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18F project defaults
on December 5, 2024
This year, 18F worked on 31 projects across government agencies. We want to share five templates we have adopted as defaults across our projects.
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18F Folks: Adopting a new illustration library
on October 21, 2024
we've adopted a new illustration style to capture a broad spectrum of human experiences
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18F’s year of launches
on October 8, 2024
Over the past year, 18F has helped amazing partner agencies launch new software products to better serve their users. Here are six launches that 18F has supported this year.
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18F's engineering craft practices at 10
on July 9, 2024
18F engineering has grown and matured as an organization over time. We recently celebrated our 10th anniversary delivering better government services to the public. To support continual investment in our practices, we are renewing our commitment to regularly publishing what we learn, and creating a new engineering leadership role at 18F.
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Back to basics in the age of AI
on June 18, 2024
The federal government is abuzz with conversation about the way that artificial intelligence (AI) is going to change the game. Since 18F partners with agencies to drive technology modernization forward, our ability to navigate the opportunities and risks associated with AI is critical. But as we’re learning new things, we also find ourselves going back to basics. As we evaluate and use AI, we can rely on many of the same practices that we apply to any other new technology. Read on for a quick overview of AI, its place in government today, and the techniques and frameworks we’re using as we navigate this new landscape.
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18F practices in action (spoiler: this stuff works)
on April 3, 2024
Do 18F software development principles really work? We reflected on a recent project to see how well 18F recommendations aligned with what we actually did.
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18F at ten
on March 19, 2024
We’re celebrating all the ways we continue to realize our founding vision: bringing technologists into government, launching shared digital services, and helping partner agencies build user-centered technology.
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Customer experience: beyond surveys
on March 5, 2024
Want to measure customer experience? Surveys aren’t the only way! Consider these guiding questions to help your team select an approach based on what you want to learn.
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Gathering feedback with customer panels
on February 1, 2024
Ever wondered how the federal government, cities, towns and other groups get a .gov domain for their sites? The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) manages all these domains across the web. Learn how we helped CISA build a customer panel to gather feedback from current customers as part of our partnership in building a new website for the .gov registrar.
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Catching up with the TANF Data Portal project
on September 7, 2023
Around 800,000 low-income American families receive cash assistance through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) each month. 18F and the Administration for Children & Families’ Office of Family Assistance partnered on building a new data portal for TANF. We caught up with Office of Family Assistance leaders to see how their agency is continuing with the work.
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“Hi” from the 18F design chapter
on May 2, 2023
Designing technology-enabled public services requires deep expertise in how different elements of the experience come together (or don’t!). The 18F design chapter comprises four discipline-specific cohorts — service design, user experience (UX) design, product design, and content strategy.
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18F Checks In With the DAWSON Project at the U.S. Tax Court
on April 25, 2023
The United States Tax Court is an independent federal court that settles disputes between taxpayers and the Internal Revenue Service. Since the 1980s, the Court has used a modified commercial software product to manage its operations. In December 2020, the Court introduced DAWSON, a modern open-source case management system developed with assistance from an industry partner and 18F. DAWSON streamlined Court operations and changed the way the public interacts with the Court.
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18F Checks In With [Jubilant Swordtail]* and the USGS Water Resrouces Mission Area Projects
on February 24, 2023
At 18F, we like to keep in touch with our project partners. 18F partnered with the USGS Water Resources Mission Area from March 2020 to June 2022 on a wide variety of projects together. We caught up with [Jubilant Swordtail]*, Chief for the Web Communications Branch at USGS Water Resources Mission Area.
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We asked our design team: what did you learn in 2022, and what are you looking forward to in 2023?
on February 13, 2023
We asked our design team what they learned in 2022, and what they are looking forward to in 2023. Here’s what some of our team members had to say.
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18F Checks In With [Jovial Chipmunk]* and the eAPD Project
on November 29, 2022
At 18F, we like to keep in touch with our project partners. 18F partnered with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from December 2017 to June 2020 on the development of a product called eAPD. We caught up with [Jovial Chipmunk]* of CMS, the product owner of eAPD.
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We asked our coworkers: What have you learned from other 18F designers?
on January 21, 2022
We asked 18F designers what they've learned from fellow designers while working together. Here's what they said.
