In February 2020, I was brand new to the role, and to the industry — and faced with the roller coaster ride that is govcon. I stepped into this role as CEO and the majority owner, after nearly 20 years as a federal employee. I cut my teeth fast — starting immediately with the realities of COVID and remote everything, combined with an exciting new prime contract win, and the opportunity to steer Pluribus forward. Success for our brand can be measured by our excellent customer feedback (CPARS), multiple recompete wins, and many trusted partnerships. It is also the people I’ve met — my competitors have also become my mentors and friends. Our leadership team teaching me, challenging me, and bringing their brightest ideas — for which I am extremely grateful and stronger for.

We chose the name Pluribus Digital — derived from the Latin phrase E pluribus unum — and can be found on top of the US Capitol building and nearly all US currency. It translates to “Out of many, one”. Pluribus as a name celebrates both the diversity of many individuals that make up the American public. It also references the colonies overcoming their differences and uniting around one federal currency.

I was not the founder of the company, so rebranding provided the opportunity to convey a new direction for the company, to consider the direction we were going toward, and what we stood for. Before this calendar year ends, I wanted to sit down and reflect on the lessons I’ve learned, the decisions we’ve made, and the successes we’ve had. Rebranding is complicated but proved ultimately worth it. I am extremely proud of the brand we’ve built.

We built 7 Principles in Action that would guide us in our decision making. Now, 5 years later, we look back on the principles to ensure they continue to guide us and the work we do each day reflects that.

Support the Mission. Despite so many changes in government in the last year, we remain more committed than ever before to building a brand around digital products that deliver a quality experience to the American public. We have supported impactful missions — helping people gain citizenship at USCIS; helping the public securely access government services at Login.gov; helping people get access to their bank account funds after a bank failure at FDIC; helping people find the vast catalog at the Library of Congress; helping Veterans access benefits at the VA; and most recently modernizing how the alcohol industry is regulated and pays taxes at the U.S. Treasury.

Support the People. Our product is our people. As a knowledge-driven organization, our success depends on whether our employees feel supported, equipped, and valued. That’s why we’ve invested in the tools, systems, and leadership structures that help our teams do their best work — from modern tools to a management model centered on clarity, coaching, and growth.

We’ve also taken a thoughtful approach to total rewards. This includes expanded benefits like parental leave, a clearly defined career model that shows employees how they can grow with us, and training and certification programs that support continuous development. Underpinning all of this is our commitment to fair, equitable, and market-informed pay practices, with transparency so employees understand how their compensation is built and how it compares. When we put people first, we enable them to deliver their best work for our government customers — every day. This is a part of our brand I can be especially proud of.

Lean Into Digital Services. Our renewed focus as Pluribus meant that we do work that improves government service delivery through technology. It was important to me that we build our future beyond traditional “govcon” and IT. We focused our capabilities (development, design, and delivery). We care deeply about building great products that meet real user needs and pride ourselves on being honest brokers with our customers.

Seek and Provide Feedback. As we’ve scaled, one of our most important investments has been building a strong mid-level leadership team. Relying solely on an executive-led model doesn’t work at scale. Delegation takes practice, discipline, compassion, and trust. By expanding our management layer, we ensure our vision is consistently shared while also bringing feedback straight from the practitioners into decision-making. This approach helps us move faster, stay grounded, and make changes that are a true value add for our people and the company as a whole.

Default to Open. We’ve made intentional moves toward pay transparency and equity, grounding our total rewards decisions in market data and clearly communicating how compensation and benefits are determined as mentioned above. Just as importantly, we close the loop on feedback with employees — sharing survey results, naming what we heard, and explaining how it informs our decisions.

That commitment to openness extends beyond total rewards. We share challenges and wins with our team during all-hands, and we actively learn alongside peers through communities like the Digital Services Coalition, Talent/Ops GovCon Collective and the Digital WOSB Alliance. We believe progress happens faster when we’re willing to share and learn together.

