The Federal Agency was stuck in a familiar trap: an internal service portal that technically checked the boxes, but functionally failed its users. It looked like a digital front door—but acted more like a detour. The interface was overly simplistic, unintuitive, and steeped in IT jargon. It offered limited self-service and zero clarity. Employees bypassed it entirely, flooding support teams with calls and emails just to check on ticket status or find basic answers. What should have been a solution became a bottleneck.

But this wasn’t a technology failure—it was a translation failure. A disconnect between system language and user need, between intent and impact. And it exposed a deeper challenge: the agency’s fragmented delivery model. Teams were highly specialized. Work passed hand to hand across functions, generating friction, lag, and rework. Each group focused on its piece of the puzzle, but no one owned the full user experience.

Delivery progress moved at the speed of governance, not need. Recognizing this, leadership made a bold bet: stand up a truly autonomous, cross-functional team. One that wouldn’t just tweak the existing system, but reimagine the way services were delivered—faster, more fluid, and radically user-centered.