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We asked our coworkers: Why did you join 18F?
on May 11, 2021
We asked our team: “why did you join 18F?” and got all kinds of inspiring answers.
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Technical problems are not the hardest ones to solve
on March 4, 2021
18F consulting software engineers play a pivotal role in helping our partners understand and solve their technical problems, and in doing so help them understand what problems cannot be solved with technology.
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Path Analysis: Technical Assessments toward more durable, usable systems
on February 2, 2021
What does 18F do during a technical assessment? Our approach to a technical assessment is designed to ensure that everyone fully understands the problem and has come to the best solution — not necessarily the first one that came to mind.
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10 weeks improving government through technology
on August 13, 2020
This summer TTS welcomed [Magical Felidae]* as a Coding it Forward Civic Digital fellow. [Magical]* joined the TTS Outreach team to work on the 18F site. We’ve invited [Magical]* to tell us a bit more about the fellowship program and his experience as an engineer on the team.
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Six years improving the experience of government
on March 19, 2020
We’re celebrating another birthday at 18F, and we thought we’d take the opportunity to reflect on how our organization has grown and progressed in the last year
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18F’s four favorite projects of 2018
on March 22, 2019
To continue our birthday celebrations, we’re saluting those projects and partners that inspired our team to do their best to improve the user experience of government. We asked staff from acquisitions to strategy to share what project they loved working on during the past year.
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Happy 5th birthday, 18F
on March 19, 2019
It’s been five years since we launched 18F, and we’ve grown a lot since that day — in size, in focus, and in impact. We wanted to celebrate our fifth birthday with a look back at what we’ve accomplished, what we’ve learned along the way, and where we’re headed next.
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Ask 18F - How can I best advocate for the addition of open-source tools?
on February 6, 2019
Ask 18F is an advice column that answers questions sent in by federal employees. In this edition, two of our enginners share how to best advocate for the addition of open-source tools in the analytics space.
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Shared infrastructure as code
on August 15, 2018
At many government agencies, a central IT team manages DNS directly. Other teams must request changes using help desk tickets, which can have inconsistent turnaround times, and are susceptible to human error. Having DNS records as code and doing changes through pull requests brought turnaround time down from multiple days to under ten minutes.
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Ask 18F — How do you recruit employees?
on August 2, 2018
Ask 18F is an advice column that answers questions sent in by federal employees. In this edition, we’ll talk about how to recruit tech talent in government
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Ask 18F — How do you tackle the problem of associating plain language to formal governmental terms?
on July 6, 2018
Ask 18F is an advice column that answers questions sent in by federal employees. In this edition, we’ll talk about how to associate plain language to formal governmental terms
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Ask 18F — Can you share any tips or suggestions on how to shift the cultural mindset of my organization?
on June 14, 2018
Ask 18F is an advice column that answers questions sent in by federal employees. In this edition, we’ll talk about how to shift the cultural mindset in an organization from traditional business intelligence to more predictive solutions.
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Presidential Innovation Fellows extend deadline for Fall 2018 applications
on June 6, 2018
The Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) program has extended the application deadline to June 24 to help bring the best outside technology talent into government. Join entrepreneurs, designers, data scientists, engineers, developers, and other technologists for a 12-month tour of duty tackling some of our nation’s biggest challenges.
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Ask 18F — Can you share any tips or suggestions on designing surveys and forms?
on April 5, 2018
Ask 18F is an advice column that answers questions sent in by federal employees. Our technical experts aim to provide you helpful resources and a good starting point to tackle your problem. Got a question? No matter how small the task or how big the project, email us at [email protected]
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Ask 18F — A new advice column for federal employees
on February 28, 2018
We are launching a new series called Ask 18F – an advice column that answers questions sent in by federal employees. Our technical experts hope to dispel myths and ease fears about building or buying technology in government. We aim to give you suggested resources, questions to ask your team and lastly, a good starting off point to tackle the problem you wish to solve.
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The Technology Transformation Services launches new job site
on February 21, 2018
Today, we’re happy to announce the first open position on the new hiring page for the Technology Transformation Services (TTS). JoinTTS will be the new home for all TTS job postings, including open 18F jobs.
