Written by Ashleigh

2025

From curiosity to stewardship in AI
LinkedIn Article, November 12

The Public Servants LLC Blog: In Service: Notes from the Field
Tactical insights and thoughtful dispatches from inside the work.

  • November 6: How public servants build trust
    What does it take to earn public trust? In this short explainer, Ashleigh Axios breaks down the ethical obligations of public servants, why structure protects the public, and how trust is built through daily choices.

  • October 28: Experience Tapestry
    The Experience Tapestry™ weaves together ten strands of how people encounter public systems—from individual interactions like user experience to systemic forces like environmental impacts. This framework helps leaders see not just isolated touchpoints, but the connections between them that shape trust, dignity, and resilience in public life.

  • October 21: Design for public communications
    Communications leaders in government face more pressure than ever. Design can help by shaping not just how communications look, but how they work, design creates clarity, resilience, and trust.

  • October 15: Timely interventions for public services
    Timely interventions provide public services at the moment they’re most needed. These approaches help governments design systems that are adaptive, equitable, and trusted.

  • September 17: Designing policy that doesn’t break delivery
    For CIOs, CTOs, and municipal leaders, designing policy that doesn’t break delivery means aligning technical priorities with equity and care—turning bold goals into systems people can trust.

  • September 9: Interoperability in civic tech
    Interoperability is about reducing silos, saving time, and respecting dignity. In civic tech, interoperability helps government, nonprofits, and tribal nations work together to deliver public services that meet people’s real needs.

  • September 2: More than digital
    From clinic entries to ballot design, great service design has always gone beyond the screen—blending digital and physical touchpoints creates lasting impact.

  • August 25: Design research with a heart
    By grounding our work in human-centered, trauma-informed, and community-engaged approaches, we can uncover deeper truths, minimize harm, and generate insights that drive meaningful change. This is research with a heart: rigorous, respectful, and designed for public good.

  • August 21: Trust is the new infrastructure
    Public trust is built through honest communication, meaningful engagement, and consistent follow-through. For mayors navigating public pressure and limited capacity, trust isn’t just a goal. It’s the foundation.

  • August 11: Why I started Public Servants LLC
    I started Public Servants LLC to help reimagine how public systems serve people—with care, clarity, and the courage to do things differently.

  • August 4: Trust Signals Scorecard
    The Trust Signals Scorecard is a free, fast tool for civic leaders to evaluate whether their programs, policies, or communications reinforce public confidence—or unintentionally erode it. Before you publish, pause here.

  • July 29: PDM meets HCD
    Learn how government teams can break down silos between product management and design. This post explores common friction points and offers practical strategies for fostering collaboration, improving communication, and driving better outcomes in public service.

  • July 22: Public value
    Public value shifts the focus from speed and cost to equity, dignity, and impact. Explore what it means, how to create it, and why it matters in public work.

  • July 15: Earning trust in public service
    Explore what it really takes to (re)build public trust with the communities we serve: presence, consistency, care, and accountability.

  • July 7: Lived experience is expertise
    Lived experience isn’t anecdotal—it’s essential. Learn how civic teams can honor lived experience as a form of expertise and design more accountable public systems.

  • July 2: What is administrative burden?
    Administrative burden is the hidden cost of interacting with public systems—paperwork, delays, confusion. This post explores how design can reduce that burden and restore trust.

  • June 30: How participatory governance works
    Participatory governance means people shaping the decisions that shape their lives. This post explores the roots and real-world impact of shared public power.

  • June 26: Public servants in government
    Public servants do the quiet, essential work that keeps government moving. This post explores their roles, challenges, and why supporting them is key to public trust.

  • June 23: Honoring public-first workers
    Public Servants is proud to sponsor the 2025 Service to the Citizen Awards, honoring those delivering essential services that restore trust and strengthen public systems.

  • June 19: What is a public servant?
    Public servants are more than job titles—they’re the people who keep public systems working with care and commitment. In this post, we define the term and reclaim its meaning for today.

  • June 16: What is a policy implementation gap?
    When policies don’t match people’s lived realities, the implementation gap is often to blame. This post explores what causes it and how we can bridge it.

  • June 11: What is service design really?
    In this post, we unpack what service design is, why it matters, and how it supports real-world change.

  • June 4: How we decide who to work with
    We built the Fit Snapshot to help us make thoughtful, values-aligned decisions about who we work with.

  • May 28: What we mean by "public service"
    Not all public service should be celebrated. We share what we mean by public service—acknowledging past harms while standing with those who build care-centered, community-rooted systems for the future.

  • May 23: The layers of problems within public service
    Public systems aren’t just outdated—they were never built for the future we need. Here’s what we’re doing to reimagine public work from the inside out.

  • May 15: What is boundary spanning?
    Discover why boundary spanning—connecting people, ideas, and systems—is essential for solving complex public service challenges and leading across silos.

  • May 9: Behind the name Public Servants
    Public Servants isn’t just the name of our consultancy—it’s a statement of purpose.

  • May 9: Launching In Service: Notes from the Field
    Public Servants believe in building trust by working in the open—sharing not just what we’re delivering but how we’re thinking, learning, and evolving along the way.

2024

Government worker braces for impact in an office chair as office materials fly by and around them
 
“What struck me then, as it does now, is the unflinching drive that so many government designers share to serve our true constituents — the American public — even in the face of upheaval.”
— Ashleigh Axios for Design Observer
 
 
“As our government responds to the call and increasingly shifts toward designing and delivering services in a manner that people of all abilities can navigate, it must also work to understand the needs of the full diversity of its audiences. ”
— Ashleigh Axios for Coforma
 

2020

 
“Companies are realizing some of the same things we [at Coforma] did in structuring our business: remote companies pass myriad benefits along to employers, employees, clients, and the environment. With pros ranging from lower overhead costs to a lower carbon footprint helping curb the environmental effects physical offices have on the planet, it makes sense to seriously consider a distributed workforce as a way to help build a better future.”
— Ashleigh Axios on Medium
 
 
“We need to shift the focus of some of the most talented designers away from things that are already working pretty well but serve a few people, to the things that are badly broken that affect entire communities and cultures.”
— Ashleigh Axios for Offscreen
 

2017

 
“No amount of discrete design work or collaboration toward system-based solutions will adjust a culture on its own. Effective changes to culture require collaborating with stakeholders and major influencers.”
— Ashleigh Axios for Automattic Design
 

2016

 
“Our design and development teams here at the White House have been using this model for several years, and we are part of a growing trend within the government – now being led in part by the efforts of groups like GSA’s 18F and the U.S. Digital Service, who are also looking to recruit talented design, development, and digitally-savvy problem solvers to do meaningful work solving problems within the United States government.”
— Ashleigh Axios for the Obama White House
 

2014

2013

Editorial Direction or Support by Ashleigh

2020

2019

 
“Good design honors reality.
Good design creates ownership.
Good design builds power.”
— George Aye for Design Observer
 

2017

 
“We, both Americans and Arabs of all creeds and professions, need to have an open heart that is willing to listen. And we really need this dialogue to take place. We fear that which we do not know. And if we really want a way out of the turmoil that keeps escalating, we need to make the effort to know one another, to engage in open and respectful conversation. ”
— Nadine Chahine for Design Observer
 
 
“As we exist in a nation plagued with race-based injustice, violence, and oppression, adopting a racial equity lens to creative practice serves as a critical avenue by which these systems and dynamics can be addressed.”
— De Andrea Nichols for Design Observer
 

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