Plan and discover

Create with purpose

Define the problem or opportunity to address, using evidence, before developing solutions.
Identify outcomes the service needs to achieve. Ensure the service aligns with strategic priorities.
Plan how you will measure your service's performance. Establish a baseline for an existing service.

Identify current and prospective users of your service. Use existing research to understand their needs and behaviours.
Plan a user research approach that suits your project. Gather qualitative and quantitative evidence. Decide how you will analyse and use your insights.
Be ethical with user research. This includes getting a user's consent, maintaining privacy and keeping information secure.
Plan to comply with level AA of WCAG's current standard, and to research and test with diverse users.

Identify and map business capability and process for your operating environment and user needs.
Talk to your information and data architect and data owners about potentially using existing data sets.
Identify and adopt standard platforms and tools, and available patterns and solutions in the NSW Design System.
Use an existing nsw.gov.au domain name and look for ways to consolidate existing website information.
Consider if you can build for reuse.

Plan to recruit the specialist data skills you will need. Identify the data you will collect and how you will store, access and disseminate it.
Embed privacy into service design from the outset.
Engage your cyber security expert early to know how to identify and manage risk.
Apply guiding principles and adhere to cyber security best practice.

Plan for the right skills and capabilities for your team - to design, build and maintain your product or service.
Plan for the resources and budget to monitor and improve your product or service after go-live.
Implement a process to monitor your product or service throughout its lifetime, including regular testing. Establish triggers to help you know when to act to make improvements and fix any issues.

Identify stakeholders to engage, within and outside NSW Government, to help inform the service.
Agree on the team practices, tools and systems you'll use to enable collaboration in your project.
Set up a governance structure or enlist the help of existing governance forums.
Document your governance processes for decision-making, roles and responsibilities and risk management.
Set up processes that will enable your team to work in the open and be transparent with other NSW Government agencies, customers and stakeholders about your project and any decision making.