Digital Government Community Awards: Awards for 2024

Excellence in Service Design

This award recognizes an individual or a team for outstanding achievement in providing user-centered services. To achieve this, they use agile product management, prioritize user feedback, and adapt to market changes.

Criteria

• Involves users who have a specific need and problem to solve.
• Engages users in designing client-facing services through online or in-person collaboration tools, facilitated workshops or other outreach activities.
• Develops a prototype and continually tests it with users. The feedback from these tests helps improve and shape the design of the service.
• Regularly interacts directly with users to make sure the new service meets their needs. Maintains a feedback loop, where user information continually informs improvements to enhance the service.
• Adjusts workflow, processes, and policies to create user-centered services.

Excellence in Diversity, Accessibility, Equity and Inclusion

This award recognizes an individual or team for outstanding achievement in advancing diversity, accessibility, equity, and inclusion in the Government of Canada. This includes both internal and external users.

Criteria

• Builds quality from the start so that implemented components do not need to be reworked for quality issues.
• Collaborates with users to enhance designs by taking iterative steps in the service design process.
• Identifies a wide variety of users with a wide variety of needs to ensure that quality standards are met or exceeded when designing with others.
• Works to make decisions more transparent and inclusive by addressing biases in computations and human choices.
• Reviews and implements new laws, rules, or policies. These laws, rules, or policies deal with cultural, language, location, accessibility, technology, and socio-economic issues.

Excellence in Innovation

This award recognizes an individual or team for outstanding achievement in creating a culture of openness and experimentation to foster innovation.

Criteria

• Adopts a tolerant approach, incorporating both technical and cultural changes. Technical changes may include the use of different testing methods and the creation of highly testable products. Cultural changes may include shifting from a blame culture to one that learns from failures.
• Champions intelligent risk-taking and iterative delivery as a strategic advantage for their organization. This may be supported by an innovation roadmap to promote culture change.
• Spreads risk over a longer period and through different approaches. This allows for adjustments if assumptions are wrong or if opportunities arise.
• Shares the service, product, or solution openly. This approach promotes a culture of continuous improvement and helps others in the organization learn from mistakes.

Anja van Beek Throop Rising Star

This award recognizes an individual with less than 5 years of experience in the digital field. They show great collaboration, innovation, and surpass expectations in delivering digital services.

Criteria

• Shares new ideas and ways to work together, solve problems, and make digital projects better.
• Encourages and shows collaboration through a multidisciplinary team approach.
• Adapts quickly to project changes, showing agility and flexibility. In turn, they exceed expectations for timely and successful digital service outcomes.
• Encourages a culture of continuous learning within the team, sharing insights and lessons from digital projects.
• Demonstrates a positive impact on the work processes, work environment and results.

Excellence in Data and Information Stewardship

This award recognizes an individual or group for outstanding achievement in data and information stewardship through collection, management, and use of data for business outcomes.

Criteria

• Enhances decision-making and government transparency by improving service design, delivery, and data quality.
• Applies the Government of Canada Digital Standards to decision-making, operations, and service delivery.
• Integrates data, information, and technology methods to unify service delivery.
• Develops a new way to advance the use of artificial intelligence, machine-learning, and robotic-processing automation. The goal is to make business outcomes better.

Outstanding Digital Leadership

Definition: For this award category, the Chief Information Officer of Canada recognizes 2 groups, 1 from a small organization and 1 from a large organization.

They are recognized for their outstanding achievement in:

• developing creative approaches to building important partnerships
• empowering staff to support the digital vision
• working towards the Government of Canada’s Digital Ambition

Criteria (for a small and a large organization)

• Breaks down complex tasks into simple and workable solutions that a team can implement.
• Builds an environment where people take ownership and accountability by experimenting and innovating.
• Ensures that staff have access to the tools, training, and technologies they need.
• Energizes teams and inspires them to work together toward an inclusive vision.
• Is adaptable and handles pressure and constant change well to make decisions with ability and agility.