“Change through delivery”: How Germany is rebuilding government services from the inside out
What do you get when you combine German bureaucracy, 16 federal states doing things 16 different ways, and a group of passionate digital makers? You get Digital Service, Germany’s not-so-secret weapon for transforming public services, one usable product at a time.
At the User Needs First International Conference 2025, Stephanie Kaiser, Chief Product Officer at Digital Service, gave an honest, funny, and hopeful keynote about what it really takes to put user needs at the heart of government in Germany. The short version? It’s hard. The long version? Keep reading.
Meet Stephanie Kaiser: From startups to Staatsdiener
With 20 years in the private tech world, Stephanie didn’t expect to fall for public service. But after joining Chancellor Merkel’s digital council in 2018, she was hooked. “I fell in love with government,” she told the audience. And now, as CPO of a government-owned company, she’s channeling that love into helping Germany deliver digital services that actually work for people.
Germany’s big digital challenge
Imagine trying to create one streamlined digital service – say, applying for benefits – across 16 states, each with its own system, rules, and sometimes even its own ID process. It’s not just complicated. It’s chaotic.
And here’s the kicker: under Germany’s current federalist system, building and running a fully unified digital service at the national level isn’t just difficult – it’s legally forbidden. Responsibility for digital public services lies with the individual states. Still, change is on the way. Stephanie pointed to promising developments in the justice field, where Digital Service has started working on cross-state digital services together with the Ministry of Justice. The long-term perspective is still evolving, but one thing is clear: in Germany, change happens through delivery.
And the consequences? Stephanie shared her own frustrating tale of trying to get a new ID, a familiar headache for many in the audience. These aren’t just minor annoyances; they add up to “sh*tty experiences” for everyone: citizens, public servants, even judges.
Add to that a tangled ecosystem of actors, no centralized authority like the UK’s GDS, and laws that weren’t written with digital in mind, and you’ve got a real uphill climb.
Enter: Digital Service
Founded nearly five years ago, Digital Service is Germany’s bold answer to all that complexity. What started as a non-profit fellowship has grown into a 200-person powerhouse building digital products from inside the system, with the system.
Their mission? Deliver digital services that are simple, effective, and human-centered. Not by writing strategy papers (though those help too), but by actually building and shipping things. As Stephanie put it, they believe in “Change through Delivery.”
Real products, real impact
Stephanie brought receipts, real-life examples of how Digital Service is turning user-centric ideals into working services:
- Taxes: A simple pensioners’ tax guide turned into a property tax tool used by nearly a million people, completed in just 15–30 minutes per person. All built in 7 months by a 7-person team.
- Digital-Ready Law: Want better digital services? Start with the law. Digital Service co-created a “Digital Check” with the Ministry of the Interior, helping lawmakers write legislation that enables automation and digital processing. Thanks to this, 1 law alone (the Electricity Duty Act) will save Germany €15.5 million annually.
- Justice: When asked to build a chatbot, Digital Service asked the real question: What’s the actual user need? They developed a collaboration model across states and courts, recruiting 31 pilot courts and inspiring a cross-state justice strategy.
- Accessibility Tools: Borrowing from the UK, they created awareness tools like ‘Vilamention’ (showing how many users might face ability barriers) and a Chrome plugin that lets teams test services through accessibility personas. All open source, of course.
How they work: A recipe for change
So how does Digital Service pull this off in such a tough environment? Their approach is as important as their output:
- User-Centered: They test assumptions constantly, even asking people at train stations what they’d name an app.
- Iterative: Launch fast, learn fast, improve fast.
- Interdisciplinary: Designers, developers, researchers, product people, and transformation experts all work together.
- Open: They share code, write blogs, and speak at events to keep the conversation alive and evolving.
And they don’t do it alone. They ‘borrow generously’ from successful models abroad, from Denmark’s digital-ready legislation to the UK’s accessibility standards. Why reinvent the wheel when you can just make it roll better?
A work in progress, but moving forward
Of course, the road to seamless digital government in Germany is long. Some areas, like justice, are making progress. Others are still figuring it out. A brand-new ministry for digitalization may shake things up further, no one knows yet.
Still, Stephanie describes herself as a “chronic optimist.” She believes that if Digital Service keeps delivering, keeps collaborating, and keeps learning from global peers (like the ones at this very conference), then maybe – just maybe – her kids will one day have a smoother time dealing with the government.
One last thought: Who are the users, anyway?
Stephanie ended with a reflection that resonated deeply: Should public servants think of themselves as users too? While some argue no, because they’re not on the receiving end of services, Stephanie’s product mindset emphasizes the opposite, talk to the real users, observe them, involve them.
And maybe rethink our language while we’re at it. She suggested ‘ability variations’ might be a better term than ‘disability’, a small change in words that can spark bigger shifts in mindset.
Bottom line: Change is happening
Stephanie Stephanie didn’t just describe a vision of a better digital government, she showed that it’s already happening – in code, in courts, in tax forms, and in real people’s lives.
Step by step, product by product, Germany is delivering its way into a more user-centered future.