Executive Summary

Few roles in government have the word “innovation” in the title — and perhaps that’s by design. After all, innovation isn’t a one-person job, and chances are you play a vital role in advancing new ways of thinking and working at your agency.

That’s why we publish an annual innovations guide, to highlight and recognize the breadth of meaningful work that happened in government in the past year. This time, we took a slightly different approach. We reviewed a handful of the most pressing issues government agencies faced in the past 12 months that led to significant gains for the workforce, the public and government operations.

We didn’t want to simply rattle off innovative initiatives or concepts but rather to distill the wisdom that came from those experiences. Here are the areas we highlight in this guide. →

You’ll hear innovative insights from more than a dozen public servants across the GovLoop community, including the Deputy Mayor for Budget and Innovation in Los Angeles, the Director of Experience Design at 18F, and the outgoing Chief Data Officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Before we dive in, let’s briefly review how you can get the most out of this guide and apply these insights at your agency.

Hybrid workforce

Customer experience (CX)

Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA)

Cybersecurity

Digital services