The White House recently formed the Office of American Innovation, which has a stated focus on “implementing policies and scaling proven private-sector models to spur job creation and innovation.”
It’s a familiar idea: A SWAT innovation team is created, ready to inject new thinking into a burdensome bureaucracy.
It certainly sounds familiar to Greg Godbout, a former U.S. presidential innovation fellow and a cofounder of 18F, a digital services office within the U.S. General Services Administration. 18F was borne, in part, out of the Obama administration’s attempts to funnel startup-style ingenuity into the government, particularly after the disastrous launch of Healthcare.gov. Godbout was executive director at 18F before departing to become chief technology officer for the EPA. He is now the CEO and cofounder of cBrain North America.
The Harvard Business Review asked Godbout about how innovation teams work in government. Following are excerpts of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
Keep reading this article at: https://hbr.org/2017/04/advice-on-running-a-government-agency-like-a-startup-from-someone-whos-tried-it
The model is said to benefit technology companies by providing a testing ground for products that can improve local government performance, while avoiding the lengthy approvals process for standard municipal contracts.
Wander the exhibit floors of the military’s largest conferences this fall, and you’ll see everything from ground combat vehicles to 
