Ideas - Department of Civic Things

Part two: a practitioner’s guide to community engagement

Posted on March 15, 2022

How to create sustainable and effective community engagement for your government agency Written in collaboration with CitizenLab, part two of this series explores defining engagement and designing a sustainable and effective engagement strategy for your government agency. It covers the tactics you need to design a long-term engagement plan by defining the different types of...

Service Design Workshop

Posted on January 12, 2022

Getting out of the hamster wheel is hard. We know we need to spend more time learning new things. We know we need to spend more time working on hard things. But the emails. And the meetings. The paperwork. The interruptions. Just. Don’t. Stop. We’re creating a learning opportunity where you will have the space, time,...

Part one: a practitioner’s guide to community engagement

Posted on September 9, 2021

How to create sustainable and effective community engagement for your government agency Written in collaboration with CitizenLab, part one of this series explores the steps you need to take to create a sustainable and effective community engagement strategy for your government agency. In this guide you'll find: Tips to better understand your community and your...

How to empower the local government product owner

Posted on June 30, 2021

Purpose The purpose of an empowered product owner is to make sure that a government service or program is effective and meets people’s needs. “There must be a single product owner who has the authority and responsibility to assign tasks and work elements; make business, product, and technical decisions; and be accountable for the success...

Accessibility basics for government websites

Posted on May 3, 2021

Why accessibility matters 1 in 4 Americans are living with some type of disability. 4.6% are blind or have serious difficulty seeing. 5.9% are deaf or have serious difficulty hearing. 10.3% are living with a cognitive disability like dyslexia, attention deficit, or autism. About 1 in 12 men are colorblind. It’s the law. Section 508...

Plain language basics for government websites

Posted on April 2, 2021

Plain language helps you convey complex information. Your readers understand and get what they need quickly, with fewer questions and less confusion. Benefits of plain language: Helps people know what information means the first time they read it. Makes services easy to use. Is easier to translate into other languages. Reduces calls and emails with...

Fostering a service-minded culture

Posted on March 11, 2021

The under-resourced nature of local government often leads to de-prioritization of workplace culture. At the same time, it adds pressure to increase efficiency. The “do more with less” mantra sounds like tired nails on a chalkboard to most public servants. Work culture is made up of several elements including: Purpose (this inspires and motivates us...

Public service with purpose

Posted on February 25, 2021

Early in my career, my best friend was working as a social worker. She helped LGBTQ foster youth navigate trauma. She supported them in relationships with foster and birth parents, as well as other kids. At the end of the day, she had to document the happenings of the day, sometimes traumatic, into their case...

What is a product owner?

Posted on February 4, 2021

A product owner ensures that a government service or program is effective and meets people's needs. This role is different from a project manager, who's job is to make sure a project gets done on time and on budget. The product owner is accountable for whether the service is any good. This mindset helps to...

Code California: openness makes things better

Posted on February 2, 2021

The book "The Open Organization" by Jim Whitehurst inspired me to embrace the idea of openness beyond the legal definition of transparency or simple collaboration, but as a tool for making government work better for people. Whitehurst talks about an “open everything culture” and that it’s not for everyone. To succeed in this culture, you...

Mutual aid for government websites during a disaster

Posted on February 2, 2021

This story was originally published on ELGL in October 2017. It was co-written with Talia Smith. When a major disaster strikes a region, they need help in more ways than one. After an unprecedented number of wildfires recently broke out in neighboring counties to the north, our jurisdiction, the City of San Rafael, immediately sent our first...