Field Digital Agenda Draft 0.1

A proposed digital agenda for the state-capacity field

Building government’s capacity to deliver in a digital world

Government needs to own, operate, and continuously improve the services people rely on. Digital tools and AI expand what is possible. Realizing that potential takes changes to the workforce, procedures, procurement, and institutions that shape how services work.

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The basic argument

Better services require lasting public capability.

01

Government must deliver

People experience government through whether its institutions and services actually work. Delivery capacity is not secondary to policy. It determines whether policy becomes real.

02

Digital tools and AI expand what is possible

Software, shared data, and AI create new ways to simplify services and support public workers. Judge their value by the time, effort, accuracy, and experience of the people delivering and using a service.

03

Digital belongs in the operating model

Digital capability belongs in workforce, procedure, infrastructure, and funding decisions from the start. Government needs the authority and expertise to keep improving services, including after outside support ends.

See Recoding America’s full strategy

The working agenda

Five proposed priorities

These are choices about where the field should concentrate effort, authority, talent, and money. They are a starting position, not a catalog of every useful activity.

  1. 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.
  2. 02

    Redesign services and reduce burdens with digital tools and AI

    Simplify whole services, redesign human processes, and use digital tools and AI where they reduce burden and improve outcomes.
  3. 03

    Build and sustain shared public digital infrastructure

    Invest in reusable components, standards, data infrastructure, and the adoption and maintenance that make them useful across government.
  4. 04

    Align funding, procurement, and oversight with delivery

    Change funding, procurement, and oversight together so government can buy, operate, and continuously improve digital services.
  5. 05

    Help governments adopt and improve what works

    Help public teams adapt proven approaches to live service needs, share implementation evidence, and learn what it takes to sustain better results.

What could happen next

Possible next moves

These examples show how the priorities could become practical work, from testing an idea to helping governments adopt and sustain approaches that work.

They invite discussion, partners, and support. They are proposals, not an announced funding program or an invitation to apply for a grant.

Adoption and sustained operation

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.

 Development and testing

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.

 Development and testing

Startup accelerator for public-sector infrastructure

Explore an accelerator for teams building foundational products and services public agencies repeatedly need. Pair patient support with government design partners and help teams navigate procurement, adoption, and long-term stewardship.

 Development and testing

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.

 Development and testing

Make privacy rules executable

Explore a bounded privacy-as-code demonstration in one real government data-sharing workflow. Translate human-approved rules on authority, purpose, access, minimization, and retention into testable controls, then publish safe tests and evidence of how they work. Encoding a rule also exposes legal and policy interpretations that people must resolve.
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For people working in this field

This is a point of view to build on and argue with.

Tell us about a need the Agenda overlooks, add work we have missed, or improve a possible next move. You can name an unmet need before you have a project in mind. The Record explains what changed and why.

Ways to share feedback

  • Tell us what’s missing or challenge a claim
  • Add or correct a project
  • Propose or improve a concrete opportunity

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