Create 2024-04-10-showing-impact-in-new-org

_posts/2024-04-10-showing-impact-in-new-digital-org

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+title: Showing impact in a new digital org in government
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+permalink: /showing-impact-in-new-digital-org/
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+A former colleague recently asked for advice on how to show impact and results when beginning a gov digital org. Here's some of what I wrote them:
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+- Differentiate between actions taken **so the org can breathe/live** and actions to **accomplish the org's mission.** In a healthy parent organization, those are the same, but in many contexts, they are not. Showing impact and results may not actually [win the allies needed](https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2021-06-11/hellsite-austin-gov/) for the org to exist.
+- Identify a possible champion perceived as objective by the wider community, and solve something for them. Their "vouch" to their network will matter more than anything you say directly.
+- Do a few flashy things to demonstrate your ethos that surprise your community and confound their expectations. [The micropurchase platform](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/10/13/open-source-micropurchasing/) was a successful example of that at 18F.
+- Create evidence of your approach from other agencies. At 18F, Melody Kramer wrote [this blog post](https://18f.gsa.gov/2016/05/24/the-user-centered-redesign-of-identitytheft-gov/) about a site she found out about on reddit - and it resonanted such that [Leidos adapted her post for their own uses](https://www.leidos.com/interactives/modernize/files/app_modernization_section_leidos_blog_excerpt_user-centric_design.pdf).
+- When you ship something real/impactful, make sure that outside advocates know about it and can support your work in ways that hit the "press attention" incentive buttons in gov.