Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Optimizing for Outcomes: Transformation Design in Systems at Scale
Gold
Wednesday, December 4, 2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Share the love for this talk
Optimizing for Outcomes: Transformation Design in Systems at Scale
Speakers: Stefanie Owens
Link:

Summary

Moving beyond the service blueprint or user journey map, this case study explores some of the more non-traditional outputs and outcomes driven by service design, particularly through the lens of creating long-term transformational change. Stefanie will overview a variety of recipes for achieving transformative outcomes at three levels within government agencies: the product/service experience, program-wide or platform initiatives, and fundamental agency technology operations. The challenges for each layer are unique, but also offer different opportunities for where service designers can achieve sustainable, real impact. We’ll explore specific examples achieved by a breadth of designers, product managers, and engineers working within government before exploring how this model might be replicated across other partner government agencies to achieve our vision of making more government services become as simple, effective, and accessible as possible.

Key Insights

  • Transformation design applies human-centered design at every layer of government service delivery, including technical infrastructure.

  • Nava focuses on building better foundations, not just better facades, to create lasting organizational change.

  • Agile iteration culture is still not universal in government and introducing it through design can shift entrenched waterfall mindsets.

  • Designers embedded within technical teams, like at the VA, enable faster release cycles by identifying friction points and co-developing support processes.

  • Program-level service design can unify cross-agency teams with shared language, playbooks, and frameworks to synchronize complex federal initiatives.

  • Simplifying processes such as cloud infrastructure onboarding can reduce provisioning from months to 48 hours, saving costs and increasing adoption.

  • Using plain language playbooks helps caseworkers across states better understand and administer programs like Medicaid and SNAP.

  • Designers at the deepest organizational levels can advocate for policy and procurement changes to eliminate bottlenecks and burnout risks.

  • Despite challenges, design advocacy at technical and operational layers can build allies over time and spread human-centered design practices across agencies.

  • The scale of government systems means design improvements can have massive impact reaching millions of users and affecting significant portions of GDP.

Notable Quotes

"Build better foundations, not better facades."

"The highest impact levers for long-term transformation exist in technical infrastructure and operations."

"Many federal benefit programs face challenges verifying income, causing stress and leaving billions in unclaimed benefits."

"Injecting a culture of agile iteration sets the precedent that things can and will change as the team learns."

"Designers can help cross-functional teams learn and grow together through building shared understanding and common language."

"Making onboarding easier at the infrastructure layer results in huge efficiency gains and cost savings."

"Designers embedded alongside technical teams can spot unseen issues in the spaces between operational silos."

"An agency developing shared technical infrastructure must market to itself why change is preferred, not just rely on top-down mandate."

"It can be hard for designers to immediately understand or advocate for the real value of design at deeper technical layers."

"What one government agency does often serves as the playbook for success at another."

Ask the Rosenbot
Ellen Chisa
The Values of Design
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Sam Proulx
Online Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Vasileios Xanthopoulos
A Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approach to User-Centric Maturity at Scale
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Brianna Sylver
Lead With Purpose
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Dr. Jamika D. Burge
Theme 3 Intro
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Opening Remarks
2023 • Design in Product 2023
Gold
Matt LeMay
You Don’t “Get” Anyone to Do Anything
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Kate Stern
Scaling Learning for the Future
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Megan Blocker
Theme 2 Intro
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Deanna Zandt
The Unspoken Complexity of “Self-Care” with Deanna Zandt
2022 • Civic Design Community
Andy Warr
Under My (Research) Umbrella: The Benefits and Challenges of Building a Unified Insights Function
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Samuel Proulx
Invisible barriers: Why accessible service design can’t be an afterthought
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
JP Allen
Navigating the UX Tools Landscape
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Joshua Graves
We Need To Talk: Managing Ludicrous Requests at Work (Part 3 of 3)
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Liam Thurston
Why Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Changying (Z) Zheng
Practical DesignOps: From Ideas to Tools That Teams Actually Use
2025 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Robin Beers

"The only thing any of us can control is how quickly we learn and then act based on that learning."

Robin Beers

Navigating organizational systems: Rethinking researcher’s role in driving change

March 13, 2025

Laura Schaefer

"Rules and responsibilities documents give people concrete steps they can take towards accessibility."

Laura Schaefer

DesignOps: A Conduit for Inclusion

September 9, 2022

Ned Gartside

"73% of users are willing to choose a more sustainable browsing option even if image quality decreases."

Ned Gartside Mike Gifford Zoe Lopez-Latorre Tzviya Siegman

Navigating accessibility and climate

April 17, 2024

Peter Van Dijck

"Workers are often worried about layoffs and their value when AI speeds up their process, while executives like the efficiency gains."

Peter Van Dijck

Designing AI-first products on top of a rapidly evolving technology

June 10, 2025

Surya Vanka

"Visual process maps embody cognition and allow people to step through design without becoming experts."

Surya Vanka

Unleashing Swarm Creativity to Solve Enterprise Challenges

June 10, 2021

Jemma Ahmed

"Market researchers are turning to lean methodologies that feel very close to what user researchers do."

Jemma Ahmed

Convergent Research Techniques in Customer Journey Mapping

March 31, 2020

"There’s this kind of Collective unconscious within teams that formed over the pandemic which is deeper than any other team experience I’ve had."

DesignOps and The Great Talent War of 2021

August 19, 2021

Robin Beers

"We are the only thing we can control, how quickly we learn and how we adapt based on that learning."

Robin Beers

Beyond Insights: Researchers as Organizational Change Catalysts

March 25, 2024

Maria Skaaden

"We keep our playbook in a place where anyone can edit it from the team."

Maria Skaaden

Panel Discussion: Methodologies and Work Environments

November 8, 2018