Service Design Consultant

at  City of Toronto

Job ID: 43635
Job Category: Information & Technology
Division & Section: Technology Services, Technology Standardization Delivery
Work Location: Metro Hall, 55 John Street, Toronto, ON
Job Type & Duration: Full-time, Temporary Vacancy, 12 months
Salary: $93,500.00-$119,274.00, Wage Grade 6.5.
Shift Information: Monday to Friday, 35 hours per week
Affiliation: Non-Union
Number of Positions Open: 1
Posting Period: 29-Feb-2024 to 14-Mar-2024
Job Description:
Join the Open Data team within Technology Services focusing on understanding, engaging, and co-designing engagement processes and technology solutions for City staff and the public. As the team’s Service Design Consultant you will be joining a growing team focused on delivering the City’s first Open Data Master Plan which sets the strategic framework and roadmap to advance Toronto’s vision for open data.
Human centered design is at the core of our approach for engaging our audiences iteratively through the design and development process and ensuring we are addressing and solving for barriers to accessing City data and fostering innovative uses of City data. Working alongside technical and non-technical staff some of the activities the team will focus on include: envisioning, designing, and implementing a public open data request tracking dashboard; establishing a process to embed open data requirements as part of the process of writing staff reports to City Council; redesign our engagement approaches for City staff and the public; and other cool projects.
In this role you will lead, facilitate and mentor teams in service design project activities. You will map current state from a user-centered perspective and identify opportunities for improvement in business processes and methods through applying service design practices and methodologies in the context of existing and anticipated business needs and best practices.

Major Responsibilities:

• Conducts research into assigned area ensuring that such research takes into account developments within the field, corporate policies and practices, legislation and initiatives by other levels of government.
• Designs, develops, and executes research and service design plans for the product lifecycle by developing milestones, deliverables, and outcomes.
• Leads project teams through the service design methodology by leading and doing, including alignment, discovery, stakeholder mapping, problem definition, opportunity assessment, jurisdictional scans, data insights, customer journeys, user engagement, persona development, service blueprints, prototyping, progressive co-design, usability testing, and implementation plans.
• Provides input into and administers assigned budget, ensuring that expenditures are controlled and maintained within approved budget limitations.
• Supervises, motivates and trains assigned staff, ensuring effective teamwork, high standards of work quality and organizational performance, continuous learning and encourages innovation in others.
• Supervises the day to day operation of all assigned staff including the scheduling, assigning and reviewing of work.
• Leads the timely analysis, development and implementation of service design projects across the City to enhance clients’ business efficiency and effectiveness.
• Leads the development of the service design plan as part of a project or product team and participates in knowledge-sharing initiatives across the organization to raise awareness and acceptance of service design methodologies and benefits.
• Introduces new and innovative perspectives to the City of Toronto service design through application of industry best practice service design methodologies.
• Implements detailed plans and makes strategic design recommendations for program-specific requirements.
• Provides technical leadership to service design teams by creating project plans and establishing priorities, managing the project plan, monitoring quality/timeliness of deliverables, and resolving issues.
• Provides service design expertise to promote excellence, effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery models.
• Works with project and product teams to map user-centered current state with the objective of identifying opportunities to improve the end-to-end user experience.
• Applies service design practices and methodologies through the alpha and beta design phases; communicates service design principles/methodologies and recommends solutions that support improved/integrated service delivery.
• Prepares recommendations which may involve highly confidential, strategic, operational and/or labour relations
• issues such as streamlining processes and identifies opportunities to generate revenues and/or reduce costs
• Synthesizes complex service design processes, measurement models and user research findings for solution definition and prototyping.
• Executes the service design plan by developing key deliverables and guiding team members and stakeholders accordingly.
• Leads orientation and skills development sessions in order to build service design capacity throughout the City of Toronto. This will include content on intranet site, facilitated learning sessions and mentoring on product teams.
• Leads the team through the service design methodology, including alignment, opportunity/stakeholder assessments, interjurisdictional scans and insights, vendor analysis, user research and engagement (persona development), prototyping, road mapping and implementation.
• Plans and coordinates the design, development, prototyping, usability testing and implementation of new solutions for improved service delivery.
• Reviews service design aspects post-implementation to assess performance of newly implemented processes and practices; develops process improvement objectives, critical success factors, key performance indicators, including measurement and target metrics to facilitate ongoing and continuous improvement.
• Facilitates change management with providers to add new products and services across all delivery channels including digital service delivery systems.
• Participates in business planning activities including the development of business case submissions and support of service improvements, operational strategies and coordinates service design engagement processes.
• Provides integrated service design delivery advice to senior management and executive-level stakeholders; prepares complex reports, presentations and makes recommendations.
• Participates in the evaluation and selection of external vendors; prepares statements of work, Request for Proposal (RFPS).
• Participates in project and advisory committees to provide service design advice/expertise.
• Embeds service design, user acceptance (UX) and Lean concepts in product lifecycle, including rapid prototyping, user testing and support system design, patterns and requirements.
• Coordinates testing, implementation and post-implementation review planning.
• Plans and leads concurrent service design projects; coordinates with clients, stakeholders and partners; identifies potential problems and develops mitigating strategies appropriately; expedites project progress to support client business needs.
• Provides client support that reflects individual client needs, resources and understanding of the specific business and service domain.
• Develops internal and external stakeholder relationships; consults with clients, vendors, consultants, peers and suppliers, on service processes, practices, methods and project deliverables.
• Drives corporate strategy development with senior leaders, executive sponsors, Steering Committees and other relevant stakeholders to address strategic business opportunities and achieve project goals.
• Negotiates and builds relationships, working in close collaboration with executives and senior management, clients and various stakeholders across the organization to resolve critical, strategic and operational issues and to deliver on major project objectives while ensuring that both City and business priorities are met.

