iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 27/09/2026

#GovDesign klaxon 🔔 The German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) is looking for an in-house web designer to join them in Munich. The role remains open until 4 October. As always, you can find the role on my little pink job board: verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen

Partial screenshot of a website displaying 2 open design positions:
• Web designer at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office in Munich
• Communication design working student role in Berlin and hybrid

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 26/09/2026

“Given the size of our problems, our imagination space has become very small.” — @indyjohar.bsky.social at Camden Climate Inspire Festival

4 panellists sitting in front of a smallish audience with a folded white canvas behind them; 2 women and 2 men; a man with a grey longer beard and a black pagdi, holding a microphone and speaking

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 25/09/2026

Doing it 1 by 1. The handbook section of the German #ServiceStandard includes 4 new pieces of guidance related to interviewing. They were co-created with cross-gov colleagues: • Preparing for interviews • Conducting interviews • Analysing individual interviews • Extracting insights from interviews

Composition of 4 screenshots of pages from the German Service Standard website on: Preparing for interviews, Conducting interviews, Analysing individual interviews, Extracting insights from interviews

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 25/09/2026

“Design for the best, prepare for the worst” “Place has become central to this” @immykaur.bsky.social at @sdingov.bsky.social on #ClimateCollapse

A woman with darker skin in a black outfit speaking in front of a larger audience with 2 large canvases above her depicting a colourful illustration of a residential road with lots of green and people of different ages on the street

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 23/09/2026

Done. 🎤 We gave our @sdingov.bsky.social talk on ‘Policy and service design as one’ this morning. My @digitalservice.bund.de colleague Nina Birri and I tried to show how Germany skips the silos and closes the policy-delivery gap. You can find our slides on GitHub: github.com/digitalservi...

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 22/09/2026

As it happens, I have agreed to take over a second, suddenly vacant slot at @sdingov.bsky.social on 25 Sep It was the second proposal I entered in spring, which didn’t get through immediately: “All views considered: Co-design at a strategic service level” Details here: sdingov.net/programme/al...

All views considered: Co-design at a strategic service level; Session type: Case Study; Presented by: Martin Jordan, Digital Service (German government);

Session time: 25 Sep, 11:15 — 12:00;
Session duration: 45 minutes

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 22/09/2026

And off I am from Berlin to Edinburgh for @sdingov.bsky.social on a single-day train journey! 🇪🇺 🚄 Next stop: Cologne #CrossBorderRail Random fact: Pret in Berlin doesn’t offer porridge anymore, and the staff thought I asked for ‘pork’ and meant ham. I did not.

A white German high-speed train arriving in a modern underground train station; a man and other people behind him standing on the platform, all looking at the train

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Helen Simmons (She/Her) @littlehen.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Doing interesting work in service design? Would you like to share it with researchers, practitioners, educators & students in Newcastle upon Tyne at #ServDes2027 #DesigningInTheShadows? Full Papers due 15 Nov, Other Submissions: 1 Dec #PhDSky #AcademicSky #DesignSky #ServiceDesign

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 20/09/2026

Time to vote, #Berlin! 🗳️ Time to decide on a future that is inhabitable, fair, and desirable. Go out and vote!

Hand holding an election letter from the state of Berlin, in front of the sign at a building, pointing towards the polling station

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 19/09/2026

Update a month later: 1 of the 3 blog posts is out – on how we are putting our values into practice in #design and #userResearch. Next is the one on open roadmaps, where @beliebig.eu has already done a lot of work. I’ll pick it up next week. So we can publish it towards the end of the month.

digitalservice.bund.de

Unsere Werte in der Praxis: Einblicke aus Design und User-Research | DigitalService

17. September 2026 - Sechs Kolleg:innen aus den Bereichen Design und User-Research zeigen anhand konkreter Beispiele aus ihrer Arbeit, wie die Werte des DigitalService ihr Handeln im Alltag prägen.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 17/09/2026

Many organisations write down their values. But not all take them seriously. At @digitalservice.bund.de, we live by them. So, 6 designers and user researchers wrote down how their values guide decisions and shape their daily work. We assembled these personal reports in a blog post – in German 🇩🇪

digitalservice.bund.de

Unsere Werte in der Praxis: Einblicke aus Design und User-Research | DigitalService

17. September 2026 - Sechs Kolleg:innen aus den Bereichen Design und User-Research zeigen anhand konkreter Beispiele aus ihrer Arbeit, wie die Werte des DigitalService ihr Handeln im Alltag prägen.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 16/09/2026

Like the US government, the Singapore government, and the European Commission, German government websites have a slim banner now to reassure users they are official. But teams implement it differently. So our engineer Anne built a bookmarklet for us to check whether it’s done right. So helpful!

