City of Vancouver
Helping Canada's third largest city become more open and responsive
Re-thinking digital from the ground up
Websites represent your entire organization to the outside world. So it stands to reason the more complicated your institution, the less likely your web presence will offer a clean, clear, integrated experience for your various audiences.
When we were asked to help Canada’s third largest city rethink its digital experience from the ground up, we knew we were in for a big challenge, that would mean more than just building them a new website. This was an opportunity to use a digital project as a catalyst to transform an institution to become more open and responsive for our changing world.
From tactical to transformative
We teamed up with OpenRoad Communications, a corporate class technology shop, to guide Vancouver through a digital vision and user-experience design process.
As with any institution, significant obstacles stood in the way of making real change. Government functions were split into extreme silos, and collaboration or even communication among them was often poor. Their website was oriented almost completely around the internal language and quirks of the institution. Meanwhile, demand from citizens for reliable and current digital content, efficient transactions, and community participation opportunities was rising to new highs, and the staff were struggling to innovate even in small ways.
While the challenges were significant, we also uncovered a rare alignment of opportunity. Vancouver had a visionary new mayor and council who believed in transparency and citizen participation, and were willing to drag the institution into the present. The city manager had a new business plan - its first in thirty years – and digital was well positioned to deliver on its top priorities. We also identified a critical mass of both senior leaders and front-line staff who were ready to move beyond business as usual.
Listening for insights
As with all complex challenges, the first step in our process was intensive listening—both inside and outside the institution—to gain the full systems view of the opportunities and risks we faced.
First we identified and connected with executives across multiple silos who were quietly driving innovation in their own areas, or power players whose buy-in would eventually be essential for our overall success. These stakeholder networks help us find the many great ideas for change that already exist within institutions, identify barriers to progress (structural and political), and build momentum by recruiting supportive champions that we’ll need along the way. It also shines the light on internal leaders rather than us as external consultants.
For a full picture of reality within an institution we have to listen externally. We analyzed call data from the city's 311 citizen information line, pored over 3,500 online survey responses, and analyzed web traffic patterns across their multiple sites. We also held a workshop with 100 frontline city staff who directly serve citizens, conducted focus groups and one-on-one interviews with citizens themselves, and reviewed inspiring stories of digital innovation from other Canadian and U.S. cities.
Creating a breakthrough vision
Our research created a compelling case for change. The next step was to tie it all together into something cohesive, memorable, and inspiring that would serve as a rallying cry and long term touchstone for the future, as opposed to a big weighty document that gathered dust on people’s desks.
Our digital vision was to create a “one city, citizen centric experience”. Despite the complexity of the city's internal structures, their digital presence had to help an extremely diverse group of citizens efficiently accomplish their desired tasks.
With the client we identified three high-leverage projects that, if executed well, would have the biggest impact on both project success and institutional transformation. It is exciting to see an institution take a deep look at what's truly holding them back, engage in co-creating breakthrough solutions and craft a new digital vision to drive long-term leadership. We look forward to other groups taking similar steps forward.
