Reimagining the future of the myGov app

A visionary and viable app

Our approach centred around three key aspects.

• Meticulous, robust user research. The strategy needed to be grounded in real user insights, not assumptions or long-held beliefs.
• Collaboration and multidisciplinary expertise. Embedding our multidisciplinary team within Services Australia to ensure the strategy aligned with projects already in progress and addressed business and technical considerations.
• Balancing vision with viability. We didn’t just ask, ‘What if?’. We knew there would be implementation realities to contend with, so we made sure we asked, ‘What if, and how?’.

An unwavering commitment to user needs

To make sure users were put at the heart of the strategy, we were meticulous, intentional and inclusive in our approach to user research. This involved:

• Taking user insights from the myGov User Audit as a launch pad for bold thinking and ideating new features.
• Conducting multiple rounds of user research that build on one another, allowing us to refine and improve concepts over time. Our progressive approach ensured each iteration was stronger, more relevant, and more closely aligned to what users actually need.
• Ensuring diverse user needs were considered up front, in this early discovery phase, by focussing research participant recruitment towards people who have diverse or vulnerable backgrounds.

Better together: Our multidisciplinary advantage

Given the complexity of the Government service ecosystem – we knew from the outset that collaboration across disciplines and teams was going to be critical to not just the success of the strategy, but to its implementation.

That’s why we did two things:

• We put together a multidisciplinary team, with skills across service design, product design, UX/UI, user research and content strategy.
• We embedded ourselves into Services Australia’s operational rhythms, working hand in hand with teams across strategy, product design, content, tech and delivery.

This allowed us to align with in-flight programs and initiatives, deeply understand and address business viability and technical feasibility constraints, encourage stakeholder buy in and alignment.

A roadmap for thinking big, but building small

To build out an evidence-based roadmap, we used two frameworks to methodically prioritise and sequence the proposed features and enhancements:

• Kano model: Used to test the desirability of the app features, through a combination of quantitative data from surveys and qualitative data from user interviews for deeper insights.
• DVF (Desirability, Viability, Feasibility) framework: Used to balance analysis of proposed features against user desirability, business viability and technical feasibility.

Through ongoing collaboration with Services Australia, these features were plotted on a roadmap to help progress this work from strategy on a page to Program Increment planning and delivery.

A clear path forward

Armed with the strategy, roadmap, iterative prototypes and user insights, Services Australia now has a practical path to guide the future of the myGov app. The work has been used to align teams across government and informed decisions at the most senior levels – helping to set a shared vision for what myGov can become. By grounding that vision in evidence and lived experience, the app is now positioned to deliver incremental improvements that build trust, increase usability and move closer to realising myGov’s full potential.