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Establishing Design Operations in Government
Summary
Key Insights
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Design in government is nascent and misunderstood, often seven or more years behind private industry.
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Design efforts in agencies like USCIS tend to be fragmented, resembling mushroom patches without coordination.
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Most government designers are contractors with limited voice and influence over processes and tooling.
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Government hiring categories lack modern roles for designers, making federal design career paths nearly nonexistent.
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The US Digital Service uses a 'tour of duty' model, akin to Peace Corps for nerds, bringing rotating experts for impactful projects.
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Building design operations requires diplomacy and relationship management across multiple teams and leadership levels.
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COVID-19 and budget constraints have posed significant challenges to building design teams and conducting in-person collaboration.
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A centralized design system and research operations are critical to unify dispersed design efforts and share learnings.
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Service design is largely undeveloped in government but essential for improving the delivery of public services beyond digital aspects.
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Bureaucracy hacking and adaptability are vital skills for advancing design functions within the complexities of government processes.
Notable Quotes
"It's kind of Peace Corps for nerds – people come in for a tour and try to have impact at scale."
"Government is seven plus years behind industry – not bleeding edge, more like the dull butter knife edge."
"There are lots of little mushroom patches of design sprouting up, but they're disconnected and not sharing."
"Most of our designers are contractors; they have limited voice because they’re bound by contracts."
"In government, the org chart really matters – it influences who talks to whom and who gets to interface."
"You don’t want so much governance that people can’t be creative, but you need just enough to help their process."
"Hiring specs for federal designers don’t exist as we expect—jobs are often classified as public affairs or other unrelated titles."
"We’re trying to build a design operations role that balances top-down governance with bottom-up community building."
"The biggest bottleneck is the bureaucracy, like the Paperwork Reduction Act, we have to creatively navigate that."
"Design Ops in government requires a lot of diplomacy – it’s about managing relationships and stakeholder expectations."
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