1.3 Iterative and Responsive
Being iterative and responsive in civic tech means continuously learning, and adapting our solutions (if you work in tech, you might be familiar with “agile”). This principle emphasizes flexibility, regular feedback loops, and small, but frequent improvements to meet community needs.
Why it matters for project success:
Being iterative and responsive can help you both start and finish your civic tech project. Early, it gives your project momentum by delivering something small that you can build on. Later, showing your work to users and stakeholders will reduce the risk that you’re building the wrong thing. And having lots of smaller tasks on the go makes it easy to onboard new members to your project and give them something meaningful to do.
What it means in practice:
- Start Small: Projects that are too ambitious or vague often fail to take the first step (maybe you’ve heard of “boiling the ocean” or “scope creep”). Instead, focus on something small and tangible that you can deliver quickly.
- Prototype and Test With Users: Once you’ve built something small, you can show it to your users and build the next iteration based on their feedback. Then, rinse and repeat!
- Flexible Planning: Project roadmaps are a great tool for keeping things moving, but don’t get too attached to them. Otherwise, it’ll be harder to pivot when you (inevitably) learn new things.
Resources to help:
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