Pioneering a model for digital transformation across government

Summary

The challenge

Federal agencies manage billions of dollars in technology spending each year. Most didn’t have the internal capability to deliver digital services well. Outdated procurement practices, siloed teams, and reliance on large contractors left agencies dependent on external vendors. Those vendors weren’t just building the technology — they were figuring out what to build.

The problem wasn’t only technical. Agencies lacked the talent pipelines, operating models, and institutional knowledge to adopt practices like agile delivery, user-centered design, and product management. Previous reform efforts focused on policy mandates rather than practical capability building. No working model existed inside government for how to embed these changes at scale.

What was missing wasn’t another set of recommendations. It was a working proof of concept: a team inside government that could demonstrate modern practices through direct delivery. That same team would coach agency partners to sustain the work on their own.

The solution

Rather than hire another consulting firm, GSA built one inside the government itself. Chris co-founded 18F Consulting with Robert on a simple insight: agencies didn’t need more reports telling them to “go agile.” They needed to experience modern practices firsthand on real projects, with a team that could coach them through the transition. Rather than importing a single methodology wholesale, Chris and Robert combined modern digital practices with the expertise of career civil servants and federal contractors.

Getting the right people into government was the first challenge. They used the Schedule A(r) hiring authority to recruit more than 40 multidisciplinary experts — spanning design, product, engineering, data, policy, and acquisition. The hiring approach was unconventional for government. Performance profiles replaced traditional job descriptions. Structured interviews drew on private-sector practices. The focus was on mission-driven technologists who wanted to work inside the system, not around it.

The delivery model set 18F Consulting apart from typical government reform. Instead of handing agencies a report and walking away, their teams worked directly alongside agency partners. They introduced practices like agile delivery, product management, and user-centered design through real projects. Agency staff didn’t just hear about modern practices. They practiced them, building the muscle memory needed to keep going after the engagement ended.

The model proved transferable. The success of 18F Consulting seeded growth across GSA and beyond. It spawned multiple new organizations within GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, including the Office of Acquisitions, 18F Transformation, and 18F Learn. Other agencies began standing up their own digital teams modeled on the same principles. The impact extended well beyond what a single practice could deliver directly.

The results

• Recruited and hired more than 40 multidisciplinary experts across design, product, engineering, data, policy, and acquisition
• Delivered nearly 45 projects for federal, state, and local agencies
• Influenced more than $1 billion in IT acquisition decisions across government
• Helped agencies avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary technology acquisition costs
• Achieved strong client satisfaction — a Government Accountability Office (GAO) survey found 23 of 26 respondents were very or moderately satisfied
• Catalyzed the creation of agency-specific digital teams modeled after 18F Consulting
• Produced and shared more than 35 public resources to scale knowledge across government