The document summarizes Ireland's first public sector innovation center's efforts to develop design capabilities within Cork County Council. It discusses how the center used service design approaches like stakeholder mapping, user research, prototyping and testing to redesign the housing representations process. This reduced the time spent processing representations from 15 to less than 2 minutes, led to instant acknowledgements, and created cost savings. It also helped shift mindsets within the council and sparked wider use of design approaches for other services. The center continues working to embed design literacy and a user-centered approach throughout the organization.

1. Embedding Design
Ireland’s first public sector innovation
centre and the journey to develop
design capabilities

2. Public sector = No design
Mapping policy to delivery from Scottish Government (2007-2010)

3. 2000s onwards we
saw a proliferation
of early public
sector design
models emerging
that focused on
building in-house
capabilities

4. Ireland’s First Public Sector
Service Innovation Centre
Cork County Council

5. “The senior team at Cork County
Council wanted to improve
customer and staff outcomes
county-wide and set up a centre
to use and showcase service
design approaches.
With a council in the process of
‘going digital’ we saw an
opportunity to ensure services
were led by user needs.”
James Fogarty, Deputy Chief Executive

9. Focus on council
Customer Service Transformation
Develop their design capability

10. Building a user-centered
council for citizens and staff

11. Designing services not
forms.
Moving from a lift and shift
attitude.

12. Housing Representations
Elected Members
Housing Department
Live training project

13. 250
Reps a month
15 minutes to process
each one
5
Hours to process the
reps daily
3
Day acknowledgement
KPI with a
10 day response time
wasn’t being met
The situation was ….

14. Stakeholder
and journey
mapping
Session
User
Research
and
Interviews
Persona
Development
and user
need
Blueprinting
user stories
High level
prototyping
of the service
Co-designing
detail of the
form and
service
Usability
testing and
research
Review
Meetings
Discovery
Alpha

15. Discovery Workshop

16. We had to compromise
For this project we couldn’t speak to
the citizen to see why they were
engaging the elected members on
their behalf.

17. Research:
User interviews
Shadowing Staff
Observation
We interviewed users - local and
national elected members, analysed
how staff ran the service and the
existing data we had been collecting

18. It seemed really rather
complicated...

19. Customers meet
directly with Public
Rep or with staff in
their office.
Liaise with reps
one to one, over
phone/email to
offer advise and
answer and
questions
Email confirmation
15 mins per
application
Scanning
paperwork
System very slow.
Checks info
available
Norma emails user
to advise query is
waiting for them to
answer. Chases
user to answer.
Further information
sought through Norma
or system updated
Not everyone updates
system
Councillor gets
acknowledged for
work done
Norma checks
data on CCS and
ihouse
Email,
Post,
Face to Face
Clinics/Office
Phone
Email
Post
Face to Face
Telephone
Email
Face to Face
Emaill
Post
CCS System
Scanning documentation
CCS System
Internal Post
Email
Excel Spreadsheets
iHouse
Phone Email Email
Post
Clinics/Office
Phone
Email
Post
Face to Face
STAGESTORYBORADFEELINGTOUCHPOINTINTERACTION
Local Rep meets
Constituent
Local Rep
Contacts CCC
Norma confirm
receipt.
Norma inputs
data into
System
CCC forwards
query to relevant
dept
Dept answers query,
looks for further
information &
updates system
Dept advises
Norma of updates
CCC advises
local rep of
updates
Local Rep contacts
constituent

20. “It is time consuming to document, scan and upload
original correspondence onto CCS system takes
approx. 15 mins. Excluding the time involved
chasing staff for answers, sending confirmation and
other correspondences”
- Norma, Housing Department

21. Lack of clarity on what
information is actually
needed and useful to
submit a representation
● Elected representatives send in
everything they think is relevant
● Photos are not required by Council
staff
● Lack of clarity around what is
and is not required to process
a representation

22. TD’s (which is the Government elected
member) make a higher amount of
representations than local councillors
Councillors (Local Elected Members)
can ‘shine a light’ on individual cases
of citizens

23. The Re-design
Standardising data collection
Document to support elected members
Developed a workflow for housing staff

24. Re-designing the service:
Great engagement from
elected members and staff
● Ran prototyping workshops to
design what information is needed
● Breaking down the content
● Co-designing the needs across
different users

25. Language was important
Senior management recognised how
important the language was when
we walked through the service
visually in the co-design workshop

26. Usability Testing:
Testing our design with
elected members
Usability testing on the YourCouncil.ie
(Firmstep platform) allowed us to
quickly test our designs and find out
what worked and what didn’t before
going live

27. Prototyping straight into live
Prototyping on our customer
experience platform allowed us to
tweak continuously and then go
immediately live

28. Processing Reps
The processing of documents by
housing policy reduced from 15
minutes to less than 2 minutes per
rep. In most cases elected members
are submitting relevant documents.
This means roughly a week of time
saved per administrative staff member
per month.
86%Decrease in time spent processing

29. Instant Response
The reps are getting instant
acknowledgements – they were
previously waiting weeks
despite having a KPI of 3 days.
Nearly 75% of responses can be
answered straightaway once
they’re in the system.
100%Decrease in time spent waiting for
acknowledgement

30. Data Dashboard
A Dashboard is now always available which
saves ½ day a month (6 days a year) in
preparing a report for the Development
Committee
½Day a month saving in
preparing data

31. €1Saving on every acknowledgement
and response
Cost Savings in postage
There is a cost saving in postage of
€1 per acknowledgment and
response.
This is a saving duplicated for the
council and the elected members.
We think this is roughly €12,000 a
year in savings for the council and
elected members

32. Cost Savings in staff
We’ve cleared the backlog so much so
that the staff member we had been
working with has been freed up to
work on other projects and initiatives
two days a week.
2Days a week for staff
members now free

33. The real value of the service
emerged through this work
Reps are service co-producers in supporting some of the
most vulnerable and marginalised in our communities.

