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So valuable. Currently working on bringing product management as a concept into public services (non-US), and using 18F's ideas as a model. The key aspect is
by motohagiography 7y ago
So valuable.
Currently working on bringing product management as a concept into public services (non-US), and using 18F's ideas as a model.
The key aspect is product ownership, as not only is there a notion of product, but also introducing the notion of an individual with ownership, as management and ownership are orthogonal concepts.
The idea of metrics as we understand them in the tech/startup world is also different, as in tech we orient toward revenue and user growth, where public sector projects are largely funded in phases with a fixed budget. The whole economics of public sector projects is you have expensive development up front, and then you amortize that cost over a decade or more by transitioning it to cheaper/sunk-cost operations staff to manage it over its lifecycle.
The other piece is that if you launch a public service that meets the needs on an 80:20 basis, you are a government who has left out %20 of people, which becomes untenable quickly.
Adding product management (e.g. something like aha.io, let alone Jira or Azure Devops) is a cultural change. Government has only just adapted to the notion of "client/server," which was a fundamental culture change driven by technology. Agile, devops, microservices, and the fact that most people under 25 today code, is going to be another revolution in public sector culture, and one not without bumps.
Agile presumes growth, it was designed to create products that grow revenue, whereas backfitting it to a fixed cost model takes some gymnastics on multiple levels.
The technology changes of the last decade were almost as large as introduction of the internet, and they are going to drive cultural change, but it is worth recognizing that this itself is the key challange. 18F's approach is the future, and I would love to replicate aspects of it, as how to effect change in the culture of public services is the greatest challenge of all.