The same philosophy guides our work with customers. Wherever feasible, we encourage open-source collaboration through platforms like GitHub. While not everything belongs in the open, we’ve consistently found that transparency builds trust, strengthens partnerships, and delivers more value than holding tightly to a perceived competitive edge.

Nurture a Calm Culture. My operating motto is to “Scale with Grace”. We certainly must grow to be a healthy business, but I’m not a fan of hustle culture or growing for the sake of growth. A calm culture allows us to enjoy the journey and the destination. We’re not clock punchers and a calm culture is not about spa days — we’re professionals who want to build with intentionality. In practice that could mean working nights and weekends on a tech challenge or a major customer release, with the ability to rebalance work and life when the surge period is over. Scaling with grace means avoiding reactionary strategies that skid off the rails for the sake of growth. It’s important to preserve our culture while also committing ourselves to what we do best rather than stretching our people or our brand to be something we’re not. We’re a company that brings the best solution and process to our customers and often does things a little differently. Ultimately, good execution builds trust, trust leads to results.

Engage our Communities. Nearly a year into the role after certifying as a woman owned small business (WOSB) with the Small Business Administration, I realized that there was little to no discussion around set asides for Women Owned small businesses among digital services procurement. As a result, I reached out to the other woman owned businesses I knew. We spoke with federal officials to understand what we could be missing or why federal procurement officers weren’t opting for WOSBs in digital procurement. Anecdotally, we heard federal officials believed, “women don’t actually lead their own companies”, that agencies were already hitting their WOSB set aside requirements — just not through their IT contracts, or that they weren’t convinced there was enough WOSBs “out there” in their market research. A year later following those discussions, we formed the Digital WOSB Alliance with 12 founding companies to provide that market research. Three years later, there are over 60 woman owned, woman led digital services companies as a part of the Alliance.

That brings us to today. We’re grateful, especially this year with DOGE cuts, to have a diverse portfolio of customers with impactful missions. As we look back on the last five years, what stands out most is not just how much we’ve grown, but how we’ve stayed true to who we are. Our culture, our day-to-day decisions, and the way we show up for one another are clear reflections of the principles we set early on — and continue to live by.

We’re especially proud to be celebrating five years as Pluribus Digital at a challenging moment for our industry. Growth from 40 to 87 employees didn’t come with easy buttons, but it came with intention. By being clear about who we are and what we stand for, we stayed grounded, earned trust, and created space for meaningful wins along the way. As we look ahead, we do so with confidence — knowing that the principles that carried us through our first five years will continue to guide us in a changing landscape and into the next chapter.

TTB’s mission is “to ensure a level playing field across the industries we regulate by: Collecting the taxes due on alcohol, tobacco, firearms and ammunition; Protecting the consumer by ensuring the integrity of alcohol products; Enabling qualified businesses to enter and operate in the industry; Upholding fair and equitable competition in the alcohol markets; and Preventing unlawful markets for alcohol and tobacco products.” The contract allows us to accelerate TTB’s journey of creating a cohesive and intuitive experience for the external and internal users of their digital products and shift to a modern, cloud-native architecture. Modernizing these experiences means that businesses of all sizes have a low-burden way to pay appropriate taxes and be compliant with regulations.

Pluribus Digital builds modern digital products that serve the public good. This significant win allows us to exercise our full scope of capabilities across:

• Product Design: Crafting intuitive solutions through user research, experience design, and content strategy.
• Product Development: Building and supporting software using modern practices in application development, DevSecOps, cloud engineering, and data science.
• Product Delivery: Aligning efforts to mission outcomes via agile project and program management.

Our work here and with other federal partners within Homeland Security, Health and Benefits, and Financial Services demonstrates our ability to deliver impactful solutions that modernize critical services, enhance transparency, and improve user experiences.

