We work alongside teams solving their toughest problems.

We’re here to help. We work side by side with teams within Montgomery County Government to scope a problem and make fast, tangible improvements for those we serve. We deliver results, not recommendations. We’re not the experts in what you do – we’re co-creators helping you to do it better.

• What is Civic Design
• The Civic Design Process
• What to expect in a partnership

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Current Projects

Project	Challenge	Outcome
Reimagining Advisory Boards, Commissions, and Committees	Montgomery County advisory boards, commissions, and committees need to better engage with community in the process of recruiting, appointing, and managing the boards. The County Executive’s office is responsible for appointing the Committee Review and Evaluation Board to review said boards. The office wanted to identify and invest in a framework that CERB can use to hold advisory boards, commissions, and committees (BCCs) accountable and take a critical look at the existing ecosystem.	We are developing clear roles and responsibilities for the new positions, and standardized parts of the process across all sites.
Improving the experience with Montgomery County Infants and Toddlers Program	How might ITP best use new site-based positions to improve the intake process?	We are developing clear roles and responsibilities for the new positions, and standardized parts of the process across all sites.
Increasing Equity In County Information And Services Through Language Accessibility	Despite mandates, funding, and desire, County information is often not in the languages people understand. Understanding around language access, plain English, and consideration for audience needs & comprehension levels across MCG departments is low.  This results in last minute requests for translation, or missing the opportunity for translation all together. Streamlining the Translation Unit intake process, educating County employees on the services of the Translation Unit, and changing culture around planning for audience language needs will ensure more equitable County services.	In the second phase of this work, we are developing and testing interventions that decrease the turnaround time for translations and increase clarity of information being provided to the public in English and other languages.
Access to Behavioral Health Intake Process	Clients who utilize Access to Behavioral Health services are community members without the means to navigate the mental healthcare system. They often take multiple forms of public transit to arrive at the office where they spend up to 90 minutes completing forms and waiting for them to be processed before seeing a provider. Moving these intake forms online will enable clients to complete them remotely, in advance, and allow ABH staff to process them ahead of the visit so that we're respecting the client's time.	We are currently reviewing forms which will be brought online in English and Spanish. This process involves shadowing clients, staff, and applying plain language and other best practices to the content of the forms.
Equity x Design	Our team, along with Innovation Fellows, is undertaking Intro to equityXdesign, an online course that provides a framework and tools to bring equity into design and problem-solving processes. Equity Meets Design works to increase the ability of people who create things to (re)design interactions, interventions and institutions towards increased equity in process and outcomes.	Racism and inequity are products of design. They can be redesigned. By creating a space for deep engagement and reflection, we reflecting on our role as designers––traditional or not––in developing resources, services, and systems that support our county. The key outcome will be a more equity-centered mindset for us and our partners.
BoE Election Judge Recruitment	Insufficient number and political affiliation diversity of Election Judges to staff polling locations and support necessary election processes beyond election day.	Working with BoE to identifying challenges and developing solutions to recruit, train, and retain Election Judges.
OESS Germantown Location Improvements	Challenges with constituent experience and complaints about customer services are the symptoms of underlying issues. These include systemic barriers created by State and Federal government, interpersonal challenges, employee burnout, and limited resources and on-site infrastructural support to bridge the customer care gaps.	Staff are in and contributing to a functional workspace where they are able to fulfill their mission of meeting customer needs. Management is actively breaking down barriers to employee success with repeatable adaptive processes.
Ride On Organizational Culture	Low morale among staff appears to be a significant cause of attrition, hurting services provided to riders. How might we understand and address the challenges contributing to low morale?	RideOn staff have ways (and power and authority) to both raise and address problems in the work environment, improving morale and retention.
Cross Departmental Collaboration for Youth Services	The youth and teen of Montgomery County, while one of the most diverse groups, is also burdened by parentification, violence and harm, and do not have supportive infrastructure in the county. MCPL staff report that teens are showing up to the library in greater numbers than before the COVID-19 pandemic, seeking space away from home and school, and ways to connect with each other and the world.	Learning from the lived experience of the staff and customers, we aim to serve underserved youth and families. We will measure the outputs as outlined in the goal(s) of the MCPL’s strategic framework. We aim to: Increase # of total and active users between ages 13-18 Increase circulation among teen users Increase # of teen programs and participants, improved participant satisfaction rates

