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Selected Work · Strategic UX for Public Services

Rapid service digitization to keep a city running through crisis

When physical offices closed overnight, citizen needs didn't wait. This work turned a typical six-month development cycle into days, without sacrificing legal compliance or usability.

UX strategy exploration cover

Role

Leading prioritization and design strategy under pressure

  • I led the design strategy across multiple urgent service lines to keep decisions moving fast.
  • I managed the alignment between policy makers and product teams to unblock bottlenecks.
  • I ensured every MVP service stayed accessible, legally compliant, and usable for a stressed population.

Approach

We structured our response around targeted alignment sessions to move from chaos to execution:

  • Mapped user journeys under extreme time constraints to isolate immediate friction points.
  • Split the team into agile squads to focus on core urgent services (payments, appointments, registrations).
  • Synced design directly with product owners and service owners to resolve technical and legal blocks.
  • Developed a pilot experience based on immediate insights, ready to iterate live.

Outcome

Three services launched, a city kept moving

Speed to market

We designed and deployed three vital digital services (permits, emergency health support) in days.

Crisis management

We significantly reduced citizen anxiety by providing clear, predictable, and reassuring information.

Remote operations

We established the first fully remote co-design protocols for the government's design team.

Who this is for

  • Governments and public sector teams rethinking digital services under constraints
  • UX teams and researchers working in complex, highly regulated environments
  • Civic tech units or designers leading multi-stakeholder transformation

Key learning

Projects like these don't just change the digital product—they permanently transform how the organization works. Sustaining a space for rapid exploration, even under emergency pressure, is exactly what made a fast response a thoughtful one.