Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Fireside chat with Sarah Brooks and Jen Pahlka
Summary
For our second gathering of the Civic Design Community, we’ll learn from Jennifer Pahlka, founder and former Executive Director of Code for America who served. as US Deputy Chief Technology Officer from June 2013 to June 2014 and helped found the United States Digital Service. We’ll explore the importance of designers inside and outside government moving upstream to work alongside policymakers to make alliances and push back when needed to strengthen conditions for designers and digital technologists to do work that delivers improved outcomes for residents and citizens.
Key Insights
-
•
Civic Tech work is not just implementation; it must influence policymaking for real impact.
-
•
The Boston school selection project revealed how policy assumptions (e.g., walking distance) need revising based on implementation feedback.
-
•
Traditional government projects often lack timely feedback loops between policy writers and implementers, leading to failures.
-
•
Healthcare.gov’s failure catalyzed the creation of the U.S. Digital Service and a new model focused on agile, collaborative development.
-
•
Long-term embedding of designers and technologists in government enables deeper learning and more effective change.
-
•
Many career public servants do user research unofficially but need permission and training to do it effectively.
-
•
Low trust in government systems causes users, such as doctors interacting with CMS portals, to feel frustrated and opt out.
-
•
Successful Civic Tech requires partnerships that blend technology, policy, and frontline user understanding.
-
•
Private sector frameworks like Customer Experience (CX) may not fully apply to public services without adaptation.
-
•
Community support and strong relationships are essential for sustaining Civic Tech efforts within challenging government environments.
Notable Quotes
"I was largely wrong about how we thought technology and design would just implement policy."
"People implementing policy see the problems with the policy long before anyone else does."
"The policy was about walking distance as the crow flies, but that wasn’t walkable—so the policy needed to change."
"In traditional government projects, policy writers are often gone long before implementations fail or need revising."
"Healthcare.gov was a blow, but it opened the door to new ways to work in government technology."
"If leaders tell me to build a concrete boat, I will build a concrete boat—and that’s damaging to government."
"Designing a service is really designing a new relationship between government and people, who come with enormous baggage."
"User research in government is often done without knowing what it’s called, and people aren’t always empowered to do it."
"We need to push back when we see the concrete boat coming, but it’s really hard to know how."
"Community and ‘the phone a friend’ are what get you through the hardest parts of working in government."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Post-implementation reviews help catch bugs or style issues before customers see them, maintaining high quality."
Yunyan Li Anna Le Jen KimUX Best Practices
June 11, 2021
"Developers are protective of their code, so AI coding tools naturally landed with them first."
Allan LowsonRehashing the Double Diamond: Collaborating across functions with AI-assisted prototyping
June 9, 2026
"I appreciate your allyship when I'm in the room, but I appreciate it more when I'm not in the room."
Denise Jacobs Nancy Douyon Renee Reid Lisa WelchmanInteractive Keynote: Social Change by Design
January 8, 2024
"We’re capturing requirements usually without research, design has to be 100% baked before development starts."
Renee BouwensLanding Product Impact: Aligning Research as a Foundational Driver for Delivering the World’s Best Products
December 15, 2023
"Junk in, junk out. Bad data is worse than no data at all."
Jemma Ahmed Steve Carrod Chris Geison Dr. Shadi Janansefat Christopher NashDemocratization: Working with it, not against it [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
July 24, 2024
"You have to be careful not to be too weird; mental models differ internationally."
Sam LadnerHow Research Can Drive Strategic Foresight
March 9, 2022
"The wrong learning pedagogy might be fueling impostor syndrome among design researchers."
Yoel SumitroActions and Reflections: Bridging the Skills Gap among Researchers
March 9, 2022
"Helping teams is much more like managing a children’s party than engineering a bridge."
Dave HoraResearch in the Face of Complexity: New Sensibility for New Situations
August 27, 2025
"The AI is looking through material and that material’s changing every day."
Daniel J. RosenbergDesigning with and for Artificial Intelligence
August 11, 2022
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What are the limitations of AI-generated hardware design solutions regarding real-world user testing?
How can designers use AI to create entirely new interaction paradigms instead of just improving productivity?
Why is the absence of self-governing professional institutions a challenge for the design field?