Canadian Government Executive - Volume 24 - Issue 05

GATHER BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS Clients interact with services according to their own habits, tendencies, and mental models. Service tweaks and issue framings can reorient clients for the better. UNDERSTAND THE VARIOUS CLIENTS Clients are diverse, with their own goals and aspirations, their own quirks and foibles. Instead of designing for an imagined ideal-client, co-creators engage with real ones. SPECULATE ON FUTURE SCENARIOS Bad services become prematurely obsolete. Good ones are built to evolve as new trends emerge. The best services use foresight to influence the future. IMPLEMENT IN THE FIELD A viable version of the service is installed in context. Broader communities of clients and stakeholders are engaged. New ideas for improvement emerge. SITUATING WITHIN A CONTEXT Services are not experienced in isolation. The immediate context of use has an influence. So does the interplay of larger systems. These complex dynamics are studied. ASSESS AND IMPROVE Research and testing does not stop outside the lab. The service evolves as clients expose weaknesses and opportunities. Features and refinements are added. THE HAND-OFF Co-creators do not become dependent on the lab but develop the capacity to evolve the service themselves. October/November 2018 // Canadian Government Executive / 17