San Jose gets back to basics with digital services

San Jose may have cutting-edge Silicon Valley innovation on its doorstep but like many local governments still faces challenges with providing seamless digital experiences for citizens.

The Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation has launched a new digital services taskforce to improve usability. The initiative also aims to nurture civic tech talent in the area.

“Good government means good digital experiences,” said Clay Garner, Deputy Chief of Staff to Mayor Sam Liccardo, in an online post.

“Whether you’re looking to apply for a permit or find the nearest free meal distribution site, confusing and sometimes clunky public apps are the norm. But a bad user experience isn’t just inconvenient — it could be the difference between someone getting fed or going hungry. This information asymmetry also erodes trust in city hall,” he added.

Like cities everywhere, San Jose is seeing citizens turn to websites and apps more than ever amid the pandemic.

“For people on the wrong side of San Jose’s digital divide, including those experiencing homelessness, this period has exacerbated inequities around internet quality and device access — making simple, lightweight solutions all the more crucial,” Garner said. “Not everyone in Silicon Valley has the latest smartphone or reliable broadband.”

As a first step on a drive to “get the basics right in product management,” San Jose has recruited a Digital Services Task Force to help source a community problem, “empathetically study it”, and design a corresponding solution.

From the community, for the community

The fellows – Floriberta Sario, Kunwarpreet Singh Behar, Justin Mata, and Angela Pham – are all either San Jose State University students or recent graduates and fluent in languages including Spanish, Vietnamese, Punjabi, and Hindi.

Over the next few months, they will launch a basic web app that will help connect young adults in San Jose to social services and other benefits they might be eligible for.

Jordan Sun, San Jose’s Chief Innovation Officer, told Cities Today: “This is an opportunity for the city to partner on ideas born from our own communities. We are pleased with their initial progress and look forward to what they come up with.

“Our taskforce is developing talent within our community that can compete with the best tech talent in the world. In addition to what they come up with, they are also being mentored by established tech leaders. We hope this is the beginning of a community-based incubator for us to give our local community access to their fellow innovators just down the road.”

This reflects a growing trend, which was evident even before the pandemic, of cities such as Wichita and Los Angeles working with local students and universities to tackle real challenges, build a talent pipeline and get people excited about the opportunities to use their skills to make a difference.

The City of Boston recently teamed up with General Assembly students to update its Alexa Skill. This included incorporating COVID-19 information, improving user experience and more.

Jeanethe Falvey, Chief Digital Officer, City of Boston, told Cities Today at the end of last year: “As we don’t have a User Experience Researcher or UX Designer on staff, it’s been a mutually beneficial relationship for their students to have access to real-world opportunities for improvement and for us to have a rotating set of fresh eyes on our digital service experiences.”