The Innovator’s Dilemma (The PubSec Remix)
Last year, millions of US students applied for student aid using the federal government’s “new-and-improved” FAFSA. With a modern platform and a slimmed-down application process, Congress hoped these efforts would reduce the administrative burden on students and increase the accessibility of aid for those pursuing postsecondary education.1
But was FAFSA really new and improved? For many, not so much.
Instead, huge swaths of applicants found themselves unable to submit their application and secure the timely aid needed to apply and enroll in school. Impacted groups included applicants born in 2000 (with coders not accounting for ambiguity in years ending in “00”), grad students being offered undergraduate-only Pell grants, and children of parents without a Social Security number or who are undocumented.2
For this last group of mixed-status families, the FAFSA team expected only 3,500 applicants to be flagged for intervention, meaning a DOE analyst would review their application manually. The actual number? 218,000. It’s no wonder that only one in five calls from FAFSA users, like parents, students, and high school counselors, were answered at the height of application season. In all, 55 technical defects were found after launch—twice as many as had been flagged prior to its public debut.2 In short, the revamp was a flop.
The FAFSA fracas has not only diminished access to higher education but also revealed just how quickly the government can lose public trust in its ability to deliver resources to taxpayers. This has vast implications well beyond student financial aid. Programs of all shapes and sizes and at all levels of government are at risk of losing customer confidence—even among high-performing, high-trust services like FAFSA.
In other words, trust is built in droplets but lost in buckets.
Public sector leaders must perform a delicate balancing act. On one hand are mandates and missions to innovate and improve services. On the other hand are guardrails of bureaucracy intended to promote continuity and stability in services that are critical to life and limb. This article offers a framework for resolving this tension that public sectors often face. Specifically, we will cover:
- How prospect theory explains the tenuous relationships between service delivery, the willingness to innovate, and public trust
- What the innovator’s dilemma is and how it applies to public sector practitioners
- How practitioners can identify when, where, and how to pursue innovation at all levels of government
References
- Moynihan, D. (2024, July 3). Identifying and reducing burdens. Don Moynihan. https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/identifying-and-reducing-burdens
- NPR. (2024, June 19). Federal student aid still up in the air for many. https://www.npr.org/2024/06/19/1198912680/federal-student-aid-still-up-in-the-air-for-many
- Burns, C. (2024, May 20). Improving government customer experience: Insights from rankings and research analysis. Qualtrics. https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/government-customer-experience/
- Sunstein, C. R., & Thaler, R. H. (2016, December 7). The two friends who changed how we think about how we think. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-two-friends-who-changed-how-we-think-about-how-we-think
- The Behavioral Scientist. (n.d.). Reference dependence. The Behavioral Scientist. https://www.thebehavioralscientist.com/glossary/reference-dependence
- Fiveable. (n.d.). Diminishing sensitivity. Fiveable. https://library.fiveable.me/key-terms/intermediate-microeconomic-theory/diminishing-sensitivity
- Collins, J. (n.d.). 17 Probability weighting. Notes on Behavioural Economics. https://behaviouraleconomics.jasoncollins.blog/prospect-theory/probability-weighting
- Pahlka, J. (2023). Recoding America: Why government is failing in the digital age and how we can do better. Metropolitan Books
- Klein, E., & Thompson, D. (2025). Abundance: How we build a better future. Avid Reader Press.
- Howard, P. K. (2024). Everyday freedom: Designing the framework for a flourishing society. Rodin Books.
- Mayo Clinic Staff. (2023, October 20). Chiari malformation: Symptoms and causes. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/chiari-malformation/symptoms-causes/syc-20354010
About the Author
Crosby Burns
Crosby Burns’ mission is to improve people’s lives and livelihoods through government action that is effective, efficient, and above all else, more human. He brings more than 15 years of experience driving transformation in government—both internally as a government leader and externally as a management consultant and technology advisor to senior public sector clients. As a national thought leader, his work centers on customer experience, service delivery, innovation, and digital government.
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