A little pile of printed matter on a blue pouf ottoman, including a padded envelope, a folded newspaper, a brochure and a blue card with the logo of DigitalService

And sent 📮

This morning, a new starter welcome package went out to a designer who will join us in October.

As always, it includes the latest edition of the #ServiceGazette and the latest collection of columns by @digitalservice.bund.de CEO Christina Lang.

In a written note, I share greetings.

Vom Wunsch zur Wirklichkeit Wie Deutschlands Servicestandard nutzerfreundliche Dienste schafft

And much of what Katrin Dribbisch and I wrote in November 2020 in the #ServiceGazette remains valid and still hasn’t been done or is accomplished:

medium.com/public-servi...

Our American colleagues said the same thing on Friday. They were surprised that the international colleagues brought it up so little or not at all.

We dropped hundreds of copies of the #ServiceGazette with @hillaryh.bsky.social’s cover story. I saw quite a few people reading it in between sessions.

A person holding a Service Gazette newspaper while leaning against a pile of chopped wood logs, standing next to other people

250+ copies of the latest #ServiceGazette found new readers this week.

We generously shared them at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival throughout Thursday and the evening #ServiceDesign Drinks Berlin meetup.

📸
I captured this chap from the Berlin city government holding his copy while chatting.

An open newspaper page with the headline: “Designing in, for, with Europe — Public policy design in an evolving union” with an abstract arrangement of 4 neighbouring squares, each in a different colour with a different symbol—a circle surrounded by a ring, a star, a plus, a multiply symbol

Latest piece from the recent #ServiceGazette is published:

Ottla Arrigoni from the @ec.europa.eu’s Policy Lab on ‘Designing in, for, with Europe – Public policy design in an evolving union’.

👇🏻
medium.com/the-service-...

#CBF25 goers: Pick up your printed copy at Creative Bureaucracy Festival! 🗞️

Digital service resilience What endures when government innovation units close

Thanks for watching, Cam! We felt like we had to talk about this.

If you haven’t read it, I can highly recommend @hillaryh.bsky.social’s lead article in the recent #ServiceGazette. We built on some of Hillary’s points in the talk.

medium.com/the-service-...

Digital Transformation in Germany Taking a life-events approach

Many consider its implementation a failure, while the idea was good. Just the other week, a state representative in charge of the Online Access Act implementation called the one-for-all model “dead.”

A few years ago, we had this overview piece in the #ServiceGazette:
medium.com/the-service-...

Can we end an age of austerity service design? Lou Downe is calling for an end of austerity service design, namely designing services merely to save money or raise revenue.

Great to be in the #servicegazette with a new version of our article on Austerity #servicedesign and support the printed version of the paper

medium.com/the-service-...

Thanks @karakane-kk.bsky.social @martinjordan.com for including us

An open newspaper spread with 2 pages of text next to a big black and red graphic with the headline “Can we end an age of austerity service design?”

“Can we end an age of #austerity #serviceDesign?”, @loudowne.bsky.social asks in the latest #ServiceGazette.

Lou describes how this has led to many negative incentives and also gives practical recommendations
on how to design with scarcity.

🗞️ 👀 ⤵️
Read the article online: medium.com/the-service-...

Developing standards and accessibility guidance Improving services by making standards and accessibility simple

@kerry1yons.bsky.social and I were asked to write an article for #servicegazette about our work on standards and accessibility guidance over the last couple of years. We're pleased to say you can now read the online version that was in the recent print version.

medium.com/the-service-...

A newspaper page with 3 smaller pictures next to a headline that reads “Reuse and adapt — building accessibility capability at Germany’s DigitalService through reuse” by Marion Couesnon & Martin Jordan

You don’t have to start from scratch when you’re starting late.

You can reuse and adapt what others did before you.

For the new #ServiceGazette, Marion Couesnon and I wrote about ‘Building #accessibility capability at Germany’s @digitalservice.bund.de through reuse’.

👇🏻
medium.com/the-service-...

Week #152 at the Digital Service: Notes for 24–28 March 2025 Martin went westwards in his week 152 to attend the annual congress of the IT Planning Council in Hanover. He also witnessed another justice service going live and put in a 3-day vacation and weekend ...

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do.

So, here is one more from the week before last.

I attended the annual IT Planning Council Congress in Hanover. I witnessed another justice service going live and put in a 3-day vacation/weekend shift for the #ServiceGazette.

Week #153 at the Digital Service: Notes for 31 March–4 April 2025 In week #153 at Digital Service, Martin visited the DigitalAgentur Brandenburg, participated in a Service Standard content workshop, and wrapped up the latest Service Gazette.

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do.

Here is, with a little delay, last week’s note—for my @digitalservice.bund.de week #153.

I visited @digital-agentur.de in Potsdam, participated in a #ServiceStandard content workshop, and wrapped up the latest #ServiceGazette.

Week #154 at the Digital Service: Notes for 7–11 April 2025 In week 154 at Digital Service, Martin travelled to Amsterdam for the 3-day User Needs First International Design in Government conference. He spoke, contributed to a podcast, recorded his colleagues’...

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do.

In week 154, I travelled to Amsterdam for the 3-day #UserNeedsFirst #GovDesign conference.

I spoke, contributed to a podcast, recorded my colleagues’ sessions, had many chats, and distributed the latest #ServiceGazette issue.

