We send 1-2 people to learn more about the opportunities and stakeholders to understand the needs of the project. This ‘advance team’ usually conducts a quick discovery by chatting with stakeholders and preferably, people who are impacted by the project. At the end of the discovery period, the team will likely put together an artifact that describes what they have learned. At this point, our internal team will engage in an ‘inbound discussion’ to discuss any further engagement with the project.
If further engagement is appropriate, the CDS team and agency partner will draft a one-pager summarizing the scope of the engagement. It is required for this one-pager to be approved by the Governor’s office and the CIO of OIT before the team can officially engage on a project.
Questions? Please reach out: OIT_ColoradoDigitalService@state.co.us.
Types of engagements
There are many different ways CDS’s cross-functional team can engage on a project. Usually after the advance team scopes the work, we are able to clearly identify who on our team will be best match for the project.
See below for examples of how our team engages. These approaches are not comprehensive. Often the CDS will employ different methods as needed for a given engagement.
Problem Identification
As new projects arise, CDS helps teams quickly build a common understanding of the status of a complex organization, system or service. The purpose of diving deeply into the problem space is to create paths toward solutions by identifying specific, actionable next steps alongside the team who will carry that work forward. This process is deeply informed from best practices in human-centered design to identify root causes, issues and opportunities for project teams to engage with. This engagement is not meant to implement work or deliver technical features.
Solution Identification
CDS can assist project teams working to ideate around a problem. By collaborating with both agencies and OIT, CDS collaborates to create prototypes and assist in the development of new procurements and contracts. Our team also can assist with implementing creative frameworks for teams to author their procurements and contracts and assist with the evaluation of vendors to ensure solutions are created to best meet the needs of a project’s service or system.
Strategic Partnerships
Beyond product and service solutions, the CDS can partner for one-time, specific engagements like design thinking workshops, working alongside a decision-making team to optimize existing team and development strategies or working with teams who are looking to hire and retain technologists to their organizations.