Martin Jordan
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martinjordan.com
Martin Jordan
@martinjordan.com
Making services work better for all people—Head of Design & User Research at the German govt’s Digital Service, previously Head of #ServiceDesign at the UK’s Government Digital Service, int’l #GovDesign community co-lead, 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 ally
martinjordan.com
New #GovDesign job 🔔

@drvrheinland.bsky.social is looking for a UI /​ #UXdesigner in Speyer. The role is permanent and open until 15 December 2025.

Still open: another UX/UI role at @sprind-de.bsky.social and a #serviceDesign role at @digitalservice.bund.de

➡️ verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen
November 27, 2025 at 11:23 AM
The momentum is palpable.

💫

In our monthly, cross-government #userResearch exchange, we had 17 colleagues from 10 organisations today – from all levels of government and all across the country.
November 26, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Love the passion of civil servants around the #ServiceStandard❣️

People keep posting and sending me pictures of the new poster in action.

More posters are out in the post shortly …
November 26, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Wow!
💥

This is a lot at the moment.

Currently, we are screening and interviewing for
• Content designers
• Service designers
• User researchers
• UX/user interface designers

Our dilemma is that we were so squeezed that we could not even open all roles. Instead, we worked from our talent pool.
November 25, 2025 at 7:27 PM
56 signups for our German public sector community call on Friday afternoon soon.

In our @nextnetz.bsky.social gathering, we’ll discuss the digital umbrella brand.

We’ll hear from the Federal Press Office & the Senate Chancelleries from Hamburg & Schleswig-Holstein.

Tell your public service folks!
In German, for public servants:

We’ll discuss the digital cross-gov’t umbrella brand in all its detail – on Friday, 28 November, at 1 pm, as part of our @nextnetz.bsky.social community.

The digital umbrella brand has been in its public pilot phase for 11 months now.

⬇️
next-netz.de/veranstaltun...
November 25, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Martin Jordan
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Taking the next steps:

2 common components need to be developed along the #ServiceStandard & its #DinSpec66336, the German IT Planning Council decided.

The National Feedback Component (NKF) and Central Statistical Component (ZSK) are vital for meeting point 12 of the Service Standard.

👇🏻
November 25, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Resharing this picture of @loudowne.bsky.social on stage at the SDN #serviceDesign Conference 2023 in Berlin.

I just shared it with a colleague when discussing what design is and what not.

So much of my work includes activities listed like:
A conversation
An email
Costing up delivery
Getting money
November 25, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Reposted by Martin Jordan
🔔 Reminder

On Friday, 28th, we’ll discuss #servicePatterns in our 37th International #GovDesign community call.

We’ll hear from @jaskang.bsky.social from @tpximpact.com, Martin Ford-Downes & @nikolagoger.bsky.social from the UK Ministry of Justice.

The call starts at 9 am GMT—10 am CET—11 am EET
November 24, 2025 at 9:30 PM
🔔 Reminder

On Friday, 28th, we’ll discuss #servicePatterns in our 37th International #GovDesign community call.

We’ll hear from @jaskang.bsky.social from @tpximpact.com, Martin Ford-Downes & @nikolagoger.bsky.social from the UK Ministry of Justice.

The call starts at 9 am GMT—10 am CET—11 am EET
November 24, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Nerding out in the middle of the night, I made an authoritative slide to illustrate how many government bodies approved the German #ServiceStandard, the related #DinSpec66336 and the standards regulation in the past 15 months.

It’s been quite an unpredictable ride.

But a successful one.
November 23, 2025 at 11:34 PM
In Germany, you can use your physical ID with its NFC chip & a passcode to verify your identity online.

It’s still a little bumpy, but it generally works.

3 years ago—while building a new identity app for @bmi.bund.de—we redesigned the letter that gets sent 8 million times per year, because…

1/X
November 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Good digital public services are vital to democracy.

48% of people say that their trust in the state would increase if digital services were easy and quick to use.

Which they mostly aren’t in Germany.

Source:
@initiatived21.de’s eGOV monitor 2024
November 23, 2025 at 12:46 PM
A test run for #publicDesign jobs —

Here’s an experimental RSS feed for the German #GovDesign roles I am posting here and on my little, manually maintained job board*:

🛜 fetchrss.com/feed/aSDtgrm...

* currently listing positions at @digitalservice.bund.de, @sprind-de.bsky.social and elsewhere
fetchrss.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:22 AM
As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do.

