18F: Digital service delivery |

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We want to share five templates we have adopted as defaults across our projects. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/18f/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2024/09/12/derisking-guide-update/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> A revised and expanded guide for de-risking government technology projects </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 12, 2024</span> </p> <p>New content on vendor management and a streamlined structure make one of 18F's most popular guides even more useful for government staff. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/lessons-learned/" class="usa-label post-tag"> lessons learned </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2024/07/17/working-with-oracle-databases-in-open-source-projects/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Working with Oracle databases in open-source projects </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 17, 2024</span> </p> <p>Follow this step-by-step tutorial to gain access to data locked inside proprietary Oracle databases, so you can use it in your open-source project. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/tutorial/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tutorial </a> <a href="/tags/database/" class="usa-label post-tag"> database </a> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2024/07/09/18fs-engineering-craft-basics-at-10/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F's engineering craft practices at 10 </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 9, 2024</span> </p> <p>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. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/18f/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2024/04/03/18f-practices-in-action/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F practices in action (spoiler: this stuff works) </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 3, 2024</span> </p> <p>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. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/18f/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2024/03/19/18f-at-ten/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F at ten </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 19, 2024</span> </p> <p>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. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/18f/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f </a> <a href="/tags/anniversary/" class="usa-label post-tag"> anniversary </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2024/03/05/customer-experience-beyond-surveys/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Customer experience: beyond surveys </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 5, 2024</span> </p> <p>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. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/18f/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2024/02/01/gathering-feedback-with-customer-panels/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Gathering feedback with customer panels </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">February 1, 2024</span> </p> <p>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. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/18f/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2023/12/05/Sharing-artifacts-and-outputs-from-research/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Sharing artifacts and outputs from research </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 5, 2023</span> </p> <p>Have you conducted user research and are now wondering what artifacts or outputs you can share and with whom? Here's a guide. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2023/09/21/18f-website-refresh/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> A website refresh in 3 months </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 21, 2023</span> </p> <p>A website redesign doesn't have to be a big project. By approaching it as a process of iteration, we launched a refreshed site in the span of several weeks. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2023/06/13/The-four-operating-levels-of-18F-projects/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The four operating levels of 18F projects </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">June 13, 2023</span> </p> <p>At 18F, we partner with government agencies to help them deliver new or modernized digital services. In our experience, we have identified four operating levels that best support successful project outcomes. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2023/05/02/hi-from-the-18F-design-chapter/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> “Hi” from the 18F design chapter </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 2, 2023</span> </p> <p>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. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/join-us/" class="usa-label post-tag"> join us </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2023/03/23/A-check-up-for-agile-teams/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Am I doing it right? A check up for agile teams </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 23, 2023</span> </p> <p>Even on the best teams, things need to be monitored and adjusted. If you are doing this for the first time, it can be even harder. In this article, I share some signals of what success looks like and what to do if you are stuck in one of the many common pitfalls. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/modern-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> modern practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2023/02/13/looking-back-and-forward/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> We asked our design team: what did you learn in 2022, and what are you looking forward to in 2023? </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">February 13, 2023</span> </p> <p>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. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/join-us/" class="usa-label post-tag"> join us </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2022/09/06/18f-tech-sandwich/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The 18F engineering sandwich for cloud based web apps </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 6, 2022</span> </p> <p>We often talk about 18F Engineering as a technology shop, but that's too broad. There are very few technology choices we actually make at the project level. When we build, we usually build open-source cloud-based web applications. We combine a limited set of technologies to make our applications. To explain this, we'll use the metaphor of a sandwich shop.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/application-development/" class="usa-label post-tag"> application development </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2022/01/21/what-have-you-learned-from-other-18F-designers/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> We asked our coworkers: What have you learned from other 18F designers? </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">January 21, 2022</span> </p> <p>We asked 18F designers what they've learned from fellow designers while working together. Here's what they said.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/join-us/" class="usa-label post-tag"> join us </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2021/10/21/the_weekly_ship/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The weekly ship: what it is, why it's useful, and how to create your own </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">October 21, 2021</span> </p> <p>The weekly ship has been a staple of 18F projects for years. It is a way to engage partners, inform teammates, and reflect on our work.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2021/09/30/a_day_in_the_life_of_an_18f_engineer/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> A day in the life of an 18F Engineer </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 30, 2021</span> </p> <p>According to Census estimates, about 41 million people speak Spanish in the United States. At 18F, we envision a country whose government consistently offers digital services that instill pride and trust. Our bilingual engineer, Edwin Torres, shares what a working day is like in our organization.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/day-in-the-life/" class="usa-label post-tag"> day in the life </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2021/09/21/a_day_in_the_life_-_ingeniero_en_18f/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> A day in the life - Ingeniero en 18F </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 21, 2021</span> </p> <p>Según estimados del Censo, cerca de 41 millones de personas hablan español en Estados Unidos. En 18F imaginamos un país cuyo Gobierno ofrezca servicios digitales consistentes y confiables para todos sus usuarios. Nuestro ingeniero, Edwin Torres nos habla de su día de trabajo y la importancia de tener empleados hispanohablantes.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/day-in-the-life/" class="usa-label post-tag"> day in the life </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2021/07/27/the_tts_handbook_a_21st-century_approach_to_internal_documentation/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The TTS Handbook: A 21st-century approach to internal documentation </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 27, 2021</span> </p> <p>In this post, we introduce the Technology Transformation Services Handbook: an open, crowd-sourced, accessible, and living resource that aims to provide the information our team needs to do their work.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/technology-transformation-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> technology transformation services </a> <a href="/tags/onboarding/" class="usa-label post-tag"> onboarding </a> <a href="/tags/open-government/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open government </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2021/06/17/building_capacities_within_a_government_agency_to_build_and_support_a_new_case_management_system_part_2/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Building capacities within a government agency to build and support a new case management system: part 2 </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">June 17, 2021</span> </p> <p>This is part two 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 talked to Mike Marcotte, Technical Lead on the project.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/tax-court/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tax court </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2021/06/16/building_capacities_within_a_government_agency_to_build_and_support_a_new_case_management_system_part_1/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Building capacities within a government agency to build and support a new case management system: part 1 </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">June 16, 2021</span> </p> <p>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 Jessica Marine, Product Owner and Deputy Clerk of the Court, Case Services Officer.