Design Principle 8 – We will design to deliver value in all its forms
Studio Notes | Short Reads
This post is part of a series exploring the Design Principles for Government in Ireland. If you’d like to start from the beginning, check out our introductory post here.
Design Principle #8 opens a few cans of worms. Today the word “value” might be more readily associated with supermarket ads and switcher websites than with quality of life or social wellbeing. In public service, value is not always about immediate bottom-line savings, or efficiency. Although these are important, value can also be lives saved, trauma prevented, health, wellbeing, environment – a myriad other things.
This design principle commits to designing for value, but also draws attention to the fact that value is a broad concept.
How can design help?
A design approach typically begins with key steps to “reframe” a problem or challenge. This means looking at the context from different perspectives, doing some research, identifying things that a service effects, relies upon, or is affected by, and defining the desirable outcomes we’d like to achieve.
It’s this first step in a design process that is key to delivering on design principle #8. If we are conscious of the outcomes we would like to achieve we can have an informed conversation about the value those outcomes will create.
An example might be bringing a particular service online, as opposed to in-person, or postal services – the online service is not the outcome. To think that way would be reductive and unhelpful in the bigger scheme of things.
A potential positive outcome (among many) might be that the service can be accessed 24hrs a day and therefore help service users without the need for them to take time off work.
If the online system is complicated and difficult to use, then it won’t fulfill this outcome. And so, the ease-of-use of the online service is one of many of the factors that affect how this outcome might be achieved.
A potential negative outcome might be that certain people are excluded by this new online service. Will it be accessible to all? Are there things that the online service requires which the offline service did not? Are there those who may not wish to engage with the service online? The design of the service must include consideration for this potential negative outcome, and work must be done to mitigate it.
In technology projects, designers might break outcomes into “user stories”. This is a technique borrowed from agile software development.
A user story for a birth registration service might be…
“As a new parent, I want to register the birth of my child, so that I can receive child benefit payments.”
This simple sentence describes the need on the part of the service user and makes it easy for us to understand the kind of value the service might create for that service user, a new parent.
Interestingly, these two services are managed by different parts of our public service. Until recently, it was necessary to register a birth with the Civil Registration Service (HSE) within 3 months. This would trigger and action by the Department of Social Protection to send out child benefit forms. The service user would then have the further work of filling out and returning those forms, and so the service made it unnecessarily difficult to achieve the outcome stated above, or create the implied value.
Since August 2024 it has been possible for some parents to register a birth online, using www.mywelfare.ie. This change delivers value for parents who are married to each other, or have never been married before, and who have verified MyGOVID accounts. There are still others for whom this is a two-step process.
Defining the Value that Outcomes might create
It’s important to note that outcomes might have hidden values if delivered. The example above, if designed appropriately, might create significant cost savings if it removes the need to post out forms, it might help save staff time if manual entry of paper forms on computer systems is no longer required, it might create reputational value, or help prevent reputational damage if errors and mistakes are reduced.
All of these values can be identified and prioritised, and used to guide the design process right through from concept to protyping (testing), procurement (specification) and delivery.
A huge part of this process of analysing user stories, and understanding value to be created is ensuring alignment – is everyone working on the service aligned as to the intended outcomes and the expected values they will generate?
So what does this look like in practice?
The real magic of working towards outcomes is that it forces services to focus on what matters, and by doing so we can understand the value to be delivered. This helps motivate stakeholders, engage service users, align third-party providers, and keep everyone honest!
Understanding values was a significant part of work we did with Dublin City Council and disabled persons organisations (DPOs) in 2023. The brief was to co-design a consultation process for DPOs which would allow these groups their rightful input on decision making in the city.
Through interviews with DPO members, DCC staff, and elected councillors, it was clear that the project had the potential to create value on all sides. That might be a more accessible city for all, it might be inclusion and empowerment, it might be smooth delivery of important transformations in the city… it was a lengthy list.
When design can create alignment as to the outcomes we working towards, and when the values that those outcomes should create are clearly understood it is a lot easier to move forward, instigate change, and bring everyone involved in the service along on that journey.
