At this year’s Adobe Experience Makers Government Forum, agencies highlighted digital experiences that put people first

The 13^th Annual Adobe Experience Makers Government Forum tackled a theme that is both urgent and perennial: digital experiences that put people first.

Over the last couple of years, government organizations have innovated, by necessity, at a pace unlike any before. Excited and energized by their achievements, public sector agencies and the individuals that deliver daily on the mission are eager and ready to build on this success.

On May 10, more than 1,300 people attended Government Forum for an inspirational and enlightening program that explored the key components of digital transformation and how organizations can efficiently improve service delivery by taking a people-first approach to the citizen, resident, and employee experience. Here are a few highlights of what we learned from a few of the top Government Forum sessions and leaders (easily log in or sign up to view these on-demand sessions and highlights):

• In “Improving the Nation’s Security with Zero Trust,” we learned more about how the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General is using the cyber and customer experience executive orders together to modernize legacy systems with a zero-trust playbook that provides frictionless access for users to get the right data to the right people at the right time.
• In “Building an Intelligent Forms Management Strategy,” we got an overview of how the Internal Revenue Service is reducing its reliance on paper, improving business processes, and optimizing data and insights with an intelligent, adaptive forms input and output strategy.
• In “Bridging the Digital Divide with Effective Content Strategies,” we were shown how the State of Illinois uses its websites and digital interactions to support and complement its contact and intake center experiences.
• In “The Golden Age of Creativity and the Modern Workplace,” we heard more about how the United States Special Operations Command takes a voice of the customer approach to content creation and adoption to ensure data leads to information, information to knowledge, and knowledge to decision-making.

Setting the stage

Anil Chakravarthy, president of Adobe’s Digital Experience business, welcomed participants and highlighted the inspiring and pioneering work in science, healthcare, and government that brought us through the pandemic. Chakravarthy shared that the power of digital to connect us has never been more critical and essential. He also highlighted the importance of agility within and between agencies and the need to give all stakeholders easy access and a level playing field.

In response to the question of how agencies rise to the digital challenge and unlock the opportunity to build public trust and confidence, he answered, “It all comes down to a people-first approach, and in today’s world, accomplishing that digitally — creating and delivering digital experiences that are relevant to each individual, consistent across every interaction, provide strong value, and, importantly, honor preferences and respect privacy.”

Chakravarthy’s remarks set the stage perfectly for the day, and we’re excited to share how our keynotes built on these critical themes.

The future of CX is here today

Suzette Kent, former federal chief information officer (CIO) for the United States, explored these themes on a lively panel, “The Future of CX.” She asked industry leaders Clare Martorana, the current federal CIO, and William Zielinski, CIO for the City of Dallas, about the importance of experience in the mission to deliver value, service, and efficiency excellence — and build back trust in government.

“It really starts with meeting people where they are,” said Martorana. “Online, digital is what we’re talking about in our areas of expertise, but sometimes it can be through the mail, in person, or through a call center. It’s also critical that we are delivering an equitable government so that we are focused on delivering products and services that don’t introduce bias.”

Martorana also highlighted the synergies between the White House’s recent executive orders on advancing racial equity, supporting underserved communities, and elevating the customer experience. She explained that the equity assessments of high-impact services and efforts to identify systematic barriers lay a solid foundation for building out effective and personalized experiences.

Zielinski reinforced the importance of meeting people where they are. “What we saw during the pandemic is that a lot of residents of the City of Dallas actually come to our facilities…not just for simple tasks that you might associate with those places, but actually to utilize things like internet availability…or to do other things because we are a critical element of that delivery,” he explained. “So, meeting them where they are is truly important within the city.”

The work the City of Dallas is doing to develop more intuitive and proactive ways to deliver services is due to their change in focus from a reactive journey to an anticipatory one. Personalization at scale is critical to this mission and deepening citizen trust.

Bravery, ingenuity, and technology in the quest for Pablo Escobar

Government Forum ended the day with an extraordinary session, “Manhunters: How We Took Down Pablo Escobar.” Legendary Drug Enforcement Administration operatives Steve Murphy and Javier F. Peña told their colorful, firsthand story of the demise of one of the world’s most infamous narco-terrorists.

Murphy and Peña took the audience on a journey through Escobar’s operations, reign of terror, custom-built luxury prison suite, escape from captivity, and the international operation mobilized to capture him.

One of the most interesting aspects of the story was the role that technology played — technology that was leading-edge at the time but now appears rudimentary now after three decades of exponential innovation. Still, the audience was on the edge of their seats for this riveting adventure.

Missed this year’s event? Can’t get enough? We have you covered.

In the spirit of accessibility, great content should be shared. If you missed this year’s event, attended and would like to rewatch, or want to view additional sessions or share with your colleagues, you can easily login in or sign up via on demand at your convenience.

View the full program at Adobe Experience Makers Government Forum or learn about how agencies with similar mission challenges and requirements are overcoming barriers to digital transformation adoption and creating digital experiences that put people first.

Federal civilian track

• The End-to-End Approach for Digital Asset Management
• Trust Without Compromise: Ensuring Reliability in the Digital Asset
• Building an Intelligent Forms Strategy

Department of Defense and national security track

• Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity with Zero Trust
• The Golden Age of Creativity and the Modern Workplace
• The Future of Work: Redefining the Experience for the Workforce

State and local government track

• Preparing State and Local Government for the Future of Work
• Bridging the Digital Divide with Effective Content Strategies
• Adobe’s Approach to Digital Literacy, Web Accessibility, and Equity

Adobe and the Adobe public sector team also want to thank our many speakers, who were so generous in sharing their time and experiences, our partners who helped us produce this important forum, and our many participants who took time from their busy schedules and mission-critical roles to engage and share with us. We can’t wait to see what we all do together this year, and we look forward to talking about it when we get together for next year’s forum.

Jonathan Benett is an IT business and digital experience leader with over 20 years of experience in mission modernization through IT transformation in the public sector. He is currently the technical director for digital government solutions at Adobe. Prior to Adobe, he spent 10 years as a public servant in various leadership roles in the federal government, including the chief enterprise architect for the US Department of Agriculture, the IT program manager for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the PMO director for the US Patent and Trademark Office, preceded by 10 years of successful experience in private industry.