Exploring Iterative Approaches in Program and Service Delivery
Continuous improvement is an ongoing process of refining solutions through frequent updates based on feedback and real-world performance. This approach ensures that products and services continuously evolve to better meet user needs, resulting in more effective and responsive outcomes.
In government projects, continuous improvement is crucial for enhancing the effectiveness of services and policies. By regularly gathering feedback from community members, local organizations and other stakeholders, organizations can adjust their programs to better address diverse needs. This may involve modifying service delivery, updating policy guidelines, or adding new features based on actual user demands. Consequently, services become more accessible, policies more relevant and the overall impact is amplified.
Iterative design is a key strategy for implementing continuous improvement. In this article, we will define iterative design, explore its benefits and common approaches in government, discuss practical challenges and highlight best practices that have proven successful in the public sector.
What is iterative design?
Iterative design is a cyclical method of improving a product, service, or system by repeatedly refining and enhancing it through successive iterations. Many organizations evolve offerings over time after evaluations, feedback, or reflection, but iterative design is increasingly being developed into repeatable, evidence-based processes. These processes include Scrum, Lean Startup, Design Thinking, Kanban, Product Management, Human-Centred Design and Systems Thinking.
Definition of concepts
Scrum: A framework associated with Agile development, Scrum uses fixed-length build cycles called sprints, typically lasting two to four weeks. Teams work on prioritized tasks and hold stand-up meetings (usually daily) to discuss progress and obstacles, ensuring continuous improvement and adaptation.
Lean Startup: This approach emphasizes creating a minimum viable product and iterating based on user feedback. It focuses on validated learning, where hypotheses about a business idea are tested and refined through cycles of build-measure-learn.
Design Thinking: An approach to problem-solving that involves stages such as empathizing with users, defining problems, ideating, prototyping and testing. The process is repeated to refine solutions based on user feedback and testing results.
Kanban: Another Agile framework that visualizes the workflow and focuses on continuous delivery. It uses a board to represent tasks and their progress, allowing teams to manage and improve processes incrementally.
Product Management: This approach involves continuously refining and evolving a product based on market research, user feedback and performance metrics. Product managers regularly prioritize features, adjust roadmaps and manage development cycles to align the product with user needs and business goals.
Systems Thinking: An approach to understanding and improving complex systems by analyzing how various components interact and influence each other. It involves continuously revising models and strategies based on feedback and new insights to enhance the system's overall performance and adaptability.
Human-Centred Design: An approach that focuses on designing solutions with the end user in mind. It involves stages such as empathizing with users, defining their needs, ideating solutions, prototyping and testing. The process is repeated to ensure that the design effectively meets user requirements and improves their experience.
Where can we use iterative approaches?
Iterative approaches are often contrasted with waterfall approaches, which follow a linear and sequential design and delivery process. In a waterfall approach, each phase of the project is completed and then handed off to the next team, progressing through stages until the final delivery. This method typically involves fewer opportunities for feedback loops at each phase, making it less adaptable to changes and ongoing user input.
Waterfall
Iterative design
Descriptive text
A waterfall design compared to an iterative design. The waterfall approach is linear. Iterative design is cyclical, and each phase requires some validation or testing before moving to the next one.
Neither iterative nor waterfall approaches are inherently superior; each has its strengths depending on the context. Iterative approaches are particularly effective in environments with high uncertainty or rapidly changing requirements, as they facilitate frequent adjustments and ongoing improvements. In contrast, waterfall approaches are often more suitable for projects with well-defined requirements and stable conditions, where a linear and sequential process can provide clarity and structure.
However, this distinction does not imply that iterative approaches are incompatible with waterfall approaches. Instead, hybrid models can be used to combine the strengths of both approaches, adapting iterative principles within a more structured waterfall framework to achieve greater flexibility and responsiveness.
For example, in government projects, the overall system might be divided into modules that are developed, tested and refined iteratively within the broader phases of the waterfall model. This approach allows the project to follow a sequential path—requirements gathering, design, implementation, testing and deployment—while incorporating mini-cycles of iteration within each phase. Feedback from users and stakeholders is integrated at each stage, enabling continuous refinement and adjustment.
Descriptive text
Hybrid approach: Iterative waterfall. By adding iterative loops such as research, validation, review, experimentation and testing into main waterfall phases, one can turn a waterfall approach into an adaptive and iterative approach.
On the other hand, many teams try to add elements of Agile—language, team practices, or rituals like daily stand-ups—into restrictive processes and organizations and can create tensions between them without realizing the benefits. This gets referred to negatively as "Wagile" or "Agile theatre."
Benefits of iterative approaches
A hybrid approach which combines the structured progression of a waterfall approach with the flexibility of iterative design Product managers in the Government of Canada often share that they can integrate agility within well-defined structured processes. For example, they embrace flexibility by breaking projects into smaller, manageable pieces and continuously refining each piece as they progress in the projects. This practice leads to more responsive and user-centred outcomes and flexible delivery dates.
Additionally, iterative design helps reduce risk by allowing for early identification and resolution of potential problems, minimizing the likelihood of major issues arising late in the project. It also supports better resource management by focusing on incremental improvements and prioritizing critical aspects first. Moreover, the iterative process fosters continuous learning and innovation, encouraging teams to explore and implement new ideas throughout the project's lifecycle.
