We are excited to reveal the latest cohort of investments we'll be funding for Phase 1.
We're making 16 new investments this round, and each of them begins with a great idea submitted by a federal employee. We believe these ideas, if successful, can transform the public's experience with the government. And that's a worthy investment.
As always, a huge thank you to all of the civil servants who submitted inspiring ideas for us to consider. Your ideas make 10x work.
10x Ideas selected for Phase 1 funding
U.S. Service Design Pattern Library
It has been observed that improving customer experience (CX) is a priority across the federal government, but that a lack of standards of what constitutes "good CX" has resulted in a lack of understanding by agencies. As a result, people face overwhelming and unnecessary burdens when trying to access government services - especially underserved communities.
In order to minimize burden and help agencies deliver better CX, 10x will explore creating a Service Design Pattern Library. Service design patterns describe the building blocks of a service by establishing common language for service design and delivery; creating common ways of measuring; and documenting best practices, research, and resources to a pattern resulting in simple and seamless services and programs.
An idea submitted by a civil servant at: General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service
Improving the Customer Experience for Grievance Applicants
Federal prison inmates have the right to file grievances claims with the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Completing this task requires the inmates write their complaints on triplicate forms by hand or using a typewriter, and then send their grievances to, and receive responses, via U.S. mail. It has been observed that this process has not changed for several decades and is slow, expensive, and inefficient.
10x will explore creating and implementing a user-friendly, intuitive, electronic grievance handling system, which would greatly benefit hundreds of thousands Federal inmates across 150+ institutions, as well as the BOP staff who respond to these grievances.
These benefits include not only improved customer experience (CX), but also building trust and respect between inmates and staff that can help create safe, well-managed institutions.
An idea submitted by civil servants at: Department of Justice, Federal Prison System
Accelerating Inclusive CX and Web Access
It has been observed the ongoing user performance issues experienced by numerous government websites disproportionately affect vulnerable users, especially those dependent on mobile data plans instead of WiFi. Such individuals may encounter challenges when interacting with these websites, potentially leading to substantial consumption of their data plans. This results in tangible costs that underscore a lack of equal accessibility to government content for these users.
10x will explore researching and shipping an actionable and reusable design and development strategy aligned with W3C Web Sustainability guidelines and also exploring a performance tool tailored for users with poor or restricted internet access. By looking into these options, 10x anticipates a substantial enhancement in the inclusivity and overall user experience of government webpages, and possibly a reduced carbon footprint for the Federal government.
An idea submitted by a civil servant at: Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Scalable Benefits Delivery Platform
For benefits programs to be effective, benefits must actually reach the intended beneficiaries. It has been observed that government benefits programs use separate payment providers, producing a burden on beneficiaries by requiring them to manage multiple benefits accounts and formats. This may prove difficult for many potential and current beneficiaries who may be faced with several obstacles, including a lack of bank accounts, changing addresses, becoming unhoused, losing/missing mail, or other common life events that can cut off access to life-saving funds.
10x will investigate a digital product that can quickly and securely send money to beneficiaries. Technical precedents for this that 10x may explore include the IRS's delivery of the Child Tax Credit and the USPS's postal banking pilot program. Possible approaches include expansion of the USPS program, prototyping a government payment-processing API, or exploring the creation of government-provided bank accounts. If successful, 10x could scale this to all benefits-granting agencies to the great benefit of many disadvantaged Americans.
An idea submitted by a civil servant at: General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service
Federal Privacy Enhancing Technology (PET) Framework
It has been observed that privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) are an emerging capability that, when extended to Federal implementations – has the potential to better manage risk around personally identifying information (PII) collected by federal agencies from members of the public.
Recently, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identified the use of PETs as part of its artificial intelligence strategy. 10x will explore creating a shared services framework which will support standard, cost-efficient adoption of this promising technology among Federal agencies. If successful, the Federal government can navigate the increasingly complex world of Big Data and privacy concerns more effectively, which will be enormously beneficial to the public.
An idea submitted by a civil servant at: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Improved Service Delivery to the Newly Disabled
It has been observed that people experiencing a disability for the first time often face emotional, physical, and logistical challenges in their everyday life, including performing basic web-based functions. Learning what types of accessibility tools exist and how to use them only adds to the burden. This can culminate in difficulty applying for government benefits that they are newly eligible for.
10x will explore new ways of using existing technology to support people during this confusing and difficult time. 10x can start by investigating the disability insurance intake process to ensure that the experience applying for disability insurance feels supportive instead of prohibitive.
An idea submitted by a civil servant at: The Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget
Shareable, Scalable, Public Feedback Tools
It has been observed that the public wants to report complaints, comments, and tips to government agencies, but intake methods are inaccessible or burdensome for the public use. Agencies also struggle to organize and respond quickly to submissions because several use a bespoke intake process, resulting in an inconsistent experience for the public.
10x will explore creating a shared "report portal as a service" that would allow agencies to serve the public more consistently. Possible solutions could include: 1) a configurable public-facing web form where the public can submit reports and check back on the status of their submission, and 2) tools for agency staff to organize and search submissions, route them within the agency, and respond to the submitter. This will result in a more empowered public who can trust that their feedback has been heard and can see the results.
