U.S. Digital Service Alumni Network
Gaining momentum on a tradition of service.
The U.S. Digital Service is designed to be a tour of duty for most — an opportunity for techies to serve on a short term basis — and with USDS’ third birthday just passing, we want to talk a little about our strong and growing alumni network.
We’ve picked three different examples of folks who recently left USDS to see what they are up to and to get some thoughts on their time in the Federal Government. A key to USDS’ success is the strength of our team and its support for each member, and that continues even after a person’s tour of duty ends.
Sabrina Williams
First, we talked to Sabrina Williams. When Sabrina left USDS in July 2017, she was the Acting Director of Engineering. Her tour of duty began in October 2015 and stretched (somewhat unexpectedly) for almost two years. Before heading east, Sabrina was a Software Engineer, Tools & Infrastructure at Google, working on Chrome, Google Glass, and Ads.
Sabrina, what are you doing now?
Taking time off before I join a startup. Sorry, no details, but very very excited! #StealthMode
What projects did you work on during your time at the USDS?
I had the opportunity to work on a pretty broad range of projects across agencies. First, I worked with the Department of Education on College Scorecard and its associated data. After that, I worked on the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) with the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security. We had a cross-agency team that worked on all sorts of things to make the refugee admission process more efficient. After that, I worked on multiple projects with the State Department, including improving the results from the Visa Status tool so that people can better understand the status of their visa applications. Finally, I served as the Acting Director of Engineering for USDS.
What was your biggest accomplishment?
I created a tool that programmatically parses the results from refugees’ medical exams and imports the results into the system that stores all of the refugee information. Before that tool existed, people were transcribing the data from PDFs into the tool, which was slow and error-prone. This was a stopgap solution until a true integration between two systems can be completed. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked, and that’s what mattered.
What would you tell someone who is thinking of doing a tour of duty?
Do it! Whether you want to use your skills to serve your country, you’re curious about how our government *really* functions, you’re just looking for an adventure (because this job is wild), or you’re simply curious, come on out and do a tour of duty. Honestly, I spent my whole life believing that other people were around that would magically make the government run. But there are no magic government elves and this isn’t just someone else’s problem. This is our government, our country, and our responsibility to help each other. USDS is one of many ways that you can choose to serve.
Check out some of our latest work.
Todd Stumpf
Next, we spoke to Todd Stumpf. Todd recently ended his tour of duty in July after serving for 6 months as an engineer for the Digital Service team at Veterans Affairs. During his tour he was on leave from Twitter and he recently returned to the company in July.
What are you doing now?
I took Twitter up on a 6 month leave of absence to participate in the USDS, and when that 6 months milestone was reached I returned to Twitter. Of course, in the industry 6 months is a lifetime, so I’m returning to a new group and carving out a new role, as my old group’s responsibilities were folded in with another in my absence. Fortunately I am still able to get my hands dirty with Zipkin, which is a technology I am quite fond of, and Twitter’s log analysis stack, LogLens, which is also quite kick-butt.
What projects did you work on during your time at the USDS?
My attention was almost entirely devoted to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and its effort to modernize the use of technology to serve the needs of Veterans. I lucked upon joining at a pretty crucial time — the VA is trying to come to grips with “The Cloud” — and that’s how they think of it, I’m sure, with capital letters and air-quotes — and how it can correctly leverage hosting that is outside of its physical control. The USDS effort at the VA is like an icebreaker, breaking through the fear and uncertainty of third party hosting and clearing a path for other projects to follow.
My pet project was working to increase reliability and availability of critical records related to Veteran’s disability benefits appeals. I took up that particular baton from a USDS alumnus, built on what they had done, took it as far as I could get in my tenure, and then handed it off to another USDS’er.
What was your biggest accomplishment?
I would say most government projects have yet to catch on to “internet time” — where 6 months is a lifetime — and are still proceeding at “product time” — where projects can easily take years. Trying to warm up that crowd to the idea that not only will we not be owning the hardware running the software, but we may actually provision and discard countless server instances over the course of a single day as we dynamically grow and contract capacity based on load, and we’re going to make changes to the software on a daily basis, is really what it’s all about. The decision makers are eager and willing to make the right decisions for our citizens, but far too often they aren’t aware or presented with the full set of choices available to them. When they’re not presented with modern options, they’re burdened with antiquated inefficiencies.
My mentality going in was always about increasing computational efficiency. Decreasing cost. Simplifying infrastructure. All of that was, and remains, very important. But, it turns out the largest wins for the government will come out of process and project velocity. In the VA, demonstrating repeatedly that the contemporary development practices of the industry can be applied to government projects in a safe, secure, successful manner, is what’s going to really make things more efficient, more effective, and more impactful.
It’s not directly about winning hearts and minds though, it’s about demonstrating through action that new approaches can work. The USDS can’t scale to fix all the government’s woes. But it can build up the reputation and the clout through repeated delivery of success.
What would you tell someone who is thinking of doing a tour of duty?
By all means, do it, but brace yourself — if you haven’t experienced the government first hand, it’s gonna shock you. My time at the USDS has changed me greatly. It has inspired and disillusioned me. It was as wonderful as it was brutal. I am definitely far more educated and aware of how our country actually works, and the mechanisms of government. It was a priceless education. And now that I’m back at Twitter, I’m reflecting on exactly how much the USDS has changed me, and what direction I will take next. My attitudes have definitely changed. I am considering options I would never have considered before, and discarding opportunities that I might have once pursued.
The USDS is lightning in a bottle. I don’t know why you’d let that opportunity pass you by.
Amy Barker
Last, we spoke to Amy Barker. Amy came into USDS to be its first product counsel — acting as legal counsel to product teams through development. After about a year and a half, she served briefly as Acting Deputy Administrator before leaving D.C. this summer. Before coming to USDS, Amy was a legal counsel at Dropbox in San Francisco.
Amy, we know that you headed back west this summer; what are you up to now?
I am starting my own law practice supporting small startups in my hometown of Seattle! At USDS I was able to work even more closely with product teams than I ever had in the private sector — while those teams were constantly running up against novel legal issues in highly regulated (and disparate) fields. It was startlingly clear that the law could either be used as a tool by our teams to break through outdated customary practices, or as a blocker by entrenched interests. My goal is to use our lessons learned to empower startups to leverage law and policy as key tools for unlocking accelerated growth.
What projects did you work on during your time at the USDS?
I was lucky to get to dip my toe into a huge range of projects across the board, from facilitation of infrastructure reuse in services eligibility determinations at the Department of Health and Human Services, to the launch of a new consumer-facing login and authentication system out of the General Services Administration.
What was your biggest accomplishment?
As USDS’s first practicing tech lawyer, I believe that I was able to build communication bridges between USDS and more traditional government lawyers. It’s really tough when a stellar product team using private sector best practices just isn’t speaking the same language as the amazing public service lawyers who are helping make sure we’re playing by the rules of the game established to protect those we serve. We worked on a lot of training up on both sides.
What would you tell someone who is thinking of doing a tour of duty?
It is hard. But, if you believe in service and have the skills, it will be one of the most memorable and impactful experiences of your life. There is real momentum gathering after three long years of work at USDS, and each year only seems to bring greater impact.
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Everyone who joins the USDS for a tour of duty is in for a different experience. In addition to working on a project that could impact millions of lives, when you join the USDS you join a family of talented technologists, designers, and policy folks that will support you before, during, and after your tour. Why not see for yourself?
