government digital transformation

leading the digital strategy for a government agency modernizing 29 legacy services—the kind of systems that directly impact people's ability to work and access healthcare.

the problem

citizens were struggling through disconnected, paper-heavy processes. frontline staff were stuck with systems so outdated they couldn't effectively serve people who needed help.

during interviews, the chief medical officer told us people hide their actual mental health status because the system makes it too hard to be honest. they'd rather stay silent than navigate the bureaucracy required to get support. that's when it became clear how broken things were.

the approach

listening to frontline staff

conducted 45+ workshops with the people actually delivering services. transcribed everything by hand (this was before ai transcription). synthesized hundreds of interview insights to understand where the system was failing both citizens and staff.

making the invisible visible

created service blueprints in figma and miro that visualized the full experience—citizen-facing interactions and all the behind-the-scenes work that makes services function. these became the single source of truth everyone could point to.

big-room facilitation

brought key stakeholders from different departments into the same room to workshop what services should look like. made it experiential (travel-themed! custom cookies!). watching people align around shared understanding of citizen needs instead of defending departmental turf.

what we delivered

• identified 80+ ux improvements across 29 services, prioritized by actual impact on citizens and staff
• secured $3.5m budget for modernization—funding for strategy, tech implementation, hiring, system rationalization
• delivered strategic roadmap adopted across multiple service streams
• client nps score of 10/10 because the work felt collaborative, not extractive

what surprised me

government systems are stuck in ways i didn't expect. so much is still paper-based. teams want to make meaningful change but face endless red tape, even when lives and livelihoods are at stake.

but the most satisfying part was seeing their faces when they saw the interactive service blueprints. suddenly everyone could see how everything connected. the visual artifacts gave them permission to imagine something better.

good government digital transformation requires as much empathy for internal users (staff navigating bureaucracy) as external users (citizens needing services). the best solutions emerged when we brought both perspectives into the same room.