Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22 - Issue 3

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March 2016 // Canadian Government Executive / 11
Design
professional development and collabo-
rates to innovate, has had a general goal:
to find a common approach on how to de-
liver regulatory information for online. At
the same time, TBS has been working with
federal departments and agencies to de-
velop , the federal government’s
client-centric window. The timing was
also good: wanted to present
government information in new ways and
was testing ideas with clients to optimize
the service experience.
The CFR now had a challenge. It first ap-
proached TBS to take a novel “outside-in”
approach to designing regulatory guid-
ance information to reflect the needs,
uses and experiences of its internal and
external clients. CFR also found a willing
partner in Health Canada. The consortium
then approached the Service Lab to apply
a design-thinking approach to co-create a
client-centred online service.
From launch to completion, the process
took six months. Collaborating with the
CFR and relying on their process design
and coordination expertise, the Service
Lab provided design advice, collaborative
tools and processes, an expanded design
team and offsite space for innovation,
which was a critical component of success.
The team’s work benefitted from contin-
ued close collaboration with designers,
usability experts and testers from Health
Canada, CFRs members and their clients.
After the first “discovery burst,” the team
recognized potential gaps and chose to
devote extra days to engage directly with
a broader range of external stakeholders,
both in-person and through video and
teleconference.
“That kind of project flexibility, coupled
with the trust of our clients and the con-
fidence of our management team, let us
adapt to what we learned along the way
and pivot plans and processes quickly
to stay on schedule and enhance the re-
sults,” said Trajan Schulzke, Service Lab’s
founding director.
The team used the discovery-stage data
to inform the ensuing co-design process.
Clickable prototypes of the new client-
centered experience were built based
on the ideas generated. User testing of
the web-based prototypes was
completed in November 2015. The rollout
of the new standard is scheduled for sum-
mer 2016.
This first end-to-end project for the
Service Lab yielded a new client-centred
standard for how the Government of Can-
ada will present regulatory guidance on-
line. It also demonstrated several lessons
about the design process for public sector
regulators, policy makers and service de-
signers. The Lab’s work is beginning to
get the attention of public sector leaders
and managers wanting to experiment and
find solutions to policy, program and regu-
latory problems.
As a result, the Lab now has 18 active
projects underway in a variety of stages in
the design thinking/co-creation process.
Eight more projects are waiting on the or-
der books. These include digital inclusion,
government service-to-business issues, a
pre-commercial program scaling, expedit-
ed processes for business starts, and com-
positional food standards, among others.
Since opening in March 2015, over 4000
people have visited, worked in or toured
the Lab facilities.
ISED Canada launched its Service Lab a
year ago to respond to a recognized need
for better government service experiences
for business. During her tenure as Clerk of
the Privy Council, Janice Charette advo-
cated strongly for Canada’s public service
to become more innovative, collaborative
and agile in its approaches to serving its
many clients. ISED Deputy Minister John
Knubley also expressed strong support for
the Lab and its innovative, user-driven
initiatives. Importantly, the Service Lab
has created a central and “neutral” physi-
cal space to enable conversations cross-
ing organization and sectoral boundaries,
much like the MindLab in Copenhagen.
The result helps to uncover insights and
evidence used in collaborative processes
with clients, stakeholders and partners
that lead to often innovative results that
reshaping policy, programs and regula-
tions.
While its first design projects are only
just starting to enhance client experi-
ences, perhaps the Service Lab’s greatest
contribution to date is the cultural shift
that it and other federal labs and innova-
tion teams are enabling. They are creating
opportunities for public servants to col-
laborate, adopt new ways of thinking and
work. It can only help the Government of
Canada adopt client-oriented, systems-lev-
el approaches to enhancing policy think-
ing and program delivery.
My Thanks to Trajan Schulzke, Christian
Laverdure, and Chrystia Chudczak.
Peter Jones is an associate professor at
OCAD University in the MDes Strate-
gic Foresight and Innovation program
and guides research in the Strategic
Innovation Lab .
Peter Bruce, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy, Shared Services Canada
(SSC), December 3, 2015. SSC reimagines client service delivery at Service Lab.
Photo: Chrystia Chudczak | Service Lab.