Can a methodology, or rather a practice, for creating digital public services through incubation be easily transposed from one Member State to the European Union, or at least inspire other Member States? The answer is not yet in these lines, but the experiences in France may provide some interesting insights.
Indeed, how can these services created in public innovation units (incubators) become fully-fledged public services operated within their public administration?
In France: incubation by government start-ups
“Since the early 2010s, the French government has sought to accelerate its digital transformation through an incubation program inspired by the tech sector (incubators, lean methodologies, frugal mindset) to create “State startup”, small autonomous teams of makers, set out to pursue a measurable impact, with financing renewed every 6 month, by a board of stakeholders. The first stage is supposed to issue a proof of concept (POC).
The need to quickly have a measurable, track record (all state startup have an obligation to display their real time measurable impact. You can see an example here: https://www.demarches-simplifiees.fr/stats (fr) forces the teams to meet users where they are, instead of where they wish they were. The applications need to be based on the real uses of their users, that the team discovers through involving citizens in the design process, running its own support, meeting with important stakeholders from inside and outside the administration.
With success proven on a small scale, the team can extend their application reach to provide service to a larger set of beneficiaries. That scaling comes with more funding and with higher compliance standards.
Sometimes, scaling does not include the application, but its internal APIs. The ability, inside the administration, to share structured and reliable information becomes a success story.
A project, whatever it may be, needs to be anchored in real life, in the concrete, so that it becomes part of everyday life. That's why it can't stay in the cosy nest of incubation. Incubation is only designed for testing, for confronting reality, but not for anchoring it to last.
With this in mind, a transition phase should be implemented as soon as the project is considered to be mature.
On top of it, the project has to deliver a useful service, in the appropriate organisation, and with the right people and team to develop it.
Quite often, the teams working on the incubation phase are not systematically the ones who will ultimately operate the service.
That’s why it needs to convince the administrations targeted as the “buyers” of the service to jump into the startup journey as soon as possible in the incubation programme. This makes the transfer phase particularly tricky.
The transfer phase: a key momentum for a sustainable service
The transfer phase, the last phase in the design of digital services in the incubation programme** (see illustration below), is a delicate stage. It consists of entrusting a service built and operated in an environment used to digital practices to a public administration that operates very differently. However, it is important that these transfers are successful, so that the services created in the incubator network have a lasting impact on the people, but also so that the operation is of maximum benefit to the administration hosting the product, which will be able to learn a great deal from it to accelerate its digital transformation.
As mentioned by a State Start-up fellow : “the transfer phases are similar to a heart transplant. The heart functions with its own circuits and is fed and connected to an external system, the body. A heart transplant involves taking this living organism and connecting it to a new organism with new vessels, veins, etc. Many parameters therefore need to be adjusted for a transplant to be successful.
When a service designed using the State Startup approach is transferred, a team with its own organisation, methods, values and dynamics has to fit into the ecosystem of the traditional administration, which is organised according to the principles of bureaucracy.
Unsurprisingly, these differences can be risky if the quality of the digital service is to be maintained over time; without preparation, there is a high probability that the transfer will fail.
So what ‘ld be the success factors for transferring products designed using the State Startups approach?
5 takeaways can be outlined :
Involving the buyer's entire hierarchical chain in the transfer phase
The way in which services designed using the State Startup approach operate is sometimes rather unusual for public administrations. They are familiar with planning (drawing up specifications) and are used to decisions being taken at the top of the hierarchical chain. In contrast, for digital services designed using the State Startup approach, it is the operational team that regularly makes decisions about the functionalities of their product, to better adapt to the needs of users as their feedback comes in. This reversal, which consists of giving flexibility and confidence to the agents who are closest to the reality on the ground and to the users, challenges the mental models to which traditional administrations are accustomed and requires the support of the entire hierarchical chain, especially as in order to benefit from the value of the State Startup, the service must be integrated as well as possible into the host administration.
Studying the pros and cons of all the different possible hosting scenarios
After the acceleration phase of the State Startup, it is sometimes possible to envisage several buyers. It is important to identify and study the different host structures in which the digital solution could evolve.
Take the time to organise a period of transition between the old and new digital product teams
The State Startup team, made up of public sector employees and digital experts from the private sector, acquires a wealth of strategic and operational knowledge during the incubation period. Its members have often become specialists in the public policy pursued by the platform, have technical expertise in the functional choices made for the digital product, and know the users of the service inside out, having exchanged views with them on a regular basis. And often, the teams are supported by former digital entrepreneurs (what we call coaches), who help them to structure a long-term strategic vision. It would be a shame to lose all this knowledge acquired during the incubation of the service during the transfer phase.
At the start of the transfer phase, it is therefore vital to bring together all the stakeholders (including the historic operational teams) so that the new owners and the 'old hands' can meet. The aim of this meeting is to reiterate the department's raison d'être, define its long-term ambitions, the expectations of each party and the possible obstacles or difficulties to be overcome by the new team. The success of this type of workshop depends on creating a safe space where everyone can express themselves in confidence.
The transfer of a government start-up is also a unique opportunity to enable the ministry's staff to develop their skills on technical subjects (digital technology, product management, data and APIs), strategic subjects (implementing a regulatory policy based on data, platform strategies, etc.) or organizational subjects (team rituals, managerial practices, etc.).
Informing users of the service and celebrating its takeover once the transfer phase is complete.
As in the private sector, news travels fast... the transfer will have an impact on the service and therefore on its users. It can be useful to communicate with users to inform them of the changes. This is also an opportunity to celebrate the service's successes!
Monitor service impact indicators over time
The impact of digital products means a lot to incubator fellows. They try to achieve one single goal during the transfer phase : to instill this obsession in the administrations that take over the product.
*Text published in the note "Des Startup d'État à l'État plateforme", Pierre Pezziardi & Henri Verdier (Fondation pour l'innovation politique, Paris, 2017)
**Incubation Programme hosted by DINUM