In our research announcement on theories of change (ToC) for digital government, the Digital Service Network shared our belief that all Digital Service (DS) teams should work to develop a ToC.
When people hit the moment in the HealthCare.gov sign-up process where they need in-person help, they’re likely frustrated and at risk of abandoning the process altogether. To help, Ad Hoc designers on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Find Local Help team extensively researched user pain points and used human-centered design to create a tool that respects the stress users may experience and delivers the information they need as quickly and simply as possible.
Minnesota is a good example of an organization that started small in its drive to integrate benefits programs. For instance, its recent statewide rollout of its online integrated benefit application website, MNbenefits.mn.gov, started as a pilot in 2020 with Code for America. The pilot encompassed two counties including Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located. The pilot later expanded to four counties, then 16 and a tribal nation. The final roll out, which took 12 months to implement, included the state’s 87 counties and three tribal nations.
Login.gov created a first-of-its-kind, publicly-visible program roadmap and shares tips on how other programs can build their own roadmaps to improve transparency.
This OPRE brief provides strategies for enhancing cultural responsiveness in social service agencies, focusing on improving services for diverse communities through organizational change, staff development, and culturally informed program design.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
This paper discusses the country’s chronic underinvestment in children and resulting outcomes, including new data on poverty rates among young children, is inextricable from the prospects of young children; and the remarkably comprehensive pandemic-era response policies, including which changes contributed most to reducing child poverty.
The Login.gov program roadmap articulates the values of the Login.gov program, outlines strategic priorities, and documents how the program is approaching nuanced identity topics.
This article examines the concept of "viral cash" and suggests that the future growth of basic income programs will depend on advocacy networks rather than traditional policy diffusion across jurisdictions.
In this brief, they present a definition of HCD that is applicable to the context of human services delivery, differentiate HCD from similar design and problem-solving approaches, and describe how HCD is being used in human services.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
The team explored using LLMs to interpret the Program Operations Manual System (POMS) into plain language logic models and flowcharts as educational resources for SSI and SSDI eligibility, benchmarking LLMs in RAG methods for reliability in answering queries and providing useful instructions to users.
The article discusses effective strategies for training government partners in digital services, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing training, setting clear objectives, and fostering mutual understanding and trust.
This workshop guide offers teams an opportunity to jointly work toward understanding core problems impacting digital delivery in their organization. The guide is structured in two parts: (1) a Miro template and (2) a Facilitation Guide.
