Our Vision
“To provide accessible, simple, and secure digital experiences that adapt to a person’s needs, so that every time they engage with any part of their government, they're getting the most and best of the Commonwealth.”
We want to make it easy, safe, and convenient for everyone in Massachusetts to use digital government services.
Our Values
To transform our state’s digital services, we need to understand what constituents need and expect. Feedback from constituents and our agency partners helped us identify 7 core values. They are:
- Keep it simple
- Include me
- Recognize me
- Don't waste my time
- Keep me in the loop
- Put it within my reach
- Earn my trust
These values guide our work. They help us invest in what matters most to the people we serve.
Our Strategy
The Digital Roadmap is about making state services easier, faster, and more meaningful. Our strategy includes:
- Technical Enablement: Build and share new digital tools and solutions.
- End-to End Experience and Service Improvements: Improve experiences through research and design. We evaluate people's experiences across all interactions they have with government.
- Capacity Building: Help organizations learn and grow so they can deliver high quality digital services.
- Digital Governance: Create rules and plans for how we use technology, time, and money. Provide leadership, responsibility, and guidance.
- Cross-Agency Engagement: Make it easier for teams across state government to collaborate. Make sure they have access to the same standards, tools, and services.
We work with agencies to adopt these approaches to improving experiences. We introduce better technology, smarter service design, and constituent-centered ways of working. Every initiative we work on offers a chance to create digital services that meet people’s needs.
Roadmap Initiatives
The Digital Roadmap focuses on the things that matter most to Massachusetts constituents. Because we know needs change over time, our initiatives will also change over time. Our current projects include:
- MyMassGov
- Seamless Engagement
- Life Experiences
- Digital Accessibility
- Service Standards
- Constituent Experience Center of Excellence
MyMassGov
MyMassGov is a secure website where people can use one account to access state services and applications. It helps reduce how much information people have to enter when they apply. We're always adding new features to make MyMassGov easier and better to use.
Video: What is MyMassGov
Skip this video What is MyMassGov.At-a-glance progress:
- More than 2 million people now use MyMassGov.
- People can update their profile, including their name, password, email, and how they log in.
- We’ve added more state programs to MyMassGov. These include the Virtual Gateway, Paid Family and Medical Leave, and Unemployment Services. More programs will be added soon.
- Our identity verification tool helps people easily and securely prove who they are. This means they don't have to do it again when they apply for new services.
Seamless Engagement
Seamless Engagement is about creating connected experiences across state services. We want to make it easier for people to get help and connect in different ways — like websites, email, or chat — without losing their place. We’re building tools to help agencies work together and communicate better. We're focused now on using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve state websites. We want people to get quicker, better answers to their questions no matter how they contact us.
At-a-glance progress:
- We worked with the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) to create a Virtual Assistant chatbot. It uses Generative AI to help people get answers easily and quickly. We launched the chatbot on RMV webpages in April 2025. It helped people learn about upgrading to a REAL ID before the May 7, 2025 deadline. Today, it can also answer questions about licenses, vehicle registrations, and more. It handles about 1,500 conversations a day.
- We updated web content, built the AI chat tool, and supported RMV staff. It has also helped us prepare to bring AI chat to other agencies and offer live chat in the future.
- We’re creating a shared Virtual Assistant system that many agencies can use. We made a template to help set it up faster in the future. This means we can reuse the same technology and processes each time.
Life Experiences
Life experiences are big events or changes like having a baby, losing a job, or retiring. During these experiences, people often need to interact with multiple organizations, websites, or systems, which can be a challenge. We’re working with organizations to streamline these types of experiences.
Our life experience framework helps government agencies work together more efficiently. It uses Human-Centered Design (HCD). This means you listen to people, design solutions based on their needs, test those ideas, and improve over time. Our model encourages organizations to work together and share information. We want to simplify services and make sure that we design things that meet people's needs.
