Government | Service Design | B2B | Public Sector Innovation
Reimagining Government Business Services
Client
Service NSW Australia
Timeline
4 months
Role
Service Design Lead
Overview & Challenge​
Service NSW's Easy to Do Business programme was designed to streamline operations for entrepreneurs in Australia. The project began with establishing foundations that would allow Customer Experience and Product teams to work together, as well as creating a roadmap for innovation based on customer research findings. Our objective was to understand what people needed as entrepreneurs and how we could best serve those needs through customer journey mapping and future state service design.
Key Challenges​​
​
- Introducing service design methodologies to a product-centric organisation
- Navigating complex regulatory environments that create barriers for entrepreneurs
- Aligning multiple government agencies around a customer-centric approach
- Understanding the diverse journeys of traders, builders, and developers
- Creating solutions that addressed both digital and physical service touchpoints
- Overcoming initial scepticism about the value of service design
My Approach & Contribution
I led a team (product leads, BA and a research agency) to establish CX foundations and a strategic roadmap for the Easy to Do Business programme. Our experience strategy informed policy change proposals through insights into what customers want from government interactions.
Key Activities
1. Conducted 32 in-depth interviews with various entrepreneurs to understand their needs and frustrations
3. Mapped several user journeys showing how potential homebuilders move through different stages and interact with touchpoints
5. Created seven different personas representing entrepreneurs at different stages of their business journeys
7. Facilitated ideation workshops to identify opportunity areas for improvement
2. Created short video highlights from our most insightful sessions to build empathy across the organisation
4. Developed behavioural archetypes based on unique needs and preferences of builders, developers, and traders
6. Developed service blueprints showing business phases, events, setbacks, and associated touchpoints
Initially, the product team was sceptical about needing an additional team to help them with service design - they were product-centric with a busy roadmap and felt they could deliver without this extra layer.
I began by demonstrating the value through a pilot project, convincing the head of product to lend team members for our discovery phase. We ran research, synthesis, journey mapping, and ideation together through a collaborative process. The handoff was seamless because all members were involved from the start, leading to a new standard for our design approach.
Results & Impact
01
Successfully aligned Product and CX teams around a shared understanding of customer needs
03
Developed a roadmap for innovation across both online and offline channels
05
Influenced policy recommendations to reduce regulatory barriers for entrepreneurs
02
Created current state journey maps that gave service teams clear direction on which friction points to address
04
Established experience principles that guided programme participants toward an ideal customer experience
06
Changed organisational perception of service design's value through demonstrated impact
Key Learnings
Regulations create unexpected hurdles for homebuilders. The maze of rules adds risk, time, and costs that impact everyone from tradespeople to homebuyers, driving up prices and making affordable housing harder to achieve.
Show value through action, not just explanation. Our pilot project turned skeptics into supporters by involving them directly in the process - proving that demonstration works better than presentation when introducing new methods.
Digital and physical services need to work together seamlessly. Entrepreneurs navigating government requirements need both online tools and in-person support working as a unified system, not as separate experiences.
