Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Button Insight newsletter!

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Button Insight newsletter!

Button creates meaningful digital services and we are excited to share our work, research, and learnings with you in our twice-monthly newsletter!

The insight you’ll receive in your inbox every two weeks will help you up your digital communications, user experience, and customer relationships.

We’d love your help creating the best pro tips, stories, and insights to help you build reliable technology that maximizes citizen impact. So let us know what you’d like to learn from the Button newsletter by taking this survey. Yes, there are prizes!

Enjoy this edition of Button Insight!

Alec Wenzowski | President & Co-Founder | [email protected]

In This Issue

1. What is your digital why?

2. Partner Spotlight: Alacrity

3. Hot Button: Competing for talent in a developer shortage

The Big Story

What is your digital why?

Why should we ask 'why'? It can be about learning, getting to the cause of a problem that needs to be resolved, or trying to understand simply. The question of ‘why’ can be inspired for many reasons and from various places. The purpose of this post, it’s fueled by Simon Sinek and his Find Your Why. It’s designed to help those inspired by the message find what drives them and bring it to life in their careers and organizations.

If we take a look at the digital services evolution and transformation, we see government and private sector organizations revisiting their digital strategies around the world. All too often, we see outcomes without purpose or benefit. So, let's ask the question to anyone in the digital transformation world… what is your why?

At Button, we get to your digital why in four steps.

1. Understanding and solving the problem using research, data and science.

2. Designing a scalable technology solution to achieve a meaningful outcome.

3. Building the solution right, considering a guiding formula of evidence + low-risk policy + ethics = a meaningful outcome. This involves making data actionable to support meaningful outcomes for private sector organizations, government, and its citizens.

4. Ultimately, you have to care. And so do your partners. Ethics as part of design and implementation provides a real and meaningful outcome. Understanding the value that needs to be delivered, how a solution will impact an organization internally and externally, without being focused on the greater good is a problem waiting to happen.

Case Study

How Button built a platform that helped deliver $12M in grants to Covid-impacted BC businesses

Back in the darkest, early days of the Covid pandemic, Button worked with StrongerBC’s Economic Recovery Plan through the BC Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation.

Small and medium-sized businesses need help in a hard economic time. And they needed it quickly. Providing grants to businesses was a priority by the government to ensure they had the support they needed during and beyond the pandemic.

Learn about how Button worked in an agile environment to rapidly deliver this economic recovery solution. This included the design and creation of a front-end website and an online platform to receive applications.

Hot Button

Can Government Digital Projects Compete for Talent In a Developer Shortage?

A digital skills shortage and lack of skilled developers is the No. 1 issue for Canadian businesses.

Right now, the global developer talent shortage already amounts to 40,000,000 skilled workers worldwide. Can it get worse? In a recent poll by KPMG, the digital skills shortage, and lack of skilled labour (spelled labor for our U.S. friends) is the top issue of concern for Canadian businesses. Corporate giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Twitter have set up tech hubs and development shops across North America and are expanding quickly.

Increased costs = A race to the bottom

The results? A massive spike in the cost of doing business and the unsuccessful vendor ecosystem based on what is referred to as the race to the bottom on both price and quality of the outcome. Government procurement and product owners are then choosing to feed this process, resulting in failed projects that lack value and a meaningful outcome.

Why? In simple terms, the race to the bottom creates vendor scenarios with low-skilled resources being used, companies that mask offshore resources as local, and tools that leave citizens with a lack of outcome they expect and now demand.

Ethics are always worth it

Building ethics into design and implementation, combining code and the public good, that’s what it should be about, not the cheapest price. The challenge of the digital divide and digital equity is going to be negatively impacted in this current scenario. A significant gap will remain, between people who have and do not have access to the internet and the technology tools required to access the important and critical information available online.

Let’s look at the challenge as it relates to your business or organization.

Worth Your Attention

Digital Principles for the Government of British Columbia

The first version of these vital guidelines, titled “Digital Principles for the Government of British Columbia,” are meant to inform the work of individual public servants and vendor partners as the Province of British Columbia continues to evolve into a digital government.

Presented in a simple but effective 10-step process, the team at Button finds ourselves referencing this document frequently and we think it will benefit your work, too.

You’re Invited

🎯 Join Button and Public Sector Network this October!

Button is partnering with Public Sector Network for their upcoming Digital Government & CX Roadshow in Toronto, Edmonton, and Victoria.

Designed to explore the most efficient strategies to help public sector leaders gain internal buy-in and develop a roadmap for digital transformation, we hope you can join us this October to connect with the experts and share ideas to build a better public service.

Registration is free for public sector employees.