Lerner and Martin write from deep practitioner experience. Lerner served as deputy executive director of the U.S. Digital Service team at the Department of Homeland Security; Martin has spent more than a decade embedded in city and state government, including Boston and Colorado. Their simple but compelling case: HCD serves as a prerequisite for effective service delivery, and sequence matters more than speed.
From Compliance to Lived Experience
Building on insights from Pamela Herd and Donald Moynihan, the report describes administrative burden as a “time tax” of learning, compliance, and psychological costs. The policy architecture to address this, from the Paperwork Reduction Act to the Government Service Delivery Improvement Act of 2025, already exists. Practitioners need next an evidence base and a roadmap that lasts across administrations.
Climbing the Readiness Ladder
The report introduces the Human-Centered Design Readiness Ladder, which maps the organizational conditions that allow citizen-centered practice to take root. The Ladder has four sequential levels:
- Technical Foundations: stable systems and reliable access.
- Iterative Development: a culture of frequent, small releases.
- User-Centricity: research, usability testing, and co-design built into every product cycle.
- Service Design: redesign of entire cross-agency journeys, tied to measurable outcomes.
Each level of the ladder provides a prerequisite for the next. Specialized teams can help agencies climb faster, but every rung still counts: for example, a service design effort launched before a team can ship changes tends to produce plans that sit on a shelf.
Four Cases, Four Paths
The authors test the Ladder against four cases spanning federal, state, and local government.
- DHS Customer Experience Directorate. A burden reduction initiative cut more than 20 million hours of public burden and helped over 100,000 disaster survivors receive $559 million in additional FEMA aid.
- FAFSA and Federal Student Aid. After a troubled 2024–25 rollout, FSA’s Accounts team shifted focus from policy implementation to user outcomes, and to direct work with congressional staff on less burdensome ways to meet the law’s intent.
- Colorado Digital Service. A statewide design toolbox gave any agency access to research tools, participant recruitment, and design experts, lowering the bureaucratic burden of using design itself.
- City of Long Beach. Lacking dedicated design staff, the city climbed through the ladder through shared infrastructure: a Civic User Research Playbook, a citywide design system, and strategic partnerships.
Five Recommendations
- Move through the Ladder in order. Secure technical foundations and iterative workflows before large-scale service redesign.
- Invest in operational toolboxes. Build shared research infrastructure: participant recruitment, compensation, tool access, and plain-language guidance.
- Focus on outcomes over policy implementation. Measure resident satisfaction and completion rates, and work directly with rule writers when rules create friction.
- Build for durability. Pair visibility with outcome metrics that transcend partisan framing, alliances with career staff, and deep organizational embeddedness.
- Hire senior talent through alternative pathways. Use flexible hiring authorities, peer-evaluated assessments, and fellowships to bring in experienced design leaders.
Making Government Work Better
The report speaks to agency executives, technology and digital leaders, program officials, and state and local officials working with limited resources. The authors’ message for all: human-centered design, practiced in sequence and built into durable infrastructure, constitutes an effective tool for government to strengthen public trust by making services work better for the people they serve.
