8 user researchers are now in our discipline. We are bigger and better equipped than ever to conduct thorough research, with a strong culture and a robust structural setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past 12 months, our user research sub-discipline grew by another 33%, as Zo\u00e9 joined us in mid-March and Elena in early January. 2 more colleagues will grow the team in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like in January 2025, principal user researcher Sonja, who is leading the sub-discipline, organised a half-day onsite. My contribution looked different this time around. I managed to be there for almost 3 of the 4.5 hours. Last year, I could only dial in and deliver a contextualising input, but not be there in person. Then, I shared 8 themes for the user research sub-discipline<\/a>, which we picked up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sonja put the goal of this week\u2019s gathering as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We want to develop further as a sub-discipline, better understand our role, and define topics and responsibilities for 2026.\u201c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Our agenda for the morning was well-structured:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the strength mapping, we used a 2-by-2 matrix on a whiteboard. Everyone shared their strength after taking tests, which we felt comfortable sharing. After having everyone plot themselves on the matrix, we saw a healthy mix of \u2018executing\u2019, \u2018influencing\u2019, \u2018strategising\u2019, and \u2018relationship-building\u2019. Some of us have more pronounced strengths \u2013 according to their tests \u2013 in executing, others in relationship building and strategising. What\u2019s a little more empty is the influencing quadrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In interviews, I ask each candidate how they have dealt with a situation in which a stakeholder needed an explanation of a user-centred approach or convincing someone of a particular method of working. While this is important, we might need to do it less frequently due to our culture, contracts, and setup. That was an in-situ reflection on Thursday at least. If the case, I am glad about it as it frees time for other value-creating activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sonja shared the latest user research survey results. It\u2019s a survey we share with colleagues from other disciplines and across teams once a year. The main question the survey asks is: \u201cHow satisfied are you overall with user research activities at DigitalService?\u201d Participants answer via a 5-point Likert scale. The 2025 mean is 4.4, which I think is pretty great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This score and most other aspects we queried have been growing steadily since we established user research as its own sub-discipline in the summer of 2023. The 2 areas that made progress but still have the most room for improvement are a) minimising efforts to kick off new research through standardisation, and b) including users with access needs into our research by default. For the latter, we still lack the network, structures and routine to do it indepently. That is why we rely on external partners, which makes it more effort in procurement, leading to a lower frequency of testing rounds with disabled people and people with access needs. We continue working to change that and increase our internal capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Building on the development areas from last year, we reviewed our 2025 activities and plotted new ones for 2026. The unchanged development areas for user research are: Knowledge management, processes and standards, inclusive research, communication, and the role of user research. In silent-writing fashion, we collected new activities for 2026. We mapped the activities against these areas and also found some that didn\u2019t match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of my 2026 activity additions included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we moved from a democratised user research approach, due to having very few user researchers early on, to an embedded model, we are now aiming for an increasingly strategic partnership model. That means moving user research further upstream and earlier \u2013 getting involved in more policy work, and shaping work before it is defined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am pleased with how the user research sub-discipline has developed under Sonja\u2019s leadership. A blog post from June 2025 shared the progress made<\/a> in the first 2 years. For later this quarter, a blog post on the growth and development of the entire user-centred design discipline is due.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our Service Standard work continues with an active workshop approach and in a proper co-creation mode. It\u2019s been over 5 years, still in the UK then, when I wrote about taking a community-led approach to the Service Standard<\/a>. All of it remains valid today and finds a more refined application now. In 2020, when I wrote about it, we could only meet online. In early 2026, we can meet again in person when the need arises to shape standards and guidance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To extend the Service Standard, we gathered over 30 public servants from federal, state and municipal levels for 2 days this week. Taking over the ground floor\u2019s open space at the Federal Ministry for Digitalisation and State Modernisation, we split into 4 groups to answer the question: \u201cWhat makes a good government service from a user\u2019s perspective?\u201d So far, the Service Standard in Germany isn\u2019t answering that. It defines how teams should work. But it does not tell what the result should feel like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 2 days, we tried to create a space for mutual exchange, learn from each other\u2019s practice and develop a draft of service quality criteria. As part of that, we also reviewed international examples of similar service quality criteria. I hosted 1 of the 4 groups throughout the days and enjoyed my facilitation part. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the workshop lasted 2 days, we had time for dinner and a more in-depth exchange. Building on our network engagement for the Service Standard rewrite in 2024\/2025, our Public Service Lab events and NExT community gatherings, we were able to activate engaged colleagues from all across the country, travelling from as far as Bonn, Cologne, Freiburg, Hamburg, and Munich to participate in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following the workshop, colleagues from Hamburg<\/a>, M\u00f6nchengladbach<\/a>, and Wittenberg shared their positive experiences on social media<\/a>. Knowing that local government budgets are stretched and that teams are often overworked, I was particularly grateful for their arrangements and in-person participation. We hope they will return for another workshop in a few weeks, after we have had time to process their feedback and further inputs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Workshopping Service Standard extensions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n