18F/18f.gsa.gov

---
title: "On The Road to Innovation"
date: 2019-07-16
authors:
- clarice-chan
- sarayu-srinivasan
tags:
- presidential innovation fellows
- day in the life
excerpt: "For the past few months, Presidential Innovation Fellows have
traveled across the nation to learn more about their projects. Meet
Fellows Clarice Chan and Sarayu Srinivasan who share more about their
work at the VA and NIST."
image: /assets/blog/pif/pif-reunion-19.jpg
---

For the past few months, Presidential Innovation Fellows have traveled
across the nation to learn more about their projects. Meet Fellows
Clarice Chan and Sarayu Srinivasan who share more about their work at
the VA and NIST.

<figure>
  <a href="{{site.baseurl}}/assets/blog/pif/pif-sarayu-srinivasan.jpg">
    <img src="{{site.baseurl}}/assets/blog/pif/pif-sarayu-srinivasan.jpg" alt="Profile picture of Sarayu Srinivasan in front of Summit, the fastest supercomputer in the world."/>
  </a>
  <figcaption>PIF Sarayu Srinivasan in front of Summit, the fastest supercomputer in the world</figcaption>
</figure>

Here is Presidential Innovation Fellow Sarayu Srinivasan in front of
Summit, the fastest supercomputer in the world! This up close tour also
included floor walks of the Advanced Manufacturing Facility, National
Transport Research Center and the Spallation Neutron Source on her trip
to Oak Ridge National Laboratory where the DOE Innovation XLab's
Advanced Manufacturing Summit was held.

The summit brought together thought leaders and industry stakeholders to
explore new solutions to manufacturing challenges and opportunities. The
event is intended to catalyze public-private partnerships and
commercialization hand-offs. During the summit, Sarayu met with many of
the DOE’s federal labs including Livermore, PNNL, Sandia, Brookhaven,
Argonne, Los Alamos and Berkeley, as well as with heads of industry, and
leaders of federal and state government. She was also present for the
DOE's exciting announcements including the first 3D-printed parts to be
used in a nuclear micro-reactor, the ground breaking on a new lab
featuring DOE Secretary Rick Perry and the announcement of Frontier, the
next supercomputer scheduled to go online at Oakridge in 2021!

In addition to visiting Summit, Sarayu had the opportunity to visit
ORNL's applied research facilities including the Manufacturing
Demonstration Facility; National Transportation Research Center; Grid
Research, Integration, and Deployment Center; and the Carbon Fiber
Technology Facility. She also stopped by ORNL’s Big Science tools to
check out the Spallation Neutron Source and Oak Ridge Leadership
Computing Facility, home to Summit.

Sarayu is detailed to the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) and working on the Lab to Market initiative, Capgoal 14 of the
President's Management Agenda. NIST and the White House Office of
Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) are leading this cross-agency
priority goal convening agencies including DOD, DOE, NIH, NASA, USDA and
others. She is tasked with helping better engage the private sector,
industry and investors, with federally funded technologies driving the
next waves of industry and innovation in the United States.

## Meeting Veterans where they are, not where we are.

In order for government agencies to achieve their goal of improving
customer experience (CX), they must lead with a culture and practice of
customer-obsession and user-centered design. This begins with deeply
understanding systems, staff processes, end-to-end operations, and most
importantly, customer touch-points. Clarice Chan, a PIF detailed to the
US Department of Veterans Affairs, began her digital transformation
journey doing just that.

<figure>
  <a href="{{site.baseurl}}/assets/blog/pif/pif-clarice-chan.jpg">
    <img src="{{site.baseurl}}/assets/blog/pif/pif-clarice-chan.jpg" alt="Profile picture of Clarice Chan seating n a chair at the VA customer call center."/>
  </a>
  <figcaption>PIF Clarice Chan, visiting a VA field office on a
  listening tour to understand how the VA interacts with its customers.</figcaption>
</figure>

Before diving into designing solutions, Clarice toured VA’s across the
country on an immersive listening tour. She spent time observing VA
Hospitals hard at work, as well as shadowed how VA Regional Offices
process claims and benefits. Clarice’s principal focus within the VA
CTO’s Office is digital transformation in Veteran communications. It’s
incredibly important that our Veterans receive timely and effective
correspondence throughout their claims process as we look to modernize
government services.

The trip yielded a plethora of usability, technical, and systems
thinking insights that would never have been uncovered otherwise by
conventional research. By putting users, customers, and employees at the
center of tackling the problem, the VA is beginning to pivot to leading
with a user-first approach to digital transformation. This will
ultimately be foundational in pioneering, scaling, and shipping modern
government service design. There is a long way to go, but it starts with
taking the journey. We are excited to bring this kind of immersive and
empathetic product thought leadership to help transform modern
government services.