PUBLIC SERVICE DESIGN

Geetanjali Upadhyaya, Anita Poudel and Shilu Pradhan

3/12/2020
 Agenda
A. Context of public service in Nepal
B. Basic principles of public service design [Service
quality, service seeker's experience, and design
principles]
C. Design process and parameters
D. Designing for public

Sessions: Three

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 3/12/2020
Source: 2015 Public Service Division, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore ACMD - 2020
 Visualizing public service *delivery*

 Close your eyes

 You are a service seeker. Think of public
service *delivery* in Nepal (10 seconds)
 You are a service provider. Think of public

service *delivery in Nepal (10 seconds)

 Express your thoughts in pictures – No words
please (15 minutes)

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5

State of Public Service in Nepal

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 Existing Institutional arrangements
6
Policy level Provisions
 Constitution of Nepal,
2072
 Civil Service Act, 2049
 Good Governance Act,
2064
 Local Government
Operation Act, 2074
 ...
Institutional Provision
 Ministries, Departments,
provincial offices, locals
service centres etc
 Constitutional organ
 Public enterprises
 NGOs, Cooperatives, Pvt
bodies
 Consumer interest
protection group...
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 Existing Institutional arrangements
7

Activity Based Provisions Activity Based Provisions

 Citizen Charter with  Information officer

compensations  Customer satisfaction
 Public hearing survey
 Mobile service  Help desk, call centres,
 Integrated service spokesperson
 Hello Sarkar  Feedback mechanism
 Token system
 Website ...
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8
Service density?
Others
11% District administration
office
22%

Health institution
14%

Land administration
13%

Municipal office
40%

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 Source of information?
61 61
58 59
58 58

35 34
34 33
32
31

22
18 19 18
17

11

5
3 3 2
2
1

No education No formal education Basic education Secondary education Higher education Total

Government employees Previous service receiver Citizen's charter Own experience

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 Multiple attempts? Why?
10

43 44
42
41
40

32

23
21
19 18 18
17 17 17 18
16
16 15 16
14 14 14 15
13
10 10
8 8 9
8

No education No formal education Basic education Secondary education Higher education Total
Incomplete documentation Absence of staff Crowding of service receivers Unwillingness of service providers Lengthy process

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 Let's think...
11

 Do you have clarity on your service-seekers’ needs

and preferences?
 Is access to your organization and information
straightforward?
 Are those service-seekers with special needs getting
the right support?
 Are the employees motivated and equipped with
the right tools for delivering an excellent service?
 Do you have the capability to track the benefits of
change?
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The public sector is collectively, the world’s largest
service provider. Any incremental improvement in
public services positively impacts millions of people.
The first step to ‘delivering the customer promise’ is to
know your customers and their needs.

Source: PriceWaterhouse Coopers. 2007. The Road Ahead for Public Service Delivery:
Delivering on the Customer Promise. Public Sector Research Centre, PwC.

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B. Basicprinciples of public
service design

i. Service quality
ii. Service seeker's experience
iii. Design principles

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i. Service quality

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 Service Quality
 Service Quality is More Difficult to Evaluate
 Quality is a Comparison between Expectation and
Performance
 Quality Evaluations Involve Outcomes and Processes

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Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L.
They proposed service quality gaps model in their seminal
article “A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its
Implications for Future Research” published in Journal of
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Marketing (1985). ACMD - 2020
 Service quality gaps
Service Provider Gap Service Seekers Gap

GAP1: Seekers expectation – provider perception gap GAP 5: Expected service –

(Not knowing what seekers want -Knowledge gap) perceived service gap
(customer gap)
GAP 2: Management perception - service quality
specification gap
(Not setting right service standards -Service design gap)

GAP 3: Service quality specification - service delivery gap

(Not delivering on service standards- Performance/delivery
gap)

GAP 4: Service delivery – external communication gap

(Not delivering on promises - Communication gap)
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 Determinants of Perceived Service Quality

Determinants
of
service quality
1. Access
Expected
2. Communication
Service
3. Competence
4. Courtesy Perceived
5. Credibility Service
6. Reliability Quality
7. Responsiveness Perceived
8. Security Service
9. Tangibles
10. Understanding/
knowing the citizen
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ii. Service seeker's
experience

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 Main Offerings? Experiences?
 We are influenced by main offerings and at the
same time we are influenced by the layers of
experience around it.

However,
 Anything outside the basic offering is mostly seen as

an overhead, a cost center, or as a “soft factor"

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 Service design
 Government can no longer ignore the qualitative
and human dimensions of public service delivery
and policy making.
 Understand the behavior and motivations of the
customers and help them to satisfy their unmet
needs by creating a system of thoughtfully executed
customers interactions.
 A process that places the user as well as the
provider at the heart of the development and
testing process.
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iii. Design principles

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 Demystifying service design
 Solve the right problem
 Understand needs
 Design creative solutions
 Collaborative Creation

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 Design principles
 User Centered
 Sequential
 Qualitative
 Iterative
 Holistic

Source: A guide for the application of service design in public organizations. ( 2016)

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C. Design Process and
parameters

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Great services don’t happen by accident; great
services are designed.

There is no one prescribed service design process.

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 Components of service design
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Design process

Source: d.School, Standford University 3/12/2020 ACMD - 2020

‘To improve services we need to understand more
about customers’ experience of using government’s
services. Governments tend to have lots of information
on transactions between the customer and the service
provider, but little on customers’ real experience of
us.’

Alexis Cleveland, Chief Executive of the Pension

Service UK

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Design process
1. Empathetically observe
target group
 immersion
 observation
 interview

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2. Define

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3. Ideate: Canvas possible solution
– diverge and converge choices
 Brainstorming more ideas about the problem

statement
"It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to
be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas
at all."- Edward de bono

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4. Prototype: Develop a prototype solution
– build a solution

 Representation of your idea

 Testing of initial idea
 Saves money, resources
 Fail Early and Test Often

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5. Test: Test the prototype with the target group
– check the solution
(Source: Mintrom, M., and Leutjens, J. (2016). Design Thinking in Policymaking Processes: Opportunities and
Challenges. Australian Journal of Public Administration.)

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D. Designing for
public

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 Methods of Service Design
 Ethnographic Research - Observing and analyzing how users
and providers engage with the service.
 Focus Groups - A feedback loop between service users and
providers.
 Scenario Building - Using role play to explore theoretical
scenarios in a service concept.
 Immersion - Field research and analysis by observing how
people use the service firsthand.
 Surveys/Interviews - Surveys or interviews to gain qualitative
and qualitative feedback from service users and providers.
 Customer Journey Mapping - Plotting steps where the
client interacts with the service inACMD
various
- 2020 ‘touch points’.
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Thank You

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