Ways of Working

2.1 Vision Setting

Establish a clear direction for your project, and align team members and stakeholders around common goals and values.

Civic tech projects seldom move in a straight line (and that’s OK!). But successful projects invest the time up front to craft a clear and compelling vision and roadmap for their work.

Why it matters for project success:

Having a vision for your project, with goals and milestones, will help you stay motivated and prioritize your efforts. There are lots of little decisions to make throughout your project and a clear vision can help you align on the best way forward.

A clear and compelling vision also helps you attract volunteers or convince stakeholders to lend you their time or resources.

What it looks like in practice:

  1. Define your purpose and vision: Work as a team to articulate why your project exists, what community need it addresses and what principles will guide you. You should be able to summarize this in a single sentence, e.g. “”We’re building a tool to help residents easily report and track local infrastructure issues, making our city more responsive and transparent.”
  2. Set clear goals and milestones: Establish concrete, measurable objectives that align with your overall purpose. And even though your team is volunteering their time, don’t be afraid of setting deadlines.
  3. Revisit regularly: Make time to review and refine your vision and roadmap, so you can adapt to changes in circumstance or incorporate what you’re learning. Think of your vision as a set of strong opinions, weakly held.

Resources to help:

import FilteredResources from “@site/src/components/FilteredResources”;

2.2 Connection and Relationship

Create and maintain collaborative relationships within your team and with the broader community.

In civic tech, we agree with the old adage that ‘it takes a village.’ Strong relationships, whether within the team, with the community or with influential stakeholders, are a key ingredient of successful projects.

Why it matters for project success:

It’s pretty hard to launch a civic tech project without people. You need people to write the code. You need people to test and validate your ideas or products. You need people to share their knowledge or networks. You need people to spread the word.

If you take time to understand and appreciate your teammates, users and stakeholders, it’s more likely they’ll be there when you need a hand.

What it looks like in practice:

  1. Map your ecosystem: Identify key stakeholders, potential partners, and community members relevant to your project. Once you’ve mapped your stakeholders, ask yourself what you’d want them to know, think or do.
  2. Look beyond hacknights: Meet your people where they’re at. If your stakeholders are often present at other events, workshops or meetings, you should be there too (at least sometimes)!
  3. Overcommunicate: If people are curious about or invested in a project, they want to feel like they’re in the loop. Look for ways to share progress, prototypes or learnings with your project’s community whenever you can.

Resources to help:

import FilteredResources from “@site/src/components/FilteredResources”;

2.3 Leadership and Storytelling

Keep the team motivated and craft narratives that inspire action and communicate the value of your work.

Civic tech is a team sport, but successful projects often have one or two (or three!) core members who push things forward. Knowing how to keep teammates motivated, resolve conflicts and craft compelling narratives can help you succeed.

Effective leadership in civic tech is often more about facilitation and empowerment than top-down direction. Your role is to create the conditions for collective success and to amplify the voices and stories of your community.

Why it matters for project success:

Civic tech projects are unique. Volunteers don’t get paid, so you need different ways to keep them engaged and motivated. Project teams are less hierarchical, so you need different methods of making decisions or resolving disagreements. It’s normal for projects to have high turnover, so you need to be intentional about attracting and onboarding new contributors. There’s often no marketing budget, so how you talk about your project really matters.

What it looks like in practice:

  1. Empower others: People are more likely to participate in projects when they feel a sense of ownership. Consider making decisions collaboratively, or delegating decisions to team members who are leading aspects of the work (e.g. let the developers choose which software language to use). If you have regular meetings, consider rotating the role of facilitator to encourage diverse leadership styles.
  2. Make room for marketing: Don’t neglect storytelling or marketing. Seek out volunteers with communications experience. Make a short video about your project for social media. Write some blog posts. Look for opportunities to present about your work and refine your pitch (hacknights are a safe space to practice presenting!).
  3. Celebrate progress: Successful civic tech teams celebrate their milestones. Be intentional about celebrating wins, no matter how small, to maintain momentum.

Resources to help:

import FilteredResources from “@site/src/components/FilteredResources”;

2.4 Continuing the Journey

Be intentional about the future of the project, whether that’s scaling it, handing it off to another team or organization, or shuttering it.

:::tip A call has been made do deprecate this page and content. :::

Continuing the journey in civic tech involves embracing continuous learning, adaptation, and evolution of your project. This activity ensures your work remains relevant, impactful, and responsive to the changing needs of your community over time.

Why it matters:

  • Keeps your project aligned with evolving community needs
  • Enables continuous improvement of your civic tech solution
  • Builds resilience and adaptability into your project
  • Fosters a culture of learning and innovation
  • Sustains engagement and momentum over the long term
  • Increases the long-term impact and sustainability of your work

How to practice:

  1. Embrace iterative development: Continuously test, learn, and refine your solution based on feedback and data.
  2. Foster a learning culture: Encourage experimentation, reflection, and knowledge sharing within your team.
  3. Stay connected to your community: Regularly engage with users and stakeholders to understand changing needs and contexts.
  4. Monitor and evaluate: Implement systems to track your project’s impact and identify areas for improvement.
  5. Adapt to change: Be prepared to pivot or evolve your approach as circumstances and needs shift.
  6. Plan for sustainability: Develop strategies for long-term maintenance, funding, and community ownership.
  7. Share learnings: Document and share your experiences, successes, and failures with the wider civic tech community.
  8. Cultivate resilience: Build capacity to navigate challenges and setbacks while maintaining focus on your goals.

:::note[Remember] The journey of a civic tech project doesn’t end with launch or implementation. Commit to ongoing development and adaptation to ensure your solution continues to create value for your community in the long term. :::