Summary
Building a service-oriented culture is hard in any organisation. It is especially challenging for a government agency tasked with the regulation, health and safety of the labour force in the country. Yet, the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore succeeded in becoming one of the leaders and champions of service excellence. How did they do it? Their story is pieced together in this behind the scenes look at the design of their award-winning website.
Key Insights
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Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower implemented a service excellence mindset shaped by an overarching national and organizational narrative about being a 'nation by design.'
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Mapping the entire customer journey helped expose fragmented service touchpoints, enabling MOM to orchestrate a more seamless and human-centered experience.
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Partnering with IDEO led to redesigning service centers from crowded, stressful spaces to welcoming, hotel-like environments improving user experience.
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Democratizing design means shifting from a production mindset (content creators writing in silos) to a consumption mindset focused on user needs and clarity.
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Developing a maternity leave calculator transformed complex eligibility information into personalized, easily digestible guidance, increasing customer satisfaction.
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Forming a cross-departmental content team and using the 'bond raising' method accelerated the review of 2000+ pages of fragmented content.
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Playing the infinite game mindset promotes continuous improvement and governance over treating redesigns as finite projects that end after launch.
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Transferring website ownership from corporate communications to customer response ensured closer alignment with customer needs and effective feedback loops.
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The Colab team applies human-centered and data-driven approaches, such as staff 'living as customers' and behavioral nudges, leading to more effective policies and outcomes.
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Continuous citizen engagement throughout design and testing phases remains a challenge but is key to sustained service excellence.
Notable Quotes
"Singapore is a nation by design. Nothing we have today is natural or happened by itself—somebody thought about it and made it happen."
"Design is a rendering of intent, and at the national level, this intent shapes everything from innovation to being a lovable city by 2025."
"You might feel like one of the blind men in the story when parts of a process don’t show the whole picture. That’s why you need the full journey exposed."
"Before stage in customer journey is so important—it sets customers up for success by making pages findable and clear through SEO and self-assessment tools."
"Service centers were transformed from crowded, threatening environments into spaces that look like five-star hotels with personalized kiosks and family cabanas."
"Closing the learning-doing gap means moving from making content just to publish, to making content that ensures the customer’s job is done."
"We changed from a production mindset to a consumption mindset: my job isn’t done until my customer’s job is done."
"We locked everyone in a room for months to review 1000 pages using the bond raising method—it worked because we aligned on principles and focused on the job."
"Playing the infinite game is like gardening: if you neglect it, things wither, but if you tend it, it thrives. Service excellence requires the same ongoing care."
"The Colab team members didn’t just interview cleaners—they became cleaners for weeks to truly understand issues and design better policies."
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