Carina Lim, Product Designer, Open Government Products (OGP), Singapore

1. How do you use technology/policy to improve citizens’ lives? Tell us about your role or organisation. 

I am a Product Designer at Open Government Products (OGP), where we leverage modern technology practices to tackle pressing public sector challenges.

My role involves identifying pain points faced by both citizens and public officers and addressing those needs through thoughtful, user-centric design. 

One example of this is RedeemSG, a voucher system I designed to support government initiatives like the CDC Voucher campaigns. We digitised the paper voucher experience to: 

• Reduce the time needed to set up campaigns, 

• Make it easier for residents to collect and spend vouchers, and 

• Cut down the time merchants wait for their payouts. 

By streamlining the process, RedeemSG has created a more efficient and user-friendly experience for all stakeholders involved. 

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2. What was the most impactful project you worked on this year? 

The most impactful project I worked on this year was enhancing the ScamShield App.

We took a deep dive into the user challenges of the previous version and expanded its capabilities to address emerging scam variants, particularly on platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. 

With the new features, users can now check if a call, message, or link might be a scam. We also streamlined the reporting process by allowing users to submit screenshots, making it easier to report suspicious activities. 

This improvement has strengthened our ability to use crowdsourced data as a valuable source of scam intelligence. 

While there’s still much to do in the fight against scams, these enhancements mark an important step toward empowering users to safeguard themselves from increasingly sophisticated threats. 

3. What was one unexpected learning from 2024? 

One unexpected learning from 2024 was realising that the stereotype of scam victims being primarily elderly individuals doesn’t align with reality.

While seniors are vulnerable, police data revealed that adults aged 30-49 actually make up the highest proportion of scam victims.

This was surprising, as this group often perceives themselves as too savvy to fall for scams and, consequently, are less likely to use tools like ScamShield.

Our user research attributes this to overconfidence. Ironically, many scams today require a certain level of tech savviness to execute actions like clicking phishing links, navigating spoofed websites, or responding to fake platforms, making this group particularly susceptible. 

Scams have also become increasingly sophisticated, exploiting emotions, trust, and even routine behaviours—factors that can affect anyone, regardless of age or tech-savviness.

This has led us to ask: how do you make people who don’t see themselves as vulnerable care enough to take preventive action? It’s not just about building tools to combat scams but also about designing interventions that address overconfidence and encourage proactive behaviour.

This learning is now shaping our approach to product development and user engagement, focusing on both functionality and building awareness. 

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

I’m excited to explore Framer Motion, a powerful library for creating animations in React.

It allows designers and developers to create smooth, interactive animations with ease, making digital experiences more engaging and memorable. 

While it might be a small touch, I think it could be a fun and interactive way to address the challenge of educating people about scams.

For example, animations could help simplify complex scam scenarios or demonstrate preventive actions, making the information more accessible and easier to understand. 

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

For those working in the scam space, AI unfortunately brings more complexity and challenges.

Deepfakes are a prime example, enabling scammers to impersonate trusted figures like officials in ways that are disturbingly convincing.

Additionally, AI-powered automation allows bad actors to create personalized and sophisticated scam messages at scale, making their schemes even harder to detect and counter. 

For those of us trying to stay ahead of scammers, it often feels like a never-ending game of catch-up.

Every time we implement a solution, scammers are already onto the next big thing. AI hasn’t just made scams more sophisticated—it’s made my job a lot harder, and sometimes it feels like I can’t catch a break! 

6. What are your priorities for 2025? 

Spend less time facing a screen! 

7. What advice do you have for public sector innovators? 

Honestly, innovation in the public sector doesn’t have to be a huge, dramatic launch where everything changes overnight.

A lot of the time, it’s about making small, meaningful improvements, testing things out, and tweaking as you go. Starting small can be less overwhelming and helps you make sure the solution actually works for the people who’ll use it. 

Another thing I’ve learned is that there’s usually more than one way to solve a problem. It’s easy to fall in love with your first idea, but staying open-minded can lead to better results.

Let the people you’re designing for guide your choices as it’s their needs that matter most. 

And don’t feel like you need to use the newest tech just to call it “innovation.” Sometimes, simple solutions work best.

When we built a digital voucher system, adding a paper fallback for seniors ensured no one got left behind. At the end of the day, it’s about what works for the people, not what’s trendy. 

8. Who inspires you today? 

My coworkers! The team at Open Government Products is incredibly talented, and I’m constantly learning from them.

For example, Rachel’s enthusiasm for exploring new tools and creating delightful interactions; Pras’s meticulous dedication to going the extra mile and even pushing his own fixes for frontend issues; and Reshma consistently stepping up to take responsibility and do the right thing, even when it’s tough or thankless. 

They challenge me creatively and push me to solve problems in new ways every day. 

This feature was made possible in partnership with Open Government Products (OGP).