Leah
Bannon

Resources and writing

I love building teams and solving problems in government. From my experience in government service delivery and community organizing, I have come to believe we must reorient agencies around serving the public’s needs, invest in public infrastructure, and most importantly, fight for universal public programs.

Got a question or resource I could recommend? Reach out on LinkedIn

My recent writing

1. My testimony to the NYC Mayor’s Commission on Government Efficiency: my written testimony or video
2. How to deliver good public digital services in NYC: My white paper on operational strategy and tactics
3. The DoD uses an Orwellian inversion of Star Wars to recruit and motivate tech talent in Jacobin

Best practices, standards, heuristics

• VA.gov Design Principles, VA.gov Experience Standards, and VA.gov Content Principles
• UK Government Digital Service – Service Standard
• 18F's archive of guides and principles, including Accessibility, Agile, Content, Design Methods, Engineering, Product, and User Experience
• Jakob Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design
• USDS Digital Services Playbook
• 18F De-risking Guide
• NYC Civic Service Design

How to solve problems

I start by mapping out the steps people take in a system or process. This helps identify bottlenecks, blockers, and inefficiencies as well as how to fix them sustainably. Then, we test solutions, iterate with feedback, and ideally leave behind processes and artifacts that are easy for anyone using them to update and improve over time.

• USDS Discovery Sprints
• 18F overview of journey mapping

Reorient to services

Reorient agencies around service delivery and the public's needs. Measure success by asking them to report on the public's top pain points and if they've resolved them. The public shouldn't need to understand how the government is structured or even know about specific benefits programs in order to fill a need or solve a problem.

• The School of Good Services: 15 Principles of Good Service Design and assessment tools

How to fix hiring in government

Establish digital service teams in agencies who can build with and for the people who will use the solutions they develop. Support those teams with a centralized IT program that provides efficiencies of scale through shared services, infrastructure, templates, practice area guidance, and quality check ins.

• USDS's successful pilot to improve hiring long term: Subject Matter Expert Qualification Assessments
• What it will take to deliver for New Yorkers: modernize the civil service and hiring process by Rebecca Heywood
• Digital Services Retros findings on fixing government hiring systems and sacrificing workarounds in order to scale, Federation of American Scientists

Contracting: should we build or buy?

Even under the best circumstances, there is a pervasive tax on efficiency and quality when contracting tech services due to corporate prioritization on business development and profit. I've worked with plenty of wonderful contractors and been one myself – this is not an individualistic problem but a systemic one. I only recommend procurement to fill a need that many other buyers have, like email.

• Understanding and choosing a software solution from the 18F De-risking Guide for contracting
• Julie Swoope's COGE testimony (video) on building in government and the inefficiency of contracting
• UK new policy: Public Interest Test – agencies must assess whether their services could be better delivered in-house
• 18F Open Source Policy (I contributed to this)

AI

Government AI policies and strategies should focus on solving real problems while balancing the impacts on workers, society, and our environment. LLMs and automation can help us make tedious, repetitive tasks more efficient and scale solutions, but only if those solutions are well designed and people are involved to resolve errors.

• Mark Headd – The SpecOps Method: AI tools can enable a fundamentally different approach to legacy modernization, one that addresses the risks that have contributed to so many past failures.
• When philanthropy mandates AI solutions, taxpayers pay the price by Erie Meyer in Fedscoop
• Why a state should publish an llms.txt by Keith Kurson
• NYC Public Schools Guidance on Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• From Clearing the AI(r) by Mikey Dickerson

Plant advice

Most importantly, plants need light, water, and oxygen around their roots. I recommend...

• Dyna Gro Foliage Pro fertilizer: a 3:1:2 ratio of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium prioritizes leaf growth
• A chunky soil mix for extra air flow like Sol Soils. Overwatering is mainly a problem because the roots will start to rot and fail to take up water, often because peat moss soils become dense and rot.
• Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis or BTI drops in your water every time to prevent fungus gnats, which eat roots before taking flight
• If you do buy a plant or notice pests, Dead AF pest spray is less toxic and works quite well
• Growing your plant collection from cuttings from friends, which will mean fewer pests and good hygge. To propogate cutttings, I recommend using perlite and then Prop Drops in the water, which is a rooting hormone to stimulate growth.