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The Office of Innovation uses proven digital service, product driven, agile, lean, design thinking and human centered design techniques - honed in the private sector and customized for the government workforce - to deliver products and solutions that solve problems.
Continuously improve our delivery of health and human services to Californians by nurturing and multiplying the creative potential of CHHS staff
To embed design thinking, user-centered problem solving skills, and other innovative strategies into CHHS so that these methods are no longer thought of as novel and become just how work is done.
We take our values very seriously. They guide our interactions and how we strive to deliver superior solutions.
The methods we use in the Office of Innovation are constantly being refined. Before I was director, I was fortunate to witness firsthand early efforts to apply modern digital service techniques in the federal government. At Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and later at US Digital Service, I saw different models of bringing smart, dedicated people from industry to build incredible applications for government services. However, in these models skills exchange was secondary. As a long time government employee I know there were smart, dedicated people already serving in government. There is not an ability gap. There is a skills gap.
Skills can be learned.
I wanted to focus on training existing government staff with the skills I observed that make USDS and 18F so successful. However, I never found the opportunity to build this model out. When CA Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Wilkening created the CHHS Office of Innovation, opportunity finally appeared to make this idea into reality.
Another key is to provide staff the opportunity to use these great techniques. These skills are not simply just absorbed, they must be practiced. To practice them well means having projects that run unlike anything the government typically does. To have these unique projects means having high level executive buy in providing high level sponsorship, but also not predetermining what the outcome will be while the team learns. This requires a very unique and visionary leadership from Secretary Wilkening and also buy in from the organization to try to do things differently without any guarantee of success. Incrementally, we are changing the culture at CHHS to think about voice of the user and produce products that make government work better.
Teaching these skills that work so well and adapting them to make government work for today’s modern world. The techniques that work in the private industry do not translate directly into the government space. It takes a hybrid approach. As such, the Office of Innovation does not hire outside consultants to get the work done. Our staff is made up out of talented people from across Health and Human Services. After attending rigorous training in emotional intelligence, facilitation techniques, human centered design, product management, coding, design thinking and change management, the staff engage with departments to tightly define problems and prototype solutions.
We don’t build things for you; we build things with you side by side.
We use the agile sprint methodology – 2 week long sprints focused on iterating on previous work. Each sprint has a specific goal and set of deliverables.
Deliverables vary by what we uncover during discovery and the highest value return based on those needs. Therefore, what you get might not be what you initially asked for, but the improvements will be significant.
“Therefore, what you get might not be what you initially asked for, but the improvements will be significant.”
Our deliverables can be digital products, improvements to workflows, policies changes, procedure recommendations, skills improvements, changes to forms or even suggestions for legislation changes.
All our engagements last three sprints with a prep week before and a wrap up week after. Thus, expect us to be on this engagement for eight weeks total. After each two-week long sprint, we do a demo or what we learned and built. This demo is a chance to review and determine if we continue with the current plan or pivot to a new idea based on what we learned. From the first meeting to the delivery of the final prototype, we work with your team to transition the work to your staff. Each step of the way, we teach your team our methods with immersive, hand-ons co-creation.
We use a lot of sticky notes
Generally speaking, we’ll have a team of 4 people working with your staff during the eight week long engagement. We start with a meet and greet a week or two before we actually start. This is to introduce the team, get badges and most importantly, schedule interviews with stakeholders so we can start work on the first day. The first sprint is the discovery phase, where we learn as much as we can about the problem(s). We then spend the next four weeks prototyping, testing and iterating on the potential solution.
At the end of every sprint, we do a sprint demo. This is to highlight what we learned and built together. The demo is an opportunity to provide feedback and direction. We decide what to adjust, including major pivots in direction, based on your feedback from the demo. Some challenges are more complex and can get weekly demos as needed. We deliver the final prototype on the last demo day. Lastly, we spend an additional week wrapping up documentation and helping get your team ready to move the good things forward.
We are in a perpetual work in progress mode. Each sprint with your team is followed by a retro. This is a chance to talk about with us what worked and what did not work. We make changes so the next two weeks go more smoothly. There is always room for improvement.
We bring our own equipment, but will need a few logistical things while working with you:
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We do not expect your staff to be available to us full time on these engagements. The most intensive is the Champion – our expert guide – someone to call when stuck and can help schedule meetings and interviews. For SMEs and other participants, we typically need 4-6 hours per week for interviews, workshops and follow up conversations. Depending on the nature of the work, we might need more or less so flexibility is appreciated.
In the weeks prior to your official start date, we like to have a lightweight kick-off. We will do team introductions, discuss the problem space, our process, and logistics. We will then figure out the official Monday start date of the eight-week engagement.
Discuss with your team and send me some options for days/times in the next 2 weeks when we can do the lightweight kickoff meeting.
Please feel free to call or email me if you have further questions. We cannot wait for the team to show up, roll up our sleeves and get to work alongside you.
Snacks often accompany us on these meetings #justsayin’
Contact Chaeny.Emanavin@chhs.ca.gov for more information.