Summary
Through Open Cities, Granicus was able to expand on our ability to provide resident-centered digital experiences in local governments around the world. Our platform is the public sector's leading digital customer journey platform that has helped thousands of local governments transform their websites, digital forms, and service delivery experiences. Join Irina Tikhonova and Kari Dietrich in this session focused on the importance of starting small when elevating user experiences. We discuss how to focus on user journeys, involve the right stakeholders, and push for data-driven and human-centered policy changes.
Key Insights
-
•
Starting with small targeted digital pilots can generate large savings and efficiency gains in local government services.
-
•
Grand Rapids’ 311 service redesign reduced walk-ins by 79% and saved $200,000 in staff costs within six weeks.
-
•
Granicus platform offers a modular, ‘Lego-block’ approach allowing government clients to build tailored user experiences.
-
•
Combining technology with consulting services around data, personas, and user journeys improves digital transformation outcomes.
-
•
Real user testing with diverse populations reveals deeper insights than relying solely on personas or anecdotal data.
-
•
In Wyandotte County, policies created services that were not equitable, especially for those without legal representation.
-
•
Iterative, user-centered design processes with hybrid content management help improve government website content consistency.
-
•
Resistance to change inside government is common and requires persistent champions like Becky Joglover to overcome.
-
•
Digital services designed for the most marginalized users tend to improve usability for the entire resident population.
-
•
Government websites should act as online government itself, not just provide information about government.
Notable Quotes
"Big projects tend to get out of hand and scare stakeholders, so starting small is key to scaling impact."
"Granicus is like Lego blocks — you can create any type of engagement and experience you want."
"Majority of users relied heavily on Google to find government services rather than navigating the site itself."
"84% of website contributors didn’t know their own top pages or important analytics."
"Digital transformation can be slowed down by leadership resistance and a desire for gradual change."
"If you fix the problems for marginalized communities, you really fix them for everyone."
"People just wanted to get in, get what they needed, and get out without figuring out government operations."
"Websites and digital spaces should be government, not just provide information about government."
"You never get all your usability testers to respond, you always need to recruit more than you think."
"Employees creating content improved rapidly when centralized guidelines and editing were applied."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"No assistive technology user uses default settings; we spend years customizing everything to work for us."
Sam ProulxSUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
December 9, 2021
"We’re trying to build a design operations role that balances top-down governance with bottom-up community building."
Michael LandEstablishing Design Operations in Government
February 18, 2021
"We stuck with NPS because it was a pure metric with a long history we could trend, instead of muddying things with loyalty or revenue."
Shipra KayanHow we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up
September 30, 2021
"Careers as ladders are what HR wants, but careers aren’t linear; they should be a jungle gym."
Ian SwinsonDesigning and Driving UX Careers
June 8, 2016
"If you’re managing over 100 design practitioners, it makes sense to start looking at a chief of staff role."
Isaac HeyveldExpand DesignOps Leadership as a Chief of Staff
September 8, 2022
"What if product and business actually manage designs and deliver digital communications?"
Amy EvansHow to Create Change
September 25, 2024
"Super strength is the resilience and endurance to partner and drive strategic impact backed by customer obsession."
Kate Koch Prateek KalliFlex Your Super Powers: When a Design Ops Team Scales to Power CX
September 30, 2021
"Beliefs are habits of action; they are the rules that guide how we decide to act."
Dave GrayLiminal Thinking: Sense-making for systems in large organizations
May 14, 2015
"Providing immediate tactical value is the big one for just-in-time curation."
Matt DuignanAtomizing Research: Trend or Trap
March 30, 2020
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How does categorizing risk improve prompt design and evaluation in AI products?
What challenges come with managing client expectations when introducing AI-powered workflows?
What are the benefits of long-term knowledge management for building trust with federal agency partners like the Veterans Experience Office?