Framework · Adaptive Value Design LLC
The Public Value Aperture
A Federal Operating Model Framework
Edith A. Hughes, D.Sc. · Adaptive Value Design LLC · 2026
Framework Statement
An operating model describes how an organization works together to deliver value. It has multiple elements that leaders must design and implement so that those elements integrate effectively and complement each other in execution. The Public Value Aperture is a framework for designing mission-aligned operating models that integrate six interdependent elements: Mission Domains and Strategy, Customer Insight, Organization Design, Service Delivery, Technology Enablement, and Measures. Together, these elements enable the consistent delivery of public value.
The Institutional Challenge
Public institutions must translate mission into measurable outcomes. Yet the operating model elements that make this possible are often designed independently rather than as an integrated system.
When decision authority, execution responsibility, and accountability for outcomes are dispersed across structures, governance becomes layered and cumbersome, execution becomes fragmented, and mission performance is difficult to measure.
Federal transformation efforts frequently address these symptoms without diagnosing the underlying cause: mission domains, authority structures, and service delivery architecture that were never designed to mirror each other. The Public Value Aperture names that root cause and provides a framework for resolving it.
The Aperture
Figure 1: Public Value Aperture — a framework for aligning operating model elements to deliver public value
The Public Value Aperture
Like a camera aperture, the six elements of the framework are interlocking blades that must all align to ensure a clear focus. No single blade delivers the image; they work as a system or fail as a system.
Two Outer-Ring Groupings
Institutional Direction: Mission Domains and Strategy + Customer Insight + Measures. Define the value to be delivered before designing anything. Mission domains define why the organization exists; Customer Insight grounds decisions in understanding who is served and what they need. Measures quantify value delivered, not just outputs.
Enabling Systems: Organization Design + Service Delivery + Technology Enablement. Structure teams and define their authorities and accountabilities for service delivery and technology architecture to mirror the bounded context of business domains and subdomains to create an aligned operating model.
When these elements are aligned, institutions create a clear pathway from mission and strategy to coordinated service delivery and measurable public value.
The Structural Logic: Isomorphism
Alignment across the aperture requires more than good intentions; it requires structural congruence. For a mission-aligned operating model to work, three structures must mirror each other: the mission domains that define how the organization structures and prioritizes its work; the authority and accountability structures that determine who owns decisions and outcomes; and the service delivery and technology architecture through which value is delivered.
When these three are congruent, value flows cleanly. When they are misaligned, the people making decisions don't own the outcomes, teams don't map to domains and value delivery, and technical systems cut across accountability boundaries in ways that make sustained improvement nearly impossible. This is the isomorphism principle: the structures of all three must look the same.
From Framework to Practice
When Mission Domains and Strategy, Customer Insight, Organization Design, Service Delivery, Technology Enablement, and Measures operate as a mission-aligned operating model, institutions strengthen their capacity to sustain effective mission execution and deliver measurable public value. The Public Value Aperture is supported by a sequence of methods and tools that enable organizations to bring their operating models into alignment and sustain the change.
© 2026 Adaptive Value Design LLC · Framework
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About Adaptive Value Design
Adaptive Value Design LLC is an independent research and advisory practice grounded in direct practitioner experience: co-creating operating model frameworks and facilitating alignment work with senior leaders across multiple federal agencies. The Public Value Aperture grew from that work, developed not from theory but from observed patterns of structural misalignment and what it takes to correct them.