Challenge

Agencies within the USDA’s Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) Mission Area needed a safe space where they could design better products and services from scratch.

OUTCOME

An innovation lab that pairs agency clients with internal design teams and enables them to design products jointly with end users.

OVERVIEW

FPAC is a mission area within the US Department of Agriculture that includes the only three USDA agencies whose mandate is to work directly with American producers*: the Farm Service Agency (FSA), the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Risk Management Agency (RMA). While these agencies are responsible for creating policies, programs, and services that directly impact farmers, employees at these agencies do not always have the resources or the expertise necessary to design them in a way that is accessible and user-friendly.

I led the development of a new organizational entity within FPAC intended to address this problem: the FPAC Customer Experience Innovation Lab, or CX iLab. Starting from scratch, with only one employee (me) initially working on it, I developed the iLab’s strategy, procedures, and organizational structure. To do this, I conducted research on the typical needs of various internal client segments, did in-depth stakeholder analyses to understand where customer experience projects typically experienced bottlenecks or failures, and created a multi-year plan that would allow us to test and refine the overall methodology and approach of the iLab.

The result is a research and development space that enables equitable and collaborative design between designers, internal clients, and end users. Agencies will bring a customer-focused, complex challenge to the iLab (e.g., “Customers are not accessing and using our soil data”). Using a process rooted in human-centered design, we work with clients to scope and conduct initial user research; define the specific problem(s) that they want to tackle; and, critically, bring in farmers and other stakeholders to participate in ideation, prototype development, and solution refinement. In order to promote sustainability, we regularly check in with clients on their available resources and continued interest in the project, and provide the option for them to opt out at any time.

Over the last two years, the iLab’s portfolio has grown from one initial project to three active projects and a fourth that has “graduated” (successfully implemented at the client level). Each of those projects has a designated team that includes design experts from the larger FPAC Customer Experience Division, client representatives, and employees from other areas who are detailed to the project because of their specific experiences and knowledge. Projects and research are rigorously documented for future knowledge and replicability, and so is the overall process of the iLab, in the hopes that this organization can continue to provide a valuable space for promoting innovation within USDA.

*”Producers” is the term of art used within USDA to refer to farmers, ranchers, and foresters.