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[Trustworthy Rabbit]*: Negotiating on America’s behalf
on January 10, 2017
[Trustworthy Rabbit]* joined 18F in January, 2016 after working as a Contracting Officer at the Census Bureau. He works for the TTS Office of Acquisitions on call orders for the Agile BPA, procurement strategy, and other projects that are helping advance the way that government buys technology.
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Presidential Innovation Fellows now accepting applications for Spring 2017
on December 2, 2016
If you’re looking for a way to have an impact on the digital services the government provides to the public, now’s your opportunity. The Presidential Innovation Fellows program is currently accepting applications for the Spring 2017 cohort.
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Embracing opportunities to improve and innovate
on October 24, 2016
Today the GSA Inspector General (IG) issued a report that identified areas for improvement, and we are thankful for their oversight. We have made many improvements over the last few months to address the issues outlined in this report and will take all additional actions necessary.
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GAO review shows satisfied customers and areas for improvement
on September 15, 2016
Yesterday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released their review of 18F and the U.S. Digital Service and our work to transform federal digital services. We appreciate GAO’s review of 18F’s important work and mission.
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[Long Bobolink]*: Automating and engineering a better government
on September 12, 2016
[Long Bobolink]*'s career has taken him from The University of Virginia to Intel before landing at 18F. Here, he has worked on cloud.gov and our diversity guild. His advice for people thinking about joining us: Do it.
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[Bold Sloth]*: A wordsmith joins the government
on September 6, 2016
[Bold Sloth]* joined 18F in September of 2015. Before 18F, [Bold]* was a content strategist at Facebook, Lab Zero, and Mule Design in San Francisco. She started her professional writing practice at Apple, where she served as communications lead for five years and helped launch the original iPhone and iPad.
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[Likeable Mole]*: Unlocking the true potential of public service
on August 26, 2016
All throughout the summer, we’ll be profiling members across the 18F team. [Likeable Mole]* joined 18F in May 2016 after stints at Twitter, Sonos, Digg, Paypal, and Obama for America. He currently works on CALC, a tool that helps the federal contracting community make faster, smarter buying decisions.
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[Majestic Heron]*: Helping engineer a better 18F
on August 15, 2016
[Majestic Heron]* came to 18F from Dreamworks Animation and the Public Library of Science. She joined 18F in pursuit of a way "to use technology to address big societal problems." After hearing about the U.S. Digital Service and 18F from US Chief Technology Officer, Megan Smith, she was inspired to join.
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[Grand Dormouse]*: From big data journalism to micro-purchase platforms
on August 2, 2016
[Grand Dormouse]* joined 18F in May of 2015 after nine years working as a developer at The New York Times. He currently works on the Micro-purchase Platform, which enables vendors to place bids on opportunities to deliver open source code that costs $3,500 or less.
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Bret Mogilefsky: Finding the big good in cloud.gov
on July 28, 2016
Bret Mogilefsky spent most of his career working in the game development industry. He came to the government seeking the best way he could have a big impact and do big good.
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[Eloquent Louse]*: A developer committed to diversity
on July 14, 2016
All throughout the summer, we’ll be profiling members across the 18F team. We’re starting with [Eloquent Louse]*, who is both a front-end developer and a member of our Outreach Team
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Technology Transformation Service looking for new commissioner
on July 13, 2016
Now’s the time to get involved in transforming how the government builds, buys, and shares technology. Now’s the time to lead a growing office of talented and motivated people looking to help federal agencies deliver better services to the public at a lower cost. Sound interesting? Then we’ve got a job for you: Commissioner of the Technology Transformation Service.
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Why we’re moving 18f.gsa.gov to Federalist
on May 18, 2016
We want 18f.gsa.gov to be an exemplar of what 18F can do for partner agencies. One way to do that is to host it the way we’d host a similar site for a partner agency, and that means moving to Federalist.
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GSA invests in 18F's work with new service
on May 10, 2016
The GSA has created the Technology Transformation Service as a third pillar of services for federal agencies alongside the Public Buildings Service and Federal Acquisition Service.
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Video highlights from 18F speeches over the last year
on March 24, 2016
Over the past year, members of our distributed team have given talks in over 30 locations about how we’re changing government digital services. Topics have ranged from how we work to how we help the government build and buy software to how people can join the 18F team.