Our Culture: Rooted in Mission and People

Our principles guide our actions:

• Support the Mission: We prioritize the success of public service missions, ensuring teams have the resources they need to deliver.
• Support People: Recognizing that our people are our greatest asset, we provide the tools and support necessary for them to excel.
• Lean into Digital Services: We are committed to nudging government technology toward digital transformation at every opportunity.
• Seek and Provide Feedback: We believe in the power of constructive feedback to foster growth and improvement.

As a remote-first organization, we foster a calm and flexible work environment that values work-life integration and productivity.

This contract win is just the beginning. With the addition of Jon Carr as our Chief Growth Officer, we are poised to expand our federal presence across key markets, including Health and Benefits, Homeland Security, and Federal Financial agencies.

We are excited about the opportunities ahead and remain steadfast in our mission to deliver modern digital solutions that make a meaningful impact on public service.

For the full list of our principles, visit our website.

Jon brings over 18 years of experience within the federal market, bringing a deep level of understanding required to position Pluribus Digital for the future. Prior to joining Pluribus Digital, Jon held various growth leadership roles at digital services companies, where he was responsible for net new growth, while building the brand, capabilities, and presence within target markets.

Jon holds a bachelor’s degree from James Madison University and is still actively involved in the alumni network as the Co-Chair for Alumni Engagement for the JMU Federal Dukes.

We are excited to have Jon onboard and look forward to the dedication, energy, and creativity he brings to the company.

Pluribus Digital helps government change agents realize their digital services vision by providing the implementation capabilities to design, develop, and deliver high-impact digital products that serve the public good.

Maybe you renewed your passport online or signed up for TSA PreCheck and thought, “Wow, that was surprisingly easy.” When things work well, you barely notice the words guiding you along the way. But when they don’t? You hit a wall of confusing instructions, jargon, and clunky design that makes you want to give up.

If you’re new to civic tech — the space where design, technology, and government meet — then welcome! Let me introduce you to one of the most powerful (but underrated) tools we have in our toolbox to improve public services: UX writing.

What is UX Writing?

UX (User Experience) writing is the practice of crafting the words you see in digital interfaces. Think buttons, form fields, help text, and error messages used to guide people through tasks clearly and easily.

Think of it as designing with words to help people get things done.

In civic tech, those things often center around moments that matter: applying for benefits, verifying identity, accessing healthcare, or navigating immigration services.

Why Does UX Writing Matter in Government?

Because everyone uses public services, especially people who are in vulnerable or high-stress situations, clear, accessible writing is essential.

Quick facts:

• Seniors, non-native English speakers, and low-literacy users are common audiences.
• Government websites must follow plain language laws and accessibility standards (like Section 508).
• Nearly 40 million people use a government website every day according to Digital.gov

When content is confusing, it can frustrate, misinform, or even prevent someone from getting critical support.

Four Principles of UX Writing in Civic Tech

Let’s break it down with some examples:

1. Plain Language First

Avoid technical jargon or legalese. Write like a real person.

❌ Not great:

To initiate the verification process, please provide your identification information…

✅ Better:

To verify your identity, upload a photo of your ID.

2. Inclusive & Accessible

Design for different languages, reading levels, and assistive tech like screen readers.

❌ Not great:

English-only site with no alt text (image descriptions) or structure.

✅ Better:

Language selector + clear navigation + alt text for images.

3. Build Trust with Transparency

Use direct, confident language to help people feel safe and informed.

CMS.gov

The Open Door Initiative is a program based on a simple and fresh attitude…

Login.gov

When you provide your email address or ID, we can be sure it’s really you — and keep bad actors out.

4. Guide, Don’t Just Inform

Help people do things, not just understand them.

❌ Not great:

Medicaid: Apply if you are aged (65 years old or older), blind, or disabled and have low income and few resources. Apply if you are terminally ill and want to receive hospice services. Apply if you are aged, blind, or disabled; live in a nursing home; and have low income and limited resources. Apply if you are aged, blind, or disabled and need nursing home care, but can stay at home with special community care services. Apply if you are eligible for Medicare and have low income and limited resources.

