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How we measure the success of coaching engagements
on December 10, 2024
We use tried and true techniques to demonstrate how we're serving the American public.
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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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Content design for beta.ada.gov: writing for action and flexibility
on July 13, 2022
We worked with a team at the Department of Justice to redesign ADA.gov. We helped them launch beta.ada.gov, and we’ve designed new content for some of the most sought-after ADA topics.
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Building capacities within a government agency to build and support a new case management system: part 1
on June 16, 2021
This is part one in a two-part series with our partner team at the U.S. Tax Court about their experiences building their new, open source case management system, DAWSON. For this post, we chatted with [Intrepid Barnacle]*, Product Owner and Deputy Clerk of the Court, Case Services Officer.
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Building product management capacity in government part 3: A day in the life of a new product owner
on May 3, 2021
This is part four in a series of posts about building product management capacity in government agencies. For this post, we chatted with [Yellow Ray]* from DOJ’s Civil Rights Division about his experience as a product owner on Civil Rights reporting portal.
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Why simplicity? Choosing a web architecture
on April 5, 2021
If you have ever led or managed a web project, you know that coordinating a team of software engineers is hard work! We hope this blog post can help you understand the concepts behind choosing a web application architecture, so that you can steer your software towards simplicity — even if you don’t have direct software engineering experience.
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The Key Role of Product Owners in Federated Data Projects
on November 24, 2020
Dedicated product owners — meaning those that are empowered, well-resourced, and committed to developing cross-agency projects on a permanent basis — can bridge disparate resources and help federated data projects succeed.
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Transforming how DOJ's Civil Rights Division engages with the public
on July 7, 2020
In order to be more responsive to the public’s changing communication needs and the increased reporting volume,the Civil Rights Division, in close collaboration with 18F, has launched a user-friendly online submission experience at civilrights.justice.gov that transforms the way the Division collects, sorts, and responds to civil rights reports.
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Continuous learning for product managers
on March 24, 2020
As product managers, we never stop learning because products never stop evolving and changing. You need to quickly get up to speed on a product’s technical implementation, design, user research, and business needs.
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Becoming a product manager
on November 21, 2019
If you had asked me two years ago what a product manager is, I wouldn’t have known. And, yet, today, that is one of my titles. Along the way, I have been lucky to receive guidance and coaching from experienced product managers at the General Services Administration’s 18F.
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Building product management capacity in government part 2 – Interview with a product manager
on November 19, 2019
This is part two in a series of posts about building product management capacity in government agencies. For this post, we chatted with [Jovial Chipmunk]* of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services about his experience as a product manager on our current project
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Building product management capacity in government part 1 – Our coaching philosophy
on August 22, 2019
This is the kick-off post in a series about building product management capacity in government agencies. The series explores the process of helping agency staff transition into product management roles, from both an 18F and partner agency perspective
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Introducing USWDS 2.0: Reinvent the experience, not the wheel
on April 8, 2019
Today, we’re launching U.S. Web Design System 2.0 (USWDS 2.0), a new foundation for the future of our design system. This new version was designed to make it easier for any project to integrate USWDS and use it to support both your mission and the needs of your audience.
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Product management at 18F, part 4 - 10x
on February 14, 2019
10x projects let anyone in government pitch an idea that could have a massive impact on the public. So how does 10x go about developing these ideas? Each pitch requires a lead investigator who will need to develop an understanding of the idea and make recommendations. Although it’s not limited to product managers, the tools of product management can come in handy when creating a process to determine if the idea is worth pursuing.
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Buying Christmas tree permits online with Open Forest
on February 12, 2019
After a two year partnership with the Forest Service, we're excited to announce the launch of Open Forest where you can buy a permit to cut down your own Christmas tree in a National Forest.
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Product management at 18F, part 3 - Products and Platforms
on December 20, 2018
While our consulting work serves the needs of a particular customer, managing one of our products means we are responsible for a shared service used by many of our partners. Managing one of the products and platforms means thinking beyond any individual customer. This work requires that we constantly evaluate market needs, ensure the product matches those needs, and support the business side of product management.
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Product management at 18F, part 2 - Acquisitions
on December 11, 2018
In the previous post, we wrote about how product management works in Path Analysis and Experiment & Iterate phases. In this post, we’ll discuss how 18F product managers support our partner agencies who are procuring the services of industry contractors to help achieve their mission.
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Product management at 18F, part 1 - New engagements
on December 4, 2018
At 18F, we partner with federal agencies to improve the user experience of government. We bring our product management skills to bear during these engagements to build digital services in line with our partners’ missions. When working with an agency, identifying the right problem focus on is often the first challenge. That’s why we have Path Analyses (PA): short engagements to survey the landscape and align everyone on a path forward.
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Introducing Accessibility for Teams
on July 10, 2018
The Accessibility Guild in the Technology Transformation Services (TTS) at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) set out to understand how people in different roles practice accessibility. We asked designers, developers, and product managers across our organization to share their accessibility practices, from self-testing to asking for help.
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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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So, you’re a Product Owner...
on April 17, 2018
At 18F, a primary goal we have when working with agency partners to build or buy great digital products is to make sure the agency partner has full ownership over the product and its outcomes by the time we leave the project. One of the ways we build this sense of ownership is by identifying a Product Owner early on.
