Enabling a Digital Culture to Improve Service Delivery

In today’s fast-paced world, residents expect government services to be as seamless and accessible as the private sector. At last year’s Government Innovation Showcase New York, Jessica Houle, Director of Digital Service at the New York State Office of General Services, shared how her team is transforming the state’s digital landscape to meet that challenge.

When the Digital Media Services Centre was created nearly a decade ago, New York faced a patchwork of siloed websites and applications—some supported by teams of one, others with no dedicated resources at all. The mission was clear: build consistency, improve access, and design services around the people who use them.

The team’s first major project—redesigning the state’s website—was the beginning of a new approach. By engaging every agency, identifying their top services, and creating user-centered “one-stop” pages, New York doubled its website traffic in just a few months. But the real success came from the cultural shift: a commitment to putting users first in every decision.

Since then, Houle’s team has created a thriving community of over 200 digital practitioners, hosted statewide conferences and roundtables, and redesigned more than 30 agency websites. Their work has led to measurable improvements in critical services like voter registration and professional licensing—often through small, low-cost changes that dramatically improve user experience.

The next step? Expanding this culture of digital-first thinking by developing statewide digital standards, leveraging real-time feedback data, and aligning with the Governor’s customer experience initiatives. The goal is simple but ambitious: create seamless, consistent, and trustworthy experiences that improve satisfaction, build trust, and deliver better outcomes for all New Yorkers.

What’s Next: Join Jessica Houle at This Year’s Showcase

Building on last year’s conversation, Jessica Houle is back at the Government Innovation Showcase New York with an all-new session:

Advancing Digital Inclusion in the Era of Modernization
12:50 PM – 1:20 PM

Joined by Rafail Portnoy, CTO at the State of NY MTA, Jessica will explore how New York is embedding digital equity into modernization efforts so that all communities—urban, rural, and transit-reliant—can benefit equally.

Don’t miss this critical conversation. Register today: https://publicsectornetwork.com/psnplatform/accounts/event_register/government-innovation-showcase-newyork