For the past two years and up until a few months ago I was part of a unique White House initiative that paired the country’s top technologists with its brightest civil servants, on a joint effort to improve the usability and reliability of Federal government’s critical public services. This illuminating experience gave me visibility across multiple Federal agencies into the complex challenges faced by government leaders as they work to continuously improve their processes and simply get better at what they do.
That’s why I was excited to join Civis, an industry partner in the NTIS Joint Venture Partnership (JVP), and participate in the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) Federal Data Meeting and Expo at the U.S. Department of Commerce last week. As JVP partners, Civis is working to advance the use of data science at Federal agencies, launch innovative new projects, and unlock value in the government’s data.
Over the last few years, I’ve met many government leaders who know that the answers to many of their questions can be found within the vast stores of program data that lie in multiple siloed databases and almost at their fingertips. By tapping into that data, applying the right techniques and asking the right questions, they know they can identify patterns and glean insights that will make their programs faster or more efficient. They want to be able to answer the “what if” questions and simulate the effects of potential changes in policy. Above all, they know that using that data, the right way, will allow them to improve the way they deliver critical services to the public.
Agencies that deliver critical services will face historic budget cuts over the next few years. By working with NTIS, we can help empower Federal program managers with the same data science techniques used by the private sector to fully optimize their scarce resources, lead with analysis, and let data-driven insights drive the strategy. Bringing the same innovative methods we use to support companies like Airbnb, Verizon and Discovery Communications, we’re eager to help agencies gain insights from their data resources, either alone or in combination with non-federal data, and deliver against their challenging missions. Whether it’s identifying and targeting the most at-risk populations or forecasting the ebb and flow of demand on a public service, our predictive models, survey research, and message tests will help agencies focus on their data and what it’s telling them.
More than ever, government agencies need to optimize their scarce resources. We’re ready to help Federal program managers and members of the Data Cabinet draw new conclusions from their data and improve the way they deliver critical services to the public.
Are you looking to learn how to jump start a data-driven service at your agency?
Join us for breakfast and a conversation around data science in government on May 16, 2017. (Free and open to the public)
