Service Design To Improve Passport Services

Description

In December of 2023, Fearless and MO Studio, worked with the Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs Customer Experience Design Team within Passport Services to produce four service blueprints illustrating the most common passport delivery service: An adult applying for a new passport (including naturalized citizens), an adult applying for a renewal, an urgent passport, and a parent or guardian applying for a child passport for someone younger than 16. Passport services is one of the key public service experiences that the bureau provides to U.S. citizens, and it is high priority to ensure that these services improve coming out of a post-COVID world.

To achieve this, we interviewed more than two dozen experts in the field, including customer service representatives, customer service managers, supervisory passport specialists, adjudication managers, fraud prevention managers, and acceptance facility oversight specialists. I led and took notes for many of the interviews as well as designed the layout of the blueprints. I made regular updates to the blueprints to make sure there was an accuracy to the flow of service from the front-stage experience visible to the passport applicant to the flow of backstage actions only visible to internal staff. I also made sure to include as many direct quotes from the internal staff we spoke to during the service blueprint collaboration sessions.

Future Visioning Workshop

In January of 2024, the team co-facilitated a workshop for Passport Services. Workshop participants were largely from field offices and a few were coming from the headquarters in Washington. The goal of the workshop was to identify several initiatives they would like to see Passport Services pursue, with the intent to improve both external and internal service experiences.

Once settled, attendees were encouraged reflect on the service blueprints provided at both large tables in the form of a gallery walk. At their breakout tables, poster-sized versions of the blueprints were provided for attendees to read more independently and refer to throughout the day and use those reflections to develop new initiatives to improve external and internal passport service experiences. I acted as subject matter expert on the service blueprints and helped lay out the room for accessibility.

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It's complex. But I understand it. ... It often takes someone decades to understand this process. The fact that you all understood it within a few weeks is really impressive.

Research of the Information Request Letter Experience

After the success of the service blueprints and future visioning workshops, we wanted to prototype and test concepts that align with the priorities set by the leadership team within Passport Services. After a few weeks of  brainstorming, we focused on Information Request Letters (IRL), which is a paper letter that some passport applicants may receive if there is an issue with their application, and more clarification is needed in order to make a decision about whether or not their application will be approved. Reasons vary from issues involving their passport photo to a missing document to verify the parent or guardianship for a child.

For my research to align with leadership priorities, I wanted to expand an external research approach that included multiple forms of communication related to information request letters. How do applicants respond to a paper letter, text messages, and email? How would they respond if they received an email of the IRL, but then a few days later received a paper letter? How would they interpret receiving a request for additional information via text? Are some forms of communication more trustworthy than others? Because some of these concepts are revised, new, or are in pilot, research methods were a combination of generative research, content, and concept testing.

Research testing space in Mural. It shows a paper letter, text messages, and email. Each piece of research stimuli was hidden then revealed throughout the study.

Test participant responding to stimuli. Names are blurred to protect their identity.

Test participant responding to stimuli. Names are blurred to protect their identity.

Test participant responding to stimuli. Names are blurred to protect their identity.

I analyzed several IRLs and worked with internal experts to focus on the letters that most often lead to a re-suspense. We focused on three letter reasons, and recruited from an existing database of applicants who had received an IRL for those reasons. Before reaching out to participants, I had to submit my research plan and interview guide for the Paperwork Reduction Act external research approval process. I recruited participants using a shared Consular email address, and used Google Scheduler Assistant for respondents to schedule their own time to participate in the study.

Test participants were asked about their passport application experience, then discuss their experience when they received an information request letter. Once we got that background information, I opened the testing space and asked participants to react to each piece of research stimuli, one at a time.

Once I managed the compensation of test participants and thank you’s for their participation, I quickly moved into research synthesis using the affinity mapping technique. We shared passport applicant needs, such as more specificity in the letters and for the language in the text messages to be more friendly and official to engender trust.