iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 02/10/2026

We finally have definite guidance on how to name a service well in German. I wrote it over the summer, and it went live in the #ServiceStandard handbook this week. We still see a ridiculous amount of acronyms and animal names, so I had to write it. ⬇️ servicestandard.gov.de/handbuch/anl...

Screenshot of the German Service Standard‘s website with a page on ‘giving a service a clear name’ with a how-to guide

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 02/10/2026

Ha, I took a similar photo in Italy some weeks ago. This is how you offend some cultures.

Closed transparent lid at a breakfast buffet with small croissants, a sign in English and Italian says “empty croissant”

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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 · 23/09/2026

17 hours after leaving Berlin, I’ve reached my destination, Edinburgh Waverley. My biological clock is already 1 hour later. So I’m just gonna crash. Choosing #CrossBorderRail over an aeroplane reduced my CO2 emissions by about 3/4.

Edinburgh Waverley station at night with people leaving the platform, an older green train standing left of the platform, a newer blue Lumo-branded train standing right of the platform

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

Swiftly over to King’s Cross station for the last regular train up to Edinburgh. I missed my original LNER connection and had to purchase a new LUMO train ticket for another £35. The last leg of the #CrossBorderRail journey tonight takes a bit over 4 hours to Waverley station.

Panoramic view of London’s Kings Cross Station with its textured, curved ceiling, lit in different hues of purple and pink, not more than a dozen travellers standing next to the display showing the next trains leaving information

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

London calling! Eurostar ran very smoothly — as (almost) always. And international arrivals is fast as always—even enough time for buying snacks at St Pancras station. I’m now 12.5 hours into my #CrossBorderRail journey for today.

A Eurostar-branded train standing in St Pancras International station with a clock showing 3 minutes past 8 next to the Tracey Emin light installation “I want my time with you”

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

Made it to Brussels after a delay of almost 2.5 hours—time to relax at the #Eurostar lounge now. Trusting Eurostar and its timings, I usually book myself a Lumo train up to Edinburgh, the last regular train out of London. I really hope I can catch that. #CrossBorderRail

A business-style train lounge with a small
Table and lounge chair, canapés, and olives sit next to a glass of a tinted beverage

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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

Change in Cologne, unfortunately, with a 101-minute delay. Despite my 2 buffers of 90 mins each, I will miss my planned Eurostar in Brussels and LNER connection in London. I hope I can catch the final regular evening connection to Edinburgh, but that will require a new ticket. #CrossBorderRail

Dramatic panoramic view of the Cologne main train station and the Cologne Cathedral under a partly cloudy blue sky

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

Interessant auch, wie sich die Überschriften unterscheiden. @theguardian.com überschreibt seinen Beitrag: „Die globale Erwärmung wird mindestens 1,8 °C erreichen, warnt die UNO, und es gebe ‚keine positiven Folgen‘“ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Teilweises Bildschirmfoto von der Webseite des Guardian mit der Überschrift: „Die globale Erwärmung wird mindestens 1,8 °C erreichen, warnt die UNO, und es gebe „keine positiven Folgen““; darunter kleiner: „Wissenschaftler sagen jedoch, dass die Welt durch tiefgreifende, rasche Emissionssenkungen und die Entfernung von Kohlenstoff aus der Atmosphäre wieder auf 1,5 °C zurückkehren könnte“

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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 · 22/08/2026

Our workshop around @cifountaine.bsky.social’s #prototype principles with #UX and #serviceDesigners on Thursday was productive! I created little exercises to stimulate reflection and discussion around the 10 principles. More about it in my weeknote 225: verwaltungsgestaltung.de/notizen/2026...

Partial screenshot of a digital whiteboard that people have worked on; it has 3 columns: the first column includes 10 prototype principles with a few digital sticky notes next to them, the second column contains coloured fields labelled ‘rarely’, ‘sometimes’, ‘almost always’ with blue dots placed across these fields; the third column has 3 sub-columns labelled ‘A thought I have’, ‘A question I have’, ‘A story I can tell’ with again a few colourful stickies in them

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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 · 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 · 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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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 · 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 · 04/08/2026

Dropped them at the @digitalservice.bund.de office library at 8:45 am this morning, and by 12:45, 2 of the 3 books were lent out. One person is a developer, the other is a transformation manager, which shows the broad appeal of #BadServices and the need for it in our German context.

3 bright green books, titled ‘Bad Services: How to fix services that don’t work’ by Lou Downe, standing next to and on top of other books in a bookshelf next to some awards

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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

#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 · 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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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 22/07/2026

Every once in a while, I pass this laundry truck on my way to work. Today, I had to wait at a red light. 🚲 📸 I like its simple ‘Full Service’ branding. Made me almost replace ‘end-to-end service’ lingo the other week. In another European country, I recently spotted an English version, too.

