Judith Gerlach is convinced that a product does not have to be perfect in the beginning. It is important to be able to show something quickly, says the Bavarian digital minister, referring to the Bayern app, the first administrative app in a federal state.
Judith Gerlach was the youngest member of the Bavarian Parliament when she became the first digital minister in a federal state in 2018. The attraction for the lawyer was building a ministry from scratch. “It was like a start-up, only in the state. It was really tough in the first few months,” says Gerlach in the ntv podcast “So techt Deutschland”.
In “So techt Deutschland” the ntv moderators Frauke Holzmeier and Andreas Laukat ask founders, investors, politicians and entrepreneurs how things are with Germany as a technology location. All episodes can be found in the ntv app, at AudioNow, Apple Podcastsand Spotify. Also at Amazon Music and Google Podcasts you will find it.
Gerlach admits that she is already a “digital native” in terms of age, but compared to today’s “digital natives” she is far behind. But as a lawyer, she can also think broadly about the issues and thus make decisions that have to take many claims into account.
Your claim is not always to launch a perfect product. First of all, it should be quick and it is important to show something, says Gerlach and refers to the Bayern App, the first administrative app in a federal state. Certainly the bankruptcies of some state apps, such as the driver’s license app, were not helpful. Nevertheless, it is important that the state also gets involved in implementation and does not leave everything to private companies.
Make processes more intuitive
However, before such apps can be implemented, the administrative processes would have to be rethought. Gerlach is convinced that “translating analogue processes into digital ones” is not enough. You have to make them more efficient and intuitive. This path takes longer, but Gerlach believes that it pays off and that in the end citizens are offered better processes.
A major obstacle is often the written form requirement. No matter how nice digital processes can be, if the citizen has to print them out, sign them and send them to the town hall, “then the whole process didn’t help me,” explains Gerlach.