Redefining “Good enough” for government: Why I joined the
U.S. Digital Service
by Traci Walker
U.S. Digital Service
My public service journey began on December 7, 1996 — the 55th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
I was touring Washington D.C. as part of the National Young Leader’s program, geared at high school students interested in government service.
I remember standing in front of the White House and seeing the flags flying at half-mast. It’s hard to say what exactly clicked for me in that moment, but it had something to do with seeing that living, tangible connection between our nation’s past and its present, captured in the image of those flags. Suddenly, our nation, its history, and our government became real to me.
It was big, flawed, beautiful — and I wanted to be a part of it.
Two decades later, this feeling hasn’t faded.
In college, I majored in history and pursued a more active role in making political change. I got a glimpse into state-level politics when I interned for Congressman Glenn Poshard (D-IL) and worked on his gubernatorial campaign. At the University of Missouri, I worked as a registered student lobbyist. After graduation, I took a job with the General Services Administration in Kansas City as a contract specialist.
All of these experiences introduced me to the challenges of making meaningful change in a bureaucracy. I realized that I was deeply steeped in the mechanics of policy and became even more committed to being on the “We the People” team.
When I joined the White House as an IT Contracting Officer, I finally felt like I was making inroads into the way that government does business.
In order to meet the White House’s need for newer technologies at lower costs, I had to learn a new industry, study how the market bought and sold these services, and understand that technical system requirements and contractual requirements could be separated. The only constant I had to go on was that technology was going to change, and rigidity in contracts would only result in mediocre or failed deliverables.
My goal was to support my end users (in this case, the Office of Digital Strategy and the New Media team in the Office of the CIO), so I engineered contracts based on digital service strategies, using services such as Cloud, DevOps, Agile software development, and XaaS in order to bridge the blunt edge of bureaucracy with the bleeding edge of technology.
I’ve found that I can be most effective if I understand how to solve problems efficiently. For example, take this very common scenario that might occur:
Scenario: X Agency needs to buy a fleet of buses to transport 2000 employees from point A to point B.
Result: The quotes come back at three times our budget. No deal.
Scenario: The agency sends out a revised request: We need a fleet of no-frills, just-the-basics, rock-bottom-bargain buses to transport 2000 employees from point A to point B.
Result: The quotes are two times the budget. No deal.
Scenario: The agency goes back to the drawing board. The team begins to brainstorm, to redefine the problem, to look at it from different angles: What do we need? A fleet of buses. Why do we need it? To transport 2000 people from Point A to Point B. So what we actually need is a way to transport people. Does it have to be a fleet of buses? The Government sends out a request for a solution to moving their people from point A to point B.
Result: The quotes come back. Instead of a fleet of buses, a shuttle service is proposed at a fraction of the original budget. Deal.
So what does this mean?
The way we do business currently supports bureaucracy and the administration of government over the needs of its people.
We need to ask the right questions before defining the solutions.
If I’ve learned anything in my 15 years as a Contracting Officer, it’s this: If you can’t find a bridge between government regulations and best practices from the private sector, you have to build the bridge.
As an advocate for change, I am passionate about redesigning the way government does business. I’m here to empower the next generation of procurement specialists to engineer and build their own bridges.
We need leaders, contracting officers, and procurement experts who understand that we have to put our user’s needs first to execute on a cost- effective procurement strategy.
So here’s my question to you:
We want people who are excited by this and who want to help redefine what it means to be “good enough” for government. Are you ready?
Ready to get involved? Apply to join the U.S. Digital Service here:
