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Values-Based
Food Procurement
Toolkit
The U.S. spends approximately $9B of our tax dollars every year for food procurement in its schools, hospitals, and other public institutions.
Can human-centered design and systemic thinking help public officials through a change management process?
My role in this project: Lead Designer
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UX Research & Synthesis
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Prototyping
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Workshop Facilitation
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Website Design
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Branding
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Website Testing
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Tools & Template Development
My team in this project
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Maura Shea (Co-Director of FSAL)
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15+ Public Officials as "co-design" partners of the Toolkit
Timeline & other details
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Dec 2023 - Nov 2024
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I was an individual contributor on
this project
I led the development of the first ever values-based food procurement digital toolkit. Designed to be operations & implementation friendly for public officials.
Positively impacting over 40 public institutions like – schools, hospitals, & senior centers in 13 states across the U.S. The toolkit has been adopted by 20+ public officials.
The Digital Values-Based Food Procurement Toolkit
The Myers-Briggs Assessment Tool for public institutions
Designed a self-assessment tool for public institutions to identify their characteristics, strengths, and barriers to changing food procurement processes.
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A curated experience for the public officials
Recognized user behavior and designed personalized pathway experiences into the digital toolkit, allowing users to choose their own routes to achieve their goals.
Institution-based recommendations for change in processes
Conducted extensive UX research and developed in-depth subject-matter expertise to ensure that recommendations and solutions are tailored to the needs of public officials.
More highlights of the toolkit towards the end of the project. Now you choose your pathway...
Uncovered the public official's goals, barriers, and desires for change.
09
User Interviews
12
Interview Transcripts
Through these user interviews, I wanted to understand:
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Long-Term Systemic Vision
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Barriers for Implementation
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Stakeholders Involved
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Current Best Practices
Public officials have a clear long-term systemic vision to leverage food procurement to reduce CO2 emissions and create local jobs.
Public officials are stuck between a complex web of stakeholders (internal & external) that are misaligned and uncooperative.
Public officials need a clear implementation pathway and understand their city's strengths & weaknesses for "change".
Public officials are seeing a glimmer hope through operational levers of menu planning, kitchen staff training or marketing.
Actionable takeaways from the interviews...
Public officials aren't designers, but they are the end users for this toolkit. To guide them through the design process, I had to quickly jump into prototyping and used "hypothesis statements" to do so.
PROJECT HURDLE #1
HYPOTHESIS STATEMENT #1
All public officials are working towards the same goal and they are hoping to activate consistent implementation variables and strategies.
How might we...
develop an implementation pathway for VBP with a shared process and shared language?
So that...
public officials are enabled with actionable tools to approach the change management process with clarity and confidence.
Simulated change implementation pathways with public officials.
04
Workshops
(Online & In-Person)
13
Public Officials Engaged
10+
Pathways Prototyped
Through these workshops, I wanted to understand:
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Pathways taken by different cities
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Common barriers they faced
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Roles of stakeholders involved
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Phases of their work
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Mental models of public officials
Co-designed with VBP leads from CDPH to refine language that resonates with public officials and observed user behaviors and interactions with pathway prototypes.
THE SIX-STEP GENERALIZED PATHWAY
Developed a shared process and language ready to be simulated, tested, and critiqued by public officials, i.e., the users.
WORKSHOPS & USER TESTING
Facilitated a 2-day design workshop to simulate the six-step pathway and aid officials to create action plans based on shared processes and learnings.
Business Development Manager – Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development
Washington DC
“I think it was one of the best workshops I’ve been a part of in a long time. And, after working with colleagues from across the country, we left with concrete actions and knowledge, which has become increasingly rare in today’s fast-paced world.”
The proposal of a shared process and language, activities for project management, and visibility of common activities.
The process is too high-level, not linear, and requires a rearrangement of activity order to improve clarity and usability.
Consideration of jurisdiction-specific conditions and personalization of the VBP pathway are missing and need to be addressed.
A process flow function and need greater depth in specific VBP tasks and activities could be added for improvement.
Pluses, Challenges, Gaps, and Builds for the pathway...
HYPOTHESIS STATEMENT #2
There are consistent implementation variables / strategies across jurisdictions. These variables are dynamic and need to be adapted to the institution's characteristics.
We brainstormed with public officials to identify consistent variables across cities in the country. These variables are opaque, confusing, complex, and overwhelming for public officials, i.e., the users.
Categorized the complex web of implementation variables into digestible phases and sections that resonate with the users.
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READY
Evaluating Jurisdictional Readiness for VBP
This foundational phase helps jurisdictions assess their capacity for implementing VBP by identifying baseline elements, strengths, and gaps to guide resource allocation and readiness.
BUILD
Building the Awareness for VBP
This phase establishes the foundation for VBP by preparing stakeholders, securing resources, and ensuring alignment for implementation. It bridges initiation and execution, setting the stage for a pilot program.
ACTIVATE
Activating the Pilot Program from VBP
This phase involves piloting VBP on a small scale to test strategies, refine processes, and gather insights, laying the groundwork for scaling up effectively. Small-scale successes provide metrics to guide broader implementation.
ESTABLISH
Establishing Standard Operating Procedures
This phase involves the conversion of small-scale success into standardized procedures to be followed by the institution. This is the indication of a successful change management process.
Refined the information hierarchy, variable definitions, toolkit structure, and usability through website wireframes.
Public officials are not experts of Figma! The technical barrier is too steep for them. I had to adapt and design a website user flow on Google Slides for feedback on information hierarchy & language from the users.
PROJECT HURDLE #2
Refined the information hierarchy, variable definitions, toolkit structure, and usability through Google Slides mimicking website wireframes.
03
One-on-One User Testing Sessions
15
Asyncronous User Testing Sessions
The points of feedback were primarily around:
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Language and terms that resonate with public officials
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Request to add more case studies
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Need to see the entire system of variables
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Assessing their characteristics
Crafted the information hierarchy and structure of the toolkit to be operations
& implementation friendly.
WEBSITE UX & BRANDING
Developed a curated and seamless user experience that follows a conversational brand language while catering multiple user personas and use cases for the Toolkit.
Speculated use-case scenarios to guide the website UX.
All three use-cases and user personas need to be satisfied and they all demand a unique "speed" of user experience.
SLOW UX FOR THE VBP BEGINNER
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Has the time to learn about the system and explore all parts of the toolkit.
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Information should be revealed in layers and chunks to not overwhelm the user.
ACCELERATED UX FOR THE VBP VETERAN
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Should be able to get to information in the fastest way possible.
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Show the veteran all information that is available and allow them to pick what they need for the task.
SYSTEMIC UX FOR THE VBP PRO
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Knows a lot about the system and is here to explore alternatives.
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Present them with alternatives, reading material, and facilitation ideas.
Conceptualized 3 brand design directions to choose from.
THE HANDSHAKE
To-the-point & Unassuming
THE CONSULTANT
Knowledgeable & Futuristic
THE PARTNER
Playful & Conversational
Combined The Handshake & The Partner to create a brand that is to-the-point and conversational to bring joy and storytelling into the complex system of VBP.
Simple grid layout with washed out primary colors
Hand-written fonts & icons for narrative & guidance
Bold slab serif or sans serif title fonts to establish credibility
MINI BRAND GUIDELINES
The Values-Based Food Procurement Toolkit Website
The toolkit has 3 main objectives: Orient, Learn, Facilitate
Helps users orient by assessing their jurisdiction’s characteristics, learn through tools & case studies, and facilitate alignment by sharing best practices with their team.
Conversational language and empathetic to user's constraints.
An explainer video introduces the toolkit, while handwritten first-person text acts as a friendly guide to help users navigate the journey.
Catering to the 3 use cases through
a personalized toolkit pathway experience.
Recognized user behavior and designed personalized pathway experiences into the digital toolkit, allowing users to choose their own routes to achieve their goals.
Providing a "guided tour" of the complex VBP system and using the toolkit.
Supporting public officials new to change management with a guiding hand, helping them confidently navigate systemic complexity.
Showcasing all variables for the Veteran and Pro to choose based on their needs.
Showing a high-level view of the implementation variables to users (Veterans & Pro personas) to allow them to make their own decisions of where they want to navigate.
Recommending best practices, tools, templates, & case studies based on research & SME.
Going beyond a typical resource library toolkit, this provides concrete recommendations for next steps, actionable tools, and more based on the characteristics of the institution.
TOOLS & TEMPLATES
Designed a variety of actionable tools and plug-and-play templates that are user- and operations-friendly for the public officials to ease their burden.
Designed a "Myers-Briggs Self-Assessment" for public institutions' food procurement practices.
07
Cities that are currently using this in the U.S.
Why is this "self-assessment" important for institutions to take when going through a change management process?
The VBP self-assessment helps jurisdictions identify assets, barriers, and gaps in values-based purchasing. It guides prioritization, enabling strategic, incremental changes. By understanding strengths and obstacles, jurisdictions can plan actions effectively, ensuring efficient progress and successful VBP implementation tailored to local needs.
...the self-assessment tool helped me understand where are my city’s barriers & assets and helps me decide my next step”
- Sustainability Manager – Office of Climate Change, Resilience & Sustainability at Honolulu, HI
How does the "self-assessment" work and what do institutions get out of it?
Read the introduction and allow 30 mins for yourself before choosing the phase you want to start with.
STEP 1
Select one of four characteristics (scored 1-4) for each variable based on the provided criteria definition.
STEP 2
A total score will be calculated to give an overall view of progress along with a "report" of the results.
STEP 3
The color coded "report" will be used to aid in identifying priority areas and develop overall strategy.
STEP 4
The Action Planning Template mimics a "theory of change" model catered specifically to public food procurement and for the users – public officials.
Designed 15+ plug-and-play templates of posters, flyers, slide decks, press release documents, and more. They were designed to look high-quality using Google Slides.
Tabloid posters for cafeterias and offices
Slide deck for educating food vendors
Flyers for circulation in home-delivered meals
Food cards to display at the food line
Templates like the posters and slide deck is already being used by public officials in their jurisdictions.
LEARNING
Navigating system complexity to drive action and translating the abstract nature of policy into practice are key to the change management process in both civic and private sectors.
Navigating complexity to bring clarity for implementation.
QUESTIONS! QUESTIONS! QUESTIONS!
As an improviser, my brain is wired to ask and answer
the 5 W’s & 1 H in every scene I perform. I applied this technique to a project to better understand and uncover the needs of public officials and cater the UX to all the use cases for this project.
SYSTEMS ARE ABSTRACT. TASKS ARE CONCRETE
Public officials often struggle with the complex "system," making it hard to quantify. Using design methods like prototyping and simulation, I helped break down abstract systems into concrete, measurable tasks for quick implementation.
Lost in Translation: Implementation of Policy
DESIGN FIXES MISALIGNMENTS.
Translating policy from the city level to departments, agencies, and the institutions implementing them is crucial. In food procurement, however, this translation often breaks down due to misalignment in language, incentives, and policy.
CONDITIONS HOLD THE KEY
Certain prerequisites must be in place for change to happen. Enabling these conditions can be frustrating, but through design, I made the process easier, more collaborative, and more effective for public officials.
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