Questions for him that we discussed included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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- Why does the German administration landscape specifically need a service provider like us?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Coming from a global tech consultancy, what was the biggest culture shock you experienced in your first 90 days at Digital Service?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- How do we balance responsible AI use with a healthy green IT stack?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- In 5 years, are we a \u2018delivery shop\u2019 or a \u2018strategic partner\u2019? How do we get there?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
We had about 20 people, both in person and remotely, join for the 90-minute afternoon exchange. The team continues to find skip-level conversations with members of the executive team highly valuable. So we should continue them. Currently missing is our Chief Financial Officer, Anja. We should down with her later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Celebrating 4 years at Digital Service<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I used to think of 4 years as an eternity. In my first 2 jobs, I very much wanted to leave after that time, and so I did. I saw little to learn and wanted to move to new horizons. It couldn\u2019t be more different now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Activate](\"https:\/\/verwaltungsgestaltung.de\/notizen\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4-years-DS.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis week marks 4 years at DigitalService<\/a>. Thanks to the tireless work of colleagues, we are now in a position to bring about greater change. Re-reading my weeknotes from May 2022, I see many of the things we missed then addressed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have a mandatory Service Standard that all levels of government have to follow by law. Running a discovery, conducting user research, and measuring impact aren\u2019t optional anymore. We have a cross-gov brand and design system, which we lacked 4 years ago. So, people don\u2019t have to reinvent the wheel anymore. And we have a strong user-centred design team of almost 50 highly capable people, including 5 distinct profiles. 100s of user-centred experts have joined public sector organisations in recent years. People from 18 different organisations are part of our monthly community exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With all that built-up capability, we have developed successful tax, justice, and benefit services. We established a scalable platform for justice services and brought research-based approaches to policy teams. Now we are linking service design to policy, and looking at end-to-end services across significant life events, such as starting a business. We are developing patterns for others to use and creating essential guidance on good digital practice for all public servants in the country. The accessibility tools we\u2019ve built and shared are lauded \u2013 and there are more to come. Soon, we will open up our service design training and run more cross-sector peer reviews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While we have done and achieved much in the 4 years I\u2019ve been here, there is so much that will keep us busy for many years to come. People have been talking about \u2018once only\u2019 for a good decade, but users still have to re-enter their information almost every time. Despite our earlier efforts in the space, proving who you are online remains astonishingly cumbersome. Plenty of regulations hinder good digital transformation of services. Also, almost every service in Germany looks and behaves differently, and people have little idea of what good looks like. Users don\u2019t know what\u2019s waiting for them after the next tap or click. Quality of service is still a niche topic, government procurement sets projects up for failure, and backed systems are often not yet connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are just a few things from the tip of the government transformation iceberg. And these aren\u2019t things we can solve as a small-ish Federal government unit. It needs strong alliances across the German public sector to make a common effort while we still can \u2013 including politicians, members of parliament, and senior officials who are willing to spend their political capital. It\u2019s only 250 of us, but we have made many allies and friends along the way. So, let\u2019s see what we can achieve next. Together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Planning for GAAD and other events<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Spring was relatively calm. As we are getting closer to summer, event season warms up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Thursday, we discussed a 3-hour accessibility event with the NExT Netzwerk community manager, Melike. We plan to run it with colleagues from other units on Global Accessibility Awareness Day \u2013 or GAAD for short. Two people from the Federal Information Technology Centre (ITZBund) will give a short introduction to accessibility. Their director-general will do the introduction. Prof Dr Erdmuthe Meyer zu Bexten, the State Commissioner for accessible IT of the State of Hesse, has offered to do the keynote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our part will be a 45-minute workshop session utilising our\u00a0Chrome extension \u2018Simulating accessibility personas\u2019<\/a>. We are currently preparing additional languages, a new web page for the personas, and a visual redesign for the extension. The language tests are complete, and we should submit our update to version 1.2 shortly so it\u2019s in the store on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our accessibility ambassadors planning session this week, we were surprised that we suddenly hit 1,000 users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n