DCHS Insights CX Human-Centered Design @ DCHS PROTOTYPE no real data Planning question: What do we still need to learn, decide, and sequence to move service integration initiatives from promising ideas to practice? Earlier work gave us people to design with and ideas worth pursuing. This toolkit brings those ideas together with the service-integration work already underway so we can test assumptions, compare approaches, and decide what to learn, build, pilot, and sequence next. Start with the people affected, check the real work already underway, and use the prototypes to make the next decision more concrete.
The 2025 planning work gave DCHS a set of client-centered ideas. This toolkit provides a practical way to test those ideas, connect them to current work, and decide what to do in 2026.
Two fictional client profiles and six-stage journeys made fragmented services, emotional burdens, and moments of care visible.
Proposed next step Walk through the journeys with clients and frontline staff to check what rings true.
Explore Who We ServeOne intake and referral process across programs, with shared assessment and common tools. Inspired by Aboul & Hossina’s barriers to help.
Proposed next step Map intake challenges with staff and clients; align entry points, documentation, and legal requirements.
Explore How We ScreenStaff-led roundtables and current resource “hot lists” to connect people to available help. Inspired by Janice’s fragmented journey.
Proposed next step Validate resource lists, identify 10 subject experts, and test a housing-focused roundtable.
Explore How We SpotlightFrom DCHS Design Workshop: Recap and Next Steps, pp. 5–9, 16–17, 21–22. The site’s expanded journeys and prototypes build on these ideas.
The table connects each earlier idea to a tool in this toolkit and a concrete decision or action for 2026.
| 2025 planning produced | Idea to carry forward | 2026 planning tool | From idea to pragmatic next step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Janice and Aboul & Hossina personas and six-stage journeys Review Who We Serve → | Keep dignity, equity, and the client experience at the center of service integration while connecting promising ideas to the real portfolio of completed, underway, and planned work. | How We Integrate | Refresh our shared understanding of clients and stress-test proposals against their journeys. Then use that client lens to identify assumptions that need evidence, expose portfolio gaps and priorities, test dependencies and readiness, and sequence a small set of concrete commitments. |
| Journey maps and future-state concepts | Treat the mapped experience as a useful hypothesis, then learn from the people who actually live it. | How We Listen | Select a feasible research method and move the work from the whiteboard into evidence gathered with clients and frontline staff. |
| ONE DCHS — Standard Inclusive Intake | Create a consistent way to discover needs beyond the program a client first contacts. | How We Screen | Choose the smallest useful question set, define consent and routing, and name a cross-program referral pilot. |
| Resources in Action | Help staff understand programs across DCHS well enough to connect clients to them. | How We Spotlight | Decide what PULSE should teach staff, how often it runs, and who owns the knowledge that changes day-to-day work. |
Each section has a different job. Together they move from a client lens, through the current portfolio, to evidence, design choices, and implementation.
What would each person actually experience differently?
What should move next—and what has to come first?
Research MethodsWhat do we need to learn, from whom, before we act?
Screening & ReferralsWhat is the lightest flow that can surface a need and lead somewhere useful?
The weekly PULSEWhat should staff know on Monday morning that changes what they do over the coming week?
Use an artifact, record what it reveals, and carry one thing forward: a decision, an assumption to test, a named pilot, a dependency, an owner, or a first step. Feed what is learned back into the personas, prototypes, and roadmap rather than treating any page as final.
This is a planning environment, not a finished service. Unless a page says otherwise, the personas, integrated journeys, research reports, screening experiences, and PULSE scenes are prototypes or illustrative artifacts. Use them to support discussion, testing, and decisions—not as findings or approved designs. Only the initiatives listed in How We Integrate reflect real work.
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