State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Burgh's Eye View - How Pittsburgh Built an Agile Product Shop

Data-Smart City Solutions: The proliferation of civic tech projects has led to a growing number of vendors who offer off-the-shelf products for cities and municipalities. At the National League of Cities summit, which brought over 3,500 elected officials and city staffers to Pittsburgh in November 2016, the exhibition hall was full of companies looking to connect with municipal representatives. For many of their needs – a platform for better civic engagement, a tool to track legislation, an application to visualize permit data – private industry offers a modern, customizable, low-barrier solution.

While this kind of partnership has led to advent of many notable civic tech projects, off-the-shelf solutions often require trade-offs, such as high purchase costs or a potential disinvestment in a city’s capacity to develop its own products. While private solutions are increasingly customizable, the rise of agile product development within government offers possibilities for a city or municipality to develop its own solutions, through a self-organized, collaborative effort designed around the specific needs of departments or communities.

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