Digital Scotland Service Standard

2. Solve a whole problem for users

Work towards creating a service that solves one whole problem for users, working across organisational boundaries where necessary.

Why it’s important

People don’t organise their lives around government - and they shouldn’t have to understand how government works to access the services they need.

If we understand people’s lives, we can learn which organisations are responsible for providing services needed by those users and find effective ways to deliver the best possible outcomes.

That doesn’t mean trying to fix everything at once or building complicated systems that are difficult to deliver because they try to do too much. Start small and deliver value to users incrementally and frequently.

Doing work early to see the big picture - users, their problems and needs and the organisations that will serve those needs - means you’ll have a good understanding of the context you are working in, and what problems you’re going to solve.

Even when what you learn about users can’t be solved by your project, it’s important to link to related services or share those insights with organisations who can use them. 

How you do it

• Map the landscape
  Take time to understand how everything fits together - from user journeys to technology - and share this information
• Define your scope
  Use what you learn about users to scope your service
• Understand constraints
  Make sure organisational constraints - like procurement, policy and legislation - are understood and communicated
• Remove barriers that will affect the service
  This might include working with policy professionals to update legislation
• Work with other organisations
  Understand where you fit together as part of a user journey and work to improve the experience, for example reducing the number of times users are asked to provide the same information (while respecting their privacy)

Links to detailed guidance:

• Guidance on using experience maps from GDS
• Guidance on understanding scope from GDS
• Consider how you can use the Scottish Approach to Service Design to scope your service with people who will use it