Introducing Data Futures
A crowdsourcing platform for federal employees @ the Census Bureau.
The Data Futures proof of concept is a new way to invest in innovation, transformation, and modernization at the U.S. Census Bureau. Using a phase-based project approach, our goal is to produce results-driven funding for data innovation projects with clear deliverables at every step of the process.
1️⃣ How it Works
- ✅ Census Bureau Economic Programs staff submit data innovation ideas. You only need a few sentences about the idea and some details about yourself to submit. No supervisory approval is required to submit an idea.
- ⚖️ Ideas are judged by a panel of innovators and technologists based on the following criteria: Innovation, Impact, Feasibility, and Scalability (more below).
- 💰 Winning ideas are selected for a Phase 1: Discovery sprint and a project team will be assembled to research the idea. Project teams receive funding for their time and will produce a report on the feasibility of the project to determine if more funding is needed for additional research in Phase 2 and prototyping in Phase 3.
Feel free to send questions to data.futures@census.gov.
2️⃣ Key Deadlines
Here are some important dates to know.
October 6th, 2023
Idea submissions and project team applications due.
October 13th, 2023
Winning ideas selected and project team kickoff meetings scheduled.
December 8th, 2023
Project team reports are due.
January 2024
Data Futures proof of concept assessment completed and next steps announced shortly after.
Did you know? The Data Futures concept originated in the Structured for Success Transformation Track to target investments in internal, data-centric innovation projects. If you are not a federal employee in the Economic Programs Directorate, you can learn how to submit your ideas for exploration by a Transformation Track Team 🔒 here.
3️⃣ Details
Data Futures will take a phase-based approach to project funding and development that lowers the barriers to entry and streamlines participation in innovation projects. Structuring the projects in phases creates healthy checkpoints for projects to determine if the work should continue. Taken together, these features will help us save taxpayer dollars while prioritizing projects that produce results.
This proof of concept is limited to staff from the Economic Programs Directorate. If the proof of concept is successful, Data Futures may be expanded into an enterprise-wide program at the Census Bureau.
What do we mean by data innovation?
Data innovation is the use of new or non-traditional data sources and methods[1] to accelerate and enable mission delivery. If you have ideas for how data can make your job easier, we want to hear from you!
Project Phases
Each phase represents an opportunity to continue with the development of a project. Not all ideas will be selected for Phase 1: Research and not all project deliveries in each phase will move onto the next phase for funding. This is done by design to ensure that Data Futures is prioritizing projects that score highly against the judging criteria of each project phase.
Information about each project phase can be found below.
Phase 1 projects are selected based on ideas submitted by Census Bureau staff. This phase accounts for approximately 160 hours of staff time for the entire project team and is meant to determine, after conversations with experts at the Census Bureau, if the idea is worth additional funding and research. In this phase, the goals are to determine the following:
- Is this work already being done at the Census Bureau? If so, by whom? And if so, is there an opportunity to try an alternative approach to existing efforts?
- If this idea hasn’t been addressed at the Census Bureau before, why?
- What risks need to be considered if this project receives additional funding?
- What program areas might be responsible for adopting a solution to this challenge?
Phase 2 leans heavily into user research to better understand the scope of the challenge and potential solutions that can be leveraged to address it. This is phase includes approximately 960 hours of staff time for the entire project team. The Discovery phase is meant to expand on the report produced by the Phase 1 project team to thoroughly understand the challenges ahead. In this phase, the scope of a solution should be clear and the opportunities and risks associated with that solution should be well understood. Outside of determining the feasibility of a proposed solution, project teams are not expected to work on the proposed solution.
Phase 3 focuses on building a prototype and working with partners to test the solution prior to pushing the prototype to production. This phase requires a program area that will be responsible for the solution to partner with the project team prior to a Phase 3 award. This partnership ensures that the project team is developing a solution that meets the needs of programs and increases the likelihood of the solution entering production.
🔎 What does a great idea look like?
A great submission to Data Futures briefly summarizes a data innovation challenge and speaks to the potential impact of solving for it. Here’s an example of the kind of pitch we’re looking for:
Rethinking Business Data Collection
Challenge Statement
Response rates to Census Bureau business surveys are falling. At the same time, business’ IT and data management practices are rapidly modernizing. These new data management practices present Census with the opportunity to collect data in new ways that simultaneously reduce respondent burden by better accommodating modern business IT practices and allow Census to collect more data, more quickly (and subsequently produce more timely and granular estimates).
Impact Statement
Ultimately, accommodating business data management practices can lead to publishing more granular estimates in a more timely fashion. This idea has been proven out by the Commodity Flow Survey, which modernized its data collection instrument in 2022 and was able to collect 10x the shipment records from businesses across America as a result (6M -> 100M shipment records collected), without a commensurate increase in burden on businesses. Some work is underway within Econ to pursue working with data management solution vendors (such as SAP) which we suggest be further pursued to this end as well.
Acknowledgement of Submissions
Whether your idea is selected for Phase 1 or not, our team is exploring ways to recognize idea authors in a meaningful way. We’ll be sure to acknowledge each author’s submission to their supervisor during this proof of concept and encourage all supervisors to support staff’s participation in this program.
⚖️ Judging Criteria
Idea submissions will be judged on the following criteria:
- Innovation: Does the proposal offer a new and creative solution to a specific challenge facing the Census Bureau?
- Impact: Will the proposal have a measurable, positive impact on government efficiency, effectiveness, or cost-effectiveness, as well as on citizens and stakeholders?
- Feasibility: Is the proposal feasible within the government's policies, regulations, and resources?
- Scalability: Does the proposal have the potential to be scaled and replicated across different programs or other federal agencies?
The judging process will be blind. The judges will review idea submissions without the submitter’s name or email address attached to them. The Data Futures team will contact all idea submitters to thank them for their contributions and announce final idea selections shortly after.
🚀 Information for Project Teams
Project investigation teams will consist of 2-4 federal employees. Not everyone that applies to be part of a project team will be selected and selections will be made based on the required skills and expertise needed to investigate the selected ideas as determined by the Data Futures team. Selections for project investigation teams will be made by October 13th, 2023.
Upon selection to a project investigation team, selected individuals will be provided with the following:
- Background documentation
- A charge code for timekeeping
- Templates for tracking project development and for submitting the final report
Supervisory approval to participate in a project team is not required. As a best practice however, we do recommend that you give your supervisor a heads up before submitting an idea or requesting to join a project team. The Data Futures team will work with selected project team members and their supervisors to confirm that they are available to participate in Phase 1 of Data Futures before official selection. In the event an employee cannot participate in Phase 1, their information will be retained and they may be asked to participate in future iterations of this program.
Census Bureau leadership supports opportunities that advance transformation and promote staff development. This is a great opportunity for you to hone your skills and help the Census Bureau meet mission-critical challenges.
Feel free to send questions to data.futures@census.gov.