San Francisco Business Portal
Project Manager, 2015
The Challenge
Before the business portal, the City of San Francisco and the existing and prospective business owners who lived there struggled to make sense of the labyrinth of requirements and permits on the books. The Office of Small Business had attempted to simplify—or at least document the requirements before—but spreadsheets and off-the-shelf products couldn’t capture the complexity.
Activities & Outcomes
A joint project of the Mayor’s Office and Department of Technology, the San Francisco Business Portal aggregated business permitting information and walked prospective and existing business owners through the steps required to start, manage, and grow a business in San Francisco. When it launched in 2014, it showed that regulatory information could be clear and concise, that the City could put users at the center of government and build digital tools that people want to use.
We worked with a local design firm to conduct qualitative research focused on both internal users (City staff) and external users (SF business owners at every stage of the lifecycle of the business). Their findings revealed barriers to entrepreneurship—inaccurate information, process inefficiencies, unequal access to resources—and yielded a better overview of the customer journey, as well as a number key design principles to guide the project.
To build the Portal, I collected and consolidated information from 18 departments and 400+ permits. I wrote Portal content in plain language that translates easily to the City’s 8 official languages with emphasis on Spanish and Chinese. Throughout development of the site, our team continually engaged with business owners and City staff to ensure accuracy and delight.
In 2014, the Portal saw more than 10X as many users on a daily basis as the City’s previous online permitting information option. Feedback from users highlighted the Portal as a “pleasure to explore” that made it “easier to do business in San Francisco.” I continue to get positive feedback about the Portal today, years after leaving San Francisco.
Awards
Webby Finalist, City & Urban Innovation, 2015
Start-Up in a Day Prize, White House & Small Business Administration, 2015
Breaking Barriers to Doing Business Award, California Governor's Office, 2015
Bright Ideas Award, Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 2015
CIO 100 Award, CIO Magazine, 2015
Excellence in Customer Experience & Digital Service, Excellence.gov, 2015
Spark Award (Gold) for Screen Design, 2014
Artifacts
Screenshots: The website was designed with images from local businesses and included a database that users could search for permit information and forms based on their business type, issuing agency, or level of government.
Homepage of the San Francisco Business Portal.
Permit database and search page.
Starter Kits: Created 11 Starter Kits to guide prospective business owners through the process of creating certain popular business types. For each business type, I conducted research on local, state, and federal requirements, compiled the necessary permit forms and instructions, and wrote a short visual guide explaining each step. The guides exist in digital form and as a downloadable PDF.
Permitting guide for the Restaurant Starter Kit.
Marketing: I designed a set of marketing materials to support our launch in November 2014. These included MUNI subway car cards I designed for the Business Portal’s launch campaign, and a set of postcards which we handed out at the City’s Office of Small Business.
Muni car card on a San Francisco bus.
