Designing Public Service from the Inside Out

This article is part of the 2025 Report: GovCX Trailblazers Case Studies, published by the International Foundation for Customer Experience in Government. The report aims to advance the global dialogue on Customer Experience (CX) in the public sector by highlighting innovative practices from around the world and setting benchmarks to help governments strengthen their CX initiatives.

Milena Tasic, who leads design and innovation at the Innovation Hub within the Government of Canada, has been responsible for advancing human-centered design practices across the department while building the government’s capacity for sustainable and inclusive innovation.

Reflecting on one of the most impactful initiatives she has led, Milena describes how the work began not with technology or structural reform, but with a shift in mindset.

“If we want better service for the public, we need to start by improving the experience of the people delivering it.”

Over the past year, her team at the Innovation Hub partnered with operational colleagues to tackle a long-standing process challenge that was creating friction, duplication, and delays in delivering quality service. Using principles of human-centered and service design, the team uncovered that a lack of collaboration across teams was at the heart of the issue.

In response, they co-created a prototype with staff and led a series of real-time tests to explore whether a more connected way of working could lead to better experiences and outcomes.
The prototype was designed as a playtest of a new workflow. A small group of staff came together to work on real case files while testing a structured model for cross-functional collaboration. A simple playbook was shared in advance to set expectations, followed by four 90-minute sessions combining collaborative working time with reflection and discussion periods to surface highlights, blockers, and opportunities for improvement.

What initially began as an effort to fix a process soon revealed something larger.

“At first, this was about fixing a process. But we soon realized it had the potential to scale and to demonstrate that a more human way of working is possible.”

Prototype testing showed faster answers, fewer handoffs, and a noticeable boost in staff confidence and connection. Once participants experienced the new approach firsthand, their mindsets began to shift.

They started to see that working collaboratively could actually help them do their jobs more efficiently. Some participants shared that they felt more confident and less isolated, an outcome that signaled something important to the team.

As Milena explains:

“This wasn’t just a better process, it was a better experience.”

The initiative reinforced a broader realization: better experience inside the system leads to better outcomes for the people it serves.

Despite the apparent simplicity of the approach, introducing change within established systems proved complex.

“It might sound simple, but when people and their long-standing processes are involved, and you’re trying to make changes… things tend to get complicated.”

Staff had already experienced significant organizational change in recent years, resulting in skepticism and hesitancy toward trying new ways of working. Recognizing this, the team framed the initiative intentionally as a low-pressure experiment to build trust and openness.

The testing process itself was iterative.

“The tests were a little messy, and they left us with more questions than answers about the detailed process, but they also taught us a lot about what was resonating and what wasn’t.”

The learning generated through experimentation provided enough confidence to move the idea toward a higher degree of fidelity. Importantly, once staff experienced the collaborative approach directly, resistance began to give way to curiosity and engagement.

For Milena, the experience ultimately reaffirmed a core belief about public service transformation:

“Better public service starts with how people feel doing the work.”

Designing for staff with the same care given to clients creates a stronger foundation for public service delivery.

“When we design for staff with the same care we give to clients, we build a stronger foundation for public service.”

The initiative demonstrated that improving internal experience is not separate from improving citizen experience; it is a prerequisite for it.

This work reflects many of the principles laid out in the International Model for Customer Experience in Government. It was grounded in real conditions, co-created with the people closest to the work, and focused on learning through testing.

The initiative speaks to the Design dimension through collaborative problem-solving and prototyping, and to Delivery by improving how services are experienced internally.