Five minutes with Jess Lim

Could you tell me about your job?

I’m a Principal Designer working on the Digital Identity and Verifiable Credentials (DIVC) product portfolio. Digital verification of credentials such as licenses, certificates and entitlements makes it easier and more secure to prove who you are and what you are entitled to do. I work with product, design and stakeholder leaders to refine and evolve their product strategies for broad adoption of verifiable credentials.

What are the main projects you are currently working on?

I am currently working with other designers to complete initial research. This includes interviewing a range of issuers and verifiers, from government to private sector organizations, to understand their needs, challenges and opportunities. This allows you to prioritize where DIVC can provide the most value and benefits.

We also work with product leaders to plan technical and user discovery. This will inform future product roadmaps.

What does Verifiable Credential mean?

A Verifiable Credential (or VC) is an attribute that a person or business obtains to prove that they are entitled to do something. For example, a first aid certificate proves that the person has current first aid training. Other examples include permissions, memberships, and entitlements.

Who is your primary audience?

Our users include NSW individuals, businesses and government agencies. Essentially any party that wants to issue, validate, or use credentials. This is a massive design challenge as we are aiming for mass market adoption with Web 3 technologies that are still very early in their maturity.

What do you think about your future course?

We shared early findings from our research with our product teams and stakeholders. The next steps will focus on researching other areas of interest and how to drive adoption when combining multiple use cases to involve more users and organizations. DIVC offers benefits such as fraud reduction, privacy protection, increased security, and process efficiency for credential issuance and verification.

How will this project help address the privacy concerns customers face digitally?

We look at how people can safely share personal information with organizations they trust. Verifiable Credentials are a promising global standard that uses encryption and decentralization to enhance privacy and security.

Verifiable credentials enable people to choose what personal information they share with trusted organizations through their digital wallets.

Globally, verifiable credentials are still in the very early stages. There are several examples of large-scale Verifiable Credentials solutions. NSW defines factors that make digital transactions using verifiable credentials safer and more secure.

What are the fundamental steps behind strong privacy for citizens?

Strong laws and safeguards are the foundation that helps protect people’s personal information. Designing an experience for the customer that maintains privacy and supports his informed consent is also important. They all help build trust to support this new way for people to share personal information in their digital interactions.

What was your proudest work moment in the last 12 months?

As a newly formed portfolio, we have come a long way in less than a year. We have a passionate team that enjoys a challenge in the field of digital transformation, which is full of unknowns and unknowns. My proudest moment is yet to come. It’s time to provide the first verifiable credentials in a digital wallet that can be used and shared securely.

Overall, our work can have a significant positive social and economic impact, which is very rewarding when made available to the community.