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/product/" class="usa-label post-tag"> product </a> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/tax-court/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tax court </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2021/04/05/why_simplicity_choosing_a_web_architecture/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Why simplicity? Choosing a web architecture </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 5, 2021</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/product/" class="usa-label post-tag"> product </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2021/03/04/technical-problems-are-not-the-hardest-ones-to-solve/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Technical problems are not the hardest ones to solve </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 4, 2021</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/join-us/" class="usa-label post-tag"> join us </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2021/02/02/path-analysis-technical-assessments-toward-more-durable-usable-systems/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Path Analysis: Technical Assessments toward more durable, usable systems </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">February 2, 2021</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/18f/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2021/01/12/building-distributed-teams/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Building distributed teams </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">January 12, 2021</span> </p> <p>At 18F, we’ve seen that remote work can make teams happier, more productive, and more inclusive. Organizing ourselves in a remote-first way has improved our morale and allowed us to recruit and retain talent from all across the country. But building great distributed teams takes real work. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/distributed/" class="usa-label post-tag"> distributed </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2020/12/17/18f-and-tts-office-of-acquisition-award-first-assisted-acquisition/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F and TTS Office of Acquisition award first assisted acquisition </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 17, 2020</span> </p> <p>The Administration for Children & Families’ Office of Family Assistance, TTS, and the vendor community worked together to improve the TANF Data Reporting System (TDRS) to make it easier and faster for States, Tribes, and Territories to support low income families</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/procurement/" class="usa-label post-tag"> procurement </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/public-benefits/" class="usa-label post-tag"> public benefits </a> <a href="/tags/hhs/" class="usa-label post-tag"> hhs </a> <a href="/tags/user-research/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user research </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2020/09/09/a-federal-guide-to-de-risk-government-technology-projects/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> A federal guide to de-risk government technology projects </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 9, 2020</span> </p> <p>Announcing the federal field guide to de-risk government technology</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/lessons-learned/" class="usa-label post-tag"> lessons learned </a> <a href="/tags/acquisition-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> acquisition services </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2020/08/13/10-weeks-improving-government-through-technology/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 10 weeks improving government through technology </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">August 13, 2020</span> </p> <p>This summer TTS welcomed Abdul Tahlil as a Coding it Forward Civic Digital fellow. Abdul joined the TTS Outreach team to work on the 18F site. We’ve invited Abdul to tell us a bit more about the fellowship program and his experience as an engineer on the team.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/18f-gsa-gov/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f.gsa.gov </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2020/06/23/building-trust-in-a-public-health-crisis/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Building trust in a public health crisis </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">June 23, 2020</span> </p> <p>Lately, the 18F content team has been thinking about how to communicate well in a crisis—providing clear, understandable content is especially important. Content strategy practices that focus on the needs of the user are essential to earning the trust of the public. Here, we will explain how to embody those qualities on the web in user-centered ways.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/content-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> content design </a> <a href="/tags/accessibility/" class="usa-label post-tag"> accessibility </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2020/04/01/building-a-collaborative-culture/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Building a collaborative culture: How 18F works </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 1, 2020</span> </p> <p>We actively work to help our teammates grow. We want everyone to become better at the work we do, and we want to model that for our partners.All of this requires some key skills: communication, agility, and openness.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2020/03/19/sixth-anniversary/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Six years improving the experience of government </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 19, 2020</span> </p> <p>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</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/anniversary/" class="usa-label post-tag"> anniversary </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2020/03/18/an-acquisition-retrospective/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> An Acquisition Retrospective </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 18, 2020</span> </p> <p>The Centers of Excellence and 18F worked together with the General Services Administration’s Region 1 Assisted Acquisition Services to create the Discovery BPA, which allows the Centers of Excellence to quickly staff the industry side of the their teams embedded at agency partners.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/acquisition-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> acquisition services </a> <a href="/tags/modern-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> modern practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2020/02/27/areas-for-growth-2-mixed-methods/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Areas for growth part 2: mixed methods </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">February 27, 2020</span> </p> <p>Mixed methods is an approach in the social sciences in which you gather both quantitative and qualitative data in an effort to make more informed and integrated interpretations based on the combined strengths of both types of data.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/user-research/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user research </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/lessons-learned/" class="usa-label post-tag"> lessons learned </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2020/02/20/areas-for-growth-part-1-cad/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Areas for growth part 1: Continual appreciative dialogue </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">February 20, 2020</span> </p> <p>Continual Appreciative Dialogue (CAD) is the practice of expressing recurring praise or gratitude to a teammate or collaborator in conversation and throughout a working relationship. The practice of CAD is special because it is uncommon.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/lessons-learned/" class="usa-label post-tag"> lessons learned </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2020/02/06/even-with-a-design-system-you-still-need-a-designer/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Even with a design system, you still need a designer </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">February 6, 2020</span> </p> <p>The US Web Design System gives flexibility so teams can build the right solution for users, but there are still plenty of design decisions that teams need to make to be successful.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> <a href="/tags/web-design-system/" class="usa-label post-tag"> web design system </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2019/05/16/how-18f-and-pif-work-together-in-agencies/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How 18F and PIF work together in agencies </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 16, 2019</span> </p> <p>Two teams working together to help agencies become more effective at meeting the needs of citizens.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/presidential-innovation-fellows/" class="usa-label post-tag"> presidential innovation fellows </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2019/04/09/why-we-love-modular-contracting/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Why we love modular contracting </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 9, 2019</span> </p> <p>Modular contracting is an acquisition strategy that 18F uses with many of our partners and our internal programs. So, why do we love modular contracting and how does it make procurement better?</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/acquisition-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> acquisition services </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/modular-contracting/" class="usa-label post-tag"> modular contracting </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2019/03/22/18F-5-anniv-fav-project/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F’s four favorite projects of 2018 </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 22, 2019</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/anniversary/" class="usa-label post-tag"> anniversary </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2019/03/19/18F-5-Anniversary-achieve/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Happy 5th birthday, 18F </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 19, 2019</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/anniversary/" class="usa-label post-tag"> anniversary </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2019/03/07/six-ways-we-improved-tts-design-research-guild/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Six ways we’ve recently improved TTS’s Design Research Guild </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 7, 2019</span> </p> <p>A few months ago, the TTS’s Design Research Guild started brainstorming ways to better position itself for success. In this post, we’ll share the six ways we’ve recently worked to improve the guild.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/lessons-learned/" class="usa-label post-tag"> lessons learned </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2019/02/14/product-manager-10x/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Product management at 18F, part 4 - 10x </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">February 14, 2019</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/product/" class="usa-label post-tag"> product </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2018/12/20/product-management-at-18F-part-3/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Product management at 18F, part 3 - Products and Platforms </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 20, 2018</span> </p> <p> 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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/product/" class="usa-label post-tag"> product </a> <a href="/tags/platforms/" class="usa-label post-tag"> platforms </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2018/12/11/product-management-at-18F-part-2-acquisitions/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Product management at 18F, part 2 - Acquisitions </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 11, 2018</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/product/" class="usa-label post-tag"> product </a> <a href="/tags/acquisition-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> acquisition services </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2018/12/04/product-management-at-18f-part-1-new-engagements/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Product management at 18F, part 1 - New engagements </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 4, 2018</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/product/" class="usa-label post-tag"> product </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2018/07/19/taking-the-ato-process-from-6-months-to-30-days/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Taking the ATO process from 6 months to 30 days </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 19, 2018</span> </p> <p>Security compliance is a major factor in launching a software system in the federal government. The Authority To Operate compliance process for systems within our division of GSA was taking more than six months for every system. With the new process, we have cleared the backlog and reduced the turnaround time to under a month.