Welcome to the late-May 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 this twice-monthly newsletter!

We appreciate that so many of you have been reading our newsletter, and we want to hear more from you—and send you some prizes.

Please offer us your feedback on the stories we share and your digital experience. We would love to share them with our audience and include your thoughts to the broader community, ensuring this collaborative approach grows.

Please email us your one- or two-sentence testimonial. We’ll pick one of you to receive an Amazon gift card!

In This Issue

1. The Big Story: How digital empathy can help you improve public services

2. Success story: Have a free service development toolkit! 

3. Community: Why digital transformation matters

4. Some of our best stories: Case studies, key questions, AI ethics, and BBQ

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

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Need to know

The Power of Digital Empathy: 3 easy things tech leaders can do to improve public services

Creating new software with clear instructions can be a complex process, so we are pleased to share three general steps we see delivering value.

Digital empathy is absolutely crucial for creating user-centred and accessible government services, and our team of service designers and software engineers work hard to bring user needs to the forefront. By prioritizing users’ experiences, government and enterprise organizations can build trust with citizens and clients alike and ensure that marginalized entities are not left behind in the breakneck shift toward digital services.

Let’s explore three quick wins that you can employ today, to help you leverage digital empathy within your organization and improve your public services.

Case Study

We made a free ToolKit for creating digital services for the public & private sectors

In both the public and private sector there is a need to reduce legacy technologies, bringing resilience and an open-source approach. This can empower organizations to set up IT how they want, around their evolving IT strategy.

So to meet this need, we made an adaptable, flexible, easy-to-use Service Development ToolKit—all for free on GitHub.

Yes, a FREE service development ToolKit for all kinds of teams, that will help create digital services. Who is it meant for? A government IT leader like a Senior Director, or Product Manager; or a CTO, CIO, or Chief Digital Officer; and their teams. With the ToolKit they can now simplify, reduce costs, and align with IT strategies.

The goal is to make the components as easy to use as possible, serving the wide & incredibly diverse needs within public and private sector communities. This was developed to serve the greater good—a software solution that benefits governments, business executives, and citizens by reducing costs and increasing consistencies.

Why? Because we give a damn about doing the right thing!

Find out more about what the ToolKit has and why—and how to install and implement it—right here.

Community

Our community is talking to us, sharing challenges and expectations… How do we all work together on transformative and meaningful digital outcomes? How can this, truly, make a difference?

“One of the greatest opportunities of the digital era is government’s newfound opportunity—and duty—to fully understand citizens’ needs as well as the impacts of policy and program decisions. The more we know about the interdependencies of policy areas, and the more data we have, the higher the standards for effective governance." - Governance in the Digital Age, Canadian Public Policy Forum.

‍It seems to be everywhere now—we see digital transformation as a hashtag on social media, the topic of many articles and blogs, and as part of mandates for government and many businesses alike.

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Worth Your Attention

What We’re Reading: Montréal: A Citizen’s Guide to City Politics

By Eric Shragge, Jason Prince, and Mostafa Henaway, eds.

The book brings together two dozen community organizers, urban planners, teachers, activists, and thinkers to address the major problems faced by Montréal and many other cities. It gives real and thought-out proposals from a citizen’s perspective on key issues including public transit, climate change, housing speculation, tenant rights, urban sprawl, policing, austerity, taxes, racism, and more.

Upcoming Events

Book your keynote speaker now!!!

Invite Button to speak at your event, for FREE!

Button experts in user research, UI, UX, development and more have been making keynote speeches across the country, delivering value to digital and technology teams:

• How to Build Trust through Service Design,

• Digital Empathy & Process Improvement,

• and more!

We are here to share our knowledge and experiences with the community.

In Case You Missed It

Check out our blog posts from previous newsletters!

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION has become a buzzword in recent years, but what exactly does it mean? We explore 5 key questions related to digital transformation and its relevance to Canadian governments.

CASE STUDIES: Check out our case studies, from ride-share apps to key government services, and learn more about the approach we’ve brought to them.

AI ETHICS IN DIGITAL SERVICES: We explore what it looks like in concept and in practice for technology designers and developers to take steps to ensure that their AI systems are developed and used ethically.

EMPLOYEE SHOWCASE: Eduardo is a Senior Delivery Manager passionate about growth, team-building, transparency... and BBQ!

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