The pen and ink drawing “two ships” by James Whistler

Human centered Customer Experience

Ishmael Interactive is the scientific method for business. Here's the proof of process.

Human-centered design drove:

  • A 35% increase in Trust Scores at the Department of Veterans Affairs (2016-2020)
  • A 34% decrease in digital footprint at the General Services Administration (2022-2024)
  • Over $11 million in cost savings at the General Services Administration (2022-2024)
  • $1,000,000+ in generated revenue for the Lab at OPM (2016-2020)
  • 2000+ trained professionals passing on the practice. This isn't consultant black-boxing; HCD is a learnable skill that we fully documented and will pass on to you.

Ishmael Interactive's HCD for Customer and Digital Experience is consulting that builds permanent capability.

What makes us different:

  • Our HCD Guide Series is the only proven & documented, field-tested & professionally developed authoritative guidance on human-centered customer, digital, and employee experience.
  • Innovation and process improvement projects that are as sustainable as they are ground-breaking
  • Measurable ROIs for new and ongoing projects within one year of launch.
  • Proven product and service development that scales up and down organizations and is yours to keep—forever.
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The Challenge You Face

You're a part of teams that keep organizations running—HR, IT, legal, operations. Your work prevents disasters, but rarely gets celebrated. You're measured on outcomes that resist dollar valuations. You're told to "do more with less" while justifying your budget every cycle.

And when you bring in consultants, they leave you with slide decks, not capabilities.

Change that with Ishmael Interactive, right now.

"[This approach] led to meaningful improvements in user experience, record-high compliance with standards, and collection of cost data agency-wide... impressed counterparts at ARPA-H, NASA, and NIH who are trying to learn more."

— Steve Brockelman, Acting Chief Customer Officer, General Services Administration

What Makes This Different

We listen before we talk Most consultants show up with pre-packaged solutions. We start by understanding what's actually broken in your context—where past initiatives stalled and why—before recommending anything.

You keep the methodology
Your success doesn't depend on ongoing consulting relationships. We transfer systematic capability that your organization owns permanently.

We work within your constraints No expensive tooling requirements. No massive team reorganizations. We build on your existing organizational strengths and investments, not tear them down.

We're hands-on Our methodology was developed by high-ranking federal civil servants who led transformative work at enterprise scale. We understand infrastructure teams, cost center politics, and proving value when your best work prevents problems no one sees.

By The Numbers

When organizations apply these systematic methods:

$11 million in cost savings (2021–2024) while improving customer experience—achieved without reorganizations or service disruptions

34% operational efficiency improvement across digital infrastructure without disrupting services or reducing workforce

First enterprise-wide transformation system for 12,000-person organization, later adopted as federal standard across hundreds of agencies

Performance frameworks that document ROI and satisfy board accountability requirements

“That time savings certainly exceeded expectations!” — Federal Senior Executive

How It Works

We developed our human-centered method alongside senior executives, project managers, and evaluation scientists, taking on a wide variety of projects in organizations from a few dozen individuals to those with over 300,000.

Our approach produces measurable ROI. That's what you should demand when you're accountable for both results and impact. We're the only firm with documented evidence of systematic transformation at this scale.

Strategic Expertise: Enterprise Strategy & Execution • Organizational Design & Change Management • Performance Measurement & Evaluation • Infrastructure Team Positioning • Demonstrating Cost Center Value

Who We Are

Former federal civil servants who advised on and implemented wide-ranging policy initiatives on topics ranging from veterans health to digital modernization.

We led systematic change across the US federal government, an arena where every consultancy methodology has been tried, but ours was the first one to work across time, organizations, and hierarchy. 

We understand:

  • Cost- and investment-center politics
  • Board accountability and stakeholder management
  • Proving value when your best work prevents problems
  • Enterprise complexity and market pressures
  • What it takes to be a hands-on leader at scale

Ready To Build Permanent Capability?

Get in touch if you:

  • Lead internal or experimental teams that struggle to prove value
  • Manage board pressure for measurable transformation
  • Are tired of consultants who create dependency, not capability
  • Are ready to invest in methods your organization keeps forever

Trusted by hands-on leaders across government, healthcare, education, and mission-critical organizations.

Let’s work together

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