A presentation given at Service Design in Government Conference in March 2020 with Harriet Kennedy, Katy Armstrong and Rahma Mohammed

1. Pass on the spark:
Sharing the story of your project

2. Hello!

3. Introduction
We will talk about:
● Why we need stories
● Bringing people along
in Local Gov (Rahma)
● Telling people why they
should hire you (Katy)
● Assessing cross
government services
(Hattie)

4. Introduction
We will talk about:
● Why we need
stories
● Bringing people
along in Local Gov

5. Introduction
We will talk about:
● Assessing cross
government
services
● Telling people why
they should hire
you

6. We need stories

7. Ever sat in a show
and tell that’s fallen
flat?

8. Had trouble selling
the value of agile in
your organisation?

9. Had trouble selling
the value of agile in
your organisation?

10. Had trouble selling
the value of agile in
your organisation?

11. 1. Too much detail
2. Chronological
3. Not enough detail!

12. 1. Too much detail
2. Chronological
3. Not enough detail!
= Unclear decisions

13. 1. Too much detail
2. Chronological
3. Not enough detail!
= Unclear decisions

14. 1. Too much detail
2. Chronological
3. Not enough detail!
= Unclear decisions

15. We grow out of
stories and
storytelling

16. y should hire you

17. 1. Too much detail
2. Chronological
3. Not enough detail!
= Unclear decisions

18. 1. Too much detail
2. Chronological
3. Not enough detail!
= Unclear decisions

19. 1. Too much detail
2. Chronological
3. Not enough detail!
= Unclear decisions

20. Bringing people along in
Local Gov

22. What is Service
Design???

24. I’ve presented a
show and tell that
has fallen flat

26. “As humans often want
to know where things
came from, how they
were made, and who
made them”

27. - Visual
- Auditory
- Physical/Kinesthetic

28. - Exhibition/Design wall
- Demos
- Role play

29. - Stories
- Numbers
- Narrative arc

30. - Experiment and
iterate

32. Telling stories in cross-gov service
assessments

33. What even is an
assessment?

34. So why is storytelling
important in an
assessment space?

37. y should hire you

38. y should hire you
Problem
Talked
to some
users...
Made a
thing...
Tested thing
thing it
didn’t
work...
Changed it a
bit...
Tried it
again… it
works! Hurray!
Off to make another
thing...

39. It isn’t always happily ever
after...

40. But you do get another
chance...

42. Telling people why they should
hire you

43. Enough about
projects.
Let’s talk about
interviews.

44. Interviews in the Civil
Service are very
structured.
They can hard for
outsiders.

45. “The best predictor
of future
performance is past
performance.”
Anna Shipman
www.annashipman.co.uk

46. “Tell us about a time
you identified a
problem with one of
your products and
worked with a team
to implement a
solution…”

47. You’re being asked
to tell a story:
“Tell us about a time”

48. You’re being asked
to tell a story:
“Tell us about a time”
“Once upon a time”

49. S - Situation
T - Task
A - Action
R - Result

50. y should hire you
S T
A
R

51. Storytelling helps
you:
1. talk about the
interesting part
2. focus on yourself
as the hero
3. accept that things
went wrong

52. Often your best
examples of past
awesome behaviour
are where things
went wrong...

53. Sometimes they
were even your fault.
That’s OK.

54. Other good advice:
1. Answer the
question that was
asked.
2. “Focus on the
how, not just the
what.”

55. What: “I got the
team to buy into the
roadmap ...”

56. How: “... by running
a workshop to pool
their ideas, regularly
updating them on
progress, keeping it
on the wall …” etc

57. 3. Tell your story
well.

58. 3. Tell your story
well.

59. We need stories - wrap up

60. We grow out of
stories and
storytelling

61. We