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/security/" class="usa-label post-tag"> security </a> <a href="/tags/lessons-learned/" class="usa-label post-tag"> lessons learned </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2018/05/24/what-agencies-have-to-say-about-working-in-the-open/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> What agencies have to say about working in the open </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 24, 2018</span> </p> <p>18F has long espoused the benefits of using open source technologies and more broadly, the value of working in the open. We wanted to hear from other agencies about how open source has worked for them and what the future looks like for them. So, we asked a few of our partner agencies to talk about their experience.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/convincing-stakeholders/" class="usa-label post-tag"> convincing stakeholders </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2018/05/01/lessons-from-an-18f-product-transition/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Aiming for obsolescence: Lessons from an 18F product transition </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 1, 2018</span> </p> <p>Four years into 18F’s work, transition is a topic of frequent conversation among our team. Every organization and every project is different. At the same time, every transition offers lessons that can be applied to the next.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/useiti/" class="usa-label post-tag"> useiti </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/lessons-learned/" class="usa-label post-tag"> lessons learned </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2018/04/17/so-youre-a-product-owner/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> So, you’re a Product Owner... </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 17, 2018</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/product/" class="usa-label post-tag"> product </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/convincing-stakeholders/" class="usa-label post-tag"> convincing stakeholders </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2017/09/27/three-ways-to-manage-research-projects/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 3 ways to manage research projects remotely </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 27, 2017</span> </p> <p>At 18F, we have employees across the U.S. Over time, we’ve cultivated our best practices for distributed teams and design methods. Yet, doing research as a remote team is still really hard. Here are some things that we’ve found make it easier.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/user-research/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user research </a> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> <a href="/tags/distributed/" class="usa-label post-tag"> distributed </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2017/09/26/automated-scanning-for-sensitive-information/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Automated scanning for sensitive information in the development lifecycle </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 26, 2017</span> </p> <p>Often when developing open source software, and especially software that relies on outside services, you’ll find that you have to manage sensitive information. While there are a large number of things that can be considered sensitive, open source developers often deal with sensitive items such as API tokens, passwords, and private keys that are required for the system to function. Here's how we approached keeping this information safe.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/security/" class="usa-label post-tag"> security </a> <a href="/tags/devops/" class="usa-label post-tag"> devops </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> <a href="/tags/technical-guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> technical guides </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2017/09/21/method-cards-tune-up/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Walking the talk: what went into the Method Cards’ tune up </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 21, 2017</span> </p> <p>Recently, 18F released a new version of the Method Cards, a collection of tools that offer simple, “how-to” descriptions of research and design methods with a special emphasis on the use of those methods in government work. With this new release, the Method Cards have become easier to read and understand, as well as easier to print and circulate.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2017/01/19/the-dark-standup/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The Dark Standup </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">January 19, 2017</span> </p> <p>In September, our Operations team was authorized for a limited amount of overtime during the fiscal year crunch. The team needed the extra hours, but like many others in America, it always feels like we need 50 hours a week to get everything done. Once we were in the fiscal new year, we decided to determine how accurate our perception of not having enough time to get everything done truly was. So the team did something interesting.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/11/25/what-18f-is-thankful-for-this-thanksgiving/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> What 18F is thankful for this Thanksgiving </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">November 25, 2016</span> </p> <p>Like all federal employees, we don't work on Thanksgiving. We do work on the day after, though, and this year we thought we'd pause to take a moment and reflect. Here are a few things that we're thankful for, what brings meaning to our lives, and what brings us to work every day.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/08/31/kanban-for-government/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Kanban for government </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">August 31, 2016</span> </p> <p>Some months ago, 18F started playing with kanban as a way to manage and improve our processes. For the 18F Agreements team, adopting kanban has caused a dramatic positive change in how they manage their work.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture-change/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture change </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/08/16/what-happens-when-the-whole-team-joins-user-interviews/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> What happens when the whole team joins user interviews </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">August 16, 2016</span> </p> <p>The CALC team is an agile team of four — six if you count the Scrummaster and the Product Owner — building a simple means to load price data into the original CALC tool. They’re an Agile team, which means everybody pitches in on everything to some degree, and here, in their own words, is some reflection on what happened when they all scrubbed in on the discovery phase.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/user-research/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user research </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/calc/" class="usa-label post-tag"> calc </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/08/10/patterns-for-managing-multi-tenant-cloud-environments/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Patterns for managing multi-tenant cloud environments </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">August 10, 2016</span> </p> <p>When 18F started, deploying government services into a public cloud was still fairly uncommon. However, everything 18F has built has been deployed into Amazon Web Services (AWS), including cloud.gov. Over that time, our AWS account has grown in size and complexity and we needed a new approach to make sure it remains manageable.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/devops/" class="usa-label post-tag"> devops </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> <a href="/tags/cloud-gov/" class="usa-label post-tag"> cloud.gov </a> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/08/02/jacob-harris-from-big-data-journalism-to-micro-purchase-platforms/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Jacob Harris: From big data journalism to micro-purchase platforms </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">August 2, 2016</span> </p> <p>Jacob Harris 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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/staff-profiles/" class="usa-label post-tag"> staff profiles </a> <a href="/tags/micro-purchase-platforms/" class="usa-label post-tag"> micro-purchase platforms </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/07/29/live-streamed-demos-for-exponential-transparency-and-information-sharing/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Live streamed demos for exponential transparency and information sharing </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 29, 2016</span> </p> <p>This spring, the eRegulations Notice & Comment team began building out a new feature set for the platform. To demo the work as we iterated on it, we faced a challenge of finding a way to do connect frequently with the dozens of interested parties. We settled on live streaming our demos through a video website that is accessible by most government agencies, doesn’t require extraneous plugins to operate, allows you to easily stream, but also automatically creates a viewable file afterwards at the same URL.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/environmental-protection-agency/" class="usa-label post-tag"> environmental protection agency </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/07/28/bret-mogilefsky-finding-big-good-cloud-gov/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Bret Mogilefsky: Finding the big good in cloud.gov </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 28, 2016</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/staff-profiles/" class="usa-label post-tag"> staff profiles </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/cloud-gov/" class="usa-label post-tag"> cloud.gov </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/07/22/building-empathy-with-stakeholder-interviews-part-2-conversation/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Build empathy with stakeholder interviews, part 2: Conversation </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 22, 2016</span> </p> <p>In the first post of this series, I covered what stakeholder interviews are, why they’re valuable, and how to prepare for them. In this second post, I’ll cover how to actually run the interviews as well as some tips for synthesizing and socializing what you learn.