Week 37: the unit of delivery is the team
I’m working on alpha.gov.bb with GovTech Barbados, and on a reassessment of Ontario One Call’s digital maturity.
This week went like this:
- The first GovTech show and tell: the brand reveal for alpha.gov.bb and the first two entry points.
- Prioritised the first 15 to 20 entry-point services using a mix of heuristics and AI-assisted analysis.
- Worked with a Public Digital colleague on the Ontario One Call digital maturity reassessment report, ready to share next week.
GovTech Barbados
Thursday was spent preparing for the show and tell. It was a bit of a confusing day, trying to coordinate everyone working in the same deck across multiple time zones. It felt painful, but I have the utmost trust in the people on the team and knew everything would be OK in the end.
On Friday we had our first GovTech show and tell, live in person and on the internet. We decided at the last minute that Mark, the CEO of GovTech, would open and close the session, and he finished with the line “the unit of delivery is the team”.
A real highlight was our designer Jack unveiling the brand for alpha.gov.bb, being bold enough to say this could be the brand for Barbados, and explaining how the colour palette represents the Barbadian community. Magic.
In just three weeks, we’ve launched a modern-looking website on alpha.gov.bb. But this is about more than a website. It’s about building capability and trust in GovTech so they can deliver digital services on their own. We’re working closely with them, showing them how to deliver digital services quickly and safely, in the open.
Earlier in the week, Abisola and I met Mark to agree the initial 15 to 20 entry-point services. Out of that, I’ve been refining some working heuristics for prioritisation:
- value to users
- ease of digitisation
- priority for the ministry that owns the service
- political impact
I used ChatGPT to scan service names for verbs (apply, report, register, tell, join), which often point to a simple, form-based service. I then checked the shortlist against our strategy paper. AI was the start, not the finish, but it was a fast way to test ideas.
We’re considering starting with very quick form digitisation, and I have an idea for moving birth registration to a fully digital application soon. People will still need to visit the building to prove their ID. Baby steps.
Ontario One Call: final report ready
Alex and I have written the final report, which combines interview transcripts (analysed with Gemini) and survey data into scores and a narrative. We did this by giving Gemini the maturity framework and asking it to assess the data against those clear rules. After editing, and strengthening or softening the tone in places, we’ll share the report for comments early next week, then meet the new CEO to present and discuss the findings and recommendations.