A woman with long hair, a stripy longsleeve shirt and a lanyard holding a newspaper reading it; its masthead says ‘The Service Gazette’; the headline next to several arrows says “Digital service resilience”

It’s out! 🗞️

Our latest edition of The #ServiceGazette arrived just in time for this week’s #UserNeedsFirst #GovDesign conference in Amsterdam.

Almost 1,000 copies were picked up by the 700 conference attendees.

It assembles 13 authors from 7 countries and 3 continents who share their views.

12 large black and white newspaper pages spread across a textured wooden floor with someone in the foreground holding a pink sharpie

Final round! 🥊

The last proofreading session of the upcoming #ServiceGazette is on.

Together with 12 contributors, we’ve put together a pretty great new issue, I believe.

It’s going to the printer tomorrow and will arrive in Amsterdam next week for the #UserNeedsFirst #GovDesign conference.

Week #149 at the Digital Service: Notes for 3–7 March 2025 In his week 149 at Digital Service, the DIN specification underpinning the updated Service Standard for the German government was published. Martin co-ran a meetup on ‘Better voting, better democracy’...

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do.

This week, the DIN spec underpinning the updated #ServiceStandard for German government was published.

🎉

I also co-ran a meetup on ‘Better voting, better democracy’ and started planning the next #ServiceGazette edition.

A tablet displaying a digital sketch of a newspaper layout with hand-drawn text, images, and annotations.

The next #ServiceGazette is coming together.

It’s the printed newspaper for and from service innovators we have been making for 10 years now.

We will have contributors from at least 5 different countries and regions 🇪🇺🇳🇱🇸🇬🇬🇧🇺🇸 – reflecting on current developments, their practice and future approaches.

The Service Gazette – Medium The Service Gazette is a print publication for service innovators. It is published since 2015 with most print articles available on Medium.

Some context: The #ServiceGazette is a newspaper we’ve been making for the past decade, with many great public servants contributing from over 25 countries. @arielmai.bsky.social and @maredwards.bsky.social wrote articles for the autumn 2024 edition.

Most articles are also published on Medium.

This is a bit out of the blue, Hillary—would you be interested in reflecting on the closures of digital units for the coming issue of a (slightly nerdy) printed publication that @karakane-kk.bsky.social & I make called The #ServiceGazette? We sense you’d have a unique angle on the very current topic

Great to see printed #ServiceGazette copies in people’s hands — especially under a Christmas tree.

You can read the latest edition online as well: medium.com/the-service-...

That’s great, of course!

But that’s not where it’s easy to find. As you know, ‘Design in Government’ has thousands of subscribers who get notified. It comes with superb search ranking, too.

I keep weeknoting and writing my #ServiceGazette pieces, too, but the real stuff has to go onto gov’t blog.

The input included references to previous assisted digital work in UK government and @benaldo.bsky.social’s Universal Barriers framework.

Of course, I left some recent copies of the #ServiceGazette for folks to read.

A once-folded newspaper – ‘The Service Gazette’ – on a small circular wooden table; the cover story is: “The long slog of public service transformation: Recipes for sustained slow change”

It’s out.

And gone in no time—wherever I place some copies.

After 5 years, we made another English-language #ServiceGazette together with 16 people from all over the world.

It captures a broad range of topics of what people work on.

The first articles are now online: medium.com/the-service-...

Week #128 at the Digital Service: Notes for 7–11 October 2024 Martin was on holiday in his week 128 at Digital Service, slowly travelling back from the Helsinki conference. He hand-delivered some Service Gazette copies and met with gov design colleagues in Denma...

#Weeknote 128 – is pretty much work-free.

Because I was on holiday, slowly travelling back from the Helsinki conference.

I hand-delivered some #ServiceGazette copies and met with #GovDesign colleagues in Denmark and Sweden.

So, this is a short read:
verwaltungsgestaltung.de/notizen/2024...

A pink sticky note on a textured wall, it shows a stamped circular logo with a simplified trumpet

🗞️ 🖨️ ✅

The new #ServiceGazette went to the printer!

Now, fingers crossed it gets to Helsinki in time for the #GovDesign conference next week.

Part of a newspaper cover saying The Service Gazette in its masthead; the headline says: “The long slog of public service transformation: Recipes for sustained slow change” by Kara Kane and Martin Jordan — with a graphic showing various half rings with labels like nature of government, coloured, governments, infrastructure, election cycle, funding annual objectives, quarterly objectives, team sprints

After 5 years, we are making a new English-language #ServiceGazette.

It’s been coming together this week and will include brilliant contributions from @benaldo.bsky.social @claragt.bsky.social @ignaciaorellana.bsky.social @maredwards.bsky.social @vickytnz.bsky.social—from 3 continents & 6 countries

The Scottish Approach to Service Design Putting people at the heart of government

Their Chief Designer Cat Macaulay elaborated and wrote more about the ‘Scottish Approach to #ServiceDesign’ in a previous edition of the #ServiceGazette, explaining what it means to put people at the heart of government:

medium.com/the-service-...

Three big envelopes with stickers saying DigitalService next to a folded newspaper, two magazines and a simple card

Welcoming 3 more designers in a few weeks — so I’m preparing little packages I’ve been sending out since the beginning of the year to every new joiner.

They include a note, the latest copy of the #ServiceGazette and 2 issues of our CEO’s column magazines.

What else could I add? Any suggestions?

Standardising, not centralising Service design patterns for local government in the UK

If I’m not mistaken, this is related to some great work of 2017/2018.

Lizzie and Sūryanāga wrote about it for the #ServiceGazette:

medium.com/the-service-...