Summary
When designing into inherently complex government services, civic designers must take a systemic approach. Too often service design focuses on public-facing and sometimes frontline staff-facing interventions, thereby placing the burden of successful service delivery on unempowered shoulders. As service delivery is the byproduct of many entities, interventions must systemically target all policy "layers", such as operations and policy, to be successful. In this presentation, the Public Policy Lab team will share their public policy 'layer cake'. Besides reflecting their affinity for baked goods, it’s a systems design framework for creating interventions at all levels of a public service, while also creating opportunities for equity.
Key Insights
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Government services operate through multiple human layers, each holding different kinds and levels of power.
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Frontline staff have the least power yet are the direct face of service delivery to the public.
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Effective systemic design must intervene simultaneously at multiple layers—policy, operations, programs, and frontline delivery.
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Public-facing tools alone are insufficient without corresponding operational supports like training and protocols.
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Co-designing with service users and providers reveals critical service gaps and informs better tools and workflows.
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Centralizing cross-agency program information enhances referral accuracy and trust among providers and families.
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Embedding continuous feedback mechanisms at the organizational level empowers family voices beyond point-of-service interactions.
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Policy delivery models act as organizing frameworks that align all levels of the system around shared goals.
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Civic participation tools like consensus products can redistribute power by formalizing community engagement with service leadership.
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Systems change ultimately happens at the human scale by making visible the otherwise opaque structures and power relations.
Notable Quotes
"When you design complex government systems, civic designers need to take a systematic approach—there is no other option."
"Service delivery is driven by service operations, systems, rules, policies, and of course, people."
"Frontline staff tend to have the least amount of power of all these people in the system."
"For every level the public interacts with a service, staff at that same level undertake parallel activities to support it."
"Even the best designed public-facing tools need operational and policy support to succeed."
"We introduced a standard framework for collecting and responding to family feedback at the organizational level."
"Policy delivery models serve as organizing frameworks that all players in the system can understand and act within."
"Putting program information together on comparable terms makes the system material and imaginable."
"We hope to support the public in exercising agency, strapping some of that hegemonic power that traditionally defines public services."
"Systems change happens at the human scale by making visible the structures, people, tools, and rules that compose systems."
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