Melissa Eggleston
User Experience Researcher and Designer
Maya Israni
Digital Services Expert, United States Digital Service
Florence Kasule
Director Of Procurement, United States Digital Service
Owen Seely
User Experience Researcher and Designer, United States Digital Service
Andrea Schneider
Project Manager and Lead, United States Digital Service
Summary
Do you think you have great people skills? How do you know? Lots of us are never taught critical behaviors that build trust with others. In the government, trust is often the currency that helps build momentum and gets things done. In this panel with experienced professionals from the U.S. Digital Service and moderated by Melissa Eggleston, we will discuss what works well in building trust in government. You'll learn from past mistakes of others so you can avoid similar missteps. Get practical direction to improve your people skills with your team and all those partners you need on your side.
Key Insights
-
•
Empathy and kindness serve as foundational approaches to developing people skills in government work, balancing warmth with delivery focus.
-
•
The trust equation, combining credibility, reliability, intimacy, and low self-orientation, provides a practical framework to build and diagnose trust.
-
•
Listening deeply—including understanding unspoken concerns and motivations—is critical in procurement and design to meet true needs.
-
•
Code switching and cultural adaptability enhance ability to relate to diverse teams and stakeholders, crucial for trust across organizations.
-
•
Observing poor people skills in others, such as coldness or inaccessibility, can guide one's own practice by learning what not to do.
-
•
Discovery sprints illustrate the challenge of entering established teams seen as auditors, requiring careful trust-building by participation and transparency.
-
•
Telling difficult truths builds trust when done respectfully and backed by clear user data, enabling early course correction.
-
•
Delivery of quality outcomes reinforces reliability and accountability, solidifying trust beyond words.
-
•
Collaborative, transparent procurement processes help repair trust previously damaged by siloed, directive contracting approaches.
-
•
Maintaining trust long-term requires consistent check-ins, personalized outreach, and recognizing different trust layers between people and work.
Notable Quotes
"The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is."
"Trust is the sum of credibility, reliability, intimacy, and the absence of self-orientation."
"Everyone's different, and you have to develop a different relationship with each one of those people."
"Listening with all your senses, not just to the words that they’re saying, is critical to understanding."
"I think one of your big skill sets and superpowers is the ability to listen and lean in."
"Delivering is trust—by doing what you say you do and avoiding overpromising."
"Discovery sprints require building trust brick by brick, especially when you’re perceived as an auditor."
"Telling the truth can be really hard, but how you say it matters for building trust."
"Trust has been built by delivery and working on the nitty-gritty harder problems, not the shiniest ones."
"Maintaining relationships professionally takes effort just like in personal life—check-ins, Zoom calls, and care."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"AI easily manages many tasks but still struggles with soft skills like cultural nuances and ethical considerations."
Angelos ArnisNavigating the Rapid Shifts in Tech's Turbulent Terrain
October 2, 2023
"Prioritizing design ops work is tough amid competing priorities and limited time and budget."
John Calhoun Rachel PosmanBring your DesignOps Story to Life! The Definitive DesignOps Book Jam
October 3, 2023
"If design is not viewed as a player moving the needle on business strategy, designers feel disempowered and frustrated."
Alfred KahnA Seat at the Table: Making Your Team a Strategic Partner
November 29, 2023
"Queerness taught me that if I didn’t like the rules, I could change the game."
Dan WillisEnterprise Storytelling Sessions
June 3, 2019
"Understanding computation is critical to understanding modern tech, more so than design alone."
John Maeda Alison RandAbout Design Organizations (Videoconference)
May 13, 2019
"I needed to move partners from passive to resistant because resistance reveals their fears and motivations."
Anat Fintzi Rachel MinnicksDelivering at Scale: Making Traction with Resistant Partners
June 9, 2022
"Temporary, quick, and sometimes rough artifacts have a lifespan just long enough for the conversation they enable."
Uday GajendarThe Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX
May 13, 2015
"2020 was focused on resilience, collaboration challenges, burnout, and attrition during the pandemic."
Kristin SkinnerTheme 1 Intro
September 29, 2021
"The Colab team members didn’t just interview cleaners—they became cleaners for weeks to truly understand issues and design better policies."
Maish NichaniSparking a Service Excellence Mindset at a Government Agency
December 9, 2021