Create a Cohesive Civic Design Practice Across Agency, Vendors, and Contracts
Summary
At a large U.S. federal agency, we've partnered across agency personnel, vendors, and contracts to build a single design culture that delivers an exceptional customer experience while meeting evolving business needs. We’ve built collaboration and critique rituals, tooling approaches, and design governance processes to organize 75+ designers into a unified practice all working together on a single, digital experience. We'll share what worked, what didn't, and provide a set of principles and tactics you can use right away – in any government agency – to begin building your own cohesive design practice, even when your ecosystem is anything but cohesive.
Key Insights
-
•
Centralizing research participant recruitment and documentation streamlines user access for multiple contract teams, improving research quality and inclusivity.
-
•
Collaboration across contractor boundaries is critical and can be facilitated by shared communication tools like Slack and regular cross-team meetings.
-
•
Normalizing design tools and processes across contractors ensures consistency, speeds onboarding, and prevents duplicated effort in maintaining design systems.
-
•
A governance-driven collaboration cycle with strict adherence to accessibility and user experience standards is required to launch VA digital applications.
-
•
Making design work and patterns visible early prevents redundant efforts and clarifies which user problems are already addressed.
-
•
Dedicated centralized expert teams in accessibility, content, IA, and QA free designers to specialize and maintain quality in large-scale enterprise projects.
-
•
Legal constraints, such as the Paperwork Reduction Act, limit research interactions, requiring balancing ethical concerns with agile user research.
-
•
Contracts structured around individual products rather than whole user experiences create challenges in coordination and require extra collaborative effort.
-
•
Fostering psychological safety and informal feedback venues enables design teams from multiple companies to share work openly and improve outcomes.
-
•
The VA’s approach has led to millions of veterans using self-service tools monthly, highlighting the impact of cohesive government design practices.
Notable Quotes
"Throwing a potluck sounds easy until you realize you don’t have a group that magically reads each other’s minds, resulting in a random table of snack foods."
"Our digital experience group acts like hosts and planners making sure veterans sit down to a cohesive, inclusive meal, not just disparate dishes."
"We have over 30 contracting teams spread across roughly 10 vendors all working on parts of the veteran experience landscape."
"A government designer aims to reduce UX variation while a contractor may optimize only their single product, creating potential conflicts."
"Reliable access to veterans and other users is fundamental to running quality, inclusive research across many teams and products."
"Slack channels and weekly meetings encourage cross-contract collaboration, avoiding duplication and sharing learnings across teams."
"The collaboration cycle requires following standards for accessibility, content, design system usage, and IA or you don’t launch your product."
"We treat our shared tooling and design system as a product with a dedicated team maintaining reusable components and governance."
"Designers contribute experimental patterns back to the design system early, making their work visible even before full validation."
"We’ve seen self-service tool usage grow from hundreds to millions of veterans served monthly after launching a unified VA platform."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"The AI system might excel at narrow tasks, but putting things into context — especially tone and holistic understanding — is uniquely human."
Mohammad Hossein JarrahiContextuality problem: Exploring the Benefits of Qualitative and Quantitative Research
January 20, 2023
"Technology affects cities directly and profoundly, shaping how we live, work, and play."
Dan HillDesigning for the infrastructures of everyday life
June 4, 2024
"There’s an illusion of one true answer with AI, but often there’s a cloud of plausible answers depending on how you ask."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design: New Design Patterns for New Experiences (3rd of 3 seminars)
February 12, 2025
"We introduced an 'explanation not needed' approach so researchers can decline projects without having to justify themselves."
Brian MossWhat Does it Mean to be a Resilient Research Team?
March 9, 2022
"We should feel empowered to propose research initiatives that stakeholders aren’t explicitly asking for."
Joanna Vodopivec Prabhas PokharelOne Research Team for All - Influence Without Authority
March 9, 2022
"This AI stuff is a new design material, just like the internet or mobile was before."
Peter Van DijckBuilding the Rosenbot
June 4, 2024
"We're just getting started — there’s an opportunity for all of us to continue to participate and build this community."
Kristin SkinnerTheme 1 Intro
September 29, 2021
"Even bad research can be good because it creates learning opportunities."
James Wieselman SchulmanResearch is a team sport: advancing the work when everyone does the research
March 11, 2026
"Google is the digital equivalent of the local shopping mall or the local main street."
Erin WeigelReal-world lessons to improve your conversion rates
June 26, 2024