Imagine the Future of Government Services in California
Ridiculously Hopeful Future: a bold, slightly wild, and very optimistic project to transform how government social safety net programs are designed.
Imagine a future where consulting the people who need government support is routine—where their voices shape policies, programs, and services. We believe that by listening to customers, we can create better experiences and outcomes for everyone.
The Challenge We’re Tackling
Government agencies are hesitant to co-design with their customers because:
- They don’t fully see the benefits of involving customers.
- There are real and perceived legal and administrative barriers to customer research.
- Customer research is viewed as time-consuming and resource-intensive.
Our Partners
APPROACH
Experiential Futures Workshops
We are hosting a series of 6 workshops across California with: state and local leaders; advocates; customer-facing staff; and community leaders.
Workshop Locations:
(Dates & Locations to be Finalized)
- San Joaquin Valley
- Southern California
- Bay Area
- Inland Empire
- Sacramento Valley
- Virtual
What is Experiential Futures?
Experiential Futures is a method that brings potential futures to life through immersive, tangible, and emotional experiences.
Instead of merely talking about what could happen, we build spaces where people can step into the future. Participants engage with scenarios using storytelling, role-play, artifacts, and other sensory elements. This approach helps people imagine, feel, and understand what different futures might be like, fostering deeper insights and inspiring bold ideas for change. By experiencing these possible futures firsthand, participants can better envision practical steps toward more customer-centered government services.
Inspirations For This Work
Human-Centered Design
“’We often require our customers to prove their poverty or to prove that they’re eligible for these services. And we already have the data. We have everything we need in order to do that, and in many cases, we just continue to ask them over and over and over again,’ McLoughlin said. ‘We need to culturally change that and make the benefits that they are eligible for and should be receiving accessible to them as quickly as we can.’” – Future of government benefits delivery is ‘human-centered,’ say researchers, officials (Statescoop)
- What is Co-design? – KA McKercher
- The state of human-centered design – Civilla
Futures
“If we have the ability to create stories around these preferable visions of futures, do we then have some sense of agency and ownership over what the future becomes?” – Radha Mistry, Foresight Practitioner, 2024
- Polycrisis, conformity, and future sight – Apolitical
- Co-experiential futuring: Where speculative design and arts meet futures studies
- The Power of Rigorous Futures – IDEO
- Civic Future Fiction – Open Democracy and Digital Technologies
- Deem Journal – Introduction to Future Feelings with Radha Mistry
- Futures Happening
Emerging Technology
- Centering Workers in AI Policy – JFF
- “Civic data overload” – What AI Can’t Do for Democracy
- IDEO – The Case Against AI-Generated Users
- Gary Bolles – Next, AI Is Not Your Employee, Your Co-Worker, or Your Future Workforce
- Bloomberg – How artificial intelligence can increase trust in cities
Ready to Shape the Future?
Get Involved Now! Join us in building a more inclusive, responsive, and visionary approach to government services.
Let’s design a future where government truly listens.