Singapore: A Country Applying Radical Product Thinking
I arrived in Singapore last week with my family and the very next day we went to the Employment Pass Services Center (EPSC) to get the work permission card. Being a government organization, I was bracing myself for a bureaucratic and painful experience as we headed there with two jet-lagged kids who had been up since 2 am.
Instead it was an overwhelmingly positive experience that started with us walking into an office that looked more calming than most therapists’ lobbies. After a short wait, we were called by name rather than a number, and various signs around the office talked about striving towards great customer service. Without even going as far as “great customer service”, can you even think of the last time you walked into a government office and were referred to as a “customer”?
The experience made sense when we saw the plaque below that explained that the Ministry of Manpower had applied Design Thinking to create this experience:
This is impressive, and I haven’t seen other countries apply Design Thinking to their departments. But it got me asking: “What drives a government organization to build such a well-manicured experience for foreign workers? Why would they invest in crafting such an experience?”
The answer lies in Radical Product Thinking — thinking of the change you want to create in the world as a “product”, and applying the same techniques that great product managers use to achieve your goals. It starts by asking the question: “What is our Product Vision?”
The Ministry of Manpower has articulated a clear vision on their website. Here’s an excerpt:
“We aim to develop a great workforce and a great workplace. Singaporeans can aspire to real income growth, fulfilling careers and financial security, while we maintain a manpower-lean and competitive economy.
To achieve our vision and mission, we aim to enable companies to provide good jobs and Singaporeans to take up good jobs, to build a strong Singaporean core.
We will maintain a skilled foreign workforce to complement our local workforce…”
Translating Vision to action
This vision means MoM is thinking of Singapore as a product to create a better life for Singaporeans, and achieving this vision includes making Singapore attractive to a skilled, diverse, foreign workforce. This vision helps MoM view the people entering their office as customers and drives design concepts such as “Supporting and assisting you from the time you arrive”, “Anticipating your every need”, as they applied Design Thinking to craft the experience.
This is not to say that there aren’t any tensions: Local Singaporeans worry that the job market will get even more competitive for them given the skilled foreign workers and the government works to balance the ratio of foreign to local employees. But having this clear product vision means the government regularly communicates the importance of foreign workers in the country.
Vision as an API for communicating and collaborating across departments
Having a clear product vision isn’t just unique to the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore. Applying Radical Product Thinking means that every new initiative starts with a vision. For example, the The Smart Nation vision is developed by the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group (SNDGG) which is part of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Within the Smart Nation ambition, five domains have been selected: smart mobility, smart building and environment, smart industry, smart health and smart governance. Smart Mobility for example, is an initiative to support the projected growth in population by 2030 without having to dedicate a larger percentage of the small island to roads.
A clearly articulated vision for each department helps ensure that the vision statements of all the departments (or Ministries) are aligned. In software development terms, every department’s vision becomes an “API” for communicating between teams and organizations. As a result, different arms of the government can collaborate better and make decisions that are aligned with the collective goal.
For example, the vision of Smart Mobility from the PMO’s office is supported by the different departments — EDBI, the corporate investment arm of the Economic Development Board (EDB), made an investment in the startup, nuTonomy, that’s building a fleet of self-driving cars for ride hailing. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is providing a testing platform for autonomous vehicles while the Ministry of Transportation (MoT) introduced legislative amendments to adapt regulations for autonomous vehicles. These departments are collaborating so Singapore can realize the potential of reducing reliance on human drivers while allowing the optimisation of traffic flow to reduce traffic congestion.
Any change you want to effect into the world is a product and you can apply product thinking to craft a vision. Singapore’s MoM and other departments are a great example of Radical Product Thinking applied to a country.
Ready to start applying Radical Product Thinking?
Crafting a crisp vision when you start with a blank sheet of paper isn’t easy. I’ve found that it’s easy to get stuck finding the right words. Here’s a link to a previous post on the characteristics of a good vision and a simple “Mad-Lib” format that can help you craft that vision. Please share your experiences as you apply Radical Product Thinking to your organization, starting with crafting your vision and communicating it to your team.
“Product” is a way of thinking. “Radical Product” means applying the best insights and techniques of product thinking throughout your life and work. You can use the free and open source Radical Product Toolkit if you’d like a step-by-step guide to start applying Radical Product Thinking.