Past Projects

Project	Challenge	Outcome
Understanding Aging in Montgomery County	The Department of Aging & Disability is committed to building a county that supports all residents to live well throughout their lifetimes. In 2023, they delivered a Summit on Aging to create a space for connection, learning, and collaboration, and to ensure that the Commision on Aging, policy-makers, and Montgomery County residents can come together to develop an age-friendly county. Key challenges included offering a summit experience with efficient sessions and dialogue, informing the agenda for Age-Friendly Montgomery, and making sure summit participants felt seen and heard.	The Innovation@MCG team got the opportunity to collaborate with the Commission on Aging and Department of Aging & Disability to reimagine how the County can effectively engage residents and staff in the Age Friendly movement. The team co-designed the prep and synthesis session to help transition ideas generated during the event into an Age-Friendly Montgomery. In this effort, the teams collaborated to: Identify ways to improve and enhance the event’s structure. Help with formulating questions to enhance the quality of each breakout session and qualitative engagement with participants.
Department of Corrections	Vacancies and staff turnover rates are high. What can we learn from staff exit interviews to improve hiring and retention efforts?	We synthesized more than 100 pages of exit survey comments to identify key reasons for leaving and suggestions for improvement.
Finance Department Homestead Credit	About 81,000 Montgomery County homeowners need to sign up for a State tax credit, otherwise they will not receive the dollars from a County tax credit.	We supported the Finance Department in developing and implementing a communication strategy that involved designing postcards, updating a webpage, and analyzing the effectiveness of different types of language to make future communications more effective.
Business Center Website	Business owners want more and better support from the County. In preparation for the new Chief Digital Officer onboarding, we wanted to build momentum and show what was possible using a human-centered Agile approach to website development. This is about demonstrating what is possible for digital interactions that meet the expectations of our constituents.	Built a website that was a collaboration across CEX (Business Center team), TEBS, Innovation@MCG, and a number of business owners. We interviewed business owners, mocked up a prototype website for them to try, and incorporated their needs into the design. The feedback we've received from business owners on the website has been very positive.
MCITP Intake Process	Identify what hiring champions are doing right, to create a robust and behaviorally informed resource for departments that are unable to hire as quickly. Our partner wanted us to identify and disseminate “bright spots” from selected teams across MCG that have been successful in hiring quality candidates in a timely manner.	Staff worked to more deeply understand the challenges from the perspectives of the families they served and worked across six diverse sites to generate ideas they are working to implement.
OHR Guide to Accelerate Hiring (One-Pager)	Entering the program can be frustrating for parents and staff. MCITP wants to improve those experiences, balancing centralized standardization with localized customization for unique community needs.	The hiring process is about partnership between a recruiter and a department. Departments that are able to communicate their needs to their recruiters are more likely to have shorter hiring timelines. As a result, we created a one-pager that guides anyone hiring in the County to take measures and steps that can accelerate their hiring process. Reach out to us for your own copy!
TEBS Intake Process Mapping	To design the future state of more streamlined intake processes for Technology and Enterprise Business Solutions (TEBS), Innovation@MCG is supporting the Change Management team to map about 19 of their existing processes in the current state to alleviate current challenges and design an effective and efficient process.	Ensuring that TEBS has all necessary tools to envision the future state of what ServiceNow integration would look like. These tools include process mapping tools, facilitation support, and identify opportunities.
HHS Call Centers	Design call centers based on the experiences and needs of the customers and frontline staff. Support TEBS, HHS, and 311 in collaborating around common users, each lending their unique strengths.	Ensuring that TEBS has all necessary tools to envision the future state of what ServiceNow integration would look like. These tools include process mapping tools, facilitation support, and identify opportunities.
ORESJ Vision & Mission	What is the work we want to be doing, and how might we move from operating reactively to doing the work we want to do, strategically and with intention?	The team (and its stakeholders) are clear and aligned on its vision and mission; these help ORESJ prioritize projects and communicate about the services it offers.