A small white truck loading a laundry rack in front of a Neo-classicist building; on the side, the truck has a big pink foil applied saying: ‘Full Service’, in smaller type: “hygiene, mattresses, fire safety, work clothes, clean room, health & care — call us” with the web address CWS.com

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 22/07/2026

To quite a degree, having transformation managers on the team helps with what @loudowne.bsky.social described as “Service design is 10% design, 90% creating the conditions for design to happen”. It means that service designers don’t have to do all the 90% all alone. 4/X

Yellow slide with bold black type saying: “Service design is 10% design, 90% creating the conditions for design to happen”

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 20/07/2026

#Student #GovDesign klaxon 🔔 @simonecarrier.bsky.social is looking for a working student to support her at @digital-agentur.de – preferably with a background in #ServiceDesign, #PolicyDesign or #UserCentredDesign You can find the role and others on my job board: verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen

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

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 17/07/2026

Bad service or a mediocre scam? I received a message, apparently from AVIS. This made me cautious: 1. Unknown contact 2. Different channel w/o notification* 3. Not referring to my name 4. Not referencing my booking number 5. Not referencing the booked time 6. Pointing to an address out of town

Screenshot of a business message on WhatsApp, saying: “Groupo Barchetti, phone number from Italy, not a contact, business account” — with 2 buttons: block and add;

The message reads: “Good morning,

Regarding your car rental reservation with Avis scheduled for tomorrow, 14 July 2026, we would like to inform you of the address of our new rental location in Ortisei:

CARROZZERIA DA TONI
Via Pontives 26/F
39040 Laion, Italy

Your vehicle can be collected from this new location at the same time as originally booked.

Thank you,

The Avis Team”

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 09/07/2026

From 0 to 50: Today, we spoke about how we grew and specialised our discipline at @digitalservice.bund.de, now including 24 UX/UI designers 10 user researchers 7 service designers 4 content designers 3 communication designers 1 legal designer – and what we have in common and what sets us apart.

Several people, mostly women, sitting in a modern office space with a big television behind them — it shows a poster that reads “Problem first, solution second” with the caption “We first understand the problem and then build the right thing”, one woman with curly hair is speaking, the others look at her

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 29/06/2026

#UserResearch #GovDesign job klaxon 🔔 PD is looking for a senior specialist UX research in either Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, München, Nürnberg, Stuttgart, or Wiesbaden. As always, you can find the role listed on my little job board: verwaltungsgestaltung.de#positionen

Partial screenshot of a website displaying 4 open design positions:
• Specialist UX Research role in Berlin and elsewhere
• User researcher role in Berlin
• Content design role in Berlin

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 26/06/2026

‘From legacy #data to public #infrastructure’ At the late-May #ServiceDesign Berlin Drinks, my colleague Nadine Stammen spoke about her work to make legal data openly accessible to everyone. The recording of her talk is now available on YouTube: verwaltungsgestaltung.de/notizen/2026...

Public infrastructure is mostly legacy infrastructure.

1. Good design starts with understanding the system behind it.

2. Service design is infrastructure work.

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 26/06/2026

Fab, Sarah! Thanks very much. I just used the picture I took from Lou‘s 2023 Berlin talk in a session with my team yesterday, in a discussion, minutes before you wrote. I can now replace that shoddy photo with your new poster. So good! I’m currently checking travel arrangements—will let you know

A projected photograph on a canvas in a bright meeting room, it lists things that are service design - like a conversation, an email, a diagram, changing an API, applying for funding; in the background, there are people in a garden with a waterfront in the very back

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 24/06/2026

Using cross-gov community sessions to get work-in-progress feedback on #ServiceStandard handbook guidance works best! Today, @joshuanowak.eu runs a session on the new guidance he is writing. The Federal Printing Office, City of Munich, City State of Hamburg, PD, @digital-agentur.de offer feedback.

Screenshot of a virtual whiteboard with coloured sections and various sticky notes, some headings are scoping, inclusion, wording

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 22/06/2026

No shame. Here is evidence. Had some good conversation with people afterwards. There is significant demand for junior design roles.

A split photographic composite, each with a seated audience in the foreground and a BIG bright pink LED wall in the background; on the left, 4 panellists are seated in front of it; on the right, a youngish man holding a sheet of paper with a QR code and a microphone stands in front of the LED wall

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 22/06/2026

Just used the community slot at #ServiceDesign Drinks Berlin – which I co-founded all the way back in 2011 – to advertise our open #ContentDesign and #UserResearch roles at @digitalservice.bund.de. The big QR code worked. Plenty of people pulled out their phones to learn more about our openings.

A hand holding a sheet with a big QR code, above it says: “DigitalService des Bundes is hiring: Content designer and user researchers”; in the background, there is a contemporary event space with lots of plants and a group of people standing around in summery clothes

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 22/06/2026

I love working close to teams. I love seeing what they work on. I still spend various hours per week with a few teams, including the #ServiceStandard team. Today, we looked at visual regression tests for servicestandard.gov.de as part of our weekly sprint review. Good stuff!

Screenshot of a web browser displaying 2 overlaying pages with a feedback form and a footer of a German federal ministry website – all elements are coloured in orange

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Martin Jordan @martinjordan.com · 21/06/2026

We also ran another monthly onboarding for new starters this week. A slide from the onboarding deck made a good backdrop for another picture for the blog post. With over 2,600 words, it needed more illustrative material.

2 people, a man and a woman, presenting in front of a group of seated people in a modern meeting space with a wood-panelled wall and a large screen, which says in German: “8 – Each team finds suitable and scalable solutions for their problems”

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