Deliver value for people who live in B.C. and cultivate trust
Government services should be efficient, reliable, fair and safe. Good products and services build public trust, which is essential for government to function. BC public service employees and people supporting us in delivering digital services have a shared responsibility to:
- Use resources judiciously to benefit people who live in B.C.
- Choose solutions that fully address the technical, policy and process problems we are trying to solve for people
- Deliver services that model and uphold public service ethics and values
- Make decisions that are fair, data-driven and well-documented
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Focus on outcomes for people who live in B.C.
Government services should improve people’s lives. In every stage of your work, focus on delivering a service that’s effective, affordable and solves a real problem for people who live in B.C. An effective service meets the intended outcomes using the best possible use of resources.
Every member of your team should be able to explain the value of your work in simple terms. This means knowing what problem you’re solving for people and why your service is the best way to solve it. Your focus should always be on outcomes for people who live in B.C.
You should be able to communicate the value of your product or service in a problem and outcome statement. A good problem and outcome statement should:
- State the problem you’re trying to solve and your intended outcomes, such as the specific changes or impacts your team wants to make
- Be easily understood by anyone, regardless of their technical background or understanding
- Be connected to larger government goals and plans
- Be adjusted as new information emerges
- Be measurable or quantifiable
Measure performance to build confidence and trust
Every interaction a person has with government is an opportunity to build trust. As more and more of these interactions are digital, outdated systems or service interruptions can have negative impacts on people’s lives, businesses and confidence in government.
Performance measurement can help reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a service, how it impacts users and how it might be improved. To measure your team’s performance:
- Choose meaningful performance indicators. These can include:
- Inputs, such as cost, time and human resources
- Outcomes, such as the impacts your service has on users
- Do user research and usability testing to understand how people experience your service
- Gather metrics for your service such as transaction volume, user satisfaction rates, uptime and error rates
- Use the data you gather to drive decision making about improving your service
- Share details of your performance with the public and other partners to build trust and encourage participation in your work
Make fair, transparent and data-driven decisions
Government decisions can be big or small, but they all have an impact on the services we deliver to the community. We have a responsibility to make decisions that are fair, well-documented and data-driven.
A fair decision is one that follows our laws and policies, respects people’s rights and meets the community’s expectations for government behaviour.
To ensure transparency, you should document any decision that creates, notably changes or ends a service. This means recording:
- Who made the decision
- When it was made
- When it takes effect
- Their reasons for the decision
- Their authority to make the decision
- Any important context behind the decision
Base every decision you make on a clear understanding of the facts and context. For more complicated decisions, this might require research or investigation. You can find basic research techniques in the Service Design Playbook‘s section on the Discovery phase of development.
Alignment guide
The alignment guide is intended to be used with the supporting context of the related practice and resources. The guide provides examples of what the implementation of this practice may look like and defines the range of competence within the practice area.
1
Initial
Initial teams don’t consider how their product will impact people who live in B.C.
Examples include:
- Decisions that significantly change or terminate the product or service are rarely documented and shared with key partners
- Performance measures are not considered or defined
- The team is unable to articulate what they are buying or building in non technical terms
- The team is unable to explain why their product or service is the best solution to the business problem, or why their product or service is needed now
2
Developing
Developing teams are defining processes and supporting documentation to build trust and articulate the value their product or service is delivering for people who live in B.C.
Examples include:
- Significant decisions are mostly documented but may be inconsistent or in a way that does not sustain staff turnover
- Some performance measures are defined, but measures may not be framed in the context of people who live in B.C., are not well understood and articulated by the project team and leadership
- Efforts are made to identify and articulate the business problem the team intends to solve but additional work is needed to:
- Focus on the core, not symptoms of the problem
- Collect data to demonstrate the scope and impact of the problem
- Identify the parties impacted by the problem
3
Delivering
Delivering teams have fully articulated the benefits of their product or service to people who live in B.C. and have established processes for measuring the performance of their product or service.
Examples include:
- The business problem is well defined and understood by the project team, business area and leadership
- There is a clear connection between the business problem and the proposed solution
- The proposed solution fully meets the identified problem
- Outcome and performance measures are well defined and articulate the intended value or impact to people who live in B.C.
- A process for performance management has been established, with a regular cadence for checking in and reporting out on measures
- Decisions and their supporting context are consistently documented and available to internal stakeholders, including new employees and contracted resources
4
Optimizing
Optimizing teams build trust and confidence in the BC Public Service by ensuring all decisions are evidence based and shared with key partners and interested parties.
Examples include:
- Ensures limited resources are used in the best possible way, ensuring all decisions are evidence based and well documented
- Builds trust and confidence in the BC Public Service by proactively disclosing operational statistics and performance measures
- Decisions and their supporting context are consistently documented and made available to key partners and interested partners. This includes partner agencies, impacted communities and the public where possible
- Seeks out opportunities for collaboration and knowledge sharing across government, contributing to citizen value outside of their direct product or service
5
Innovating
Innovating teams model BC Public Service ethics and values throughout the development and implementation of their product or service.
Examples include:
- Clearly and fully addresses a complete problem for the citizen today, and tomorrow
- Advocates for improved decision making, problem definition and solution analysis across the BC Public Service and broader public sector
- Articulates and demonstrates how their product or service contributes to cross government objectives and outcomes
Resources
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Service Design Playbook
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UK Service Manual: Measure success
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Funding your digital service
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Digital service topics
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B.C.’s Digital Plan
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B.C.’s Digital Principles