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/user-research/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user research </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/convincing-stakeholders/" class="usa-label post-tag"> convincing stakeholders </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/07/19/strategies-for-starting-your-own-writing-lab/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Strategies for starting your own writing lab </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 19, 2016</span> </p> <p>Interested in spinning up your own Writing Lab? Use these tips as your starting point.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/content-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> content design </a> <a href="/tags/lessons-learned/" class="usa-label post-tag"> lessons learned </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/07/07/when-a-micropurchase-doesnt-work-out-we-try-to-learn-from-it/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> When a micro-purchase doesn’t work out, we try to learn from it </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 7, 2016</span> </p> <p>Two months ago, the 18F acquisitions team ran a public micro-purchase auction to find a vendor to develop a small new feature for 18F's cloud.gov, and for the first time after several successful micro-purchases for other products, the contracted vendor didn’t deliver the code on time. This was very interesting to us we’re early in the life of the micro-purchase platform, and we believe that failure is a great way to learn. In the spirit of experimentation and sharing our lessons, here’s how we went about analyzing this, and here’s what we learned.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/micro-purchase-platforms/" class="usa-label post-tag"> micro-purchase platforms </a> <a href="/tags/acquisition-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> acquisition services </a> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/lessons-learned/" class="usa-label post-tag"> lessons learned </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/06/30/6-ways-a-writing-lab-will-help-your-organization/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 6 ways a writing lab will help your organization </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">June 30, 2016</span> </p> <p>Wondering if a writing lab might be right for your organization? Reviewing the benefits 18F has seen from our Writing Lab might help you figure out if starting your own is the way to go.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/content-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> content design </a> <a href="/tags/lessons-learned/" class="usa-label post-tag"> lessons learned </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/06/20/build-empathy-with-stakeholder-interviews-part-1-preparation/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Build empathy with stakeholder interviews, part 1: Preparation </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">June 20, 2016</span> </p> <p>In this post, I'll cover what stakeholder interviews are, why they’re valuable, and how to prepare for them. In the second post, I’ll cover how to actually run the interviews as well as some tips for synthesizing and integrating the results into the team’s shared understanding.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/user-research/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user research </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/convincing-stakeholders/" class="usa-label post-tag"> convincing stakeholders </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/06/07/building-better-by-building-together-with-the-federal-election-commission/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Building better by building together with the Federal Election Commission </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">June 7, 2016</span> </p> <p>How do you work iteratively and in the open in government? How do you transform an agency’s digital presence with agile and user-centered design? We’ve learned a lot about this as we’ve worked alongside our partners at the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on beta.fec.gov, and we want to share some of those lessons here.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/fec-gov/" class="usa-label post-tag"> fec.gov </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/collaboration-tools/" class="usa-label post-tag"> collaboration tools </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/05/18/why-were-moving-18f-gsa-gov-to-federalist/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Why we’re moving 18f.gsa.gov to Federalist </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 18, 2016</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/18f-gsa-gov/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f.gsa.gov </a> <a href="/tags/federalist/" class="usa-label post-tag"> federalist </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/05/12/introducing-18fs-new-visual-identity/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Introducing 18F’s new visual identity </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 12, 2016</span> </p> <p>If you’re a frequent visitor to our website, you may have noticed a few updates — most notably, that we’ve got a new logo. For the past few months, members of our visual design team have been crafting and refining our new visual identity, and we’re thrilled to introduce it.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/04/28/a-guide-to-the-18f-writing-lab/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> A guide to the 18F Writing Lab </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 28, 2016</span> </p> <p>The guide is designed to equip 18F staff with the information they need to quickly and easily request writing and editing help from the Lab, and also to provide our Lab editors with guidance on editing styles and workflows so we can provide a smooth experience for staff who request the Lab’s help.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/content-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> content design </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/04/27/making-a-distributed-design-team-work/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Making a distributed design team work </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 27, 2016</span> </p> <p>There are now over 30 of us on the Experience Design team. Often, designers on the same project are not in the same location. Here are some techniques we’ve developed to help us work effectively when we aren’t in the same room or even the same times zone.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> <a href="/tags/distributed/" class="usa-label post-tag"> distributed </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/04/25/lean-on-me-asking-for-help-on-the-content-team/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Lean on me: Asking for help on the content team </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 25, 2016</span> </p> <p>Our content squad is made of folks with a wide range of backgrounds and skills — we put this to good use by regularly asking each other for help with projects. Here’s a look into some of our recent collaboration. </p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/content-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> content design </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/04/20/a-clear-audience-makes-for-a-good-blog-post/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> A clear audience makes for a good blog post </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 20, 2016</span> </p> <p>The most important advice I give 18F staff while they’re working on a blog post is to define their audience as clearly and as narrowly as possible. This focus has helped us overcome numerous hurdles to publishing quality blog posts, and it’s also the part of our new Blogging Guide that I’m most excited about.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> <a href="/tags/content-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> content design </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/04/18/the-teams-they-are-a-changin/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The teams, they are a changin’ </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 18, 2016</span> </p> <p>To truly harness the power of agile practices, you need a stable team. But people leave under normal circumstances for a variety of reasons. While recognizing the need for stable teams, there are things our team does and should do to be resilient in the face of change.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/hub/" class="usa-label post-tag"> hub </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/04/08/making-more-consistent-decisions-with-design-principles-a-new-18f-guide/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Making more consistent decisions with design principles: A new 18F guide </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 8, 2016</span> </p> <p>Design principles are concise, specific guidelines for generating and then evaluating ideas and artifacts. We had trouble finding detailed instructions for making and using design principles online. So we decided to write our own.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/03/31/new-guide-provides-tools-for-product-leads/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> New guide provides tools for product leads </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 31, 2016</span> </p> <p>To help our product managers, newcomers and veterans alike, wear the many hats that their jobs require, we’ve developed the 18F Product Guide. The guide will help get our team on the same page and provide a resource to our newcomers.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/03/23/what-have-you-loved-working-on/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> We asked over 100 of our coworkers: What have you loved working on? </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 23, 2016</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/second-anniversary/" class="usa-label post-tag"> second anniversary </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/03/22/what-was-your-path-to-18f/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> We asked over 100 of our coworkers: What was your path to 18F? </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 22, 2016</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/second-anniversary/" class="usa-label post-tag"> second anniversary </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/03/21/we-asked-100-of-our-coworkers-why-did-you-join-18f/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> We asked over 100 of our coworkers: Why did you join 18F? </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 21, 2016</span> </p> <p>Why did people make the decision to join 18F? We asked people on every team to reflect on why they came here.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/second-anniversary/" class="usa-label post-tag"> second anniversary </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/03/18/how-user-archetypes-informed-the-draft-us-web-design-standards/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How user archetypes informed the Draft U.S. Web Design Standards </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 18, 2016</span> </p> <p>To celebrate Sunshine Week, we’re highlighting some groundbreaking open government work by the Department of the Treasury, one of 18F’s partner agencies.