Transform Makes Public Service Week!

Two weeks ago, we were wondering how to get the word about Sense out on the streets. “Build it - and they will come” - there could not be a bigger lie about marketing than this, that most product teams within the government actually erroneously believe. We often vilify product marketing because we think what is good will eventually speak for itself, and marketing is seen as blowing one’s trumpet, especially in government where we are supposed to be servant leaders.

Although we had spoken extensively about Sense at GovTech’s Stack Meetup and Data Science Connect, those remained internal platforms and preached to the converted. If our communications remained solely to an internal tech-savvy audience, then failure was imminent. Sense’s product vision was about augmenting policy capabilities in the Singapore public service - we knew that we had to venture out further where our colleagues were in the wider service, because that was who we had wished to serve.

It could not have come more opportunely when we received the invitation to speak at Public Service Week 2024 by Faith (Dir/Civil Service College) and James (Principal Researcher/Civil Service College). It was a platform that resonated with our team philosophy of innovation and user-centric design. What better platform could there be for a team of innovators, than an event that celebrated all things new and bold for a workforce of 152,000?

Serendipity is a myth in the world of product management. Our invitation came not by chance, but by the sheer act of trying.

In product marketing, the race does not always go to the swiftest. By all means and accounts, our product team (and product) was definitely not the shiniest white horse in the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs). What landed our team an opportunity to speak at such a large public service forum was - believe it or not - our request to various parties for an opportunity to speak!

Over the past four weeks, I had eagerly reached out to no fewer than 30 of my closest networks in government. I explained what my team had hoped to achieve with our product suite, and our grand vision of introducing LLM applications to agencies to resolve legacy problem statements. If there was ever a broken tape recorder, I suppose I must have been it:

“Hi! This year, I’m leading a group of 14 software engineers and UX designers in an innovation unit. Our objective is to see how we can identify specific problem statements in various government agencies, and see if we can size something that’s substantial enough of a pinpoint across many agencies. We then create re-useable products that solve a real problem, at scale. Our latest product is Sense, an AI data assistant that drastically speeds up the process of quantitative policy reviews. If you think you’d like us to speak about it, please do let me know and it’ll be our honour to engage your team!

It was only when I WhatsApped Faith (in the presence of 30 other public servants no less), that prompted an invitation from her for us to speak. Perhaps my words did not land on those other public servants - but the lesson at point here is that in any communication or engagement, your key message needs only to land on your target audience.

And it was to Faith alone that I was speaking to in faith.

We got down to fine-tuning communications and key messages for our audience. It turned out that there was a fear that AI would end up replacing public servants - which couldn’t be further from the truth.

James was the key chief coordinator of the forum, and we learnt very quickly that there was much concern from various quarters that AI applications had an insidious objective of weeding out workers through automation:

“Could you explain to me what your team thinks about Sense? Is it to completely remove policy officers from the work process?”

Much to James’ relief, I explained that Sense was really about putting policy officers back in the pilot seat of the entire policy analytics process. By removing the need for coding middlemen, we brought policy officers into direct contact with their own datasets, where they could apply their context and mind directly. We had hoped that AI would be seen as Augmented Intelligence, rather than blind Artificial Intelligence.

“Augmenting intelligence… that’s a good narrative Yong Kiat! Wondering if you could have Sense work on a dataset that’s not just healthcare-related? Healthcare policies are complex and we’re not all that familiar - would you happen to have something more accessible?”

James was very right - a successful product demonstration frequently hinged on removing all cognitive distractions for the audience, allowing them to focus only on the value delivered by the product. As we mulled collectively about what would make a suitable demonstration, James mused that Housing Development Board (HDB) datasets would be an excellent fit - surely every Singaporean would be familiar with HDB policy definitions!

And so, the TransformGovSG team is proud to present to you our product demonstration video for Public Service Week Learning Festival - a monumental moment for the team, as we venture beyond the healthcare sector for our product, which has always been our larger ambition:

Policy makers should focus on asking good questions. Sense removes all the hassle of data analytics and coordination, putting policy officers back in the pilot seat of policy making.

We are excited to speak to the wider public service about Sense, and more importantly, on how AI applications are here to augment our capabilities, not replace them. After all innovation very frequently is about doing old things in a new way, which requires a change in mindset and processes - the TransformGovSG team could not be happier to be part of the AI conversation that’s currently taking the public service by storm.

On 26 Jul 2024, come join us for a quick lunchtime talk, where we unveil our product roadmap and plans for the public service. Sign up at https://go.gov.sg/pswlf2024 if you haven’t yet done so!