How to Deliver Public Services Proactively?

From the latest trends in public sector innovation, to startups working with government to solve global challenges and technological innovation geared towards green and equitable future – GovTech Week Lithuania gathered global policy and technology experts, startup founders and investors to discuss the most pressing GovTech questions.

In the discussion panel: "How to Deliver Public Services Proactively?” CEO of Laboratorium EE , Bartosz Bliuj-Sodulski , represented the Polish perspective on public sector innovations and shared his experience.

See the discussion (46 min)

You can also Read here what Bartosz was talking about:

I.

UX 20 years ago -> service design 10 years ago - > now personalisation - this is the core of the discussion

In the Twenty First century, we cannot brag about having an electronic ID. It’s necessary but obvious. Now the issue is how smart and automati cally i t is done. We need to focus on automatisation. It means a completely different way of thinking about UX. I can give you a perfect example. 500+ is the largest child benefit programme in Polish history. IT sector and a huge operation on many levels made it really simple and fast. You apply for the benefit through your banking account, and when you type in your personal ID number , the system automatically shows how many children you have and the amount of money you can apply for. To achieve this, the system connects a few databases. Thanks to this , the whole application process takes only a few minutes. The private banks use public data to provide amazing UX for the users.

In 2010, we tried to turn paper into digital things, in 2020 we are focused on a one-stop shop. The system makes my choices easier and suggests the data I put into the forms. The system is my concierge. This is the next step. The public sector needs to follow business trends in terms of online solutions. Look at the online banking and you will see the path. The new paradigm of digitalisation is automatisation. The question is: do we use ready-made UX solutions from banking systems for the public or should we create new systems for the public?

II.

The responsibility for the UX is too much on the IT companies. We expect that the digital agency will provide the best solution and amazing graphic interface, but in reality even the best agency will fail if the law is agains t it . For example, my company is involved in digitalising the construction industry. Everything is based on papers, it’s a tabula rasa. We identified the key bottleneck - the building code says that the only way to apply for permission for a new building you need is to put original project details physically to the clerk in the physical city hall building.

Why am I mentioning this? Digital services are a consequence of legislation. In a recent project with the Polish General Office of Building Control, we decided not to go with the whole project because it was risky due to a lot of uncertainties. So instead, I convinced the client and we decided to spend a month to work out a prototype - to identify ten MVP functionalities , to test them out in construction permit application forms. This approach allows two amazing things. Firstly, the testing stage looks like that: selected offices verify the ditigal permit form and the construction project. We analyse which parts to add and implement for the value of the users. As an IT company, we oversee this process and identify pains and gains of these forms. In the next iteration, we will adapt the forms to meet the UX needs. Secondly, this process allows us to check what the law permits and how to change the law to facilitate the process of application for construction permit in the future. What does it mean? Good legislation should be the result of research of the needs - not the other way around. Service designers should work with clerks to specify the UX needs and then the clerks can create a tender that will be realistic and useful.

III.

Mobile-first

In 2010, we designed IT systems for laptops, in 2020 we need to focus on mobiles. If you want to be a leader in IT, you need to go mobile-first. You need to be ready to fill in the forms automatically from your phone. The mobile forces less data on the screen. Only key information must be left. Data driven lobbying. We need to check which data is not necessary for the user and hide it, it’s not needed.  There’s too much data on the internet, we need to filter it. It’s obvious in theory, but not easy in practice.

Example:

Medical University in Poznań - students use their phones, this is their favourite device, not laptops. But they cannot check their grades, check their schedules or sign up for classes on the phone because the University designed 30 different IT systems and made them desktop-first.

The challenge is not only to unify all these systems into one, but also how to make it mobile-first.

Our priorities in this project were - what data should appear first, to design the user path. We need to invent solutions mobile-first, but scalable to other devices - watches, tablets, laptops too.

We need to change our way of thinking - all our lives we focused on laptops. But the world is changing. In 10 years, laptops will be an old-fashioned way of reading information.