18F conducted a six-week discovery sprint through July and August 2016 to inform the future of education offered by General Services Administration’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS).
We are using the term TTS Education to refer to all educational and training materials offered by TTS’s Office of Products and Programs and 18F, including 18F Education (part of the 18F Learn business unit) which offers paid training to partner agencies), DigitalGov.gov (which publishes articles on digital best practices within government) and DigitalGov University (which offers free educational content to government employees). All of these programs work towards the goal of increasing the capacity of digital service teams across the federal government.
Our research sought to uncover the educational needs — format, content, and context — of government employees engaged with digital products.
Across government, employees are being asked to use technology to solve complex problems and deliver better services across a rapidly changing digital environment. Much of what this large-scale transition requires is a more agile and adaptable way of working.
Given this, we asked “How should education play a significant part in this transformation? What are the factors that make education effective and successful? How can we leave participants of education programs with the confidence to step forward in their agencies and set an example for what modern, collaborative work looks like?”
Working with technology to solve complex problems requires skills and practices that have emerged in the past couple decades. This includes the obvious players such as agile development, human-centered design, product strategy, lean startup, and so on. But it also includes soft skills such as storytelling, persuasion, and community organizing, and other areas not yet identified. Collectively, we refer to the adoption of these practices — and the knowledge, tools, and cultural shifts required to successfully do so — as “digital transformation.”
The private sector has long felt the pressure to adopt these practices, but federal agencies are only just starting to feel this push. The general public has come to expect great services from the private sector, and want the same quality from their government.
Previous research into digital transformation has focused broadly on how digital transformation practices are introduced and embedded inside government agencies. From this work, we have surmised that a lack of knowledge and skills is a barrier to adopting modern digital practices, and therefore appropriate educational training may have a role in digital transformation.
See — Best practices in government digital transformation
This report is a first draft of the people and social networks involved in crafting education and innovation programs within government. This research can set the initial direction for the reimagining of TTS Education, as well as provide a basis for more focused research.
Innovation and education within the federal government is a broad and complex subject and there is still much to discover. Our findings primarily reflect the perspectives of educators and innovators rather than those of students, and reflect educated opinions rather than direct observation. All findings should be further validated through direct observation and behavioral interviews with students to reduce the possibility of bias.
This research is qualitative in nature. Its goal is to develop a deep understanding of the people within a specific group and their thoughts, beliefs, and goals, as well as how these influence their behavior. It doesn’t tell us about the frequency of observations within the population—we can’t say what percentage of people feel a certain way, or if one observation occurs more frequently than another.
You can learn more about our research in the methodology supplement.