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/web-design-system/" class="usa-label post-tag"> web design system </a> <a href="/tags/user-research/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user research </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/02/09/bringing-iterative-development-to-our-talent-team/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Bringing iterative development to our Talent Team </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">February 9, 2016</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/talent/" class="usa-label post-tag"> talent </a> <a href="/tags/join-us/" class="usa-label post-tag"> join us </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/01/25/how-user-story-estimation-helps-my-team-deliver-value/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How user story estimation helps my team deliver value </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">January 25, 2016</span> </p> <p>At 18F, we believe that employing agile practices is the most effective way to build digital services. User story estimation is one of the most useful agile tools, and in this post, I’ll talk about how and why my team has been using it.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/01/07/18f-new-years-resolution-be-even-more-open/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F's New Year's resolution: Be even more open </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">January 7, 2016</span> </p> <p>We've been thinking a lot lately about our role within the open source community, and it's our 2016 resolution to increase the number of non-employee contributors to our projects, including: contributors with little previous experience with open source, and contributors to documentation, bug filing, and other non-coding work.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/01/05/turning-learning-up-to-11-knowledge-sharing/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Turning learning up to 11: Knowledge sharing </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">January 5, 2016</span> </p> <p>The internal knowledge-sharing initiatives we’re working on are also of immediate benefit to other organizations, and will maximize our impact on government IT beyond product delivery.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2016/01/04/turning-learning-up-to-11-transparency/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Turning learning up to 11: Transparent internal operations </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">January 4, 2016</span> </p> <p>In the second post in this series on how transparency, autonomy, and collaboration produce organizational culture change, I describe a few of the initiatives we’ve undertaken to increase transparency into 18F’s internal operations.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/hub/" class="usa-label post-tag"> hub </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/30/turning-learning-up-to-11/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Turning learning up to 11 </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 30, 2015</span> </p> <p>The feature that distinguishes high-performing organizations across all industries is their ability to facilitate knowledge sharing across the entire organization. This is the first post in a series about the tools and processes we use at 18F to facilitate knowledges sharing.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/video/" class="usa-label post-tag"> video </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/29/is-your-project-using-agilefall/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Is your project using “agilefall”? </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 29, 2015</span> </p> <p>At 18F, we’ve spent a lot of time working with federal agencies and coaching them through the transition to agile, but on first blush it’s not always easy to tell who’s really adopted agile versus those who just say they’re agile because they know they’re supposed to.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/23/looking-back-2015-our-own-words/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> We asked everyone at 18F to reflect on the most meaningful project they worked on this year </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 23, 2015</span> </p> <p>2015 was a big year for 18F. We almost doubled in size, worked with 28 different agency partners, and released products ranging from Design Method Cards to cloud.gov. Internally, we improved onboarding and our documentation by releasing guides on topics as diverse as content, accessibility, and creating good open source projects. To mark the end of the year, we reached out to everyone at 18F and asked them to reflect on a meaningful project they worked on this year.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/transformation-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> transformation services </a> <a href="/tags/acquisition-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> acquisition services </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/22/uk-digital-service-visits-us-to-begin-series-of-exchanges/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> U.K. digital service visits U.S. to begin series of exchanges </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 22, 2015</span> </p> <p>Across the pond, the motto of the United Kingdom's Government Digital Service (GDS) is “the strategy is delivery.” Over here, we say “delivery is the strategy,” but we’re both focused on the same thing: Fostering positive change across government by shipping quality digital solutions.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/digital-services-movement/" class="usa-label post-tag"> digital services movement </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/15/how-bot-named-dolores-landingham-transformed-18fs-onboarding/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How a bot named Dolores Landingham transformed 18F’s onboarding </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 15, 2015</span> </p> <p> Over the past few months, we’ve released several products — including checklists, a handbook, and classes — to help new hires orient themselves to 18F. By far the most successful onboarding item we’ve released is a Slack bot that sends scheduled messages to new hires so that they don’t experience information overload during their first week.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/onboarding/" class="usa-label post-tag"> onboarding </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/11/how-we-test-18f-gsa-gov/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How we test 18f.gsa.gov </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 11, 2015</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/testing/" class="usa-label post-tag"> testing </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/18f-gsa-gov/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f.gsa.gov </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> <a href="/tags/jekyll/" class="usa-label post-tag"> jekyll </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/08/using-emoji-for-knowledge-sharing/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Using emoji for knowledge sharing </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 8, 2015</span> </p> <p>Our coworkers are very, very good at documenting the things they learn in Slack, our chat program, because it’s part of their daily workflow. So I tried an experiment: I asked my 18F coworkers to tag messages that every new 18F employee should know with the :evergreen_tree: emoji.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/onboarding/" class="usa-label post-tag"> onboarding </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/07/what-exactly-do-we-even-do-all-day/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> What exactly do we even do all day? </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 7, 2015</span> </p> <p>We've always been open about our code, but we decided to experiment with being open with our project management as well. We've opened up the Trello board for a project we're working on with the Environmental Protection Agency to the public, and the results have been fantastic.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/transformation-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> transformation services </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/open-government/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open government </a> <a href="/tags/transparency/" class="usa-label post-tag"> transparency </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/convincing-stakeholders/" class="usa-label post-tag"> convincing stakeholders </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/03/power-of-mindset-normatives-matthew-milan/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The power of mindset: Normative’s Matthew Milan </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 3, 2015</span> </p> <p>Matthew Milan, founder of and design leader at software design firm Normative, visited 18F’s main office to share his insights into the importance of the shared mindset and how your team can develop its own. Here are some of his takeaways.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> <a href="/tags/speaker-series/" class="usa-label post-tag"> speaker series </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/02/analytics-usa-gov-new-features-more-data/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> analytics.usa.gov: New features and more data </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 2, 2015</span> </p> <p>We’ve recently added a few new features to analytics.usa.gov: location data, download data, and expanded downloadable files.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/analytics-usa-gov/" class="usa-label post-tag"> analytics.usa.gov </a> <a href="/tags/open-data/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open data </a> <a href="/tags/open-government/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open government </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/12/01/how-we-dramatically-improved-18fs-onboarding-process-in-3-months/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How we dramatically improved 18F’s onboarding process in 3 months </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 1, 2015</span> </p> <p>Over the past three months, we’ve released several products that help new hires acclimate to our organization. In this blog post, we’ll detail what we did and why it works really well.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/onboarding/" class="usa-label post-tag"> onboarding </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/11/20/how-we-use-a-lean-approach-to-product-design/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How we use a lean approach to product design </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">November 20, 2015</span> </p> <p>Here at 18F, several product teams (including CALC, Discovery, and EITI) have been experimenting with a lean product design approach to building software, often called “lean UX.” In a nutshell, it is a set of ideas about design and project management that help us focus not just on what we build, but on the outcomes our tools enable.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/11/19/delivery-partnership-playbook/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> New playbook details what it's like to work with 18F Delivery </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">November 19, 2015</span> </p> <p>If you or your agency have thought about working with 18F but are unsure of how we work with our partners, we have a new set of guidelines to help you out. The 18F Delivery Partnership Playbook is specifically targeted at federal offices interested in working with 18F to build digital services.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/transformation-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> transformation services </a> <a href="/tags/acquisition-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> acquisition services </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/11/06/conversation-with-cfpb-natalie-kurz/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> In conversation with CFPB’s Natalie Kurz </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">November 6, 2015</span> </p> <p>Last month, content strategist and UX designer Natalie Kurz from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau presented at 18F. Prior to her presentation, we had the chance to chat with Kurz via email about her experience working with different types of content, her predictions for the field, and the collaborative approaches she recommends.