Field Digital Agenda Draft 0.1
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Priority 01

Give government lasting ownership of its services

Organize end-to-end services around public ownership, with the people, authority, and resources to keep improving through leadership and contract changes.

This priority advances
Workforce Purpose-fit digital infrastructure

The case

Public ownership starts with the whole service.

Start with the full journey from a person’s need to its resolution, including handoffs across offices, digital and offline channels, and the work behind them. Government needs public owners who can improve that whole service. Career staff, term appointments, fellows, vendors, and specialist partners can work together; lasting ownership means government can set direction, manage suppliers, and keep learning when a placement or contract ends.

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Durable capacity is visible in roles, decision rights, funding, and routines, not a particular employment label. Product, engineering, design, data, operations, procurement, and policy expertise must connect to a named public service owner. Teams need authority to change internal workflows, release and measure improvements, and maintain the service through leadership turnover.

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What the agenda asks

Organize capability around services people need.

  1. 01

    Give public teams enduring service ownership

    Name accountable public owners and build mixed teams of career staff and time-limited specialists around them. Define who makes product and policy decisions, owns data and code, manages suppliers, and keeps improving the service after outside help leaves.

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  2. 02

    Rebuild the systems behind public hiring

    Treat classification, recruiting, assessment, onboarding, performance, and retention as connected operating systems. Create credible career paths for product, technical, operational, and commercial expertise, and measure whether the teams can retain and use it.

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  3. 03

    Give teams authority to deliver

    Organize funding, decision rights, procurement, measurement, and leadership around teams that can release frequently and change internal operations. Test durability by whether the team can maintain the service, manage contracts, and improve outcomes after the initial intervention ends.

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Across the field

Selected examples

These illustrate the priority, not a census. They include proposals, pilots, current resources, and completed work with lessons to reuse. Sources were reviewed on the dates shown; status may have changed. Inclusion implies neither endorsement of the Agenda nor a funding recommendation. Use “Suggest an edit” on a card to correct its status or description.

01
Niskanen NAPA

Research and policy development

State personnel systems: evidence, reform, and model legislation

Niskanen and NAPA have assembled comparable evidence on how states hire, classify, pay, evaluate, and discipline their workforces. Niskanen is extending that base into an ongoing personnel reform program, analysis, and model legislation.

Why selected: Shows how comparable personnel evidence can inform hiring and civil-service reform.

Activity: Human-resources practices benchmarked across all 50 states

The benchmark describes research coverage; changes in hiring or service performance require separate evidence.

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Workforce

Learn more

Niskanen Center: State Capacity Pillar 1, Personnel NAPA: State Human Resources Practices and Benchmarking

Sources reviewed

02
Work for America

Operating and scaling

Rebuilding state and local hiring systems

Work for America connects mission-driven candidates to state and local roles through Civic Match while helping government HR and operations teams improve the hiring machinery itself through its Talent Accelerator and practical tools.

Why selected: Connects candidate matching with changes to the government hiring process itself.

Activity: Working with more than 280 state and local governments

This is a reach measure. It does not show how hiring time, retention, or service delivery changed.

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Workforce

Learn more

Work for America: Programs Built to Hire: A Process Mapping Toolkit for Government Hiring Teams Work for America: 2026 growth and reach

Sources reviewed

03
The People Lab

Launching

A national evidence base for the government workforce

The People Lab’s Public Servant Project is building shared evidence about public workers through an annual state and local workforce survey, research on public perceptions, and a developing hub for what works in government workforce policy.

Why selected: Builds evidence from public servants that can inform workforce policy.

Activity: The first national validated annual survey of state and local public servants

A shared evidence resource is being established; effects on workforce decisions remain to be assessed.

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Workforce

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Public Servant Project Harvard Kennedy School: Public Servant Project launch

Sources reviewed

04
Tech Talent Project

Operating

Technical leadership pipelines for government

Tech Talent Project is connecting proven technology leaders to public roles and preparing them to succeed through state-transition support, Tech to Gov, and its Tech Executive Leadership Initiative.

Why selected: Shows how leadership recruitment and preparation can strengthen government ownership.

Activity: More than 200 technical leaders matched across 30-plus states

Placements describe activity and reach; retained capability and service outcomes need follow-up.

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Workforce

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Tech Talent Project: Programs and initiatives

Sources reviewed

What could happen next

Possible next moves

These illustrate ways to advance the priority, including development, adoption, and sustained operation. They invite discussion and support; they are not an announced grant program.

Adoption and sustained operation

Readiness: Exploring

Help governments adopt a durable product operating model

Work with a small number of government teams on a service they choose, improving delivery while establishing public product ownership, decision rights, mixed career and temporary roles, live-work coaching, and targeted procurement changes. Document what remains after outside support and what another government would need to adapt the approach.

What would help

Find a few government teams with a live service problem, then design time-bound support with existing providers and practitioners that leaves ownership and evidence inside government. Explore this opportunity

Development and testing

Readiness: Scoping

Prove a reusable public system through child welfare

Explore a working open-source Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) with a state partner as a test of reusable public systems. Pair software with changes to agency practice and policy, then publish the code, decisions, costs, and adoption playbook for a second state to test what truly transfers.

What would help

Bring together child welfare agencies, families and caseworkers, delivery teams, federal partners, and funders to test demand, scope a first deployment, and plan long-term stewardship and a second adoption. Explore this opportunity

Development and testing

Readiness: Exploring

Build hands-on AI capacity inside congressional committees

Explore embedded technical practitioners working with congressional committee staff on actual legislative and oversight tasks. Pair model access with institutional context, independent evaluation, and a plan for staff to retain the ability to judge and use these tools after a placement ends.

What would help

Find a committee-defined task and bring staff, embedded practitioners, and independent support together to design and evaluate a first placement. Explore this opportunity

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See a gap or a way forward?

Tell us about a need this priority overlooks, even if you do not have a project to propose. Or add work already underway, with a public source. Editors review suggestions before publication.

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