The United States Digital Service (USDS) received over 100 requests from government agencies for help with technology projects in fiscal year (FY) 2023 – a demand level that USDS said greatly exceeds its current resources.
In its new 2024 Impact Report, USDS shares its progress on 10 agency projects, as well as the impact these digital services have had on the American public.
More thematically, however, USDS Administrator Mina Hsiang said the report underscores the need for an influx of technology talent across the Federal government.
“The most important thing we have done, and continue to do, is to bring top-notch tech talent into the Federal government and retain it. Over the last decade, we have recruited over 700 Digital Service Experts into Federal service,” Hsiang said in a note accompanying the report. “They understand the transformational impact they can have by bringing their expertise to the Federal government to work on services that change lives.”
“Yet even at our current size – the largest in our history – we now get far more requests for USDS’s help and engagement than we can meet. This is a sign of shifting expectations and ambitions, but also reflects a vast need for more technical talent across the government,” she said. “This report demonstrates the tremendous impact that USDS has had and serves as a call to action for all of us to find a way to do even more.”
For example, Hsiang pointed out that “building the right teams” helped lead to a 53 percent increase in customer satisfaction at the Social Security Administration (SSA) from the relaunch of SSA.gov in December 2022 to September 2023.
USDS partnered with SSA to revamp its website, helping the agency to meet its goals of improving customer experience and adopting a modern content platform. Yet perhaps even more impactful, USDS helped SSA establish a cross-disciplinary team to continue the digital transformation.
“The new team establishes sustainable standards and processes, shares research findings, and develops data-driven strategies to improve design and development solutions for the public,” the report says.
Another project example offered in the report is the USDS helping to reliably deliver 750 million COVID-19 tests across the country. The agency partnered with the United States Postal Service and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response to build a reliable website for the public to order COVID-19 tests.
According to the report, “The site’s infrastructure was stable enough to receive more than 58 million COVID-19 test kit orders within the first 48 hours of its launch.”
The bottom line, according to Hsiang, is that “the return on investment for technical talent in government is huge.”
“USDS is the proof of concept and leader at the highest level, bringing technical expertise and driving enormous improvements across the government,” Hsiang said. “We are excited to share these stories of impact and even more excited about the impact yet to come.”
