What are we trying to achieve?
Our vision is simple yet ambitious:
“A Wales where Standards make it easier to design better digital public services.”
To make this vision a reality, CDPS is exploring how to best design, operate, and scale a future-ready Service Assessment model for public sector services in Wales; a service model rooted in the Digital Service Standard for Wales.
Meet the alpha team
The alpha is being led by a small, Agile team within CDPS. Between July and September the team are running a series of 3 experiments with a clear focus to:
- define the end-to-end service
- determine how it should be operated
- identify the roles needed to support it effectively
What we did
Experiment 1 was all about exploring the “why” and “how” behind service assessments. We wanted to explore what content is needed around the Service Assessment offer so that people understand the purpose and value of Service Assessments and are incentivised to contact CDPS to request an assessment. We also wanted to understand expectations around who should own and operate the service.
We used a hypothesis to orient and measure our experiment:
Hypothesis: If the Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS) provides a clear and accessible Service Assessment offer and owns the assessment process, teams will understand the value of assessments and sign up to gain reassurance they’re designing services the right way.
Method: Prototype an external facing Service Assessment offer and test user understanding, value perception, and trust.
Success measures:
- 5–10 people press the button to sign up via the prototype
- positive user feedback indicates clarity, perceived value, and trust in CDPS
We spoke with a cross-section of people who deliver services for residents in Wales and used our prototype to undertake research with 6 people and to validate our hypothesis.
We validated our hypothesis
“Sic [my] my current product owner would be quite keen as he'd want to get feedback and advice to see if we're on the right page.”
- Everyone we spoke with was keen for some form of service assessment and would sign up for an assessment.
- The prevailing view was that a review type approach is more appropriate for the Wales context than a UK Government style overall pass or fail service assessment. There is most value in an indicative meet/doesn't meet each individual Standard.
- The preference is for a centrally coordinated assessment process. CDPS is well positioned to adopt that coordinating role including pulling together an appropriately experienced panel of assessors.
- There was a good understanding of service assessments, why they're needed and the value they bring.
“Sic [they] can say we're releasing a service that adheres to the Standards for Wales”
If you want to know more details about what we learned from running this experiment, you can watch our show and tell.
What’s next?
The team will now move on to alpha experiment 2, diving deeper into operational models and potential tools to support assessments.
Get involved
We’re looking for people to research with.
We'd love to speak with you if you lead digital transformation within your organisation or department, or are a leader that is interested in or might advocate for service assessments.
Use the link to sign up to participate in the research:
