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Hand holding a smartphone showing the Mass.gov website with a “Welcome to Massachusetts” message and search bar, inside a car.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Improving the State of the Web

Providing online access to state services

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS) provides responsive digital and security services that enable taxpayers, motorists, businesses, visitors, families, and other citizens to do business with the Commonwealth in a way that makes every interaction with government easier, faster, and more secure. EOTSS also oversees and manages the enterprise technology and digital infrastructure and services for over 125 state agencies and over 43,000 state employees. 

Home to more than 6.8 million people, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the most populous state in New England.

Like everywhere in the U.S., those 6.8 million people rely on their state government to provide them with services and support, which includes providing the information they need to perform vital tasks required by law. Whether those tasks include renewing a driver’s license, applying for food assistance, or registering a new business, constituents need to be able to find relevant information efficiently. Mass.gov is the flagship website for the Commonwealth, and its main goal is to provide online support to its constituents.

The challenge facing the Commonwealth was two-fold: one part a challenge for the constituents of Massachusetts, and one part a technology problem for the government dedicated to serving those people. The Commonwealth’s website reflected its internal organizational structure instead of organizing content in a way that made sense to its users. The old site was also on an antiquated, proprietary content management system that had not been able to address changing needs over time and was about to be decommissioned.

In 2016, Palantir was engaged by the Commonwealth to be part of a team tasked with developing a new framework for Mass.gov using the Drupal content management platform. This team that included designers and strategists from other vendors, data scientists, content authors, and in-house developers. Highlights of Palantir's work on the project included:

  • Migration to flexible, open-source platform
  • Restructure of content for easy search
  • User-centric design based on common tasks

Using data to identify constituents' top needs

The team knew all of Mass.gov’s information needed to be pulled together into a constituent-focused model, so they took a data-driven approach that began with using proxy indicators (search being one of them) to determine what top tasks users were trying to complete online. This allowed Palantir to build a framework to serve content related to those tasks. By figuring out what people were trying to accomplish on the site (such as renewing a driver’s license or reserving a campsite in a state park), the Mass.gov team would then be able to write helpful content about those items. In a nutshell, the main goals were to:

  • Identify high-value content
  • Write related high-value content
  • Structure that content in a way that was intuitive to constituents

The minimum viable product was a proof of concept focused on ten of the most common tasks performed on Mass.gov.

A scalable framework was then built for any pages after those initial ten. By taking this approach, Palantir was able to help prove value in the tools chosen for this project quickly, which helped EOTSS validate that the tasks highlighted were useful to the constituents. It also validated that the process of entering content was scalable for Mass.gov’s editorial team.

After the first 10 pages, the team worked with the rest of Mass.gov’s content based on the concept that 20% of the site’s content addresses 80% of constituents needs. The team identified the top 20% of content by traffic (and deleted a large amount of unnecessary or redundant content), and then started optimizing the new Drupal 8 platform. Placing focus on constituents first throughout the entire build helped frame conversations and decisions for Palantir’s development team. From the way layouts were considered to feedback mechanisms, focusing outcomes on “what is best for the constituents” gave everyone on the team a common place from which to start any conversation.

Mass.gov website navigation menu showing the “WORKING” section, with options like Business Resources, Professional Licenses & Permits, Unemployment, Finding a Job, Taxes, Workers’ Rights & Safety, Industry Regulations, and For State Employees.

Creating a flexible platform that can adapt to meet changing needs

Undertaking a large overhaul of a public service is no easy feat. In choosing Drupal as the framework for the new Mass.gov site, the Commonwealth was able to execute its vision with an extremely versatile tool. Unlike its previous CMS, building on Drupal meant the ability to pivot easily and adapt to changing needs. As more feedback was received from stakeholders and constituents during the first year of the engagement, the needs of the project changed a lot. Drupal also provided a stable platform of established tools, eliminating the need to build important features from scratch, thus helping to minimize costs in quickly getting to a working version of the site.

For Mass.gov, the big win is for the constituents of Massachusetts. Bay Staters now have a website designed specifically to help them accomplish their goals. The new Mass.gov site is an accessible, mobile-friendly, platform for the future that cuts down on the time users spend wandering through the site, trying to find what they need.

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