John Lilly provided an overview of the meeting agenda and a shift in focus towards more real-world examples from operators rather than investors.
Jennifer Pahlka discussed the origins, founding, and early challenges of Civic Technology America (CTA), a service year program for technology/design professionals to work in government.
Jennifer Pahlka highlighted CTA's evolving business model, achieving product-market fit, scaling the organization, managing growth, and the long-term goal of restoring trust in government through better service delivery.
Meeting Notes:
Introductions and meeting overview
John Lilly provided an overview of the meeting agenda and topics to be discussed, including feedback from previous sessions and the shift in focus towards more real-world examples from operators rather than investors.
Feedback and learnings from previous sessions
John Lilly discussed the shift from investors to operators, with operators providing more specific details and real-world examples from their experiences.
John Lilly cautioned against overgeneralizing based on the recent non-profit focused sessions with Mozilla and Civic Technology America (CTA), as the rest of the sessions will focus on for-profit organizations.
Introduction to Civic Technology America (CTA)
Jennifer Pahlka (Jennifer Pahlka) discussed the origins and founding of CTA as a service year program for technology/design professionals to work in government.
CTA started in 2010 by recruiting cities and fellows for the first fellowship year in 2011.
In the first year, they had 20 fellows working in 3 city governments: Seattle, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Early on, they had a failed partnership with the District of Columbia government after a change in administration, where the fellows were fired on their first day.
The core concept was to help governments take an iterative, user-centered approach to problem-solving and application development.
CTA's business model and funding
Jennifer Pahlka explained the mix of funding from philanthropy (e.g., foundations) and government partners.
Determining appropriate pricing and revenue models was a challenge in the early days.
For the first year, they essentially asked cities what they could pay and took whatever was offered, even if it was below the proposed price.
Achieving product-market fit
Jennifer Pahlka described the Discover BPS app developed by a CTA fellow in Boston as an early success story, demonstrating the value of their approach.
The app allowed parents to find which public schools their children could attend based on their address, solving a major pain point.
It took only 8-10 weeks to develop a working prototype, compared to an estimated 2 years and $2 million through traditional government channels.
Jennifer Pahlka realized the broader impact was changing government mindsets and processes, not just building software.
Another pivotal moment was when a 25-year public service veteran in Detroit said CTA's approach helped her feel like she was serving the public again after years of frustration.
Scaling CTA and expanding to more government partners
As of 2015, CTA had grown to 45 staff members and 24 fellows.
Jennifer Pahlka highlighted CTA's expanding ecosystem, including 6 startups spun out of CTA, alumni joining city governments and then hiring CTA, and around 34,000 people regularly attending Code for America brigade meetups (volunteer civic tech groups).
CTA started incubating some fellowship projects into sustainable companies and hosted government-focused accelerator programs to nurture the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Jen's departure to the White House and return
Jennifer Pahlka decided to leave CTA for a year in late 2013 to work in the White House at the request of Todd Park, who had created the Presidential Innovation Fellows program modeled after CTA.
Jennifer Pahlka was initially hesitant but was eventually convinced by Todd Park's persistence and the opportunity to help create an American Government Digital Service.
Upon returning in 2015 after a challenging year, Jennifer Pahlka found the organization had changed more than anticipated, taking time to re-align the strategy and direction.
Managing a growing organization
Jennifer Pahlka emphasized the importance of clear communication, alignment, and repeating key messages as the organization scaled.
Realizing that words can be interpreted differently, Jennifer Pahlka strives to double-check understanding but sometimes falls short due to travel and time constraints.
CTA is in the process of hiring a Chief Operating Officer to bring more operational rigor and ensure goals are consistently tracked and met.
CTA's impact and vision for the future
Rather than focusing solely on user metrics, CTA tracks a variety of "win" metrics across its projects, such as the number of projects that are sustained or redeployed by partners and the number of people who decide to stay in government after the fellowship.
The long-term goal is to restore trust and faith in government by delivering better services and demonstrating a more effective approach.
An example "win" was being able to advise a state government against pursuing a $1 billion, 5-year computer system procurement that had a low chance of success, and instead recommend an iterative, modular approach.
Challenges of working with government, especially procurement
Jennifer Pahlka discussed the major hurdles startups face in navigating government procurement processes, which are designed to reduce risk but often create more risk and delays.
The lengthy RFP processes, paperwork, and certifications required can take 9 months or more before work can begin.
Governments often try to buy software the same way they buy physical goods, rather than taking an iterative approach.
However, new tools and approaches are emerging to work within and improve the system, such as the federal government's "Agile BPA" (Blanket Purchase Agreement for Agile software development) and a new fund exclusively for government technology startups, with an average 6-month sales cycle in its portfolio.