{"id":6553,"date":"2026-06-28T12:45:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T10:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/verwaltungsgestaltung.de\/notizen\/?p=6553"},"modified":"2026-07-05T13:32:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T11:32:05","slug":"week-217-at-the-digital-service-notes-for-22-26-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verwaltungsgestaltung.de\/notizen\/2026\/06\/28\/week-217-at-the-digital-service-notes-for-22-26-june\/","title":{"rendered":"Week #217 at the Digital Service: Notes for 22\u201326 June"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

50 is the number I\u2019ve been somewhat afraid of. We are days away from getting there. Next week, we\u2019ll have the 50th team member join our user-centred design discipline at Digital Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are the biggest user-centred design team in the German public sector. This fills me with equal pride and respect. At this size, we can make a bigger difference in improving people\u2019s experience with government. At the same time, being 50 means we will have less time to interact with each other individually. Things are different from just over 4 years ago when the team consisted of 8 designers. I have to acknowledge that my time is finite, and with more managerial layers, we can sometimes feel removed from each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The larger our discipline is, the less likely we are to maintain deeper, more meaningful connections among ourselves. That is why principals Charlotte and Sonja Wilczek and I, with\u00a0support from people partner Annemie, work to develop the discipline\u2019s structures and formats to suit its size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our discipline represents 19% of the 260-ish people at DigitalService. This ratio has been fairly consistent over time. We see that our disciplines grow in equal proportions. So we learn shoulder to shoulder with engineering, product and transformation management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, we are 3 communication designers, 3 content designers, 1 legal designer, 7 service designers, 10 user researchers, and 24 UX\/UI designers. We specialised quite a bit in the past few years, which is worth another blog post we are currently writing. These 6 specialisations are useful labels for differentiating skill sets. But we also don\u2019t neatly fit into boxes or skill frameworks. We have broad knowledge, and we need to take time for exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running our annual summer offsite<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, at 34 degrees Celsius, our user-centred design discipline got together, as we do every six months. Marion welcomed us at the offsite location with a moment of mindfulness. Then, throughout the morning, we discussed individual career and growth paths \u2013 from focusing more on delivery to specialist expertise or contributions to the discipline.

At lunchtime, we discussed digital inclusion, as it\u2019s on our minds. Kara Kane <\/strong>joined us remotely to share the remarkable trauma-informed inclusive design work she is doing at the Cabinet Office with local councils across the UK. She emphasised that inclusive design needs systems thinking. We had many questions. Afterwards, various team members shared their approaches to inclusive user research, content and design. We continued workshopping in the summer heat and collectively appreciated the thoughtful time we spent together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While my time with colleagues is stretched thinner, I try to maintain a balance. There is work on the organisation and work on the discipline. At the same time, I try to stay as closely connected to the service transformation across our domain areas as I can. Being close to the work means being close to the people. That\u2019s where I like to be \u2013 as we grow further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running offsites regularly and taking the time to get to know each other, comparing notes, and making sense of where we are and where we are going is utterly important. We need that to feel like a discipline and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my little opening reflection, I talked about the impact we see when we zoom out a bit further. Of course, I referenced some of the thinking from the long slog<\/a>, including its time horizons. I also referenced our delivery principles<\/a> and the 10 differences in doing design in the public sector<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at our work from multiple angles and layers of abstraction, I invited everyone to review our ongoing work along 2 dimensions: local versus systemic and now versus future. For illustration, I mapped our work on design patterns and the parental benefits calculator. I also plotted different aspects of the Service Standard work as well as our policy design work with lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is some work we do halfway between now and the far-out future, and some we do higher up on the systemic dimension. But nothing scores highly on the systemic and future fronts. The question is: Should there be? Or is it fine to leave this to others? That is something to discuss in further weekly sessions with the discipline \u2013 and possibly in another lunch-and-learn session over the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still hiring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Monday evening, I stopped by the Service Design Drinks Berlin meetup. Conveniently, it was just around the corner from home this time. I used the dedicated community time to highlight our open roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just used the community slot at #ServiceDesign Drinks Berlin \u2013 which I co-founded all the way back in 2011 \u2013 to advertise our open #ContentDesign and #UserResearch roles at @digitalservice.bund.de.The big QR code worked. Plenty of people pulled out their phones to learn more about our openings.<\/p>— Martin Jordan (@martinjordan.com)<\/a> 2026-06-22T17:34:22.131Z<\/a><\/blockquote>