Partial screenshot of the website of the Service Standard with an overlay with a green frame around the top banner and windows that says: Official KERN header bar detected with a button that says: ‘Hide alignment line’, a hatched red area is seen to the left of the top banner containing the German flag

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 16/09/2026

Government folks, join service assessments and peer reviews! 🤩 There is so much for you to learn from your colleagues in other departments and other parts of government. Today, I was in a #ServiceStandard peer review with @simonecarrier.bsky.social from @digital-agentur.de and @nfelger.bsky.social.

5 people sitting around a large table in an open meeting space with a TV at the back next to a big framed poster of the Service Standard – people are partially looking at the screen, some at their laptops in front of them

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 14/09/2026

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do. Last week, I joined a #leadership offsite discussing strategic priorities for the coming months. I also met with colleagues at the German pension provider, the state supplier for digital identity, and GDS colleagues remotely.

verwaltungsgestaltung.de

Week #228 at the Digital Service: Notes for 7–11 September

Martin spent the first 2 days of his week 228 at a leadership offsite discussing strategic priorities for the coming months. He also met with colleagues at the German pension provider, the state suppl...

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 10/09/2026

Quoting Ezio Manzini: “Volunteering as collaboration (i.e. as a form of relationship) for a society in which everyone, each according to their abilities, can be active and create value.” Quoted by Guglielmo Apolloni at #ServiceDesign Drinks Berlin

A man with curly grey hair speaking in front of seated people, pointing at a large TV set with a slide containing a large quote and a multi stack illustration with people and houses and flags and the description “Trento 2029”

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 10/09/2026

Spotting @cassierobinson.bsky.social‘s sketches at the #ServiceDesign Drinks Berlin event on ‘Designing for systems that don’t want to change’ – during a talk on public participation in Trento and developing #antifragility from Guglielmo Apolloni

A man with curly grey hair speaking in front of seated people, pointing at a large TV set with a slide containing a 3-part hand-drawn sketch, credited to Cassie Robinson and the headline “Can we design for antifragility?”:

1st sketch is titled “user needs, individual needs” with people standing separately

2nd sketch is titled “community, collective needs”, with a group of people standing together

3rd sketch is titled “society needs, moral needs”, with people standing inside a small town with a church and public buildings

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Reposted by Martin Jordan

Anne Roth @anneroth.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Ich möchte nicht, dass mir Politiker*innen und Journalist*innen erklären, dass es nunmal Demokratie sei, wenn mehrheitlich Nazis gewählt werden. Ich erwarte, dass sie verstehen, dass die Demokratie demokratisch abgeschafft werden kann und dass das Grundgesetz davor schützen sollte.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 05/09/2026

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do. Last week’s notes were still missing. Now, they are published. I co-ran the GDS-developed ‘Introduction to #serviceDesign’ again – now linked to the #ServiceStandard. I also reflected on the lack of interest in service quality.

verwaltungsgestaltung.de

Week #226 at the Digital Service: Notes for 24–28 August

For the 5th time, Martin co-ran the GDS-developed ‘Introduction to service design’ in Germany. For the first time, it was deeply intertwined with the Service Standard. He also reflected on the lack of...

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 02/09/2026

“The laws of physics don’t care about politics” Tonight at St. George’s Anglican Church Berlin, I got to see the 🇬🇧 National Emergency Briefing on the climate and nature crisis. It’s a powerful documentary very worth a watch – and a great starting point for community exchange: www.nebriefing.org

An older light-skinned bald man in shirt and jumper standing in front of 7 seated people in a smallish room; a piano stands on the left, a TV sets is mounted onto the back wall, showing a screen saying: People’s Emergency Briefing

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Powen Shiah @powen.net · 01/09/2026

I’m really looking forward to speaking next week at #ÖffentlichesGestalten (an amazing event series I always love attending) and talking about what we’re doing at @sovereign.tech to secure and maintain the open software components that make up our shared digital infrastructure.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 01/09/2026

At our September meetup, we will hear what #digitalSovereignty entails, why it’s desirable and how we get there. We will hear from @sovereign.tech’s @powen.net, @digitalservice.bund.de’s Anke Obendiek & @deloittedigi.bsky.social’s Lisa Steigertahl. Join us on Wed, 9 Sept at @tsbberlin.bsky.social

meetup.com

Meetup #14 — Building digital sovereignty, Wed, Sep 9, 2026, 6:00 PM | Meetup

European governments have created great external dependencies in their digital infrastructure. Much of public digital infrastructure depends on foreign components, platform

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 31/08/2026

I love sketching and turning those sketches into posters. There are always little moments of frustration while working through a rough idea and making it real. Yesterday was such a Sunday afternoon again – as I had to produce the next poster for our upcoming meetup on ‘ #DigitalSovereignty ’

