CSPS Digital Academy/CSPS Digital Accelerator

Overview	Build your team	Choose your problem	Cohort 1 Recap	Partners	Meet our team

Welcome The CSPS Digital Accelerator is a transformative learning experience designed for product teams, including their leaders, who want to experiment with more collaborative, open, human-centered and iterative ways of defining problems and developing solutions in a modern government era. It combines hands-on workshops, peer learning, coaching and mentoring in support of teams as they explore real business problems and prototype and test solutions with users. The Accelerator builds on the success of the first two cohorts of the CSPS Digital Academy’s Premium program. We launched in Spring 2021, recruiting whole and pre-established teams. We are currently planning the second Accelerator cohort for Winter 2022. Goals Learning by doing Teams get hands-on opportunities to apply new skills by designing, prototyping, and testing solutions to a real business problem relevant to their department. Breaking boundaries We aim to break down boundaries - in the way we work, collaborate, learn, and innovate. The Accelerator is constantly exploring, producing, and trying out different tools, resources, workshops, and activities in order to help create more digitally capable teams in the public service. Changing with confidence Modernizing requires change, and we recognize the importance of changing with confidence. If folks are first instilled with confidence, they may be more willing to embrace change and be more actively a part of creating change. Collaborating to succeed Collaboration is key to successfully finding and prototyping solutions during the Accelerator. We are always exploring and testing different tools, activities, and workshops that to help facilitate collaboration. Designing an empowering experience Great products and services are human-centred and designed for and with users. This applies to the Accelerator too. We design experiences with our participants in mind and support them every step of the way with coaching and mentoring, so they can have an enriching, empowering experience. We give teams the skills and tools they need to help them shift in the way they work, create, and share. Learn more about the CSPS Digital Academy Overview of the program Onboarding and Skill building (2 weeks) Team building​ Skill sessions​ Introduction to new tools Design Discovery (3 weeks) Problem framing​ Ideation​ Design thinking and user research Deeper Learning (2 weeks) Focused learning opportunities ​ Prototype planning​ Preparation for first pitch Prototyping (3 weeks) Developing and testing working prototypes with users Aftercare (3-6 months) Products progress towards beta or production ​ Access to coaches and mentors​ Access to continuous learning How to build your accelerator team Product Team 5-10 people Diverse & multidisciplinary Should bring together: 1) Subject matter experts for the business line or program, 2) Business analysts, designers, or product management, 3) Solutions designers / developers (technical, service designers, policy makers, etc.) Product teams work on their problems full time during the Accelerator and ideally stay together once it is over Steering Team 1 executive champion who participates part time in accelerator activities and fully supports the work of the product team 2-4 other executive supporters who form a governance body and help support the work of the team through: approvals, guidance, unblocking, feedback, upward briefing, and funding. Corporate Partners Enablers and partners who can support the product team in delivering their solution Could include: corporate services, security, legal, policy, communications or other forms of expertise The right problems for the Accelerator An actual problem – process, service, issue, or challenge – to be improved Doesn’t have an obvious, simple solution Has room for exploration, space to pivot, and flexible timelines Has a team that will continue to work on a solution once the accelerator ends Is related to the core work of your organization – internal or external Has a business owner open to solution ideas that go beyond the usual Has usable and accessible data to inform exploration and solutions Has the potential to change how people think about and do work Has organizational support and buy-in Has access to users to co-design, explore, and gather insights from Can be explored and shared publicly, with a team who can work in the open Has a manageable scope What's not the right problem? A pre-determined solution A large-scale complex problem with many dependent pieces A pre-existing project with fixed timelines and requirements A team that will not continue working on their solution post-Accelerator No access to users to collaborate with or be informed by Is classified and/or cannot be shared openly with other teams or the broader public service Accelerator History In Spring 2021, CSPS welcomed its first cohort of Accelerator teams for a 13-week, completely virtual hands-on learning experience. Five teams participated, from four departments:   Canada Revenue Agency Department of Fisheries and Oceans Department of National Defence Canada School of Public Service In this cohort, teams focused on internal-facing challenges and solutions, including new employee onboarding, simplifying procurement processes, improving internal access to data, supporting employee training and learning, and making operational decisions using data and insights. As a team, they worked together to pinpoint their users’ needs, improve their digital skills, explore their problems from multiple angles, identify different solution options, develop prototypes and test with users. At the end of the program, the teams pitched their solutions to more than 400 public servants from across the country who participated in Demo Day.   Interested in learning more about the teams’ solutions and experiences? Click on the links below.   Team DND-Army – Canadian Army Digital Transformation Team CRA – CRA Learning Zone Team CSPS – Procurement Portal Team DFO – Improving the Onboarding Experience   Partners Thanks to our current partners for their support. If your team is interested in joining the Accelerator, please reach out to us to discuss. Participation in the Accelerator begins with a partnership. We look forward to working with you! Meet the CSPS Digital Accelerator Team Nick Scott Executive Lead Zoe Langevin (position title) Robyn Paton (position title) Val Gaudreault (position title) Christina Bondi (position title) Khalid Egeh (position title) For general inquires contact the CSPS Digital Accelerator mailbox.