Government digital service

How do you become one of Canada’s most forward-thinking municipalities? By taking steady, smart steps, year after year, into citizen-centric government digital service.
Domain7’s partnership with the District of North Vancouver has spanned seven years, and has included the complete re-envisioning and rebuild of their flagship web property, the creation of a custom engagement tool, and the development of the District’s digital strategy playbook.

When Domain7 and DNV first partnered together, it was with the intent to co-design a citizen-centric website to serve the daily needs of the community.
Through a service design process, we helped DNV identify citizens’ top tasks, and made the tools for those tasks accessible via an easy-to-use web dashboard. This became the “virtual front desk,” and the foundation of the District’s web experience. The District’s team established a regular rhythm of measurement, carefully monitoring the performance of their digital experience. They iterated regularly, in partnership with our team.

It’s clear that teams who continue to rely heavily on external agencies never develop the capacity to respond to user needs with agility. DNV’s vision to become citizen-centric leaders meant they needed to become more self-sufficient. And so Domain7 worked closely with the District to help them establish their own digital services team. After a process of research, coaching and strategy, DNV is now successfully operating their first-ever Digital Services team—which has become an internal powerhouse.

The District of North Vancouver models a digital approach that is critically important for modern governments to adopt. Whether it’s federal, provincial or municipal, governments today have an urgent mandate to organize their teams around a common digital strategy that is truly oriented towards its citizens. DNV is showing the way.

“A government’s approach to digital can’t be coming from a single department,” insists Mairi Welman, former District Communications director. “Citizens expect centralized service, not a disparate experience. Digital needs to be in our blood. A new generation is emerging, with new expectations: we must design our digital services to serve the public, with the District’s whole ecosystem connected.”