In the summer of 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published findings from the completed Tribal Customer Experience Pilot for Post-Award Reporting. The cross-agency, cross-sector partnership between HHS, the Executive Office of the President, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, along with support from external partners, aimed to reduce burdens on Tribal Nations in fulfilling federal grant reporting requirements.
Over the course of a year, the project team deployed human-centered design approaches to understand the unique challenges faced by tribal grant recipients, identify new approaches, and develop solutions to bridge common technology and knowledge gaps. The project team conducted fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and workshops with tribal members, including those from remote areas, gathering nearly 150 qualitative data points and actionable insights.
A Customer Experience Approach to Supporting Tribal Nations
The Tribal Customer Experience Pilot for Post-Award Reporting builds upon customer research and discovery work conducted in 2022 that also utilized human-centered design to better understand Tribal Nations’ experiences accessing federal grants. The 2024 pilot focused on a specific phase of the experience of accessing federal grants: post-award reporting. Pairing insights from the 2022 design sprint with direct input from tribal members, the 2024 pilot project team developed potential solutions that enabled them to build trust with tribal stakeholders and ground the project’s pilot solutions in the real-world experiences and contexts of tribal grant recipients. The Tribal CX Pilot team selected and piloted four solutions based on tribal recipient needs, time and resource feasibility, and potential value to the broader federal grant recipient community.
Pilot Solutions Designed to Address Grant Reporting Challenges:
-
Treasury Offline Report Template: An offline Excel template for reporting designed for Tribes with unreliable internet.
-
Federal Grant Systems Hub Pilot: A centralized, searchable public dashboard that simplifies access to grant-related information, tailored to individual recipient or IHS.
-
Reduced Indian Health Service Reporting Requirements: Based on analysis of post-award reports, the Indian Health Service (IHS) reduced the recipient reporting burden by 64%.
-
Digital Identity Verification System Improvements: Implemented expanded offerings to better serve tribal users, including accepting tribal IDs for identify verification, more in-person verification options, and the development of tribal-specific user guides.
These solutions aim to reduce the post-award reporting burden and improve grant recipients’ ability to deliver support to their communities. Furthering these solutions and future projects form part of a broader effort to enhance federal service delivery and better supporting Tribal Nations, in alignment with Executive Order 14058 on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government and Executive Order 14112 on Reforming Federal Funding and Support for Tribal Nations.
By showcasing the effectiveness of how cross-agency collaboration and human-centered design can be used to transform federal service delivery, the Tribal Customer Experience Pilot for Post-Award Reporting exemplifies the Administration’s dedication to reducing burdens to make government services work better for all.
For more detailed information on the Tribal Customer Experience Pilot for Post-Award Reporting, please see the report on HHS.gov.