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 29/08/2026

#GovDesign #jobs klaxon 🔔 The Bavarian State Library, @bsbmuenchen.bsky.social, is looking for a web designer to join them and help ensure digital access to its rich services. You can apply until 20 September. The role is listed on my little job board: verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen

Partial screenshot of a website displaying 4 open design positions:
• Webdesigner for the Munich digitalisation centre
• Communication design working student role in Berlin and hybrid

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 25/08/2026

Bad services are expensive. Good services are effective. An eternal task: Explaining to people how to develop services well. Evidence-based work is more expensive than assumption-based work at first. But the result is a service that meets its goals. And that doesn’t result in failure demand later

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 25/08/2026

It’s starting! Our newly iterated ‘Introduction to #ServiceDesign’ training is kicking off this morning! After 8 years, we finally wove in the #ServiceStandard and linked the exercises to specific points. It’s terrific to keep iterating it together with Sabrina @feuerherd.bsky.social.

A modern office space used for a workshop — with a big framed poster standing on the left with the Service Standard, people standing next to tables in the middle, and a laptop computer showing a slide saying “Introduction to Service Design” on the right

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 21/08/2026

Hey internet, where in #Bristol can I buy nice birthday cards on a Saturday morning? 🎈 Thanks for any tips!

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 19/08/2026

Sharing @cifountaine.bsky.social’s great prototyping principles here – cause the work is great and hasn’t been visible enough in my feed yet. It is the result of terrific community engagement during my beloved #ServicesWeek, with over 120 contributors. We’ll unpick it in tomorrow’s design weekly.

A mid-blue poster on a bright turquoise background saying:
“A prototype –
has a research objective, is only as detailed as we need to meet our research objective, can be any format, involves team collaboration, should be changed, is tested with our intended users, lets us learn what our users needs, should be accessible, reduces the risk of delivering something that isn’t needed, can be archived.”

— Prototyping principles, Services Week 2026, GOV.UK

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 17/08/2026

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do. Last week, I bade farewell to a colleague in #userResearch, presenting a custom gift. I also finished a draft on naming government services for #ServiceStandard & had conversations about improving shared components in week 224.

verwaltungsgestaltung.de

Week #224 at the Digital Service: Notes for 10–14 August

Martin bade farewell to a colleague in user research, presenting a custom gift. He also finished a draft on naming government services and had conversations about improving shared components in his we...

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 13/08/2026

As a public servant, I write weekly notes to let people see what I do. This time I was particularly slow. Last week, I worked on autumn talks on policy/service design. I also conducted accessibility testing, participated in a workshop on civic ledgers, and joined the #ServiceStandard Q4 planning.

verwaltungsgestaltung.de

Week #223 at the Digital Service: Notes for 3–7 August

Martin worked on his autumn talks on policy and service design in week 223 at Digital Service. He also did accessibility testing, participated in a workshop on civic ledgers and joined the quarterly p...

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 12/08/2026

#GovDesign #jobs klaxon again 🔔 At DigitalService, we are looking for a communications designer to support us as a working student – partially in Berlin, partially hybrid. Other roles at @digital-agentur.de & @md-bund.bsky.social Berlin-Brandenburg remain open: verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen

Partial screenshot of a website displaying 4 open design positions:
• UX designer for AI applications in Berlin
• Communication design role in Remscheid
• Working student digital government in Potsdam
• Communication design working student role in Berlin and hybrid

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 10/08/2026

Fascinating writeup on why some DVLA digital services don’t work at night – by @daivaughan.uk. It shows real service transformation is hard, really hard. I heard most of it several years ago in service assessments. I wonder if things have changed another 1.5 years since this article was published

dafyddvaughan.uk

Why some DVLA digital services don't work at night

Every few months or so, somebody asks on social media why a particular DVLA digital service is turned off over night. Rather than answering it every time, I’ve decided to write this post, so I can poi...

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 09/08/2026

“If things do go south […] the rest of us may have to be more inventive. For those of us who don’t have big bucks or hired guns to get us out of trouble, the next best thing is community.” – @chrissmaje.bsky.social in ‘Finding Lights in a Dark Age’ on #community and #ClimateCollapse

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 08/08/2026

“I don’t think you become a researcher and be a good researcher if you want to be the most popular person in the organisation” —@leisar.bsky.social in conversation with @gerryscullion.bsky.social about her #userResearch leadership work at GDS, DTA, and Atlassian podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/t...

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timoconnorbl.bsky.social @timoconnorbl.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Even here, this form of solar panel at this height could easily be installed on grazing land and livestock grazed under it without the remotest bother. I would suspect that were you to offer connections and/or grants, there would be an absolute stampede of farmers towards this.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 08/08/2026

Dusting @designcouncil.bsky.social’s ‘Design for Public Good’ publication from 2013, then funded by the @ec.europa.eu, to review the public sector design ladder while writing our @sdingov.bsky.social talk on ‘ #Policy and #serviceDesign as one ’. Much of what was a concept then is a practice now.