Given these advantages, one might question whether iterative approaches can be effectively applied to government projects, which have historically relied on waterfall approaches for their structured processes.
Challenges
Shifting to Agile and product management mindsets is a hot topic in government these days, with many agencies exploring how to modernize their approach to projects, design and delivery. The Canada School of Public Service frequently hosts events and interviews with product managers and service designers from across the Government of Canada to understand the challenges they encounter when applying iterative approaches. We analyzed these challenges and compiled them into the following thematic areas:
- Horizontal organizational structure: This shift to horizontal structures can be challenging as it demands collaboration beyond traditional hierarchical boundaries and delegates some decision-making to levels that some leaders are not comfortable with.
- Time management: Employees often juggle between multiple product teams and additional tasks, which requires excellent time management skills. This can lead to increased tension and inefficiencies if roles and responsibilities are not clearly defined and there is no shared understanding or vision.
- Recruitment and retention of talent: Building successful product teams requires diverse expertise, including user experience designers, researchers, product leads, content designers and data analysts. It is difficult to recruit and retain employees with such skills in the wider labour market, let alone the public sector. This challenge is heightened when cultures, classifications and work experiences of team members differ from each other or from private sector expectations.
- Collaboration between business and IT: IT is often seen as a blocker to innovation, and interviewees pointed to this stemming from a client-service provider relationship rather than a partnership one. IT teams are frequently asked to implement designs without being consulted early enough in the design sessions. This lack of early involvement can lead to a disconnect as IT teams may lack clarity on the purpose of the designs and might later discover that the designs are not feasible.
- User testing and research: User testing and research activities are often difficult within the public service, and teams report having to rely on contractors, who can work under a different set of rules, to provide user research and testing. The downside, however, is that this creates a disconnect between teams and their users and fails to create the ongoing user feedback loop needed for a user-centred and iterative team culture. Fully understanding the problem space and the users of our products and services provides a solid foundation, and regularly testing prototypes before major launches prevents big failures.
Best practices
Despite numerous challenges, public servants are overcoming systemic obstacles within government contexts with increasing success. They are achieving this primarily by nurturing iteration and improvement within hierarchical and bureaucratic settings.
By persistently advocating for iterative approaches and demonstrating their value through small, incremental wins, many public service teams are gradually shifting towards such approaches. This shift is facilitated through continuous communication, collaboration, working transparently, and engaging directly with and for users. These efforts are helping to embed iterative practices into the fabric of government operations, leading to more effective and user-centred outcomes.
Below are some of the best practices and strategies that product managers across many departments have shared with us.
- Fostering a collaborative culture: Encourage cross-functional teams to work together closely, breaking down silos and fostering open communication. This collaboration helps integrate diverse perspectives and expertise, leading to more innovative solutions and smoother iterative processes.
- User research: Continuously engage in qualitative and quantitative user research. Various tools such as personas, journey maps, usability testing, concept testing, online surveys and card sorting can be used for gathering comprehensive user insights.
- Prioritization: Prioritize tasks using prioritization frameworks based on urgency and importance to mitigate risks. Effective prioritization can help with reassessing priorities without disrupting the workflow.
- Incremental releases: Breaking down new features or enhancements into smaller pieces for subsequent releases allows for easier task management and quicker user feedback, facilitating informed decision-making before making major investments.
- Data-informed decision-making: Leverage data and analytics to inform decisions throughout the iterative process. Use performance metrics, user feedback and other relevant data to guide adjustments and refinements, ensuring that changes are evidence-informed and effective.
- Monitoring and evaluation: Define clear success criteria and monitor them through release impact analysis. This ensures successful implementation and provides a basis for future enhancements. Additionally, tying key performance metrics to business objectives, using frameworks like HEART (Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task success) helps in assessing overall product or service health.
- Problem documentation: Document your experiments along with results and lessons learned to support iterative improvements, knowledge transfer, and onboarding. This documentation anchors the work and helps in managing risks by ensuring stakeholders fully understand the problem space and are involved in shared sense-making.
Conclusion
Embracing iterative approaches in program and service delivery involves overcoming significant challenges and adopting best practices. By fostering a collaborative environment, prioritizing user research, and continuously monitoring and evaluating progress, organizations can effectively manage risks and drive continuous improvement. It is crucial to document problems thoroughly and engage stakeholders throughout the process. By doing so, organizations will be better equipped to make evidence-informed decisions and deliver impactful, user-friendly services.
Call to action
Leaders and managers are responsible for creating an environment where teams can fail safely, learn and adapt. At the same time, teams need to also take proactive steps to drive success.
Here are some tips to get started:
- Support your team in their learning about iterative approaches. Share basic resources and articles that inspire you with the team. Explore potential ways to apply them at work and share back the results.
- Prioritize user research. Set up a simple system to collect feedback from users through surveys or interviews. Use this feedback to make improvements to your work. Test it again and as often as needed.
- Encourage cross-functional collaboration. Work with colleagues from your department and other departments on projects. Exchange ideas and consider various perspectives.
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