Tan Si Qi, Senior Manager (Operations Development & Planning), People's Association, Singapore

1) What does public service mean to you? Can you share more about your role in the public sector?

Public service, to me, means designing systems that meet people where they are—especially when they’re navigating vulnerable or stressful moments. It’s about reducing friction, not adding to it. 

In my current role in PA, I work at the intersection of ground operations and HQ planning.

While a lot of public service focuses on last‑mile delivery to residents, my work looks at both the last mile and the next mile: ensuring what we design at HQ meaningfully supports frontline officers on the ground.

This includes digitalising workflows, building internal tools for officers, and more recently, being involved in work that explores how robotics can support and transform frontline service delivery in practical, responsible ways. 

2) Tell us about a project you championed. What impact did it have on the community?

One project I championed was the digitalisation of hardcopy bursary and assistance application forms into FormSG.

Previously, residents had to fill in physical forms, and officers spent significant time chasing missing information or manually processing submissions. 

By redesigning the form logic and backend process, we reduced processing time, cut down errors, and made it easier for residents to apply without repeated visits.

Officers were able to spend less time on administrative follow‑ups and more time on understanding residents’ needs.

It wasn’t a high‑profile project, but it tangibly improved day‑to‑day experiences for both residents and frontline staff. 

3) As a young professional, how has your unique background or perspective allowed you to identify a solution that others in your organisation might have overlooked?

Being closer to the day‑to‑day work helped me notice that many pain points weren’t policy‑related, but cognitive and operational.

Officers were spending a lot of energy drafting similar emails, writing nomination justifications, or formatting routine documents. 

Instead of seeing it as automation for its own sake, I see it as a way to offload routine interactions so officers can focus on more complex, human centred cases.

That led me to help develop internal pair assistants that support everyday work—like drafting emails or NOMs—so officers can focus on judgment and engagement rather than repetitive writing.

I take a similar lens in newer work involving a robot for frontline service delivery: instead of seeing it as automation for its own sake, I see it as a way to offload routine interactions so officers can focus on more complex, human‑centred cases. 

4) What is your personal strategy for staying motivated when managing heavy workloads and tight deadlines?

I accept bureaucracy as part of the operating environment, not something to fight head‑on. I treat it as a design constraint. 

What keeps me energised is focusing on small, concrete improvements—pilots, tools, or workflow tweaks—that are actually doable. Staying close to ground officers also helps.

When you hear directly what frustrates or slows them down, it’s much easier to channel energy into solving real problems, whether through digitalisation, process redesign, or new service models like robotics. 

5) If you had just one area to invest in to accelerate transformation in the public sector (regulation, technology, talent, etc.), which one would you choose and why?

Talent. Technology, regulations, and systems matter, but transformation ultimately depends on people who can identify real problems and apply tools thoughtfully. 

Whether it’s building digital forms, internal AI assistants, or exploring robotics for service delivery, success comes down to officers who understand both frontline realities and system constraints.

Investing in talent means enabling people to experiment responsibly and translate insights into sustained improvements. 

6) What is your greatest ambition as you grow in your public service career?

I want to be someone who consistently bridges operations and strategy—someone who can translate ground realities into actionable planning, and ensure HQ decisions make sense on the ground. 

Over time, I hope to help shape service delivery models that are humane, efficient, and future‑ready—whether through digital tools, new operating models, or technologies like robotics—without losing sight of the people at the centre of the system. 

7) What is a “universal value” that connects everyone in your department – from interns to directors – and how do you use that to drive collaboration?

Care—for residents and for colleagues. Regardless of role or seniority, there’s a shared desire to help people and to do work that matters. 

I try to surface this value in discussions by reframing disagreements around impact: how does this help frontline officers do their jobs better, or residents navigate services more easily?

That shared purpose often helps teams align, even when views differ on the approach. 

8) What is the best piece of advice you’ve got for the next generation of public servants?

Focus on making things better at the level you can influence. You don’t need to own a policy to have impact. Improving a form, a template, or a process can meaningfully change daily experiences for many people. 

Also, learn the system well. Understanding constraints is what allows you to improve them responsibly. 

9) What is a myth you wish to debunk about young public servants?

That we are impatient or unrealistic. Many young public servants deeply understand governance and accountability—we’re not trying to bypass them. 

We’re simply trying to adapt systems to changing realities and expectations, using the tools available today. 

10) Write a letter to your future self in 2035. Please keep it within 200 words.

Dear Future Me, 

I hope you’ve stayed grounded in why you chose public service—to make systems easier to navigate, not harder.

I hope you still listen carefully to frontline officers and residents, especially when technology and scale make it tempting not to. 

If robots, AI, or new tools have become commonplace, remember why you helped introduce them in the first place: not to replace people, but to support them.

Use influence to simplify, protect time for human judgment, and make space for experimentation. 

Don’t lose empathy as responsibilities grow. Every system you shape affects someone’s daily reality—often when they’re at their most vulnerable. 

If you’re still curious, still learning, and still trying to bridge people, policy, and practice, then you’re doing alright. 

— You, from earlier days