The Public Sector Podcast: Progress on the Digital Government Strategic Plan: Advancing Wave 3 Goals

Episode Overview

In this episode, Sarah Tuneberg, Director, Colorado Digital Services of the State of Colorado shares a candid and engaging perspective on what it really takes to move governments into Wave 3 of digital transformation. Using a memorable surfing metaphor, she reflects on why planning alone is never enough — and how real progress comes from practice, iteration, listening, and learning alongside the people government serves.

Drawing on Colorado’s experience, the conversation explores how governments can shift from simply putting services online (Wave 1), to enabling digital transactions (Wave 2), and ultimately to user-centred, data-driven, life-event-based services that create real value for residents (Wave 3).

Key Themes

The episode makes the case that Wave 3 transformation is not about automation for its own sake, but about deeply understanding user needs, designing around real life moments, and continuously improving services through data, feedback and co-design. It highlights how leadership, culture change and capacity-building are just as critical as technology.

What You’ll Learn

1) The Three Waves of Digital Transformation

• Wave 1: Moving government online (websites and information)
• Wave 2: Enabling digital transactions and online services
• Wave 3: Designing services around people’s lives using data, iteration and user feedback

2) What Wave 3 Looks Like in Practice

How Colorado is re-orienting digital services around life events (having a baby, moving, losing a job) rather than agency structures — so residents don’t need to understand government org charts to get help.

3) Building Capacity Beyond One Team

Why transformation can’t sit with a single digital unit, and how governments must build modern skills, product thinking and shared standards across agencies, vendors and partners.

4) Identity, Access and Trust

How simplifying identity and access management reduces risk for vulnerable residents, improves security, and creates a more seamless experience across programs and services.

5) Using Data to Improve Experience — Not Just Throughput

Why measuring success means asking simple questions like “Were you able to do the thing you came here to do?” — and how even basic feedback can unlock powerful insights.

6) Real Examples of User-Led Design

From the Colorado Energy Savings Navigator to contact centre improvements that returned millions of minutes of time back to residents, the episode shows how starting with users leads to faster delivery, lower cost and higher impact.

7) From Project Thinking to Product Thinking

Why government technology must be treated as a living product — something to nurture, improve and invest in over time — rather than a one-off project that gets “handed over” and forgotten.

8) Co-Design, Iteration and Courage

The importance of testing ideas early, using low-fidelity prototypes, listening when users say “no”, and having the courage to stop solutions that don’t deliver value.

Key Takeaways

• Planning only gets you so far — progress comes from practice and iteration

• Design around real people and life events, not systems and silos

• Measure what matters: value delivered to residents

• Build shared services, shared standards and shared accountability

• The only thing that truly matters is the impact government delivers for people

Why You Should Listen

This episode is a must-listen for public sector leaders, digital teams, service designers and transformation practitioners looking to move beyond surface-level digitisation. It offers practical lessons, honest reflections and concrete examples of how to “ride Wave 3” — delivering simpler, more secure, and more human government services that genuinely improve people’s lives.