Top Federal officials are calling for a “human-centered” approach to technology solutions and Federal grant funding, saying that techno-digital solutions aren’t always enough and that officials must consider other needs in the process.
Speaking at a GovExec event on Dec. 11, officials said that while tech solutions are increasingly securing systems and enhancing the Federal customer service experience (CX) – underserved groups, including Tribal communities, are getting left behind.
Native Alaskan communities, which often lack internet access or encounter some of the country’s slowest internet speeds, are particularly hard hit by technological designs built without low-internet-access communities in mind, explained Andrea Sampanis, the program manager of the Grants Quality Service Management Office (QSMO) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
This hurdle, she added, presents challenges when distributing and managing grants which often require rigorous identification verification processes that are more easily accomplished using higher-speed internet services.
“We created three prototypes to go up and test human-centered design,” said Sampanis. “We had a ton of one-on-one sessions, in actual Alaska … It was a very big lesson learned of [when] you do human-centered design work … you’ve got to be willing to admit that you were wrong. We were wrong in our prototypes.”
“Yes, they had a lack of internet, but that was not the only issue that they were having – we had a huge room, and we sort of put up a survey and asked, what do you want?” she continued, referring to a simple Excel sheet for Federal grant management. “Believe it or not, they actually all said, just give us the Excel, don’t do anything fancy, just give us Excel.”
Sampanis said that Tribal grant recipients face other hurdles including using over 300 fragmented systems, high turnover among grant administrators reaching 70 percent annually, lack of training, and complex identity verification processes which requires Tribal members to undergo costly travel for basic identification, leaving them locked out of systems.
“They told us, you’re locking this out, why are you locking the front door?” said Sampanis.
Using simplified grant reporting tools, expanded authentication options, and consolidated dashboards, the HHS Grants QSMO is working to increase accessibility. Additionally, the agency has worked to improve grant manager training to reduce turnover and ensure smoother transitions.
Brendan Millan, the performance lead for Organizational Excellence and Strategic Delivery (OESD) at the International Trade Administration, emphasized the importance of integrating human-centered design to ensure technology solutions align with real-world challenges.
“Digital resources, on their own, are not a cure-all,” said Millan. “Whatever challenges you are perceiving, or any solution you think is out there, it needs to be connected to the human side of things.”
Other agencies, like the Internal Revenue Service, are also looking at inclusivity in their CX technology, said Tracy Lee, the agency’s Transformation lead.
“So, we are just now … starting to really use the words human-centered design in everything we do and engaging with the business in a very different way than we ever have within the IT department,” said Lee. “It’s expanding what we’ve already done and doing it an even more inclusive way. But we have a long way to go.”
Earlier this summer, the Department of Homeland Security announced $18.2 million in first-ever cybersecurity grants provided to Tribal communities through the Tribal Cybersecurity Grant Program.