An idea submitted by civil servants at: The General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service
Raising the Bar for Federal Chatbots
It has been observed that several federal agencies have considered using web-based chatbots to augment their customer support operations because they offer a human-like interface to the government at a relatively low cost. But in practice, .gov chatbots too often get delivered without essential features including multilingual support, maintainability, response quality, and flexibility, resulting in poor user experience.
Large language model (LLM) based chatbots can improve this. In support of the goals of the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, 10x will explore creating a reusable LLM chatbot template, allowing agencies to rapidly turn a collection of unstructured documents into a world-class chatbot.
An idea submitted by a civil servant at: General Services Administration, Presidential Innovation Fellow
Platform for Navigating Federal Buildings
It has been observed that maps within federal buildings are often inaccessible or outdated, making it difficult for people to navigate. For example, firefighters often operate with low visibility in unfamiliar spaces — a situation where quickly orienting and navigating can save lives.
There is existing technology that maps interior spaces, but it is often labor intensive and proprietary, leading to limited adoption. As the largest landlord in the country, GSA has a unique opportunity to explore solutions that could serve as a model for the rest of the government. 10x will explore possible solutions including 3D scanners that can create and share 360-degree imagery datasets and power downstream navigation applications for agencies to use.
An idea submitted by a civil servant at: General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service
Verifying Tribal Affiliations
It has been observed that many benefits reserved for Native peoples are tied directly to that person's membership in a federally-recognized Tribe which can then only be verified by the federal government, if at all.
10x will explore a service that verifies Tribal membership with the Tribes themselves, ensuring that benefits flow to the intended recipients, improving service delivery, comply with existing legislation, and better honor its treaty obligations to Tribal Nations.
An idea submitted by a civil servant at: General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service
Jargon No More
It has been observed that, despite plain language laws, training, and other interventions, many federal websites continue to use agency-specific jargon.
Building off of the research of previous 10x projects, 10x will explore open-source tools and other innovative solutions to develop a tool that can assist federal employees in writing content that features plain language, thereby delivering a better customer experience for the public.
An idea submitted by a civil servant at: Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service
Inspector Gadgets
It has been observed that federal site inspectors for disaster recovery are often tasked with manually generating comprehensive documentation that includes photos for each site.
10x will explore automation capabilities for these processes that will leverage existing agency prototypes. Automation has the opportunity to deliver better opportunities for data management and sharing, and digitizing some of these site inspection processes would also generate troves of usable data for research purposes, AI implementations to improve disaster recovery, and more.
An idea submitted by a civil servant at: Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency
Removing barriers and accelerating USWDS adoption
It has been observed that users face high barriers when implementing the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) into a variety of legacy and modern web projects that use a blend of frameworks and design components. Product owners see the high value of leveraging the USWDS, but complications arise for projects that were created with specific software and even specific support staff that may not still be available.
Previous discussions about how to best work with the USWDS within popular frontend frameworks like Angular, React and Vue have spawned second-party libraries that are not supported by the core USWDS project, which introduces risks. We believe that making the USWDS as flexible and modular as possible will increase adoption by developers, and improve the public's experience with the government. 10x can help facilitate the transition to web components with engineering guidance, prototyping and testing, and design and API support.
An idea submitted by civil servants at: Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey & General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service
Translating ethical concepts to technical methods
It has been observed that there is a rise of ethical, social, and legal concerns for developing AI applications that can affect people's rights. In the ethical landscape, several frameworks containing ethical principles attempt to assess the implications of AI. Some principles include Effective and Safe, Secure and Private, and Fair and Equitable.
To analyze AI applications for being effective and safe, we need to translate ethical principles into technical steps. This idea intends to develop processes to assess AI at every level, from inception to development, production, and continuous performance evaluation.
The steps vary depending on the algorithms, application type, and datasets used. The government needs additional infrastructure to ensure effectiveness and safety using AI. 10x will investigate the development of standard technical methods to perform risk assessment, and metrics to measure AI application performance using ethical principles with their technical counterparts.
An idea submitted by civil servants at: Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration & Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census
Defining Digital Identity and Rights
It has been observed that data misuse is on the rise in the age of AI. While some privacy protections are enforced, such as informing the public of data collection options, there is a lack of standardization across the web on delivery and accessibility. This will get worse as data becomes more valuable and the level of usage becomes more complex.
10x will investigate existing capabilities, such as a Digital ID, that could build upon new and existing Federal technology, like Login.gov and recent international implementations of similar technology.
An idea submitted by civil servants at: The Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget & General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service
Harnessing LLMs for Government Search
It has been observed that large language models (LLMs) and other forms of AI inadvertently spread misinformation because of their unbiased consumption of content. Widespread government misinformation in the public sphere can cause catastrophic disruption in government service delivery.
Supporting the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, 10x will explore a generative AI/LLM and other search capabilities to yield reliable and accurate search results when the public is seeking government information.
An idea submitted by civil servants at: General Services Administration, Federal Acquisition Service
What’s Next?
We put our teams together, and go! We look forward to launching our new projects this spring.
Tag: Announcements