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Service Design Portfolio
People + Culture, Performance and Development
As a people and culture experts at the Lab @ OPM, I co-developed the Performance and Development structures for the team. In addition, I lead the improvement of quarterly all-team meetups for professional development, job crafting, and teaming.
Driving Question
How might an individual’s needs, proclivities, and desires align with an organization’s mission, vision, and strategy—and vice versa?
Overview
As part of larger federal programs, the Lab has several performance and development initiatives that team members must comply with. To support this, we created protocols that incorporate and connect external performance measures with Lab-specific performance and development tools.
Our goal was to position professional development (PD) requirements as tools that help individuals:
- Self-advocate for work that matters to them
- Identify opportunities to grow, hone skills, and explore interests
- Gain access to performance rewards (e.g., time, money, within-grade increases)
- Advance their careers within and beyond the federal government
Connecting these elements not only benefits individuals but also strengthens the Lab as a program by:
- Ensuring the right fit for staffing projects across the portfolio
- Promoting collective learning and development
- Hiring strategically for needed skills and expertise
Work in Practice
Alongside Lab team members, I co-developed tools to help individuals identify, document, celebrate, and advocate for their strengths throughout their portfolio. These tools included a job crafting MURAL board, team project celebrations, and a project tracking spreadsheet. Each was designed to contribute to an ongoing professional development ecosystem that team members engaged with throughout the year.
Job Crafting
Job crafting exemplifies this approach by prompting individuals to reflect on practice areas that contribute to our portfolio and program. These areas were synthesized from dozens of job crafting exercises conducted with colleagues. Participants were encouraged to consider:
- Which areas are of interest or growth?
- How do you want to shape your own practice while at the Lab?
- Are there skills beyond those listed that help you add value to our partnerships, courses, or program?
Job crafting was completed twice a year. Each cycle, we synthesized the data to identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities.
The Why of I
I developed the Why of I activity to help Lab members articulate how organizational impact measures and Lab pillars connect with their personal motivations. Participants reflected on what factors contribute to their daily sense of purpose, joy, and meaning, considering how to make space for these priorities in the coming year.
As part of this, individuals sent themselves quarterly emails to reaffirm and reflect on the defining qualities they wanted to embody throughout FY25.