34. We’ve hooked housing
Our short intervention created an appetite for more Service
Design. We’re now looking at repairs, enquiries and grants.

35. Learning Lunches

36. Winning Hearts and Minds
“For me, the greatest part of the process had to be changing people’s
mind-sets. Initially we weren’t given the go-ahead to work with elected
members. After taking senior management in housing through the process,
they got onboard, organised information and training workshops. I skipped
back to the office”
Karen Fitzgerald, Customer Service Transformation Team

37. Where now?
Multiple projects underway
using Service Design
approaches
From library services to flood risk,
planning to environmental reporting

38. We’re now collecting
and analysing data on
what works
We can follow transactions by
service users to continuously
tweak our services and we are
in control.
Data is our new material.

39. We’re creating the
business case to feed
upstream.
We’re analysing our
performance against
Government digital standards,
and producing reports
contrasting service
performance and maintenance
possibility pre and post design.

40. Where now?
Wider strategy for
embedding design
Taking a holistic approach to
developing the capability inside the
organisation

41. Building design capabilities
We’ve been focusing on building the capabilities of
organisations whilst we deliver live projects

42. Making Service Design stick
What we learned from the reality of
delivering new services through to live

43. Dormant
Unconscious
incompetence
The organisation doesn't
recognise it isn't performing or
where weaknesses lie.
Design deficit
No resource for design or
literacy to recognise the value
Starting Block
Conscious
incompetence
The organisation are making
the first steps to improve and
are at the planning stage of
how to do this.
Clean Slate
Solo lead or one design expert,
often organisation will be
smothering this person to a
clear goal to scale or build a
team
Sprinting
Active Unconscious
Incompetence
Have started trying to improve,
but are doing more harm than
good through unfocused
efforts.
Lift and Shift
Small team focusing on
user-centred approaches and
service improvement to a
dedicated team offering a
UX/CX service across the
business
Stretching
Conscious
incompetence
The organisation are making
active positive improvements
and have a scalable plan in
place to develop their
capabilities.
Design as a service
Small UX/CX team working on
products and services offering
skills across departments and
teams to a solidified and
scalable model for growing
capability org wide
Running
Unconscious
competence
The organisation have scaled
their approach across
departments and teams with
competence growing in
improving products and
services and building a
sustainable approach.
Embedded Design
literacy
Larger UX/CX centralised team
working on products and
services and other departments
start using embedded
designers, work across multiple
groups full time. Non designer
move to design literate in the
business. Moving to non
designers becoming design
fluid.
Pacing
Conscious
competence
The organisation are using
user-centred approaches
across all areas of the
organisation and literacy is high
across all teams.
User-centred organisation
Design is alive and living
across all processes internal to
the business. The end users
are always considered and
projects are delayed if the
design isn't delightful.
Consistent conscious act of
ensuring the sustainability of
the user-centred approach
across the whole organisation.
Learning
Style
Typical
Approach
Design
Capacity

44. A centralised team can begin as
agitators and influence others
The CST team in this context are
agitators, spreading the approach

45. Don’t make assumptions and map the
dark matter
Don’t always think people don’t want
to do this or it can’t be done, be
strategic in understanding the dark
matter and find ways around barriers

46. The projects need to land
We need ownership through service
managers or product owners to ‘own’
the service. Find who these owners
are.

47. Find the right people for the job
If Senior Management Team put
people onto projects, they have to be
the ‘right’ people for the job. Find the
people who really want to make
change happen.

48. Build and grow external networks
Look at your development pipeline of
talent and building the network to
bring them in-house/work alongside
you

49. Build a consistent playbook
Playbooks are great but don’t focus too
much on the tools. Build the playbook
as you deliver services.

50. Speak the right language
Speak in the terms and terminology
that people feel comfortable with.
Don’t complicate it, keep it simple.

51. Don’t ‘be the agency’.
Help build the capacity in the
organisation in their language, their
tools on their terms.

52. Support from both ends
You need senior level buy-in but
nurture a grassroots agenda to grow
the movement

53. Have a strategy that looks ahead
Map your service needs and what
citizens need to do to prioritise your
resource

54. Build the sustainable design products
Recognise the central team, in time,
will need to refocus their effort on
building scalable products for design

55. Communication matters
Get communication capacity onside to
support the message of what you’re
trying to do

56. Use live projects to train
They highlight the actual reality of
scoping, designing and delivering a live
service

57. Work live and learn as you go
Let people have the space and time to
learn as they go
Build live in the platforms you will go
live

58. Impact over ‘case study’
Don’t get obsessed with service design
to ‘show the process’.
Show the impact.

60. This may seem small, but this is
only 1 of 600 services, and a
snapshot of what Service Republic
will do.
The reality of delivering services in local government is
tough but this start has been transformational for us.

61. Gracias!
www.yourcouncil.ie
@servicerepublic
@wearesnook