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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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A day in the life of an 18F product owner
on September 18, 2017
The Technology Transformation Services (TTS) has been working with the Forest Service in an effort to move their permitting process online. We’ve previously written about how doing this work in the open can benefit other agencies with permit systems. In this post, we’ll focus on why it’s important to have a product owner, what that looks like from the Forest Service’s perspective, and why a product owner is critical to successful projects.
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Opening the nation’s crime data
on September 7, 2017
For more than eight decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected nationwide crime data under the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. While the data has always been publicly available via static reports, the first release of the Crime Data Explorer makes it easier than ever for anyone to access and use the data.
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Government launches login.gov to simplify access to public services
on August 22, 2017
Today, the U.S. Digital Service and 18F are excited to announce the launch of login.gov, a single sign-on solution for government websites that will enable citizens to access public services across agencies with the same username and password.
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The new FEC.gov
on May 30, 2017
Last week, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) unveiled their new website at FEC.gov. This new site is the result of a years-long collaboration with GSA’s 18F and features completely revamped tools for exploring campaign finance data.
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The life-changing magic of writing release notes
on January 17, 2017
A key part of agile development is constantly shipping new features. With so many changes happening to the product, it can be hard to keep track of how the product is growing and improving. Release notes help keep everyone on the team in the know about what’s shipping, give a clear list of features to check, and help always frame our work in terms of the value it delivers to users.
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The best way to build big is to start small
on January 11, 2017
Large software systems are hard, and in government we're tasked with building large systems to manage complex benefits and processes. Often those mandates arrive on the back of a failing legacy system. An agile workflow has the benefit of allowing us to try out our ideas before committing to years of time and money.
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code.gov is the next milestone in federal open source code
on November 7, 2016
Last week, U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott announced the launch of code.gov, another important milestone in the federal government’s adoption of open source code. The new site provides access to more than 50 open source projects from 13 federal agencies.
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New pilot aims to streamline notice and comment process
on July 26, 2016
Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began asking the public to comment on a new proposed rule that would affect how the EPA tracks hazardous waste as it moves around the country. This rule is also the pilot of the new notice and comment feature of the eRegulations platform.
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Announcing the launch of the Digital Acquisitions Pilot
on March 10, 2016
The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) released a memorandum today that encourages agencies across the federal government to pursue innovative approaches to acquiring goods and services. Given the growing importance of digital acquisitions, OFPP is also launching a Digital Acquisitions Pilot along with the memo.
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Announcing the 18F Micro-purchase Platform
on January 7, 2016
In October 2015, 18F launched an experiment in micro-purchasing. Given both vendor and government interest in continuing this task, 18F is happy to announce the launch of a new platform for posting and bidding on micro-purchase tasks.
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The Agile BPA is ready to launch
on December 17, 2015
Today, we're pleased to officially say that Pool Three of the Agile BPA is ready to launch. Although we announced the awardees earlier this year, there were multiple protests related to the Agile BPA. Last night, we learned that the final protest has been resolved.
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Plain language for the win: betaFEC’s new content design
on December 17, 2015
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has been working since the 1970s to clarify the rules for raising and spending money in federal elections, and today we’re thrilled to announce the first major content launch of betaFEC: a guide to registration and reporting that makes intricate information easier to understand.
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USA.gov launches vote.USA.gov to help citizens register and connect with states
on September 22, 2015
One of the most important rights of American citizens is the right to vote. It is the foundation of our democracy, and in many ways, the basis of our government. This is why the team at USA.gov is excited to announce the launch of vote.USA.gov.
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New Federalist platform lets agencies quickly launch websites
on September 15, 2015
18F’s new Federalist platform is a suite of tools designed to make it faster for government agencies to build websites that are secure, responsive, and accessible.
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Behind the scenes: Building a new College Scorecard with students
on September 14, 2015
How we worked with the Department of Education on new steps to help students, parents and advisers make better college choices, including a new College Scorecard, comprehensive and updated data on higher education institutions, and customized tools using this new data.
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Building the next generation federal workforce
on September 1, 2015
We recently began our partnership with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on the GovConnect initiative, which helps agencies create a culture of excellence based on collaboration and teamwork.
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18F’s style guide for open source project documentation
on July 29, 2015
The Open Source Style Guide is a comprehensive handbook for writing clear, accessible, and user-friendly documentation so that your open source code repositories are accessible both internally and externally.
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Taking the pulse of the federal government's web presence
on June 2, 2015
The U.S. federal government is launching a new project to monitor how it's doing at best practices on the web. A sort of health monitor for the U.S. government's websites, it's called Pulse, and you can find it at pulse.cio.gov.
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18F Guides
on May 28, 2015
While there's no substitute for personal instruction and mentorship, that effort scales far more effectively when there are clear, concise materials to introduce the basics. 18F Guides aims to fill that role for our young and growing team, and we hope it may be of use to others as well.
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Announcing the CALC tool: Making pricing research easier in federal procurement
on May 12, 2015
Today, 18F and the General Services Administration (GSA) launched a powerful new labor category and pricing research tool to help the federal contracting community make smarter, faster buying decisions.
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