Federal Government Project
Working with Tobias Design as a Strategic Service Designer for a Federal Government Department project, I’ve utilised human-centred design to rethink entire end-to-end export journeys in collaboration with a small team.
Alongside the fantastic client and stakeholder feedback, this project went on to receive a Good Design Award for Service Design in the public sector, with many ideas now integral within the workflow of implemented simplified trade systems.
“A crucial trade strategy for business and government has resulted from this research by way of a co-design approach that engages key stakeholders in interviews, workshops and showcases. By applying a design led and user centred methodology, the researchers should be acknowledged for demonstrating how design can be deployed for strategy development, and be of value to federal government initiatives. Well done.”
Good Designs Award Jury
context
Australia is contending with ever increasingly competitive landscape in trade and hurdles that businesses experience when navigating the export journey can be a deterrent for trading across the border in an ever more challenging market. In the wake of a global pandemic and escalating trade tensions, there is a need for individual government agencies to act as one to simplify trade and strengthen the economy.
The Simplified Trade System (STS) Implementation Taskforce engaged Tobias to work with its Experience Research and Design team to understand the current state cross-border trade journey that Australian businesses face today; uncovering pain points and opportunities with a goal to accelerate the work of business and government agencies to deliver whole-of government microeconomic trade reform, delivering value for Australians.
The Taskforce was established to simplify cross border trade for Australian businesses. Collaborating with STS and an associated Federal Government Department, I worked with Tobias to understand the current state experience of businesses and government agencies through design research and in-depth study of Australian trade business and third party providers. The research provided the first whole of government view of the current end-to end trade journey and initial co-design with businesses and that will enable aligned ways of working to a shared mission.
approach
Working with Tobias Design, I co-led the rethinking and design of multiple end-to-end export ecosystems for a Federal Government Department, undertaking discovery, research, analysis / synthesis and ideation. This involved the creation of assets such as personas, user stories, journey maps and service blueprints, while facilitating interviews and discovery workshops through initial prototyping.
We used a range of research methods to achieve the depth of insight and scale necessary to not only identify gaps, pain points, needs and opportunities - but also kick start a network effect and movement for change. These included: desktop research, semi-structured depth interviews, contextual enquiry, co-design workshops to scale insights and validate current state plus envision a future state for Australian exporters and those who support them. This project was highly complex with consideration of standards, ethics and compliance key.
outcomes
This Federal Government Department project considered transformation across both digital and physical channels, analysing the use of digital products within the field. Business process transformation through internal systems was integral to simplify digital data capture and enable smarter, data-led risk management. I assisted with identifying opportunities to improve regulatory compliance and service delivery, to create a responsive application for inspection recordings and a dashboard for compliance data aggregation. This process transformation enabled improved compliance across multiple touchpoints for both internal and external stakeholders with the aim to support the industry's goal of reaching $100 billion in output by 2030.
Within the Federal Government Department project, detailed process mappings of research and analysis were completed as a team across multiple intersecting ecosystems. Through extensive research and discovery, insights, pain points and opportunities were synthesised, mapped and prioritised across current and future journey maps and service blueprints. Service blueprints captured the entire export journey across various channels and both internal and external stakeholders.
Over the course of our design research we engaged with 159 participants across 65 Australian businesses and government agencies:
Discovery - current state
Desktop research (45 artefacts)
Interviews with 17 businesses (32 participants)
Co-discovery and co-design
Future trend meta-analysis
Co-design workshops with businesses
Co-design workshops with Government agencies
Stakeholder engagement
Regular stakeholder engagement including research showcases
my role
Co-design Sprint - Client & stakeholder engagement
Research - Desktop, quantitative & qualitative
Key Insights + HMW development - Analysis, themes & synthesis
Workshop Facilitation - Synthesis & prioritisation workshops
User Stories development - Copywriting
Development & Design of Personas - Asset ideation & concepts + copywriting (In-Design)
Co-design & development of Current & Future State Journey Maps (In-Design)
Co-development & Design of Current & Future State Service Blueprints (Miro)
Co-development of low to mid-fidelity Wireframes (Figma)
Concept, ideation & development of additional compliance monitoring Product feature (Miro)
personas
Personas were developed following extensive qualitative research to identify exporters from various backgrounds and business structures. These personas helped identify motivations, pain points and beliefs while recognising needs and behaviours. Quote extracts highlighted core frustrations and thoughts around misalignment with government requirements and the day to day reality of the export journey.
stakeholder workshops
Stakeholder Workshops were undertaken to understand the current state across multiple channels and break down silos. These workshops helped validate and deconstruct key assumptions and prioritise opportunities across intersecting ecosystems.
future state journey map
A Discovery Journey Map was developed to understand the existing ecosystems. The proposed Performance & Compliance Framework / Journey Map was then developed to simplify the journey and improve efficiencies while recognising data inputs and compliance categories. This framework included tools for data aggregation and various opportunities to measure and address non-compliance.
UX / UI
Click image to enlarge
Initial low to mid-fidelity wireframes were developed following extensive research that developed user stories, and recognised data inputs and compliance requirements. These were built out by the UX team in Figma and tested with various stakeholders to ensure all data input required to measure compliance was accounted for and legibility was easily accessible. It also ensured historical data could be assessed with relative ease while in the field.