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture-change/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture change </a> <a href="/tags/speaker-series/" class="usa-label post-tag"> speaker series </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/11/03/content-strategy-for-all-insights-from-cfpb-natalie-kurz/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Content strategy for all: insights from CFPB’s Natalie Kurz </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">November 3, 2015</span> </p> <p>Natalie Kurz, a content strategist at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, recently spoke at 18F about some best practices for creating and promoting digestible, user-friendly content.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture-change/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture change </a> <a href="/tags/speaker-series/" class="usa-label post-tag"> speaker series </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/10/21/every-kid-in-a-park-follow-up/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Every Kid in a Park: Why we can’t stop smiling </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">October 21, 2015</span> </p> <p>Our projects are iterative, which means we keep working on them after they launch. In keeping with that practice, we’ve kept a close eye on everykidinapark.gov, which went live September 1. We’re excited to share a few of our improvements and updates with you today.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/every-kid-in-a-park/" class="usa-label post-tag"> every kid in a park </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/10/20/digital-analytics-program-anniversary/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Five factors for building a successful government-wide digital analytics program </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">October 20, 2015</span> </p> <p>Launched just three years ago, the Digital Analytics Program (DAP) continues to drive the 2012 Digital Government Strategy’s mission to improve the citizen experience by streamlining the collection and analysis of digital analytics data on a federal government-wide scale. Today, 45 agencies — including all CFO Act agencies — have implemented the common code across more than 4,000 public-facing websites, counting 1.5 BILLION pageviews each month.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/analytics-usa-gov/" class="usa-label post-tag"> analytics.usa.gov </a> <a href="/tags/pulse-cio-gov/" class="usa-label post-tag"> pulse.cio.gov </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/digitalgov-community/" class="usa-label post-tag"> digitalgov community </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/10/15/best-practices-for-distributed-teams/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F’s best practices for making distributed teams work </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">October 15, 2015</span> </p> <p>18F employees live all over the country, which means it's normal for the members of a project team to be spread across multiple cities. Because our teams are distributed, we've developed certain strategies for working well as a collaborative operation.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/distributed/" class="usa-label post-tag"> distributed </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/collaboration-tools/" class="usa-label post-tag"> collaboration tools </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/10/14/whats-in-a-name-understanding-and-using-gov-acronyms/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> What's in a name: Understanding and using government acronyms </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">October 14, 2015</span> </p> <p>We have an acronyms section in our Content Guide, a resource we heartily recommend. Acronyms and abbreviations also have a ton of associated history and nuance, which we’re shedding light on here, hopefully to encourage other authors and agencies to think carefully about how they use them in digital tools.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/10/08/updated-18f-content-guide/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> You shared, we listened — updates to the 18F Content Guide </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">October 8, 2015</span> </p> <p>After we launched the 18F Content Guide, we received all kinds of suggestions for updates and improvements. Here's a sampling of some of the improvements we've made recently based on your suggestions.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/10/02/building-a-better-government-design-team/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Building a better government design team </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">October 2, 2015</span> </p> <p>Building a high-performing design team is tough under the best of circumstances. Add in governmental regulations, a distributed workforce, and rapid growth of the parent organization, and the process is even tougher.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/events/" class="usa-label post-tag"> events </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/speaker-series/" class="usa-label post-tag"> speaker series </a> <a href="/tags/distributed/" class="usa-label post-tag"> distributed </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/09/21/new-citizenship-resources/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> New citizenship resources demystify the naturalization process </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 21, 2015</span> </p> <p>For many people, September conjures up happy memories of heading back to school, new backpack and supplies in tow. For new and aspiring citizens, September has additional significance: It’s when the federal government celebrates Constitution Week, a weeklong observance commemorating the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/uscis/" class="usa-label post-tag"> uscis </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/09/09/how-a-two-day-sprint-moved-an-agency-twenty-years-forward/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How a two-day sprint moved an agency twenty years forward </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 9, 2015</span> </p> <p>At 18F Consulting, we experiment with ways to empower agencies to build cost-efficient, excellent digital solutions. Recently we partnered with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division to run a two day “Design/Dev Agile Sprint” to help them modernize their Field Operations Handbook.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/user-research/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user research </a> <a href="/tags/workshop/" class="usa-label post-tag"> workshop </a> <a href="/tags/culture-change/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture change </a> <a href="/tags/transformation-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> transformation services </a> <a href="/tags/department-of-labor/" class="usa-label post-tag"> department of labor </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/09/03/every-kid-in-a-park/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How to design a government site for kids </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 3, 2015</span> </p> <p>Every Kid in a Park gives U.S. fourth graders free access to all federal lands and water for a full year. Here at 18F, we were proud to develop the site in partnership with the U.S. Department of Interior and other federal land management agencies.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> <a href="/tags/every-kid-in-a-park/" class="usa-label post-tag"> every kid in a park </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/08/10/18f-design-methods/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Introducing 18F Design Methods </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">August 10, 2015</span> </p> <p>We’re thrilled to introduce the beta deck of 18F Design Methods, a collection of research and design practices that we use to better understand and serve the users of our products.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/07/06/18f-content-guide/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The 18F content guide: working toward cleaner, more accessible communication </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 6, 2015</span> </p> <p>We’re proud to announce the release of our 18F Content Guide, a comprehensive handbook to help content creators on our team (and, we hope, elsewhere) create more direct, accessible, and compelling written works.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/content-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> content design </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/06/15/building-a-better-welcome-wagon/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Building a better welcome wagon </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">June 15, 2015</span> </p> <p>As our team expands to meet federal digital needs, we've learned to appreciate documentation for its ability to turn new hires into self-sufficient contributors quickly, with minimal disruption to the organization.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/onboarding/" class="usa-label post-tag"> onboarding </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/hub/" class="usa-label post-tag"> hub </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/05/28/18F-guides/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F Guides </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 28, 2015</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/guides/" class="usa-label post-tag"> guides </a> <a href="/tags/product-launch/" class="usa-label post-tag"> product launch </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/05/21/tockingtime/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Tocking time </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 21, 2015</span> </p> <p>I recently spent time helping with one of our internal frustrations — how members of 18F track how we spend our time. Ultimately, we opted to try rolling our own simple solution using Django: Tock.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> <a href="/tags/transparency/" class="usa-label post-tag"> transparency </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/05/14/18Fpages/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Moving from GitHub Pages to 18F Pages </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 14, 2015</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/18f/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/05/04/pair-programming-why-two-heads-are-better-than-one/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Pair programming: Why two heads are better than one </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 4, 2015</span> </p> <p>At 18F, we frequently use pair programming, a technique where two developers work together on one screen. We asked two developers at 18F how they pair program and why they find it useful.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/collaboration-tools/" class="usa-label post-tag"> collaboration tools </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/04/29/18f-how-we-write/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F: a great place to write </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 29, 2015</span> </p> <p>We collaborate on much of what we do at 18F, from the way we work on code to the way we write our blog. Though we have a small editorial team, the blog — and our writing process — extends ownership to the entire 18F team.