Key Qualifications:

• Post-secondary education in a professional discipline pertinent to the job function (i.e Service Design, Business Administration, Strategic Management, Organization Development) or an equivalent combination of education and/or experience and certifications, specifically service design, agile and lean are assets.
• Experience analyzing and implementing service design, business process modeling, business process re-engineering, business systems, strategic plans, and organizational design in large organizations.
• Experience developing stakeholder mapping, problem definition, opportunity assessments, jurisdictional scans, data insights, customer journeys, user engagement approaches, personas, service blueprints, prototypes, progressive co-designs, usability testing and implementation plans.
• Experience using software tools (eg. Sketch, Figma, Slack, Adobe Creative Suite, Axure, Balsamiq, InVision, Mural, Miro) to facilitate collaborative design sessions and develop artefacts (e.g. journey maps, ecosystem maps, service blueprints, experience principles, and roadmaps)
• Demonstrated analytical, interpretive, evaluative and constructive thinking skills to establish strategic objectives, and to develop solutions that support the unique operational, business and administrative needs of the client.
• Excellent written and oral communication, presentation and interpersonal skills to deal effectively with senior management and to chair meetings that include members from all organizational levels and the public.
• Ability to work independently with a high level of self-direction.
• Knowledge of user experience design and user interface design approaches and skills seen as an asset

• Conducts research into assigned area ensuring that such research takes into account developments within the field, corporate policies and practices, legislation and initiatives by other levels of government.
• Designs, develops, and executes research and service design plans for the product lifecycle by developing milestones, deliverables, and outcomes.
• Leads project teams through the service design methodology by leading and doing, including alignment, discovery, stakeholder mapping, problem definition, opportunity assessment, jurisdictional scans, data insights, customer journeys, user engagement, persona development, service blueprints, prototyping, progressive co-design, usability testing, and implementation plans.
• Provides input into and administers assigned budget, ensuring that expenditures are controlled and maintained within approved budget limitations.
• Supervises, motivates and trains assigned staff, ensuring effective teamwork, high standards of work quality and organizational performance, continuous learning and encourages innovation in others.
• Supervises the day to day operation of all assigned staff including the scheduling, assigning and reviewing of work.
• Leads the timely analysis, development and implementation of service design projects across the City to enhance clients’ business efficiency and effectiveness.
• Leads the development of the service design plan as part of a project or product team and participates in knowledge-sharing initiatives across the organization to raise awareness and acceptance of service design methodologies and benefits.
• Introduces new and innovative perspectives to the City of Toronto service design through application of industry best practice service design methodologies.
• Implements detailed plans and makes strategic design recommendations for program-specific requirements.
• Provides technical leadership to service design teams by creating project plans and establishing priorities, managing the project plan, monitoring quality/timeliness of deliverables, and resolving issues.
• Provides service design expertise to promote excellence, effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery models.
• Works with project and product teams to map user-centered current state with the objective of identifying opportunities to improve the end-to-end user experience.
• Applies service design practices and methodologies through the alpha and beta design phases; communicates service design principles/methodologies and recommends solutions that support improved/integrated service delivery.
• Prepares recommendations which may involve highly confidential, strategic, operational and/or labour relations
• issues such as streamlining processes and identifies opportunities to generate revenues and/or reduce costs
• Synthesizes complex service design processes, measurement models and user research findings for solution definition and prototyping.
• Executes the service design plan by developing key deliverables and guiding team members and stakeholders accordingly.
• Leads orientation and skills development sessions in order to build service design capacity throughout the City of Toronto. This will include content on intranet site, facilitated learning sessions and mentoring on product teams.
• Leads the team through the service design methodology, including alignment, opportunity/stakeholder assessments, interjurisdictional scans and insights, vendor analysis, user research and engagement (persona development), prototyping, road mapping and implementation.
• Plans and coordinates the design, development, prototyping, usability testing and implementation of new solutions for improved service delivery.
• Reviews service design aspects post-implementation to assess performance of newly implemented processes and practices; develops process improvement objectives, critical success factors, key performance indicators, including measurement and target metrics to facilitate ongoing and continuous improvement.
• Facilitates change management with providers to add new products and services across all delivery channels including digital service delivery systems.
• Participates in business planning activities including the development of business case submissions and support of service improvements, operational strategies and coordinates service design engagement processes.
• Provides integrated service design delivery advice to senior management and executive-level stakeholders; prepares complex reports, presentations and makes recommendations.
• Participates in the evaluation and selection of external vendors; prepares statements of work, Request for Proposal (RFPS).
• Participates in project and advisory committees to provide service design advice/expertise.
• Embeds service design, user acceptance (UX) and Lean concepts in product lifecycle, including rapid prototyping, user testing and support system design, patterns and requirements.
• Coordinates testing, implementation and post-implementation review planning.
• Plans and leads concurrent service design projects; coordinates with clients, stakeholders and partners; identifies potential problems and develops mitigating strategies appropriately; expedites project progress to support client business needs.
• Provides client support that reflects individual client needs, resources and understanding of the specific business and service domain.
• Develops internal and external stakeholder relationships; consults with clients, vendors, consultants, peers and suppliers, on service processes, practices, methods and project deliverables.
• Drives corporate strategy development with senior leaders, executive sponsors, Steering Committees and other relevant stakeholders to address strategic business opportunities and achieve project goals.
• Negotiates and builds relationships, working in close collaboration with executives and senior management, clients and various stakeholders across the organization to resolve critical, strategic and operational issues and to deliver on major project objectives while ensuring that both City and business priorities are met