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We asked over 100 of our coworkers: What have you loved working on?
on March 23, 2016
One of the best parts of working at 18F is the focus on meaningful, mission-driven projects. But which projects? We asked everyone across the organization to tell us what they've most enjoyed working on. Here are their responses.
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We asked over 100 of our coworkers: What was your path to 18F?
on March 22, 2016
People have joined 18F from a variety of different backgrounds. We asked them to tell us how they got to 18F, and over 100 of them did.
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We asked over 100 of our coworkers: Why did you join 18F?
on March 21, 2016
Why did people make the decision to join 18F? We asked people on every team to reflect on why they came here.
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18F year two: By the numbers
on March 18, 2016
18F turned two years old this past Saturday, and we thought we’d take the opportunity to reflect on how our organization has grown and progressed in the last 12 months. Our team, our work, and even this blog have grown and diversified since March 19, 2015. Here are a few key statistics to show how.
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Help 18F lead the way: 2 new open positions to guide our business and our people
on February 24, 2016
The Talent Team is thrilled to announce the opening of two new leadership positions here at 18F: Director of Chapters and Director of Custom Partner Solutions
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Bringing iterative development to our Talent Team
on February 9, 2016
Over the past year, the Talent Team has worked hard to improve the 18F job application process. We’ve worked hard, but also differently. We shifted our view of talent acquisition from a support function to a product that we deliver, and one that demands the lean and agile philosophies that are the 18F way of life.
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How we test 18f.gsa.gov
on December 11, 2015
As our blog got more complicated, we started making mistakes that were hard to catch before publishing. So we came up with a way to catch many of those errors, before they end up in your browser.
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Moving from GitHub Pages to 18F Pages
on May 14, 2015
As part of 18F's effort to generate helpful documentation for all digital service teams, we have launched https://pages.18f.gov/, aka “18F Pages,” an ever-growing site that contains guides, best practices, and more.
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A day in the life of an 18F talent manager
on April 8, 2015
For this month's installment of our Day in the Life series, a talent manager shares the ins and outs of her day — and her power song.
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A day in the life of an 18F content designer
on March 12, 2015
In preparation for our one-year anniversary, we at 18F are introducing a new blog feature — our Day in the Life Series. Once a month, a different team member will share the details of their typical day in the office. Up first is a content designer.
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How to use GitHub and the terminal: a guide
on March 3, 2015
At 18F we hire people from many different backgrounds and each new employee brings a different level of comfort with the specific tools we use on our various projects. The team that runs the 18F website recently started writing down the tools and processes that we use to update the blog and the code that runs the site. We're sharing that with you today.
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We are hiring
on February 25, 2015
You can find 18F in D.C., San Francisco, Chicago, Dayton, and New York. Our rapidly growing team is home to a variety of roles, including these: Software Makers, Experience Designers & Researchers, DevOps, Visual and Interaction Designers, Writers & Content Strategists, Product Managers and whatever other skills you can bring to the team.
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Join us
on January 21, 2015
The U.S. Digital Service is a collection of teams across the federal government, working to bring skilled technologists into public service. We are thrilled to be part of this effort, and will continue to lead the charge for making easy things easy and hard things possible.
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Taking control of our website with Jekyll and webhooks
on November 17, 2014
How we moved our website to Jekyll, left Tumblr behind, and set up automatic deployment with webhooks.
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Getting to work for the American people
on September 18, 2014
Over the last six months, 18F has embarked on a mission to transform the way the U.S. Government builds and buys digital services. We’re currently working with more than half a dozen agencies to help them deliver on their missions in a design-centric, agile, open, and data-driven way.
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Say hello to the new Presidential Innovation Fellows
on September 15, 2014
The third class of Presidential Innovation Fellows was sworn into duty last week by former CTO Todd Park. We are excited to welcome them into the 18F family.
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Hacking bureaucracy: improving hiring and software deployment
on May 14, 2014
When asked what it is we do, one quick answer is, "we’re hacking bureaucracy." While it may sound provocative, it isn’t.
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A few notes on NotAlone.gov
on May 9, 2014
At the end of April, Vice President Biden, while rolling out the final report of the White House's 90-day Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, announced the launch of NotAlone.gov, a website built by 18F and the Presidential Innovation Fellows.
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