Introducing the #ServiceStandard to service owners and designers in the city-state of Hamburg in detail, I travelled there.

I also opened #serviceDesign roles and had chats with colleagues at the European Commission & the OECD.
Week #186 at the Digital Service: Notes for 17–21 November
Introducing the Service Standard to service owners and designers in the city-state of Hamburg in more detail, Martin travelled there on Tuesday. He also opened service design roles and had conversatio...
verwaltungsgestaltung.de
November 22, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Things are not super straightforward with the German #ServiceStandard.

We have a DIN SPEC, and we have an online access standards regulation (abbreviated OZSV).

To better communicate how the 3 parts relate, we created a graphic. I tested it in Hamburg this week.

It’s on Flickr for download now ⬇️
Schaubild OZSV und Servicestandard
ALT: Ein Schaubild verdeutlicht die Zusammenhänge zwischen der Standardverordnung Onlinezugang (OZSV), der DIN SPEC 66336 und dem Servicestandard: Der Servicestandard unterstützt die Umsetzung der DIN...
www.flickr.com
November 22, 2025 at 9:43 AM
We are hiring!

At @digitalservice.bund.de, we are now looking for #serviceDesign​ers to help us create better government services and policies.

One role in policy space, the other in service transformation space. The work in both areas spans the entire federal government and, in parts, beyond

1/X
November 20, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Broken record mode

You can’t do any service transformation work without working with operations colleagues.

Issuing laws and publishing policy papers is pointless if you don’t talk about and workshop these documents with the people who are supposed to follow them.

These are the best moments, too.
Yesterday, I co-ran the second local #ServiceStandard workshop.

After visiting the State of Brandenburg and 2 of its services recently, we checked in for 3 hours with members of various service teams in Hamburg.

We looked at ID card renewal, social services, and notifying of a change of address.
November 19, 2025 at 7:58 PM
In German, for public servants:

We’ll discuss the digital cross-gov’t umbrella brand in all its detail – on Friday, 28 November, at 1 pm, as part of our @nextnetz.bsky.social community.

The digital umbrella brand has been in its public pilot phase for 11 months now.

⬇️
next-netz.de/veranstaltun...
November 19, 2025 at 12:47 PM
It’s been 7 years since I ran a workshop on the #ServiceStandard in Hamburg.

Today, I return to pick things up where I left off.

Back then, there was no Service Standard at all in Germany. Not for another 2 years.

We created a first version in Hamburg.

It’s so close to what we have now.

👀
November 18, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Reposted by Martin Jordan
Prototyping with Figma Make for 2 weeks now – it’s certainly gonna change a lot, but I am still not sure in which direction. Product People love it because it suggests the prototype can be done by a machine when in fact we designers need to clean up the hallucinations afterwards.
November 17, 2025 at 8:57 PM
In German 🇩🇪

How the German #ServiceStandard vastly helps improve public services, what role the unified cross-government identity and design system plays, and how to get started with small steps—@simonecarrier.bsky.social, Katrin Dribbisch and I gave a joint keynote last Friday at our annual event:
Besser machen: Mehr Qualität für unsere Services • Public Service Lab Day 2025
YouTube video by Public Service Lab
www.youtube.com
November 17, 2025 at 7:05 PM
AI is doing what designers, #designThinking and #designSprint advocates have advocated for 15 years: getting product managers to adopt rapid prototyping early on.

Now, I’ve product managers asking me for ‘Figma Make’ access. And then for a designer, 1 week later, to thoroughly think things through.
November 17, 2025 at 5:52 PM
As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do.

I went to the city of Wiesbaden to co-run the annual #PublicService Lab Day.

I gave a talk about the #ServiceStandard to local and state government colleagues & conducted 2 workshops on the cross-gov’t identity & design system.
Week #185 at the Digital Service: Notes for 10–14 November
In week 185, Martin went to the city of Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hesse, to co-run the annual Public Service Lab Day. He gave a talk about the Service Standard to local and state government coll...
verwaltungsgestaltung.de
November 15, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Our international #GovDesign community call is returning on Friday, 28 November.

We’ll discuss #ServicePatterns.

Join us—if you are awake at the time—from 9 am GMT, 10 am CET, 11 am EET, 5 pm SGT.

If you’re a public servant but not a part of the community yet, join us international.gov-design.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:56 PM