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/04/28/intersection-of-art-and-technology/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The intersection of art and technology </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 28, 2015</span> </p> <p>Earlier this month, I went to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for the first time. I was there to see a special exhibit featuring the pop singer Bjӧrk, who is currently presenting a retrospective of her life’s work as a musician, artist and technologist. The retrospective spans back from her early beginnings as a childhood folk singer in Iceland all the way through to her most current album release.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/collaboration-tools/" class="usa-label post-tag"> collaboration tools </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/04/24/agile-developments-secret-weapon-transparency/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Agile development’s secret weapon: transparency </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 24, 2015</span> </p> <p>18F Consulting recommends agile development for several reasons, including agile’s emphasis on user needs, continuous integration, and rapid adaptation to changed circumstances. But there is another important reason we recommend agile: its focus on transparency.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/transparency/" class="usa-label post-tag"> transparency </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/04/21/hackathons-not-just-for-folks-who-code/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Hackathons: not just for folks who code </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 21, 2015</span> </p> <p>A few members of the 18F team recently published an excellent guide on welcoming new coders to civic hackathons. In the same vein, we’d like to offer a list of strategies for including non-technical folks in your hackathons.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/hackathons/" class="usa-label post-tag"> hackathons </a> <a href="/tags/events/" class="usa-label post-tag"> events </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/04/08/day-in-the-life-of-talent-manager/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> A day in the life of an 18F talent manager </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 8, 2015</span> </p> <p>For this month's installment of our Day in the Life series, Talent Manager Jamie Albrecht shares the ins and outs of her day — and her power song.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/staff-profiles/" class="usa-label post-tag"> staff profiles </a> <a href="/tags/day-in-the-life/" class="usa-label post-tag"> day in the life </a> <a href="/tags/talent/" class="usa-label post-tag"> talent </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/04/03/18f-discussion-should-project-teams-code-first-or-design-first/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F discussion: Should project teams code first or design first? </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 3, 2015</span> </p> <p>Recently, three members of our team sat down for a conversation about when teams should start coding on a project.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/user-centered-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> user-centered design </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/04/03/how-to-welcome-new-coders-to-a-civic-hackathon/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How to welcome new coders to a civic hackathon </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 3, 2015</span> </p> <p>The National Day of Civic Hacking is a great time to attend — or host your first hackathon. We’ve outlined some strategies for first-time hackathon hosts to ensure new participants feel welcome, and help them maximize their contributions.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/events/" class="usa-label post-tag"> events </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/hackathons/" class="usa-label post-tag"> hackathons </a> <a href="/tags/tools-you-can-use/" class="usa-label post-tag"> tools you can use </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/03/31/focus-on-accessibility/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Focus on accessibility </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 31, 2015</span> </p> <p>Accessibility is central to our work here at 18F. Read more about our accessibility efforts and how you can get involved.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/accessibility/" class="usa-label post-tag"> accessibility </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/03/20/one-year-in-and-looking-forward/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> One year in and looking forward </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 20, 2015</span> </p> <p>One year ago we said, 'Hello, World' and launched not only a new team, but also the promise of a new way of working with and for the Federal Government. Here's what we've accomplished so far.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/acquisition-services/" class="usa-label post-tag"> acquisition services </a> <a href="/tags/talent/" class="usa-label post-tag"> talent </a> <a href="/tags/platforms/" class="usa-label post-tag"> platforms </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/03/19/18f-by-the-numbers/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F by the numbers </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 19, 2015</span> </p> <p>Today, we’re celebrating our first anniversary. We wanted to take a look at some of the numbers that have helped define 18F during our first year.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/03/17/does-18f-pass-the-bechdel-test-for-tech/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Does 18F pass the Bechdel test for tech? </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 17, 2015</span> </p> <p>How does the Bechdel test, originally designed for evaluating works for fiction, apply to technology projects? To pass, a function written by a woman dev must call a function written by another woman dev.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture-change/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture change </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/03/12/day-in-the-life-of-an-18F-content-designer/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> A day in the life of an 18F content designer </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 12, 2015</span> </p> <p>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 Kate Garklavs, Content Designer.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/day-in-the-life/" class="usa-label post-tag"> day in the life </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> design </a> <a href="/tags/content-design/" class="usa-label post-tag"> content design </a> <a href="/tags/staff-profiles/" class="usa-label post-tag"> staff profiles </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/03/03/how-to-use-github-and-the-terminal-a-guide/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How to use GitHub and the terminal: a guide </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">March 3, 2015</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/collaboration-tools/" class="usa-label post-tag"> collaboration tools </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/18f-gsa-gov/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f.gsa.gov </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/02/17/three-18f-products-that-will-help-your-workplace/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Three 18F products that will help your workplace </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">February 17, 2015</span> </p> <p>I’ve worked at 18F for exactly six days. During those six days, I learned about a few products that I wish I’d known about while at my previous job. These products would not only have saved me hours of work (itself a bonus), but they also would have fostered long-term collaboration.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/midas/" class="usa-label post-tag"> midas </a> <a href="/tags/open-opportunities/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open opportunities </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2015/01/16/open-source-for-good-government/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Open source for good government </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">January 16, 2015</span> </p> <p>Organizations like 18F and the U.K.’s Government Digital Service (GDS) fully embrace open source, and their combined commitment to openness and transparency is transforming the delivery of government digital services in both countries.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/gov-uk/" class="usa-label post-tag"> gov.uk </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/12/23/hub/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The 18F Hub </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 23, 2014</span> </p> <p>The Hub is a Jekyll-based documentation platform that aims to help development teams organize and easily share their information, and to enable easy exploration of the connections between team members, projects, and skill sets. It also serves as a lightweight tool that other teams can experiment with and deploy with a minimum of setup.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/12/17/snippets/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Snippets </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 17, 2014</span> </p> <p>18F has begun collecting and publishing team member "snippets," short lists summarizing what you worked on the previous week and what you plan to work on during the upcoming week. Team members submit their snippets each Monday, and they are published internally for all to peruse. Snippets foster transparency and team cohesion, spark productive interactions, and can be cultivated right away using tools already at-hand.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/culture-change/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture change </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/communication-tools-and-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> communication tools and practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/12/11/large-scale-development-culture-change/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Large scale development culture change: Google and the U.S. government </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 11, 2014</span> </p> <p>18F exists to demonstrate how Open Source and Agile-inspired methodologies are critical to an effective, efficient, modern delivery process. However, driving adoption of these tools and practices throughout the federal government will require more than setting a good example. My recent talk at the GSA, available on YouTube, connects the dots between grassroots automated testing adoption at Google and the challenges facing similar culture change across Federal IT development.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/culture-change/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture change </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/12/10/great-community-turnout-for-open-source-hack-night/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Great community turnout for Midas open source hack night </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">December 10, 2014</span> </p> <p>The October Oopen source hack night was a huge success, both as a community event and for the positive impact on the Midas project.