Summary
A large federal agency was interested in improving the experience that individuals have with their digital services, as well as the velocity at which they were able to improve those services. But through our research, we found that they didn't have the design roles, tools, or processes in place to support this goal and make it successful. As a digital services firm that specializes in human-centered design and design ops, we came up with a plan to get them where they needed to be. We started by having a difficult conversation with them about design maturity, what it would take to be successful, and how design ops could help. We then introduced a series of training sessions on human-centered design, which prepared us to have conversations about design roles and processes, as well as tools. And finally, we were able to collaborate with them through a series of engagements to see how these things should work in practice. Through our experience, we learned this is not an uncommon challenge. There are likely many entities (both public and private) that know they need to evolve their design practices, but don’t know how. By sharing how we introduced design ops to a federal client, we hope to inspire others to help promulgate design ops in a wider variety of sectors and client types.
Key Insights
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Government contracting involves slow processes including background checks and complex bidding that delay project start.
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Legislative and policy restrictions limit UX research scope and tool adoption in federal projects.
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Internal-facing government software often lacks standard design systems and dedicated UX resources compared to public-facing products.
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Teams frequently rely on developers for design, resulting in inconsistent UI elements and low design maturity.
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Using outdated or inappropriate tools like MS Paint impedes design consistency and communication.
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Introducing a design system without foundational culture and process improvements is insufficient for sustainable UX improvements.
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Phased approaches with stakeholder workshops can transform skepticism into buy-in for human-centered design.
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Training non-design federal employees in human-centered design deepens empathy and fosters design advocacy.
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Long-term advocacy and internal champions are critical for adoption of better tools such as Figma amidst IT and cultural inertia.
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Measuring design maturity with recognized models (e.g., Nielsen Norman Group) clarifies current state and guides incremental progress.
Notable Quotes
"One of the tools they were using was MS Paint, and that just pains me to say that."
"Dropping a design system in this environment was not going to magically get them the improved experience they hoped for."
"It was really tough because they didn’t ask for the foundational work, they asked for a design system."
"The primary stakeholder was actually really energized by this message—it was finally the pathway to get what they wanted."
"The government culture is not like tech culture. Changing things here takes far more time."
"We basically wrote an HCD book with over 25,000 words of notes for the training."
"It felt like pulling teeth at first to get attendance to the biweekly design syncs, but by the end, it was their favorite meeting."
"Figma was our pick for building a long-term design library, but it took 18 months to get approval."
"Design ops is the bridge between silos and agencies that otherwise tend to be stagnant."
"Never be afraid to have those difficult conversations—they’re the most important ones to have."
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