Section 5: Designing for people-centered operations in Congress
Opportunities for The OpenGov Foundation and our partners to expand upon this project.
Human-centered design leans heavily on the very kind of people and systems-focused research we’ve just shared with you. But this is just the start. Capturing a rich understanding of constituent engagement operations is but one early step to reimagining how our democracy can evolve into the 21st century. We now need to experiment, design new ideas, and gather feedback iteratively to identify the biggest opportunities for impact.
To chart where to go from here, we suggest a few concrete directions for this work:
1. Prioritize, design, and experiment with improvements to constituent response operations.
- Conduct workshops with congressional staff to further articulate pain points and prioritize areas of opportunity.
- Collect and map real-time costs required for transitioning to new software systems and tools, with the aim of providing concrete data for teams’ consideration. This will provide a clearer sense of what’s involved and reduce concern about risk.
- Design and test ideas for areas of opportunity with congressional staff, congressional administration offices, vendors, and adjacent organizations.
- Prototype, with these partners, a “model office” to test and experiment with technology, processes, and approaches. This alleviates pressure on current staff to take on risk and creates a learning lab to see real solutions applied in real time.
2. Map the experience of engaging with Congress from the perspective of constituents.
Since this project is aimed at “backstage” operations, with a focus on the experiences, needs, and capacities of staff inside congressional offices, complement this study with a similar investigation into the constituent side of the equation: What does it feel like to call your congressperson, or a receive a letter from them, or engage online? How do constituents perceive their interactions with Congress on social media? What are people’s appetites for automation, form responses, etc.?
Gaining an understanding of these, and related lines of inquiry, will offer focus to internal improvement efforts. Knowing where people are most frustrated or confused can provide clarity on where and how we should be addressing opportunities internally.
3. Expand upon this study with a focus on proactive constituent engagement and a deeper dive into district office work.
This project was primarily dedicated to constituent input response operations, only one slice of the full suite of engagement activities, which include outreach, communications, events, and casework. Each of these areas would benefit from a more focused exploration.
4. Apply a human-centered design and research approach to other crucial aspects of congressional work.
Constituent engagement is only one piece of the work of congressional teams, and myriad other workstreams and responsibilities would benefit from more user-centered tools and processes. Conducting similar kinds of design and research activities on legislative tracking, communications and press, internal administration, etc., would yield similarly meaningful opportunities for enhancing Congress’ work.
Acknowledgements
This article is part of From Voicemails to Votes (PDF), a report conducted by The OpenGov Foundation on the mindsets, capacities, tools, and operations of Congressional offices with regard to constituent engagement. More about the project here.
