we thought for you, or jtbd in action
There are many different services on State Services: from checking traffic police fines to the opportunity to issue a Pushkin card. They satisfy the need of people to interact with government agencies more effectively than when visiting departments or MFCs in person – so that everything is quick, understandable and without leaving home. This helps to satisfy deeper needs – to feel protected, receive satisfaction from the efforts expended and enjoy benefits (quality services, quick results, etc.). After all, behind every everyday goal and task – to do something, go somewhere, buy something – there are deep-seated needs of a high order (Maslow’s pyramid, Robert Dilts’ pyramid of logical levels, etc.).
Launched on September 7 portal “I am in Russia” for residents of new regions. It contains a catalog of articles with step-by-step instructions and contacts of authorities to resolve issues offline, as well as links to online services. The portal gives people important information – what basic documents need to be completed in order to then receive services from the state, as well as social payments and benefits.
The mission of the discovery team, which is designing the entire portal for residents of new regions, is to relieve anxiety about something new by offering clear step-by-step algorithms of action. That is, to cover an important need – to support and give a feeling of security in an important issue with documents.
Today I will tell you how we analyzed the key task of searching for information on the portal. And also how the idea was born to create a service with a personal set of recommendations on services, payments and documents for residents of new regions.
Why searching for information is a key task
Firstly, based on the context – residents of the new regions do not yet have enough information; they will have to re-register all documents into Russian ones, study the conditions for all possible benefits and payments, and understand their rights and obligations. In order for people to understand the variety of services, documents and possible payments, it is necessary to correctly and unambiguously convey all the conditions and restrictions on their execution.
Secondly, the search for information for the main portal of State Services is in the top requests on social networks and among State Services support operators. Below is the distribution by category of problems in feedback from operators (5% of the total volume of requests are considered) and in social networks (40% of the total volume of comments) for 2023. And also a breakdown of the “information search” problem for 2023: questions through Robot Max – 100%, through an operator – 5% of total traffic, through social networks – 40% of total traffic.
Thirdly, the frequency transitions in the main State Services fall on navigation and information search services – this is Robot Max itself and the catalog of services, as well as the “Help” section.
Let's transform the information search task into the form of a “hired job” based on the jtbd framework:
Use State Services services to search for information (Robot Max, service catalog)
When: I have a life situation that involves repeatedly contacting government agencies; I don’t want to spend a lot of time searching for the services and instructions I need.
Want: use the services of State Services to search for information – Robot Max, catalogue.
To: find the services or instructions I need with minimal waste of time.
Solution: I open State Services and look for what I need in the service catalog or Robot Max.
What the user encounters
The user must know what he needs from government agencies in his individual life situation
You have to search for services if you need more than two. For example, a pensioner may simultaneously be interested in pension recalculation, certificate confirming the right to receive a set of social services and service pension delivery.
You have to search in different categories of the catalog, you need to determine where it might be located. So, when moving, a person is simultaneously faced with the need to change his place of registration – category “Registration” → “Passport”, to register with a clinic – category “Health”, to enroll a child in a new kindergarten – category “Education” → “Children”.
You need to clearly understand what services may be needed in order to make a request through Robot Max.
The diagram below clearly shows the sequential actions that the user must perform to search in Robot Max and the service catalog.
From the diagram it follows:
to order a service, I CANNOT NOT find it – do not invest my time in the correct formulation of the request or search in the desired catalog category
in order to use several services in one life situation, I cannot NOT repeat my actions sequentially
I might be lucky if my service is in the digest/banner and I don’t have to search for anything.
At the same time, we understand that the user definitely returns to State Services more than once. For example, in 2023, almost 601 million services were ordered through State Services, while 80 million unique users were authorized during the year. On average, there are 8 ordered services per person per year.
In total, it turns out that the user needs to repeat actions repeatedly in order to solve his life situation. We decided to try to think FOR the user what he needs to get first of all and so that it is exactly in one place. That is, so that the user invests his time only once to search for the necessary services or instructions.
Possible solution from our team
A clear example for me was the checklists when applying for a job: it would seem that there is only one list, but for each person it can vary. For example, if you are applying for a job in the medical field, you will need a medical record, but you definitely won’t be asked for it when applying for a job in IT. If the applicant has graduated from a university, he will bring a diploma of higher education, if a college or technical school – then of a secondary specialized education.
We can use the same principle. There are several times fewer articles and services on the “I am in Russia” portal than on the main portal. That is, the list from which we can choose is limited. This is how the hypothesis about the functionality of taking the survey was born.
After the survey, the output should be personalized recommendations with a set of services or instructions suitable for the respondent. The diagram below shows the sequential actions that the user needs to perform for this.
The advantages of this solution:
We prepare in advance clarifying, clear questions that need to be answered in a “yes/no” format – this will take less time than the user formulating a request on their own or determining in which catalog category the required service is located
the user needs to complete the survey once to receive his personal set of recommendations
the user can return many times to his personal recommendations and does not have to waste time again searching for services or instructions within his life situation
So, let’s formulate a hypothesis: if the user is provided with a certain checklist that describes the services and instructions he needs, this will increase the demand for ordering these services and viewing instructions.