At-a-glance progress:
- In January 2025, we started working with the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and the Executive Office of Education IT (EOE IT). Our goal is to give better career support to early childhood educators. We’re creating better experiences for educators who want to grow their careers.
- We're looking at the full journey — from the first time they reach out to the support they’ll need over time.
- We’ve already made several updates to the professional certification process. These include changes to the parts people see (like forms and websites) and the behind-the-scenes steps that make everything work.
Digital Accessibility
Digital accessibility means removing barriers that block access for people with disabilities. When digital experiences are accessible, they’re better for everyone.
In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice made a rule that says state and local governments must make their online content accessible. This includes websites, mobile apps, videos, and social media. They must follow standards called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, levels A and AA. Making sure everyone can use state services is an important Roadmap goal. That’s why we’re helping state agencies learn about and follow the new accessibility rules.
At-a-glance progress:
- The 2023 Executive Order 614 established the Digital Accessibility and Equity Governance Board. It also established the Chief IT Accessibility Officer and Secretariat IT Accessibility Officers.
- We created a central accessibility team to provide policy, standards, guidance, and information. They also are helping implement accessibility for digital assets.
- Commonwealth employees can now take trainings on accessibility topics. They can also meet with the accessibility team during office hours. They can ask questions and learn from subject matter experts and others.
Service Standards
Service Standards explain what people can expect from a service. They also give guidance to agencies on how to deliver those services. They help make sure state services are simple to use, work well, and are trustworthy. Service Standards also help state agencies follow the same values and use best practices.
We group the standards into:
- Those that focus on people’s experience using the service
- Those that focus on how agencies build and manage the service
We’re focusing on standards for digital services. This includes things like improving constituents' experiences with websites and applications. One example of a standard is that websites should meet accessibility rules. This helps make sure that everyone can use online services equally.
At-a-glance progress:
- We defined Service Standards to help agencies deliver people-first digital experiences. We’ll launch the standards through an early adoption program.
- We'll introduce the standards through the existing domain request process. This will also help us find agencies to take part in the early adoption program.
- We've developed governance to ensure that organizations follow rules around privacy, security, data, and AI.
- We've created a process to assess how business owners adopt digital service standards.
Constituent Experience Center of Excellence
Helping agencies design and deliver great constituent experiences is a key Roadmap strategy. This is why we created a Constituent Experience Center of Excellence. This team includes experts in experience research and design. We advise, share best practices, and offer tools and trainings to help agencies design services that put people first.
At-a-glance progress:
- We help organizations build skills and staff so they can improve constituent experiences. For example, we’re helping a content team learn to make constituent research part of their work. This helps them improve how they design webpages and information. We’re also helping an organization start a research and design team. This includes helping them design roles, review resumes, and select candidates.
- We launched Communities of Practice (CoPs) where agency staff can meet and learn from one another. Examples include:
- The Experience Research CoP, focused on learning how to conduct research with constituents
- Content Lab, focused on content strategy and creating effective, accessible plain language content
- We created a resource library to help agencies build teams and deliver great experiences. It includes:
- “How to” guides, templates, and advice on building constituent-centered teams and ways of working.
How we got here
The Commonwealth Digital Roadmap aims to make it easier for people to use state services online. It focuses on making digital services simple, safe and accessible to all. The Roadmap was created by our team in Mass Digital, part of the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security (EOTSS). To create the Roadmap, we collaborated with other state organizations and got feedback from the public.
The idea for the Roadmap started in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, more people than ever needed to interact with the state online. We learned how important digital technology is for accessing government services.
We began working on the Roadmap in 2022. Governor Healey’s Future Tech Act of 2024 authorized $110M for its implementation. We brought together teams from across state government. Together, we identified shared challenges and plans for solving them.
Over 4 months, we used research and workshops to create a plan. This plan is flexible. We know that it will need to change as technology evolves, and as organizations adjust to meet people's changing needs.
Looking Ahead
The Roadmap calls for investing in technology that connects experiences across digital services. Stay tuned for updates throughout the year on our progress!