Brendan Wu
Service design in the public sector
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
Summary: As public expectations rise, government agencies are doubling down on improving service delivery to delight their customers. Customer experience is getting more important everywhere—including the public sector. People are accustomed to the experiences offered by companies from Air New Zealand to Electric Kiwi and now want the same from the public sector.
Government agencies need to build a holistic view of the customer experience so they can put themselves in the public's shoes, understand their journeys as they access services, and figure out what really delights or displeases their customers. The challenges can be daunting.
Agencies looking to improve their customers experience need to do so by understanding what matters most to people. This is crucial for establishing the service experience and making effective decisions about the steps to take to truly deliver and engage the public in the services they offer.
My Role
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Design lead
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Work with service design consultants
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Re-develop the customer journey
The toolkit
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Design workshops
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Capability and design frameworks
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Benefits models
Soft skills needed
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Creative thinking
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Problem solving
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Communication
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Analytical thinking
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Who I worked with
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Board
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Customer managers
Background
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Governments often lack the capabilities needed to assess and address gaps in customer experiences. Staff with deep analytics skills, as well as human-centered design skills, are often in short supply
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Government agencies must aim to serve everyone within their mandated mission, they can’t just ignore certain customer segments. This challenge often solidifies over time into a principle of providing one-size-fits-all service.
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The international growth fund (IGF) is a service where funding is made available by NZ Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) to exporters looking to expand overseas. NZTE set upon an initiative to look at how they can improve the service experience and have focus it on customer needs rather than the internal needs of the organisation.
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My role
My role was to co-ordinate and drive a redesign programme of the IGF with the aim of improving the customer experience and streamlining the IGF process.
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Step 1 - Getting started,
I was not a service designer by trade so we decided to work alongside a design company that NZTE had previous experience with. I contacted them and together we developed a plan of attack.
We researched and ran interviews to understand how the IGF operated, how customers engaged with it and what the problem areas were
Step 2 - Service design workshop
We then ran a broader workshop which included Board members, the leadership team and various customer managers across the different segments. The full day workshop was facilitated by the design consultants and was very successful. We identified 14 araes to improve the service and were able to identify the key areas of concern that needed to be addressed.
Step 3 - Designing the customer experience and initiatives
The consultants presented back the broader customer experience framework from the workshop output along with the initiative templates which we could use to expand on the details.
We used both the framework and templates to develop an updated IGF focusing more on the customer experience. Due to the high number of initiatives we presented to the leadership team, we included the priority order that we would implement according to ease and benefit.
Step 4 - ongoing work
The IGF continued to evolve as we re-designed the process and documentation. We had begun to pilot the initiatives with a handful of customers. I began to focus on handing over the work and embedding the new process with the operational and customer management team
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Outcome
A service capability design and framework was established which outlined the needs and experiences of IGF users. Based on this understanding, initiatives were devised to improve the service with the emphasis on improving the tangible and intangible elements to meet needs and improve experiences. A benefits model was also applied to each initiative to help with the prioritisation of the implementation.
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What was delivered
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Service experience concepts which described each of the initiatives to identify the scope and customer requirements
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Capability map and service experience design which illustrates the design approaches at the strategic, experience and delivery layers
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Current and future state journeys and activities