Case Study
Building the strategic foundation for a government program’s long-term growth
A government program has experienced rapid growth in scope and
reach. Censeo is supporting a seamless elevation of the program’s
impact government-wide.
Situation
A multifaceted initiative connects federal colleagues with the knowledge they need to improve the digital federal customer experience. The program oversees a wide range of activities
- facilitating regular events (each with hundreds of attendees)
- managing seven communities of practice (each with up to 2000 members)
- producing regular content (blogs and resources).
This program has experienced significant growth in size and scope in recent years, due to a recent government-wide emphasis on its mission. The client enlisted Censeo to support the management of daily program operations and the development of a plan to support successful, long-term growth strategically, setting a foundation for long-term success.
Approach
Censeo took an agile, strategic, and communication-based approach to our support. Our approach includes the following four steps.
- Define high-level program objectives
The Censeo team facilitated a visioning session with the client at the onset of the project to better understand the client’s strategic goals and priorities. Level-setting on client needs and values allowed us to better define a picture of program success and examine baseline metrics. With a clear understanding of high-level objectives, we worked with the client to update the program’s mission and value statement. - Develop roadmaps and plans for achieving goals
We took a proactive approach to developing a program-level strategic roadmap for achieving our high-level goals. This roadmap informed the creation of projects, product action plans, and prescriptive templates, all in line with the high-level roadmap and larger program-wide goals. By taking this high-level approach to project planning, we were able to streamline workstreams and resources and identify high-value actions. - Implement project plans using an agile approach
Censeo implemented all project plans using agile processes. Through regular sprint planning meetings, standup meetings, retrospectives, and teamwide collaboration, the Censeo team quickly identified and addressed pain points and areas for growth, taking the initiative to increase efficiency and quality of delivery across the program. - Monitor progress and adjust as needed
Our team leveraged and improved upon existing performance metrics to continually assess the impact of our support and identify further improvement opportunities. The Censeo team leveraged user research to monitor our success, sending out a wide-ranging community survey and using the results to aid us in our performance monitoring and project planning.We established a structured and collaborative environment by applying Lean, Agile, and Human-Centered Design principles to our work with the client. This environment allowed the team to make data-driven recommendations while confidently and clearly supporting the client’s growth goals.
Results
Censeo’s innovative approach enabled us to effectively fuel the program’s continued growth while upholding high-quality content. In the past year, the program:
- welcomed over 2,000 new members (a 20 percent stakeholder increase)
- absorbed an additional Community of Practice
- hosted the first Community-wide summit in several years while maintaining daily operations.
As our program’s size has grown to new heights, we’ve made sure to maintain the tight-knit community feeling and quality of engagement that our members appreciate. To continually monitor community sentiment and satisfaction, we sent out our first community-wide annual survey in eight years and used findings to inform and adjust our strategy. Feedback from our annual community survey was overwhelmingly positive, with 98.1 percent of respondents reporting positive or neutral feelings surrounding their experience with the program. Additionally, our recent summit had the highest-ever satisfaction rate for any Summit, and following the event, 100% of survey respondents said they are likely or very likely to use the program’s resources in the future.
As Censeo continues to support programmatic growth, we’ve set up the foundation to ensure that the growth is manageable, and sustainable, and maintains the mission and quality of the program.
