

Desig

n

Cap

acit

y

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