This week was the last of Philipp, who served as DigitalService\u2019s Chief Operating Officer and Co-Managing Director. A few days earlier, we had a farewell event where he received the framed poster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Building on GDS\u2019s history of well-designed personal leaving gifts, our designer Robin created a poster with data and graphs illustrating some of Philipp\u2019s achievements, building on our organisational KPI dashboard data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m beyond the moment of surprise and loss and now just grateful for what Philipp did and impressed by what he achieved in the last 2.5 years. He built a unique team, culture and value system at DigitalService \u2013 unique in the German public and might be hard to match in the private sector, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without any intention to return to Germany, the conversations with Philipp at the end of 2021 intrigued me and made me leave my beloved UK GovDesign community. From the moment of arrival, Philipp gave me enormous space, liberty and support to figure out what the user-centred design discipline is, needs to be and should evolve into. And I learned quite a few things from experiencing his humble, pragmatic, people-centred, impact-focused leadership style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As obvious as it sounds, we are actively working with the Service Standard. It had turned 3 over the previous weekend, so I initiated more conversations around it and its application. To some surprise, no one I contacted so far seems to be actively using it or have used it with some level of more profound attention or rigour. I hope I just missed some essential people and will meet them soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n