Don’t Roll Your Broken Process in Glitter…(or add a Chatbot)

Stop digitising broken processes – start rethinking them

Too many digital projects in the public sector fail before they begin.

Not because of the technology and not because of budget.
But because we digitise the existing process, without questioning whether that process still works.

Instead of transformation, we get digitisation. Instead of savings or better outcomes, we get more layers, more complication, more confusion and a lack of buy-in from the team who see money being spent and things actively getting harder.

The Common Mistake

Many people will think we are stating the bleedin’ obvious here, but there’s a pattern which plays out again and again:

• A council service is overwhelmed, complaints are rising, demand is up, teams are stretched
• A new system will save the day: a chatbot, a new online form, an AI widget, or a new case management tool
• But the process itself remains unchanged; the same handovers, delays, rules, and approvals

What gets delivered is a digital version of the old system.
The interface may be new, but the experience is just as frustrating. Sometimes worse.

We’ve seen this in:

• Planning portals that still rely on manual checks and unclear documentation
• Housing applications that require residents to upload documents multiple times
• Customer service bots that can’t resolve anything without human follow-up

These solutions often cost more to run than the paper-based version, with no real improvement to the user or staff experience.

The Right Starting Point

If you’re responsible for digital change, here’s where to start:

1. Ask what the process is really for
Strip it back. What outcome are we trying to achieve?
A quick housing decision? A safe, clean street? A resolved enquiry?
Processes often grow around legacy systems, siloed teams or risk-averse policies.
Challenge the original assumptions. The old ‘five whys’.

2. Understand the lived experience
Go beyond process maps.
What happens when a resident tries to use the service?
Where do staff spend time chasing information, duplicating effort or escalating issues?
You’ll often find pain points that were invisible on paper.

3. Identify the blockers, not just the steps
Why does this process take 8 weeks?
Is it policy? Sign-off? System constraints? Staffing?
You can’t redesign what you don’t fully understand.

4. Involve the people who use and deliver it
No-one understands the process better than the people trying to make it work every day.
Bring frontline teams and users into the room early. They’ll spot dead ends, duplication and wasted effort you won’t find in any spec.

Fix the problem, don’t shoehorn in some tech

When done right, rethinking a process before digitising it leads to:

• Streamlined journeys – unnecessary steps are stripped away
• Improved staff experience – automation becomes an ally, not a headache
• Sharper outcomes – services are shaped around what users actually need
• Reduced costs – because you’re not coding complexity into your tech

Digital transformation should simplify, not solidify outdated ways of working.

If a process hasn’t been reviewed in years, it’s not ready for digitisation.

And if it’s broken offline, putting it online just accelerates the failure.