Change can be scary. This is proven each time Twitter or Facebook makes a change to its user interface – from a “favorite” to a “like,” or a “like” to a “love.” There's almost always a backlash from people who have a hard time accepting and adapting to change – and some people will always wish things hadn’t changed at all.
When Dr. David Bray, senior executive and CIO with the Federal Communications Commission, set out to change the usability and functionality of FCC.gov, it could have been seen as a daunting effort by his team. More than a million unique monthly visitors go to FCC.gov to research telecommunications issues and voice their opinions. These visitors were accustomed to certain forms; it didn't matter if the forms themselves were more than fifteen years old and hard to navigate by modern standards. Any changes would have to compete against the comfort of the familiar.
Refreshing FCC.gov posed additional challenges – the website had been updated just five years earlier, and it had not been well received. While Bray was not at the FCC at the time, this history loomed over his predecessors, of which the FCC had nine CIOs in eight years before his arrival.
Bray explains that the previous redesign effort was led by a “new media” team. The group comprised user interface designers and social media professionals, and it was kept separate from the main IT team.
“The new media team wasn’t encouraged to engage the existing offices or IT team at FCC to gain a better understanding of why the different stakeholders used FCC.gov, how they navigated the website, or how they might respond to changes,” said Bray. “Apparently, when the website was launched five years ago, there was a severe backlash from the users and various stakeholder audiences who felt like they had not been consulted. They just could not find the things on the website that they needed.”
The power of listening before kicking off a project
While CIOs before him glossed over the website issues, Bray decided to tackle it in the same way he's approached other challenges: by cultivating a team of passionate “change agents.”
The first thing he did was try to heal some of the scars and open the lines of communication between the new media team and the rest of FCC, including the 18 different bureaus and offices as well as team members within the IT organization.
“In my first year as CIO, in addition to stabilizing the IT infrastructure, I spent a sizable amount of my time listening to the new media team, listening to the bureaus and offices, listening to our outside stakeholders, listening to the IT team, and listening to perspectives from staffers within Congress to identify pain points associated with the historical redesign of FCC.gov,” Bray said. “Included in this time was an identification of how I was going to reintegrate the new media team back into the IT team so we could embody ‘One Team, One Mission,’ and not be a house divided."
According to Bray, before his arrival, the new media team had “lost hope in some respects, were frustrated, and they had gotten stuck trying to fix the situation.” Closing the large divide between the new media and IT teams meant that each group needed to understand and appreciate the skills and knowledge that the other team brought to the table. Doing so required all individuals to let go of past grievances so they could work collaboratively on a shared stakeholder engagement initiative, FCC.gov change management strategy, and project plan forward.
The newly united teams leveraged data-driven strategies to learn more about their stakeholders. However, Bray said that “taking the time to listen to our stakeholders” was just as important to the success of the initiative.
“First, we communicated to all stakeholders that we wanted their feedback and were open for any and all comments they might have. Then, after listening a bit, we communicated our intentions. It wasn’t going to be 'yet-another-new-website;' we were using their feedback and science to improve the parts of the site that were the most useful and retire those parts that weren’t,” said Bray. This transparent approach ensured everyone that decisions were not made by committee, nor triggered by the whims of a few designers.
Taking a "One Team, One Mission" approach
“We first launched a static prototype that allowed people to continue to give feedback,” said Bray. “After a few months, we moved to an actual working, functional prototype. People could see the responsive design; they could see it on a mobile device versus a browser. Throughout the process, we followed an agile process of two-week sprints between feedback, data collection, and a new roll-out.”
“One FCC change agent, in particular, Deanna Stephens, really embraced the role of an integrated project team,” continued Bray. “Deanna had been with the historical new media team, yet she had the courage and commitment to put aside the past and take the time to listen, learn, and let the different stakeholders of FCC.gov inform the new refresh process. Embracing the ‘One Team, One Mission’ approach combined with an intentionally open process of feedback and engagement led by Deanna were the reasons for our success."
Bray uses the word “courage” to describe his team members for taking on the challenge of the website refresh – an initiative that previous had somewhat of a negative charge around it, according to Bray. Yet Stephens, the FCC.gov modernization project lead, said that she was eager and thankful to have been given the opportunity to be a change agent.
“Rather than bringing in a new team, David put his trust in the existing team and let us run with the project based on our experience,” said Stephens. “Change doesn’t have to mean a change in people, but a change in how we approach the process and product. It also requires the understanding that doing the same thing will likely result in the same outcome.”
The efforts of Bray and Stephens as well as other change agents at FCC paid off with success: the new refresh was released with more than 85 percent of new visitors reporting they preferred the new design over the previous one. The team even received thank you letters from different external stakeholders, both recognizing the successful refresh and, more importantly, thanking the team for taking the time to involve and listen to the different stakeholders.
The change agent approach seems to have caught on as well, as Stephens noted, “I know that any project I work on moving forward, I will do my best to be a positive change agent and encourage those around me.”