The Public Sector Design Ladder: Design-led innovation can be used for everything from relatively small interventions to complex policy decisions. We can visualise the different levels of application using a ladder, as follows:

Step 1: Design for discrete problems – Here design teams are hired for individual projects tackling discrete problems. These can be very large and have systemic implications, but the projects are one-offs. Design thinking is not part of the culture of the commissioning organisations.

Step 2: Design as capability – Here, design becomes part of the
culture of public bodies and the way they operate and make decisions. This increases employees’ skill at commissioning designers, but they also understand and use design thinking themselves.

Step 3: Design for policy – Here design thinking is used by
policymakers, often facilitated by designers, to overcome common structural problems in traditional policymaking such as high-risk pilots and poorly joined up processes. Following the work of Helsinki Design Lab, we refer to this discipline as Strategic Design.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 07/08/2026

We don’t do corporate stories, usually. We made an exception with ‘condens’, the #userResearch knowledge-base tool we are using at @digitalservice.bund.de, as this story allows us to give insight into how we work: condens.io/customers/di... Shout out to my colleagues Ellen and Leonie!

condens.io

How DigitalService Closed the Gap Between Research and the Rest of the Organization

Learn how DigitalService scaled knowledge management as their team grew and made user research analysis noticeably faster and more focused with Condens.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 06/08/2026

#GovDesign #jobs 🔔 klaxon There are now 6 open roles on my small job board: The @md-bund.bsky.social Berlin-Brandenburg is looking for a UX designer with a focus on AI applications. @digital-agentur.de is trying to hire 2 legal designers and a working student. verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen

Partial screenshot of a website displaying 6 open design positions:
• UX designer for AI applications in Berlin
• 2 legal design roles in Potsdam
• Communication design role in Remscheid
• Working student digital government in Potsdam
• Content design role in Berlin

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 02/08/2026

As the current batch seems sold out elsewhere: Found plenty of copies of #BadServices at PRO QM in Berlin-Mitte, an excellent bookstore for architecture and design. For our book club at @digitalservice.bund.de, I needed to find more copies. Cc @theschoolofgood.bsky.social @loudowne.bsky.social

Piles of different design books, in the centre a pile of bright green ones: ‘Bad Services – how to fix services that won’t work’ by Lou Downe

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 31/07/2026

“Policy and #serviceDesign as one – how Germany skips the silos” – is the promising title we’ve pitched for our @sdingov.bsky.social talk. On 23 September, my @digitalservice.bund.de colleague Nina Birri and I will be talking about how our policy discoveries lead to service transformation projects.

SDinGov, 23-25 September 2026, John McIntyre Conference Centre, Edinburgh: Case study, 23 September — Policy and service design as one – how Germany skips the silos; Martin Jordan, Nina Birri, Digital Service (German government)

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 30/07/2026

Using genderize.io is fascinating – in the cases I spot-check, it’s often so wrong. I understand that its confidence score depends on potentially limited datasets, but I wouldn’t feel confident using their API for bulk handling. The result could be very embarrassing.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 30/07/2026

#GovDesign #jobs 🔔 klaxon The City of Remscheid is looking for a designer to cover both interaction and visual design – branding and #UX design – for their technical unit dealing with waste management and street cleaning As always, the role is listed on my page: verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen

Partial screenshot of a website displaying 4 open design positions:
• Communication role in Remscheid
• Working student digital government in Potsdam
• Content design role in Berlin

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 30/07/2026

Talking about ensuring the #accessibility of #designSystem components — My colleague Marion will be speaking at: 16 September @codeforamerica.org’s FormFest 2026 🇺🇸 26–29 October NL Design System Week 🇳🇱 I’m excited about the opportunity to share our learnings at these free remote events.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 27/07/2026

How do you document #discovery outputs publicly? It’s something we strive for. As a result of an extended discovery on free school meals in Germany, the team—including @joseernestorodriguez.com— created a comprehensive project page to share all the insights & learnings: www.but.digitalservice.dev

A person sitting in front of a laptop, the screen of which displays the project website. Under the heading ‘Recommendations in six areas of action’, the individual areas of action are listed and described.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 27/07/2026

Now launched on barrierefreiheits-tools.gov.de — A German version of the GOV.UK accessibility personas We already put it online for Global #Accessibility Awareness Day, #GAAD, but now the offering has its own .gov.de domain. 🙌🏻

A computer monitor in a modern office setting, featuring six simple and colourful illustrations of people with the caption ‘Discover Personas’; they have different skin tones, hairstyles, accessories and ages; one person is looking at the monitor

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