Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Fireside chat with Sarah Brooks and Jen Pahlka
Summary
For our second gathering of the Civic Design Community, we’ll learn from Jennifer Pahlka, founder and former Executive Director of Code for America who served. as US Deputy Chief Technology Officer from June 2013 to June 2014 and helped found the United States Digital Service. We’ll explore the importance of designers inside and outside government moving upstream to work alongside policymakers to make alliances and push back when needed to strengthen conditions for designers and digital technologists to do work that delivers improved outcomes for residents and citizens.
Key Insights
-
•
Civic Tech work is not just implementation; it must influence policymaking for real impact.
-
•
The Boston school selection project revealed how policy assumptions (e.g., walking distance) need revising based on implementation feedback.
-
•
Traditional government projects often lack timely feedback loops between policy writers and implementers, leading to failures.
-
•
Healthcare.gov’s failure catalyzed the creation of the U.S. Digital Service and a new model focused on agile, collaborative development.
-
•
Long-term embedding of designers and technologists in government enables deeper learning and more effective change.
-
•
Many career public servants do user research unofficially but need permission and training to do it effectively.
-
•
Low trust in government systems causes users, such as doctors interacting with CMS portals, to feel frustrated and opt out.
-
•
Successful Civic Tech requires partnerships that blend technology, policy, and frontline user understanding.
-
•
Private sector frameworks like Customer Experience (CX) may not fully apply to public services without adaptation.
-
•
Community support and strong relationships are essential for sustaining Civic Tech efforts within challenging government environments.
Notable Quotes
"I was largely wrong about how we thought technology and design would just implement policy."
"People implementing policy see the problems with the policy long before anyone else does."
"The policy was about walking distance as the crow flies, but that wasn’t walkable—so the policy needed to change."
"In traditional government projects, policy writers are often gone long before implementations fail or need revising."
"Healthcare.gov was a blow, but it opened the door to new ways to work in government technology."
"If leaders tell me to build a concrete boat, I will build a concrete boat—and that’s damaging to government."
"Designing a service is really designing a new relationship between government and people, who come with enormous baggage."
"User research in government is often done without knowing what it’s called, and people aren’t always empowered to do it."
"We need to push back when we see the concrete boat coming, but it’s really hard to know how."
"Community and ‘the phone a friend’ are what get you through the hardest parts of working in government."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"As manual tasks get automated, individuals can focus on higher-value tasks and training machine learning systems."
Lavy Kumar Kat Temple Shan Sebastian Tara Jensen Jenn ChouFuture of Work
June 9, 2021
"We used virtual sketching where users could move components into spaces representing their actual workflows on the platform."
Andreas Huebner Amy Takata Craig BrookesWhat Is It Like To Be Part of The UX Team at Compass?
March 11, 2021
"Conjoint analysis reveals how consumers make choices by examining trade-offs they are willing to make."
Ricardo MartinsUnlocking the power of advanced quantitative methods
March 12, 2025
"We built a Mount Rushmore of design thinking engineers to help the culture resonate with developers."
Monty HammontreeThe Future of UX Research
December 3, 2020
"The C-suite often sees big change as resistance to change rather than needs for careful transition and impact understanding."
Benjamin RealShowing the Value of DesignOps by Not Having a DesignOps Team
October 21, 2020
"People don't learn when they're rushed, stressed, or don't trust the source of the knowledge."
Kate TowseyAsk Me Anything (AMA) with Kate Towsey
April 2, 2025
"Trust is built by showing you’re there to help make them succeed, not just push your agenda."
Steve Portigal Chris Chapo Kelly Goto Christian RohrerDiscussion
May 13, 2015
"People with disabilities often won’t ask for help; they simply go to an accessible competitor instead."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
March 28, 2023
"Screen reader users need semantic structure that graphical prototypes typically don’t have, like labeled headings, controls, tables, and landmarks."
Sam ProulxPrototype Reviews, People With Disabilities, and You
October 1, 2021
