18F — Building Design Practice & Federal Leadership

The Arc

I joined 18F in 2016 as a designer working on agency projects. Over eight years, I moved from individual contributor to Head of Design, then Chief of Staff at the Technology Transformation Services (TTS)—the parent organization of 18F, login.gov, and cloud.gov.

This wasn’t a traditional climb. I learned how federal institutions work by navigating procurement rules, hiring constraints, political transitions, and the everyday friction of getting things done inside government. I left understanding how to build practice, influence without authority, and lead organizational change in contexts where nothing moves fast.

The Work

Scaling the Design Practice (2018-2023)

When I became Head of Design, the practice had 21 people. I grew it to over 40 while maintaining quality, clarifying what design meant in a federal context, and building infrastructure for hiring, onboarding, and professional development.

What I built:

• Hiring processes that actually worked in federal timelines (6-12 month cycles)
• Career frameworks that acknowledged design work happens differently in government
• Critique and feedback systems that balanced project delivery with skill development
• Cross-agency partnerships that positioned 18F designers as thought leaders, not just contractors

I didn’t just manage headcount. I defined what it meant to be a designer at 18F—someone who could translate policy into service design, work within constraints, and build capacity in partner agencies rather than just delivering projects.

Strategic Communications & Public Presence (2022-2023)

As Strategic Communications Director, I repositioned 18F’s public identity to reflect what we actually did: build agency capacity, not just deliver consulting projects.

This included:

• Website redesign that clarified service offerings
• Publishing frameworks that encouraged staff transparency
• Documented practices that became the public record of 18F’s work

The impact wasn’t immediate traffic spikes—it was long-term credibility. When 18F closed, the practices and content I established became the lasting archive of what the organization accomplished.

Chief of Staff, Technology Transformation Services (2023-2024)

I moved from leading one practice to supporting an entire organization. As Chief of Staff at TTS, I worked across 18F, login.gov, cloud.gov, and the Presidential Innovation Fellows program to:

• Coordinate cross-product strategy
• Navigate budget and workforce planning during federal transitions
• Translate between technical teams, agency partners, and political leadership
• Manage organizational communications during uncertainty

This role required understanding how systems work—not just software systems, but institutional systems. I learned how decisions get made when multiple stakeholders have competing priorities and nobody has unilateral authority.

The Reach

The designers I hired and developed are now leading practices at agencies across government:

• Veterans Affairs
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• U.S. Digital Service
• State and local governments

The frameworks I built for hiring, critique, and professional development have been adapted by other federal teams. The content strategies I established documented 18F’s work in ways that outlasted the organization itself.

But the real reach is less visible: I showed that you can build rigorous design practice inside government constraints. You can hire excellent people into bureaucratic systems. You can influence organizational culture without changing the org chart.

The Takeaway

Federal leadership isn’t about moving fast and breaking things. It’s about moving deliberately within systems designed to resist change—and still making progress.

I learned:

• Influence happens through repetition, not revelation. You don’t change institutional culture with a keynote. You change it by showing up consistently, modeling the work, and building trust over years.
• Constraints clarify strategy. Limited budgets, hiring freezes, and procurement rules force you to prioritize ruthlessly. That discipline produces better outcomes than unlimited resources.
• Institutions remember practices, not heroes. The work that lasts isn’t the brilliant solo contribution—it’s the systems you build that others can maintain when you leave.

What This Demonstrates

I can lead at multiple scales: individual contributors, design practices, and cross-functional organizations. I know how to navigate federal bureaucracy, build teams under constraint, and position technical work to land with political leadership.

I don’t just critique how institutions work—I’ve done the grinding, unglamorous work of making them work better from the inside.