Patricia Zhao, Director, Government Digital Products, GovTech Singapore

1. In 30 words or less, please share what you do in GovTech. 

I oversee a platform programme under Government Digital Products, looking to improve whole-of-government policy productivity by adopting central GovTech products and tools.   

2. Walk us down your career. What were your significant highlights and milestones?

I started in GovTech in mid-2019 as a Service Designer for the Government-Paid-Leave system project for MSF. A year in, COVID-19 hit and GovTech started many initiatives to mitigate the risks the pandemic brings. At that point, I started leading a development team to develop the SupplyAlly app, a central distribution tool that helps distribute masks, ART Kits, and TraceTogether tokens to citizens.  

As the product needs grew, subsequently, GovWallet was birthed and till date, I oversee the ecosystem of GovWallet suite with 4 product offerings (GovSupply - previously SupplyAlly, GovWallet, GovRewards and GovEntry). That was when I pivoted my role from a Service Designer to a Product Manager. Coincidentally, with GovTech’s organisation restructuring in 2024, I am now managing about 9 products within the programme, focusing on providing it for agencies to gain policy productivity.  

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3. How would your friends and family describe you?  

  
I was told I am a very driven individual who is very focused on my tasks at hand. I think this is one of the traits that makes me quite an outcome-driven person.   

4. What sparked your interest in joining the public sector?  

Before joining GovTech, I was in the private industry and I covered mainly the pre-sales job scope. I do not usually get to see the end outcome of my work and in GovTech, I get to do that end-to-end and that’s what I love about this job.   

5. How do you use technology/policy to improve citizens’ lives or for Singapore?

I have the experience to work with multiple digital products and see the vast opportunities that technology can bring. Taking GovWallet as an example, government payouts can now be disbursed seamlessly to a citizen’s GovWallet (eWallet).  

This has supported many agencies with their disbursement scheme operations and greatly reduced their set-up cost. Beyond that, it has effectively removed citizens’ hassle of paper-voucher collections or the cognitive load of remembering to bring it out to spend before it expires. It opens up many more merchants where citizens can spend their payouts at and brings much more convenience to them.  

6. What was the most impactful project you worked on this year or in your time with GovTech?  

It’s hard to say as all projects are impactful. But I must say the best thing about GovTech is its people. The teams who I work with, designers to developers alike are so brilliant and bring about so much creativity and passion in their job. That’s where I learnt the most from.   

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7. Everybody’s talking about AI today – give us your hot take on AI and what it means for the public sector.  

Using AI for day-to-day work simply optimises one’s productivity. You can rely on AI technology to help you with work and free up your time to focus on more strategic thinking. That means the public sector could focus on things that matter more, designing and developing policies that make sense for Singapore, and leveraging more central and WOG tools and products, AI or not, to help with the execution of the policy.  

8. What advice do you have for public sector innovators? Or people looking to join the public sector?  

One thing I learned here is not to be closed to ideas even though they sound wild when you first hear it. I think that’s what innovation is all about. I am pretty logical and rational, and I think being sceptical is good. However, I’ll tell myself and other innovators to keep an open mind to trying it out and the outcome may be beyond what you could imagine.  

My manager, Steven, often told me “Never try, never know.” So, I appreciate learning that from him.  

9. What was one unexpected learning from 2024 for you?   

 
One learning I had was the understanding that my preference may not be others’ preference. Therefore, to stay curious and ask before jumping to a conclusion of what the others’ preference is. It doesn’t mean that you like it, others would.   

On the flip side, this made me learn how to voice out my preferences so others would know.  

10. What’s a tool or technique you’re excited to explore in 2025?  

 
Product pricing strategies.  

11. What are your priorities for 2025?  

 Given the new re-organisation, my utmost priority is stabilising the team and working with our agencies’ partners to bring the right solutions to their problems.