(2020-02-07) Outgoing Director Angela Colter Reflects On Her Highlights With 18F

Outgoing director Angela Colter reflects on her highlights with 18F. During her tenure as executive director of 18F, Angela Colter has done a lot of thinking about what makes a good 18F project.

18F‘s project “sweet spot,” she said, has a lot to do with the client’s mindset. From the beginning, Colter has set out to encourage 18F to work with agency clients, instead of just for them.

“We try to identify projects, kind of during the business development process, of agencies that are willing to [work with us],” she said. “Usually if a partner or a potential partner wants to have 18F just build something for [them], there’s usually better options.”

The group also likes to be involved upfront to help agency partners make sure any technology solution fits an actual problem.

Thus the early stage of user research, prototyping and user feedback has proven to be “a successful place for us to provide value,” Colter told FedScoop. From there, she said, 18F likes to hand off a project to the agency itself or, often, to a vendor.

At just around 100 employees, 18F isn’t set up to work on long-term operations and maintenance.