Determining the target audience
There are too many users, the number of services is growing, the target audience has a different set of life situations. The value of any new solution is determined by how effectively we deliver work for specific people.
I repeat that residents of new regions must now update all their primary documents, renew their driver’s license, compulsory medical insurance policy, understand the issues of receiving benefits and payments, and much more. To test the hypothesis, we chose a segment – problems of residents of new territories.
Why was this the right decision?
Firstly, it was easier to test the hypothesis on the “I am in Russia” portal, since the list of articles with instructions and services developed and implemented on the portal was limited.
Secondly, residents of new regions do not have a difficult competitive situation to resolve their issues. In fact, for online information they have access to telegram channels (for example, “We will live”) and the federal State Services project, and specifically the specially developed portal “I am in Russia.”
Therefore, the basic logic of segment selection is to remove the need for the user to independently search for services and instructions in the context of new regions.
How we determined the list of instructions and services for publication on the portal “I am in Russia”
We took the entire list of services ordered by users from new territories – their accounts were identified by the code of the department that issued the passport.
Next, we checked these services for the possibility of ordering in new territories. For example, so that when selecting a subdivision to obtain the result, the addresses of subdivisions in new territories are accurately indicated.
The sample from step 2 was checked for reliable results – we assumed that with the final status “Service provided” a “dummy” could be received (the response indicated that there was no data on the request).
Based on the above restrictions, we took the top popular services (80% of ordered services), taking into account their importance for the user. Even if the online service is not yet provided in new regions.
The portal “I am in Russia” currently contains:
53 instructions that describe step by step what the user needs to do to receive the service offline with the ability to view a map with the addresses of the relevant departments
These instructions provide 58 links to online services that are already available to residents of new regions.
Our logic for selecting instructions and services that should participate in the survey to generate personal recommendations:
Based on views of catalog categories and instructions, we determined the top popular ones – for us this became the initial set of services for the list of instructions/services in personal recommendations
Each instruction was divided into a list of documents depending on other instructions. For example, the user will not be able to order a service for assigning a pension until he receives SNILS. This determined which important documents we should ask about and check their completion in the profile
Each instruction/service has mandatory parameters: children, gender, age
We also took into account trends in questions regarding instructions from portal users. This shows important topics, because the person spent time not only searching for instructions, but also writing a question, which means the importance of this information.
So, we have a tree of questions and answers, by choosing which the user receives his personal recommendations with a set of necessary services and instructions.
The main user segments from new regions who would potentially be interested in creating personalized recommendations are:
people who need to update all documents: Russian passport, SNILS, permanent registration and more
pensioners for whom it is important now to understand the conditions for accrual or recalculation of pensions
parents who need child benefits and maternity capital.
MVP is available, let's check the solution
What already my colleague describedafter each action you should check what has changed, understand what to improve, where you left it unchecked.
To test our hypothesis, we selected key product metrics. To do this, we relied on simple comparisons with current solutions. To begin with, we decided to measure:
growth metric: number of users who used the new solution
influence metric: on views of instructions and on transitions to services.
We launched a new solution on December 21, 2023, and even without a PR campaign, more than 2,500 users completed the survey in 2 months, and after sending completed surveys there were already more than 40,000. At the same time, there are an average of 30,000 unique portal users per day, and active – on average 5,000.
Since the portal “I am in Russia” offers only a catalog of instructions and services among search and navigation services, it is with this that we compare the execution of the target action—viewing the instructions and going to the service.
Currently, transitions to instructions, if the point of contact is personal recommendations, is 31%, and from the catalog, the maximum conversion to instructions is 13%. At the same time, transitions to services from a personal page are 32%, and from instructions from a catalog to a service – 17%.
What's next
Firstly, we systematically conduct problem interviews with portal users. This allows you to see the barriers that arise when using personal recommendations, determine their criticality and choose the optimal solution for correction. This is how we form not only operational edits, but also a backlog of improvements.
Secondly, we regularly check the conversion rate of taking the survey and completing it to create personal recommendations. This allows you to monitor the understandability of interface texts, especially during seasonal peaks in the popularity of a particular service, receiving payments and benefits.
Thirdly, we monitor the composition of the generated personal recommendations in order to determine frequency services and instructions for further optimization of the survey.
We do all this to determine the profit from the new functionality. We are already seeing new cohorts of users, as well as articles and services that can be added to the selection to create personalized recommendations.
The discovery team thoughtfully and meticulously analyzes proxy metrics, checks user behavior, monitors the user path throughout the entire portal, assesses the risks of impacting the value of the product – and all in order to make it easier for the user to find solutions for his life situation.
And if we succeed at least for some categories of citizens, then the mission is feasible.