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/midas/" class="usa-label post-tag"> midas </a> <a href="/tags/open-opportunities/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open opportunities </a> <a href="/tags/hackathons/" class="usa-label post-tag"> hackathons </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/10/21/how-to-run-your-own-3-sprint-agile-workshop/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> How to run your own three-sprint agile workshop </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">October 21, 2014</span> </p> <p>You can’t learn agile software development from a book any more than you can learn to perform a one-handed jump shot without repeatedly tossing a basketball in the hoop. You can read a book about the basic idea, you can read a book to get started, and you can read a book about refining your technique, but in the end you have to practice.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/agile/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agile </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/workshop/" class="usa-label post-tag"> workshop </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/10/01/open-source-hack-series-midas/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F open source hack series: Midas </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">October 1, 2014</span> </p> <p>18F invites designers and developers from inside and outside of government to join us for a flurry of coding and sketching. Midas is an open source project in active development by 18F, Health & Human Services (HHS) IDEA Lab and the State Department. A small cross-agency team, dedicated to launching this product to empower passionate civil servants and aspiring diplomats all over the world.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/midas/" class="usa-label post-tag"> midas </a> <a href="/tags/open-opportunities/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open opportunities </a> <a href="/tags/hackathons/" class="usa-label post-tag"> hackathons </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/09/25/design-studio-onrr/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> User-centered design at 18F: a design studio for natural resource revenues </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 25, 2014</span> </p> <p>We recently kicked off a new project with the Department of the Interior’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR). Three weeks into the project, we decided to hold a design studio to solve the problem of how to convey complex revenue data. We needed to better understand the difference between onshore revenue (revenue from natural resources extracted from land) and offshore revenue (revenue from resources extracted from Federal offshore or the U.S. outer continental shelf) as it relates to our system. What is a design studio, you ask...</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> <a href="/tags/training/" class="usa-label post-tag"> training </a> <a href="/tags/workshop/" class="usa-label post-tag"> workshop </a> <a href="/tags/useiti/" class="usa-label post-tag"> useiti </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/09/18/getting-to-work-for-the-american-people/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Getting to work for the American people </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 18, 2014</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/18f/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/09/08/the-encasement-strategy-on-legacy-systems-and-the/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The encasement strategy: on legacy systems and the importance of APIs </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">September 8, 2014</span> </p> <p>In 1986 a nuclear reactor known as Chernobyl released harmful radioactivity which spread over much of the western USSR and Europe. The core of this reactor remains a glowing, ineradicable mass of deadly radioactive lava in the middle of a large Exclusion Zone unfit for human habitation.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/api/" class="usa-label post-tag"> api </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/modern-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> modern practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/08/12/the-contributors-guide-to-18f-code-for-the-common/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> The contributor's guide to 18F: code for the common good </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">August 12, 2014</span> </p> <p>Transparency in coding makes code more secure. Open source development is development in the light, sometimes a harsh light, that shows every blemish. At 18F we strongly believe this improves the rapidity of our coding and the quality and security of the code.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/evangelism/" class="usa-label post-tag"> evangelism </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/07/31/working-in-public-from-day-1/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Working in public from day one </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 31, 2014</span> </p> <p>Open source your code from day one. Don't wait for a milestone, don't wait for it to be stable — do it from the first commit.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/evangelism/" class="usa-label post-tag"> evangelism </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/07/29/18f-an-open-source-team/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F: an open source team </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 29, 2014</span> </p> <p>At 18F, we place a premium on developing digital tools and services in the open. This means contributing our source code back to the community, actively repurposing our code across projects, and contributing back to the open source tools we use. For a variety of reasons, we believe that doing so improves the final product we create.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/evangelism/" class="usa-label post-tag"> evangelism </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture-change/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture change </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/07/15/hot-off-the-press-18fs-api-standards/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Hot off the press: 18F's API standards </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">July 15, 2014</span> </p> <p>We recently released the first version of our <a href="https://github.com/18F/api-standards">API Standards</a> — a set of recommendations and guidelines for API production. It is our intention that every 18F API meet these standards, to help us ensure a baseline quality and consistency across all APIs we offer now and in the future.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/api/" class="usa-label post-tag"> api </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/06/25/intro-to-apis-working-with-urls-json-apis-and-open/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Intro to APIs: Working with URLs, JSON, APIs, and Open Data — without writing any code </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">June 25, 2014</span> </p> <p>June 27, 2014, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Register now. GSA’s digital teams are offering a user-friendly intro course to APIs. Regardless of your skill level, you will walk away from this lesson understanding what APIs are and how developers use them.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/api/" class="usa-label post-tag"> api </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/workshop/" class="usa-label post-tag"> workshop </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/events/" class="usa-label post-tag"> events </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/05/14/hacking-bureaucracy-improving-hiring-and-software/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Hacking bureaucracy: improving hiring and software deployment </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 14, 2014</span> </p> <p><p>When asked what it is we do, one quick answer is, "we’re hacking bureaucracy." While it may sound provocative, it isn’t.</p></p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/culture-change/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture change </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> <a href="/tags/join-us/" class="usa-label post-tag"> join us </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/05/09/a-few-notes-on-notalone-gov/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> A few notes on NotAlone.gov </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">May 9, 2014</span> </p> <p>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.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/presidential-innovation-fellows/" class="usa-label post-tag"> presidential innovation fellows </a> <a href="/tags/18f/" class="usa-label post-tag"> 18f </a> <a href="/tags/culture/" class="usa-label post-tag"> culture </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/agency-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> agency work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/04/28/18f-demo-day-may-9-2014/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> 18F Demo Day </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 28, 2014</span> </p> <p>Delivering on GSA's mission to expand opportunities for small business, we're hosting 18F Demo Day, Friday, May 9 at 9:00 a.m. Attendees from across the Federal Government and the small business and tech communities will get a behind-the-scenes look at our projects that are currently underway.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/demo-day/" class="usa-label post-tag"> demo day </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/04/11/open-source-terms-of-service-a-better-developer/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Open source and terms of service = a better developer experience </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 11, 2014</span> </p> <p>One of the important changes occurring across the federal government is the role of open source for non-code projects - using an open, iterative model of collaboration inherited from the coding community for all kinds of new purposes. Want to see a great example of this in action? In recent years, as more and more agencies offer public APIs, some have included a developer terms of service (TOS).</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/api/" class="usa-label post-tag"> api </a> <a href="/tags/best-practices/" class="usa-label post-tag"> best practices </a> <a href="/tags/open-source/" class="usa-label post-tag"> open source </a> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> </span> </li> <li class="border-bottom-1px border-base-lighter padding-y-6"> <h2> <a href="/2014/04/01/ask-us-almost-anything/" class="post-link text-no-underline"> Ask us (almost) anything </a> </h2> <p><span class="post-date">April 1, 2014</span> </p> <p>GitHub for Government did their very first AMA (Ask Me Anything) last week with Philadelphia's Chief Data Officer, Mark Headd. After some prodding by GitHub's Head Bureaucat, Ben Balter, 18F decided to use this new avenue to do some Q and A.</p> <span class="post-tags display-flex flex-wrap" itemprop="keywords"> <a href="/tags/how-we-work/" class="usa-label post-tag"> how we work </a> <a href="/tags/events/" class="usa-label post-tag"> events </a> <a href="/tags/presidential-innovation-fellows/" class="usa-label post-tag"> presidential innovation fellows </a> </span> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </section> </main> <footer> <div class="grid-container padding-y-6"> <hr class="hr-1-dark footer-hr-alignment"> <div class="grid-row grid-gap"> <div class="tablet:grid-col-3"> <img src="/img/18f-logo-60i14872OF.svg" class="maxw-5" alt="18F logo" loading="lazy" decoding="async"> <p> Work with us to plan successful projects, choose better vendors, build custom software, or learn how to work in new ways. </p> <a href="/contact/" class="usa-button an18f-button--dark" > Contact us </a> </div> <div class="tablet:grid-offset-1 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