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Message from the Chief Innovation Officer

Since Governor Murphy established the New Jersey Office of Innovation by appointing the state’s first Chief Innovation Officer six years ago, our team has had the privilege of serving New Jerseyans and working alongside thousands of dedicated, talented public service professionals across all levels of government. Government at its simplest is people serving people.

Effective government service matters. When we turn to State government, it may be in a time of great uncertainty — such as when facing unemployment, a lack of stable housing, or a need to access nutrition for your children. How the government delivers in those moments is critical. Can you get help when you need it? Is it easy to understand programs that may help and determine whether they apply to you? Are applications processed quickly and efficiently? A government that delivers in these moments is a lifeline for individuals, families, and whole communities, capable of lifting their trajectories.

At the same time, efficient government helps drive economic and social progress. The spark of an idea, in the hands of someone dedicated to bringing it to life, may change the course of history — as has happened here in New Jersey, with the invention of the light bulb, the steam engine, the submarine, the phonograph, and countless other innovations in healthcare and computing. While momentous, these innovations alone did not bend history – they were supported by a larger ecosystem that brought their advantages to the world. Government provides the infrastructure and incentives for positive progress, as we in New Jersey are doing now through Business.NJ.gov and permit modernization efforts, and in the responsible use of generative artificial intelligence.

Our mission is to ensure that government can not only deliver services, but deliver those services more effectively and efficiently. Working with our partners across State government, the Office of Innovation exists to make sure that when you call a hotline seeking help, you can speak to someone quickly and have your questions answered; that you can easily find the information you need without spending hours making sense of complicated documents; and that you can apply for a program without spending hours or even days on an application.

It is an honor to serve as our State’s second Chief Innovation Officer. This is an enormous responsibility because, at its core, our work has the power to strengthen New Jerseyans’ trust in their government. We owe a vast debt of gratitude to my predecessor, Beth Simone Noveck, who transformed an idea into an office, attracting dozens of talented and dedicated professionals into public service. Since its creation, that Office of Innovation has worked with nearly every State agency to reimagine government as we know it to better serve New Jerseyans.

Now, at the start of our sixth year at the Office of Innovation, we are proud to take this moment to reflect on the impact our team has had, working in concert with our partners in public service across the state. We invite you to review our work and share your thoughts on how we may further drive continuous improvement and government excellence (drop us a note at team@innovation.nj.gov). We do this work out of a commitment to service and a belief that a government that works for all of us is necessary to build trust in our communities and meet the societal challenges we face, together. We look forward to continuing the progress we’ve made and building on the foundation highlighted in this report.

Yours in service,

Dave

Dave Cole
Chief Innovation Officer
State of New Jersey

About the Office of Innovation and Our Work

Our mission is to improve the lives of New Jerseyans by solving public problems differently.

In partnership with State departments and agencies, the Office of Innovation helps deliver better government products and services, ensuring they are as effective, efficient, and responsive as possible.

We do this by embedding with agencies across State government, working directly with residents, and using modern, data-driven, human-centered, and agile processes to better understand problems, and then iteratively solve those problems to help the New Jerseyans we serve. Our cross-functional teams use their expertise in everything from data to design, engineering to policy, product to communications, and more to develop innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges facing residents, businesses, and institutions across the Garden State.

The Office of Innovation’s work is organized around four core initiatives:

These initiatives have led to significant impact across State government, and have spurred collaborations with nearly every State department on dozens of high-impact projects, including:

The projects highlighted in the following pages are just a sliver of what we have accomplished. To see the full scope of our work, visit our projects page.

How We Measure Our Impact

The Office of Innovation’s work is guided by a central goal: to meaningfully impact how State government delivers services to improve the lives of New Jerseyans. As we evaluate the outcomes of our work, we look to an array of impact metrics and data - both qualitative and quantitative - to guide our organizational growth, evolution, and decision-making. These include:

• Enhancing and streamlining how people interact with government – time savings, satisfaction of people using the service, number of people served, and more
• Government efficiency – case resolution rates, agency staff time saved, number of New Jerseyans served, and more
• Cost-savings – actual and projected decreases in taxpayer dollars spent by agencies to deliver services

In addition to the measurable improvements we make to government services, the Office of Innovation works to build the State’s capacity to solve problems by using modern practices in two key ways:

• Bringing new expertise and talent into State government – modern problem-solving requires unique expertise and experience in technology, design, data, advertising, content, and policy. We attract top-tier talent from the private sector, academia, non-profits, and beyond and bring these dedicated professionals into public service to work on behalf of New Jerseyans.
• Training and skill building with State agencies – we works alongside our agency partners – not on their behalf – so they can learn how to implement modern best practices in research, design, policy, technology, and more. Along with our customized training programs, we equip our partners with the knowledge, skills, and technical abilities so they can continue to deliver impact long after our involvement with a project has ended.

Our Values

• Problems that matter to real people. We focus on concrete problems that affect New Jerseyans with a focus on individuals who have historically not had access to services.
• Innovate with – not for – New Jerseyans. We work directly with the people of New Jersey to understand their needs and then create solutions together.
• Iterate and collaborate. We work with our partners as early as possible to design and release solutions iteratively, get feedback, measure results, learn fast, and deliver impact in a continuous cycle.
• Simplicity and ease. We prioritize plain language, easy to use interfaces, and seamless access to services, so New Jerseyans can get the help they need as efficiently and conveniently as possible.
• Accessible for all. We ensure that regardless of language, access to computers, economic status, ability, location, age, or digital literacy, New Jerseyans will be able to use government services.

Reduced the time it takes to apply for Unemployment Insurance from nearly 4 hours to less than 25 minutes

To help workers who lost their jobs get Unemployment Insurance sooner and with less headaches, the Office of Innovation has been working with the NJ State Department of Labor to completely overhaul its legacy system so it is simpler, faster, and less confusing to access benefits. These efforts are also streamlining back-end processes and saving the agency millions of dollars.

Challenge

As the pandemic upended lives and the economy, millions of New Jerseyans were suddenly left unemployed. The unprecedented flood of applications to the State’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) system significantly strained a legacy system that had been underinvested in for decades. Complicated application language, complex state requirements, and ever-changing federal guidelines compounded the challenge of a massive increase in application volume. Call centers were inundated and callers faced long wait times. Residents were frustrated by delays and confused by the process, while State employees struggled to do their work within an inefficient system.

Innovation In Action

Using a resident-first design approach, OOI worked with the NJ State Department of Labor and other partners to launch a new Unemployment Insurance application. As part of this process, project partners interviewed applicants to understand which application questions were misunderstood and leading to delays in receiving benefits. Following residents’ lead, OOI tested a series of changes with users including simplified, plain-language questions, bigger text and answer buttons, and the addition of clarifying explainer text. In addition, OOI has been collaborating with front line staff and residents to identify the primary causes of delays or bottlenecks throughout the application process and systematically working to address them. These efforts include launching a new claims status tool, creating a less confusing ID verification process, simplifying the weekly certification process, and transitioning the legacy call center to a new cloud-based, AI-powered system.

Impact

• In April of 2024, a completely redesigned UI application was launched with 20% fewer questions. On average, the previous application took 3 hours and 50 minutes to submit. With the new application, half of applicants submitted theirs in less than 25 minutes. As of September 2024, 90% of applicants now finish and submit on the same day and there has been a 14% reduction in applications that require manual review before entering the system.
• The application is fully available in native Spanish rather than automated translations, and has been optimized for assistive devices for individuals with disabilities.
• The new call center has enabled the Department of Labor to serve over 60,000 additional residents per year, while slashing hold times and generating millions of dollars in projected cost savings by building vital systems in-house and increasing operational efficiency. As of July 2024, the improved claim status tool has been used more than 2 million times with more than 75% of users resolving issues on their own to advance their unemployment benefits application.
• As of September 2024, improvements to the identity verification process have led to a 70% decrease in support calls about identity verification and a nearly 20% increase in residents who start verification immediately after submitting their application.
• The new identity verification flow, released in late fall 2023, has saved the Department of Labor over $585,000 in operating costs as of September 2024, and annual savings are projected to be $780,000 for 2024.

Partners

• NJ State Department of Labor
• NJ State Office of Information Technology
• U.S. Department of Labor
• United States Digital Service
• United States Digital Response

What New Jerseyans See

Helped more than 115,000 expecting parents access benefits to care for their newborns

To help working families make sense of their benefits and navigate a complex State program, the Office of Innovation built the Maternity Coverage Timeline Tool in partnership with the New Jersey State Department of Labor. The tool explains what benefits are available to expecting parents and helps calculate the length and timing of paid leave so they can better care for their newborns.

Challenge

Most people who work in New Jersey qualify for paid leave benefits under Temporary Disability Insurance and Family Leave Insurance. However, to use these benefits, parents must navigate a complex application process with confusing eligibility requirements, tracking multiple details and making calculations on their own, increasing the likelihood of making a mistake or delaying access to earned benefits.

Innovation In Action

Working closely with community partners and expecting parents to understand their needs, OOI saw an opportunity to use technology to simplify a confusing aspect of family leave and reduce stress. After asking parents a series of questions, the Maternity Coverage Timeline Tool automatically provides start and end dates for leave based on their specific circumstances and preferences, giving applicants clarity about the benefits they can access and when. New Jerseyans using this resource have the option to leave feedback to improve it, which OOI analyzes to make updates, ensuring the tool is continuously improving and responsive to user feedback. The feedback is anonymized and analyzed by a generative artificial intelligence model, which identifies common trends in even large volumes of feedback that point toward areas for improvement.

Impact

As of August 2024, more than 115,000 New Jerseyans have used the Maternity Coverage Timeline Tool to understand their benefits, and more than 523,000 timelines have been created since the tool launched in May 2022.

Partners

• NJ State Department of Labor
• Office of First Lady Tammy Murphy

What New Jerseyans See

Helped over 123,000 workers find job openings and training programs and explore new careers in New Jersey

To help workers better support themselves and their families as the economy changes, the Office of Innovation worked with the Department of Labor to launch My Career NJ, a new digital hub that gives workers personalized recommendations for higher paying careers that match their unique skills. Through the hub, job seekers can also find the right training programs and thousands of online classes for upskilling based on their specific needs.

Challenge

Finding a job or changing careers is often a daunting task - it’s stressful, confusing, and frustrating. Job seekers have multiple resources that they can access, and there is no single “right career path.” So career support must be tailored to an individual, their work history, skills, and needs, and then matched with the right tools and opportunities to ensure they can succeed. This level of personalization is incredibly difficult to provide to diverse communities on a state-wide scale.

Innovation In Action

My Career NJ features two new digital career tools: the NJ Training Explorer and the NJ Career Navigator. The Training Explorer enables customized filtering of training programs, provides information on tuition assistance, and gives users valuable insight into the providers that offer programs that meet their skill-building needs. The Career Navigator leverages big data and machine learning to generate personalized job and career recommendations that align with each user’s skill set, employment history, and individual professional goals across a wide range of private and public employment sectors. My Career NJ and all of its component applications were developed with agile project management and human-centered design.

Impact

• OOI is providing New Jersey workers with simple, straightforward ways to explore careers, training opportunities, and job openings in a range of industries.
• Six months after the launch of My Career NJ in March 2024, more than 123,000 workers have used the resource tool to get personalized career recommendations and find training programs, online classes, and other upskilling opportunities that fit their unique needs and goals.

Partners

• NJ State Department of Labor
• Research Improving People’s Lives

What New Jerseyans See

Helped over 45,000 entrepreneurs start and grow their new business in New Jersey

To streamline a highly fragmented and confusing process to make it easier for businesses to start, operate, and grow in New Jersey, the Office of Innovation worked with several State agencies and departments to launch Business.NJ.gov, a one-stop digital resource for businesses, along with key tools like the Business.NJ.gov Account, Business.NJ.gov Live Chat, and Business.NJ.gov Updates.

Challenge

Prior to Business.NJ.Gov, starting and operating a business in the Garden State meant companies and aspiring entrepreneurs had to navigate a byzantine process, sifting through as many as 15 State websites to find information and creating multiple accounts to file forms and regulatory filings. OOI was tasked with streamlining these processes, and began consolidating dozens of related processes spread across multiple agencies into a single, easy-to-use platform for businesses.

Innovation In Action

Rather than waiting to debut a large-scale solution after a multi-year development process, OOI used agile and iterative development to quickly launch a series of tools that provided immediate value to users and offered critical data that informed further development. By using this agile process, results were both faster and more effective as each stage of development was built with a data-backed understanding of the business community’s needs. Since the initial launch of Business.NJ.gov in 2019, thousands of updates and improvements have been made to the site and related technology platforms, offering businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs an ever-growing array of resources and information to help them start, operate, and grow their business more seamlessly.

Impact

• With more than 6 million users and 20 million pageviews as of August 2024, Business.NJ.gov is the definitive starting point for New Jersey entrepreneurs, serving more than a million people in the first six months of 2024 alone.
• With Business.NJ.gov, companies can now easily find the answer to any question they have, file critical forms, and get personalized recommendations – all in one convenient place.
• As of August 2024, more than 45,000 businesses filed formation documents through Business.NJ.gov since the tool’s launch in 2022, and the site facilitates one out of seven new business formations in the state.
• With a Business.NJ.gov Account, aspiring entrepreneurs have personalized guides to starting their business, register their business, track their applications, find relevant funding opportunities, and get a personalized tax calendar.
• By enabling data-sharing between agencies for the first time, OOI is consolidating dozens of forms and making them submittable through a single portal, Business.NJ.gov.
• Business.NJ.gov Updates is an email program that proactively shares information on new programs, services, and regulatory changes for businesses and nonprofits operating in New Jersey. In 2024, the number of subscribers more than doubled and now exceeds 270,000 as of August.
• Businesses can access a centralized customer service experience in real time using the Business.NJ.Gov live chat - this allows businesses to get answers from experts and customer service representatives from multiple State agencies, alleviating the need to call several agencies. In 2023, the Live Chat saw a 32% increase in the number of businesses seeking answers, and as of August 2024, the Live Chat enabled more than 150,000 virtual replies to businesses by experts from State agencies.

Partners

• Office of the Governor
• NJ State Department of State, Business Action Center
• NJ State Economic Development Authority
• NJ State Department of Treasury
• NJ State Department of Labor
• Statewide initiative, in partnership with all relevant - State entities

What New Jerseyans See

Modernized 11 call centers, enabling agencies to manage over 5.5 million calls in a little over a year, save millions of dollars, reduce wait times, and boost call resolution rates by 50%

The Office of Innovation is working with multiple State agencies to streamline and modernize call center operations. By transitioning legacy contact centers that require manual operations to cloud-based systems powered by artificial intelligence, residents can get help more quickly and spend less time on hold. These improvements also allow State agencies to serve more residents with lower costs and greater efficiency, saving taxpayer dollars.

Challenge

New Jerseyans seeking help with critical benefits often turn to the State’s call centers when they need to speak with someone to resolve their issues, however, at times, they face frustratingly long wait times or must call back repeatedly. Meanwhile, the busiest call center representatives are managing hundreds of calls a day.

Innovation In Action

Rather than a one-time modernization project, the Office of Innovation sought to develop an approach that can be replicated with greater speed and efficiency at additional partner agencies. So after successfully helping to improve its first call center, OOI scaled those proven lessons and tactics and applied them to additional call center modernization projects, saving valuable time and resources. This playbook continues to be refined and improved upon with each partnership, and in doing so, OOI is decreasing modernization implementation timelines and delivering greater impact at a more rapid pace.

Impact

• As of August 2024, 11 call centers – including those serving the ANCHOR property tax program, Temporary Disability and Family Leave, and Unemployment Insurance – have been modernized enabling them to efficiently manage over 5.5 million calls in a little over a year.
• The new system is projected to save millions of dollars for the Department of Treasury and the Department of Labor due to increased operational efficiency like a 50% boost in call resolution rates through self-service options and cost reductions from automated callbacks versus extended hold times that were not possible with previous platforms.
• As of August 2024, OOI helped reduce phone wait times for the ANCHOR hotline from 40+ minutes to an average of just 90 seconds using a new automated callback system that reserves a caller’s place in line and gives them a call back when an agent is available.
• The new system allows agencies to handle higher call volumes by developing self-service tools in English and Spanish so callers can resolve their own queries, drastically reducing wait times and freeing agents to speak with more residents that require live support.
• Callers can now get important links and information through text messages, making it easier for residents to resolve issues even while waiting to speak with an agent.
• The new system also provides critical data and insights from calls, so call center managers can proactively create new menu options and tools based on frequently asked questions as they emerge.

Partners

• NJ State Department of Labor
• NJ State Department of Treasury - Division of Taxation
• NJ State Department of Law and Public Safety
• NJ State Department of Agriculture
• NJ State Department of State - Business Action Center

Increased visits from Spanish-language users to Business.NJ.gov by nearly 800%, drove nearly 6 million engagements with college degree completion programs, and connected tens of thousands of New Jerseyans with career services

To ensure New Jerseyans in need are actually using the programs, resources, and services they are eligible for, the Communication and Engagement Lab (C+E Lab) is helping State agencies more effectively connect with New Jerseyans by using data, research, and modern consumer marketing techniques to not only increase awareness, but move residents to action.

Challenge

Government programs and services often lack adequate resources to reach audiences at scale. A lack of government capacity to deploy new tools, social and behavioral research, and data-driven insights means eligible residents often do not know about the programs and services available to help them so they miss out on valuable assistance.

Innovation In Action

The C+E Lab encourages residents to take action by using proven consumer marketing techniques and data. Rather than relying on assumptions, the C+E Lab conducts research and leverages data to understand consumer motivations and then uses those learnings to craft strategies that meet consumers where they are and ultimately move them to action. This strategic approach is guided by research and focused on impact.

Impact

• The C+E Lab supported the successful launch and ongoing optimization of Business.NJ.gov’s first paid media campaign. The award-winning campaign is reaching audiences beyond the State’s existing channels and increasing the user base of Business.NJ.gov, especially with underserved communities. As of August 2024, total visitors to Business.NJ.gov are up 75% year over year, usage from members of underserved communities is up 172% year over year, and visits from Spanish-language users have increased 778% year over year.
• In 2023, the C+E Lab advised and supported the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education in developing a paid media campaign designed to connect residents to the State’s Some College, No Degree (SCND) initiative – an effort to identify, reach, and engage adult learners who stopped out of college and need support to re-enroll. The campaign garnered 91 million impressions, 5.8 million video views, and connected more than 63,000 people with information about valuable State resources.
• The C+E Lab worked with the Department of Labor to launch messaging in support of the new MyCareer.NJ.gov platform. The announcement messaging began running in March of 2024 and in the first few days alone drove over 16,000 new users to the site, which is more than half of all visitors in the entire previous month.
• The C+E Lab conducted research for the State Library that identified a perception challenge with residents who stopped visiting the library in-person. Once residents became aware of the services the Library provided, they expressed an intent to return. The State Library used the C+E Lab’s findings to develop a new campaign that is driving residents back into the library again.

Partners

• NJ State Department of Labor
• NJ State Library
• NJ State Office of the Secretary of Higher Education

What New Jerseyans See

Helped more than 12,000 members of New Jersey’s disability community and their loved ones access critical information and services

To help New Jersey’s disability community make sense of a tangled web of benefits and confusing eligibility requirements to access services and programs, the Office of Innovation partnered with the NJ State Department of Human Services to launch the Disability Information Hub. The site consolidates critical information from dozens of agencies in a user-friendly and accessible format on a range of topics from health care to utility assistance, transportation to in-home support, and more.

Challenge

There are a multitude of State programs that support people with disabilities, however finding and accessing them can be a challenge as they are largely organized by the agency responsible for administering the program. As a result, residents often find themselves poring over dozens of different State websites to find information which decreases the likelihood of finding the information or help they need.

Innovation In Action

Expanding on the model pioneered by the COVID-19 Information Hub, OOI collaborated with the NJ State Department of Human Services, the Office of the Governor, program managers across State government, and community partners to build the Disability Information Hub around specific user needs rather than organizing information by government agency. In addition, to ensure users’ needs are fully met, OOI utilized an iterative, data-driven, and human-centered approach. In practice, that means OOI conducted a survey and worked with advocacy organizations to understand the most pressing needs and challenges of New Jerseyans with disabilities first. The development and design process also incorporated input from individuals with lived experience, state agencies and offices, external partners, and accessibility experts. With feedback options on every page, the Hub welcomes additional user feedback to continually evolve the Hub to better serve the disability community.

Impact

• With the launch of the Disability Information Hub, New Jerseyans with disabilities and their families and caregivers no longer have to navigate a maze of state agencies and instead have an easy to use, centralized portal for all their needs.
• Since the site’s launch in July 2024, the Hub has helped connect more than 12,000 people to critical benefits and information as of August 2024.
• Nearly 200 programs offered by the State of New Jersey can be found through the Hub and resources are organized by a person’s disability to make navigation easier.
• The Hub incorporated direct feedback from residents with disabilities and meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and Section 508 accessibility requirements.

Partners

• Office of the Governor
• NJ State Department of Human Services
• NJ State Office of Information Technology

What New Jerseyans See

Helped more than 68,000 members of New Jersey’s LGBTQ+ community access critical information and services

To help transgender and non-binary New Jerseyans understand their rights and navigate a confusing system to access key services, the Office of Innovation worked with several State agencies and local advocacy organizations to launch the Transgender Information Hub. The hub features critical information from nearly a dozen agencies on the most commonly asked questions.

