Introduction
As in our reaction post, the scramble to build in-house design teams in the federal government comes as somewhat of a surprise. But as in our other posts, we’re still here to serve.
When I led the Service Design team in GSA, I wrote down how to build great, cross-functional design teams in the federal government as an article on digital.gov, Bringing Design In-House,* but I’ve further distilled that direction down into just 10 steps. These steps move from the strategic to the tactical in nature, and they appear in the order they should be implemented. These steps are not limited to application in the federal sector. Whether you work as a fed, or the state or local governments, or even in a private sector organization, these steps are the practical way to build a functional MVP design team that will take on complex problems and build solutions that last.
Take it from us here at Ishmael Interactive: a great design team isn’t just a bunch of designers and engineers. We know this because we built one that answered all of GAO’s questions in 2024.** So reach out to us with any questions. Happy building!
1. Start with executive buy-in and clear vision for design's role in solving complex problems.
This is a big one, and it takes a long time. While the impulse might be to get all the buy-in first and then start with the implementation, I would advise to consider this as a staged number one, instead of a hard-and-fast number one. Get some momentum on leadership consensus, and build your team at the same time.
2. Recruit a chief design officer with government experience, formal training, and an active practice.
This leadership role requires someone who combines theory and practice; philosophy and craft with specific credentials: experience leading teams in government, formal design training, and an active design practice. Without this foundation, the team lacks the credibility and knowledge to navigate federal complexities. As outlined in Bringing Design In-House, this leader serves as the "primary care provider" who can consult across all design specialties within the agency.
3. Assemble a diverse team of design specialists aligned to agency mission.
Just as you wouldn't ask a dermatologist about heart problems, agencies need specialists including product designers, service designers, front-end engineers, backend engineers, content strategists, design researchers, data analysts, policy wonks, and HR professionals. The America's Talent Strategy emphasizes building "industry-driven strategies" where teams are assembled based on actual organizational needs rather than generic structures.
4. Leverage professional networks and portfolios for targeted recruitment.
Designers gather in schools and professional organizations where agencies can find and recruit them. Portfolios reveal both technical skills and thought processes, showing theory and practice; philosophy and craft. The 21st Century IDEA's requirement for “data-driven analysis influencing management and development decisions" aligns with evaluating candidates through their demonstrated work rather than just credentials.
5. Accept non-traditional career paths and focus on portfolio-demonstrated capabilities.
Unlike healthcare providers, designers may not have attended design or art school and often have "non-linear" career trajectories working as "independent contractors or for small firms." The America's Talent Strategy recognizes the need to move beyond "college-for-all" approaches and embrace alternative pathways that demonstrate competency.
6. Integrate design leadership with agency executives for cultural alignment.
Design teams bring cultural and practical differences that may not match current, familiar office processes, but this diversity is "a strength, not a weakness." Executives must work closely with design leadership to integrate these new working patterns into agency culture. The Executive Order mandates that agency heads "consult with the Chief Design Officer" to ensure proper integration across government.
7. Establish design reviews and internal critique processes for quality assurance.
Design reviews involve the entire project team, not just the designer and focus on milestones, while critiques ("crits") are internal design team conversations about in-process work that generate direction and ideas. Implementing these processes simultaneously ensures quality while building team cohesion. This aligns with the 21st Century IDEA's emphasis on "continually test[ing]" services to ensure user needs are addressed.
8. Create unified access points and streamlined processes for stakeholder engagement.
The 21st Century IDEA and the EO emphasize digital modernization, focusing on replacing a fragmented customer experience of duplicative programs with a streamlined, coordinated system. To do this, design teams must provide clear engagement pathways for agency leaders and business lines, avoiding the confusion that comes from multiple, disconnected access points which can often result in that cultural breakdown that means modernization efforts fail.
9. Build formal partnerships between design teams and agency business lines.
In Bringing Design In-House, I emphasize that design leadership must "work with other agency leaders to define the skills needed on projects that the design team will support." Without these structured relationships, design teams risk operating in isolation while business lines continue old patterns of service delivery. This risk is called out in America's Talent Strategy, where the authors calls for coordination that eliminates silos and creates "unified workforce services." The formality of these arrangements means that design teams will avoid being treated as a service bureau rather than true partners in solving organizational problems, which isolates them in the organization.
10. Measure impact through user outcomes and service effectiveness rather than process compliance.
Design teams must demonstrate value through improved user experiences and service delivery, not just completion of engineering milestones. The 21st Century IDEA requires services to be "designed around user needs with data-driven analysis," while the America's Talent Strategy demands "linking investments to outcomes & enforcing performance discipline." Success should be measured by whether citizens can actually accomplish their goals more effectively, not just if KPIs and compliance boxes have been checked. My team used compliance and KPIs as sharp tools, but we always kept the measurement of customer experience at the center. That’s why we were the only team that build a Digital Experience Index that included 6 parameters nested inside a customer experience score as part of the overall index.
Conclusion
Federal agencies now confront a binary choice: evolve into design-driven organizations or remain trapped in outdated service delivery models. The policy architecture is in place—executive mandate, legislative requirement, talent strategy—but policies succeed only through competent execution. Building internal design capability demands cultural shifts that many agencies will find uncomfortable. It requires accepting non-traditional career paths, integrating unfamiliar working methods, and measuring success through user outcomes rather than bureaucratic compliance. The question is no longer whether agencies should build design teams, but whether they possess the institutional courage to build them properly.
* Bringing Design In-House
** Digital Experience: Agency Compliance with Statutory Requirements
What we’re into this week
Having thought about the problems facing federal agencies for this week’s pod, I really appreciated the article Systems Thinking Isn’t Enough Anymore from Super Cool & Hyper Critical, which is a substack devoted to, amongst other things, strategy execution & complex adaptive systems. In the article, author Aarn Wennekers points out that the assumptions of traditional strategy assume stability, but that assumption ignores complex realities. This hits.
— Ana
Having been on the front lines of a lot of things I never thought I’d see happen, I’ve been drawn to this article on Black Swans in Baseball. Author Douglas Jourdan introduces the concept of black swan events, that is, events that have very little statistical probability of happening that actually do happen. This article unpacks the concept and how to look at the data around these events in a fun way.
— Aaron
It’s fun if you like baseball. — Scott
Do you like baseball, Scott? — Aaron
I do. —Scott
So there ya go. What are you into this week? — Aaron
This week I was really excited to watch a youtuber build their own smartphone. It was clearly a crazy project, but it was a good reminder that innovation stagnation can lead to customer frustration
—Scott
Ishmael Interactive Consulting
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Credits
Author: Ana Monroe
Artwork: Roses. 1890. Vincent van Gogh. via the National Gallery of Art.
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