Playbook helps City teams build better digital services

In this article

When you apply for a permit, request information, or use any kind of City service, the experience should be easy and effective. But achieving this outcome isn't always so simple.

Portland.gov lists over 560 different services available to the public. These range from paying a parking ticket to requesting help to build a skyscraper. For every service, users have unique needs, and the programs that provide these services all have different technical and budget constraints. Behind the scenes, the teams who deliver these services all have unique capacities, specialties, and ways of working.

These complexities can sometimes create an uneven experience for the community. Because of this, the Digital Services team in the Bureau of Technology Services created the Digital Services Playbook. This collection of plays, or small procedures, is a practical guide that City staff can use to develop or enhance a service to create more human-centered outcomes.

What's inside the playbook

The playbook gives teams a common set of tools and methods they can use to find problems or moments of friction in services. With processes like measuring parts of an experience or delivering work iteratively, teams can uncover root causes of these problems, then make quick improvements.

Each play in the playbook describes a tested, widely used technique from user experience (UX) design. This is a practical design philosophy that tries to understand how people interact with websites and services. Using plays from the playbook, staff can learn more about their users, break down complex problems, and start delivering improvements.

The playbook is organized into three phases. Each phase gives staff focused steps for building or improving a digital service:

• Define - This is about getting clear on the problem. Teams align on goals, understand their users' needs, and identify what success looks like.
• Discover - This step is about learning. Teams talk with community members and staff, review data, and explore what's working and what isn't.
• Deliver - This stage is about building and improving solutions. Teams test ideas, make changes based on feedback, and focus on outcomes that matter to users.

The playbook is starting small, and we'll make adjustments and add new plays over time. Like the services we seek to improve, the playbook is a work in progress.

Best practices for service delivery

The plays in this playbook reflect best practices the City is already using to improve service delivery. Teams can use them to better understand community needs and create services that are easier to use. This could be true for projects as small-scale as paying your parking ticket or as complex as getting help to build your skyscraper.

This approach has been recognized by two national organizations who pay attention to civic technology. In November of 2025, U.S. Digital Response awarded the team the Digital Champions Award for their work with Portland Permitting & Development to improve how the community applies for permits. In May of 2026, the team will accept Code for America's Digital Transformation Award for this same work.

Our new playbook builds on that momentum. We are happy to share some of what we've learned so that more City programs can benefit.

Explore the playbook

The Digital Services Playbook is available for anyone to explore. Our goal is for City staff to use the playbook in their projects, but other organizations are more than welcome to use these plays to suit the needs of their communities.

We also invite community members to see how the City is working to improve the services we deliver.

View the Digital Services Playbook.

Interested in collaborating with us? Whether you're a community member who wants to help us test our work, or a team at the City hoping to improve your service offering, you can reach us at digital.services@portlandoregon….