Challenge

For transgender and non-binary New Jerseyans, basic actions like updating a name or gender marker on official documents can be unexpectedly challenging and potentially traumatizing. Antiquated policies required individuals to get medical documentation and navigate a complex web of local, state, and federal requirements. The Governor and the Legislature passed new laws to remove these barriers and protect the privacy of transgender individuals, however outdated information continues to circulate online. Yet, without a central source of information, transgender and non-binary individuals still needed to sift through multiple state agencies and departments to obtain basic services.

Innovation In Action

To ensure the needs of transgender and non-binary New Jerseyans were met, OOI used a data-driven and user-centered approach by first conducting a user-needs survey to understand the most pressing needs and concerns. OOI partnered with advocacy and service-based organizations throughout the state to both amplify the survey, and gain insights. Additionally, numerous user-testing sessions further informed the site’s content and design. Rather than a static website, the Transgender Information Hub’s design, organization, and content continues to be updated based on user data and feedback to better serve residents.

Impact

• For the first time, transgender New Jerseyans have a government resource dedicated to simplifying critical services and no longer need to spend hours visiting multiple sites.
• As of August 2024, the Transgender Information Hub has been visited more than 68,000 times and connected these visitors to critical information and services.

Partners

• NJ State Attorney General’s Office, Division on Civil Rights
• NJ State Department of Children and Families
• Garden State Equality

What New Jerseyans See

Launched one of the nation’s first AI tools specifically built for State employees

To begin safely and responsibly harnessing the incredible power of AI to improve government services and operations, the Office of Innovation partnered with the State Office of Information Technology and the State Civil Service Commission to launch the NJ AI Assistant. This powerful new generative AI platform offers a “sandbox” environment that features heightened security and privacy protections for New Jersey State employees to safely leverage AI.

Challenge

AI holds great promise, however the technology carries potential risks particularly when it comes to government data and sensitive information. Generative AI software often captures inputs to train and improve a company’s AI model, which could jeopardize internal State data and information. But by banning or avoiding the technology, states lose out on the potential to dramatically increase productivity, efficiency, and responsiveness in government services and operations.

Innovation In Action

Working with the New Jersey State Office of Information Technology, the Office of Innovation developed the NJ AI Assistant to safely offer State employees access to one of the most powerful AI models available by securing government-friendly terms of service and additional top-notch privacy protections. The tool is hosted on State infrastructure and does not use State data to train a third-party AI model to avoid putting internal information at risk. In addition, the NJ AI Assistant has several filters to prevent the input or output of potentially harmful information, as well as protections to prevent common “jailbreaks” and other attempts to circumvent the model’s safeguards. Lastly, the launch of the NJ AI Assistant was timed with the release of a Generative AI training course for State employees to help ensure any use of AI is safe, secure, respectful of residents’ privacy, free of bias, and in line with State policies.

Impact

• New Jersey is one of the first States in the nation to provide State employees with a safe environment to responsibly leverage AI tools to transform government services.
• State departments and agencies have already begun using generative AI in limited cases to improve services. Working with the Department of Labor, OOI has used AI to help rewrite emails in plain language and residents have been responding 35% faster as a result.
• At the ANCHOR property tax program call center, the New Jersey Division of Taxation has been using AI tools to analyze calls to generate better self-service menu options, so residents can find what they need without waiting on hold to speak to an agent, leading to a 50% increase in the number of successfully resolved calls.
• Two months after launching in July 2024, more than 4,000 State employees are actively using the AI Assistant – including teams at several State agencies that are regularly using it to help draft content and analyze user feedback.
• As of August 2024, two months after the Generative AI training was released, over 4,000 State employees have learned how to use AI safely, responsibly, and in line with State policies.

Partners

• NJ State Office of Information Technology
• NJ State Civil Service Commission

What New Jerseyans See

Connected millions of New Jerseyans with vital information, services, and programs

During the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of Innovation worked with State departments and agencies across State government to rapidly respond to emergent challenges. This work led to the development of dozens of new solutions and tools to ensure New Jerseyans could access key benefits, services, protections, and critical information in a timely manner.

Challenge

As the pandemic ground the economy to a halt and strained the medical system, New Jerseyans turned to the State in record numbers for help with unemployment benefits, rent relief, food assistance, business loans, medical care, and more. But with many State benefit offices physically closed due to public health guidance, residents were left accessing benefits remotely, which exposed the underlying challenges of legacy systems that had not been fully modernized. Meanwhile, residents struggled to find accurate information about government services and public health guidance amid frequently updated guidelines and rampant rumors and misinformation. As a result, residents were frustrated as they tried to access key government benefits, while State employees struggled to serve record numbers with inefficient systems.

Innovation In Action

Working with its agency partners, the Office of Innovation used human-centered design and agile, iterative methodologies to rapidly generate solutions, test them, and introduce additional improvements and features in a continuous cycle. OOI was able to work quickly and with a greater degree of confidence because teams regularly talked to residents and frontline staff to understand the primary choke points and difficulties in the process, and then continually tested solutions with them.

For instance, these principles led to the creation of the COVID-19 Information Hub, where content was determined by user needs. Unlike traditional legacy government websites, which feature static content and press releases, OOI presented content in simple language based on the most frequently asked questions by residents. Site content and layout was constantly updated based on frequent reviews of search data, user-submitted questions, and website behavior to proactively identify emerging needs or shortcomings in existing content.

Following residents’ needs also led to the creation of the COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment Finder, a tool that helped New Jerseyans find open vaccine appointments near them, rather than calling pharmacies and waiting on hold as thousands of others did the same.

Similarly, OOI built the Eviction Protection Tool, an interactive form that helped renters and homeowners at risk of eviction determine what protections were available to them during the pandemic. Rather than deciphering eligibility requirements across multiple programs or waiting for the limited number of State agencies available to guide them through the process, renters and homeowners could enter information about their specific situation and get information tailored to their needs. By using this automated digital tool, residents were able to get the help they needed and State agencies were able to help more New Jerseyans.

OOI also built the Emergency Assistance Eligibility Wizard, a similar online tool that helped New Jersey businesses quickly find and apply for newly created State and federal pandemic relief programs - each of which had different eligibility requirements and benefits, and no central way to determine which could help a specific business.

These are just a few of the tools OOI built in partnership with State agencies that helped millions of New Jerseyans and hundreds of thousands of businesses across the Garden State find information, access benefits, get medical help, and more. To see the full scope of our impact from our COVID-19 response projects, visit innovation.nj.gov/projects/COVID19

Impact

• As of August 2024, the COVID-19 Info Hub has been visited more than 90 million times, providing visitors with life-saving health information and critical resources. The site has been updated or enhanced more than 134,000 times.
• The COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment Finder, which was created in response to user demand, was used used more than 5.3 million times, helping residents get appointments for COVID-19 vaccines
• The Statewide Update is an email newsletter program created during the COVID-19 pandemic to broaden awareness of key policy updates, programs, and information that affect residents. As of April 2024, the Statewide Update regularly connects its 2.1 million subscribers with critical information, driving uptake of State programs and other valuable resources.
• Just 15 days after the first reported case of COVID-19 in the Garden State, OOI officially launched the State’s COVID-19 symptom checker, giving residents personalized medical guidance and easing the strain on the State’s call centers. By late April 2020, approximately 200,000 people in New Jersey, or roughly 2% of the entire state, had used the symptom checker. This usage generated data that offered officials a wealth of granular, ZIP-code-level data at a time when information was scarce. By February 2021, the symptom checker had been used over 600,000 times.
• The COVID-19 Jobs and Hiring portal was an online jobs board that connected short-staffed employers with workers who had lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. To ensure high-quality listings, each post was vetted to ensure employers were permitted to operate during pandemic-related closures and what safety measures they were taking to protect workers. In its first week, the portal was used by more than 150,000 people. Throughout its lifespan, the Jobs Portal attracted more than 960,000 users and featured 57,000 jobs from more than 1,200 employers.
• The Emergency Assistance Eligibility Wizard was used more than 210,000 times by more than 140,000 users to quickly find and apply for newly created State and federal pandemic relief programs for businesses.
• The COVID-19 Eviction Protection Tool helped prevent low-income New Jerseyans from being evicted if they suffered economic hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic by helping renters understand the protections they are eligible for and submit the necessary forms. As of April 2024, more than 85,000 residents had used the Eviction Protection Tool since its launch in 2021.

Partners

• Statewide initiative, in partnership with all State Departments\

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