✅ Better:

You may apply for Medicaid if you are:

• Terminally ill and want hospice services
• Eligible for Medicare and have low income and limited resources
• 65 years old or older, blind, or disabled and have low income and few resources and:
  • Live in a nursing home
  • Need nursing home care but can stay at home with special community care services

How Does UX Writing Work in Practice?

If you’re a civic tech newcomer, here’s what the process typically looks like:

Step 1: User Research

Start by grounding your work in the realities of your specific context by talking to real users like seniors, caregivers, low-income families, non-native English speakers. Understand their needs and pain points.

Step 2: Collaborate with Policy and Legal Teams

You’ll often need to explain complicated policies. Your job is to translate legal language into plain language without losing accuracy.

Step 3: Prototype and Test

Use collaborative design tools like Figma or FigJam to draft content in real flows. Low-fidelity will do the trick and ensure you move quickly without getting lost in the pixel perfect details. Then, test it with users via surveys, usability tests, or even card-sorting.

Step 4: Iterate Based on Feedback

Just like design, content improves over time. Use feedback to make it clearer, faster, and easier for everyone.

Key Takeaways

• UX writing is essential in making public services usable and equitable.
• Good content helps everyone, especially people under stress.
• You don’t need to be a policy expert; you just need to be a user advocate with empathy and clarity.

Conclusion: Your Voice Matters

UX Writing is not an afterthought, it’s a core pillar of equitable access. Great UX writing can transform a clunky, intimidating government service into one that’s clear, supportive, and inclusive.

As someone new to civic tech, your fresh perspective is valuable. Ask questions. Push for clarity. Pair with designers, researchers, and engineers. Bring UX Writing into every part of your process. Write with your users, not just about them. Because every word is a chance to serve the public with dignity and care.

Let’s make government easier for everyone — one sentence at a time.

Some additional inspiration and resources for your convenience!

Real-World Inspiration

• Login.gov – Helps people verify their identity using language that’s human, not technical.
• GOV.UK – Sets the gold standard for plain language in government. Short sentences and clear calls to action.
• Benefits.gov – Redesigned content helps users check eligibility for dozens of benefit programs with confidence.

Helpful Resources for Getting Started

• Digital.gov Style Guide
• Performance.gov CX Efforts
• GOV.UK Content Style Guide
• PlainLanguage.gov

You will hear from:

• Ksenia Coulter, Lead Software Engineer
• Jessica Dembe, Software Engineer
• Howard Miller, Sr. Software Engineer
• Eric Tillberg, Sr. Software Engineer

What conference did you attend and why did you choose to attend that conference?

Ksenia: I attended NationJS/React Summit combined conference event. I chose those events because they’re directly relevant to my area of expertise — Javascript. Those events also had workshop options and I was excited to get some hands-on practice with the latest React features.

Jessica: In June, I attended RenderATL. This three-day conference featured over 60 talks focused on leadership, culture and management, software engineering, accessibility, innovation, and design. I was particularly interested in this conference for several reasons: the talks not only explored how software developers are leveraging new and existing technologies but also provided valuable lessons I could apply to become a more skilled and confident software engineer.

Howard: I attended Ruby for Good this year. This is a conference I’ve been to before and is where I’ve met several people who work for Pluribus. Ruby for Good is a big part of why I now work for Pluribus, too. It’s also a conference very much in line with the Pluribus Digital mission. Ruby for Good is a conference focused on civic-minded projects, and where Pluribus focuses on government, Ruby for Good focuses on charitable and non-profit organizations.

Eric: Blue Ridge Ruby in Asheville, NC. I chose this conference because I’ve found regional conferences to be the most rewarding. It was only in its second year (and I had also attended the first year) so it was a nice chance to attend a professionally-run conference that was still figuring out its vibe.

What was your biggest takeaway from the conference?

Ksenia: The conference highlighted continued developments in front end ecosystems and how React is driving them. React introduced a new paradigm of how to write UI in a componentized way that made it easier for Front End developers to do their jobs. Now, the newest developments in React are trying to tackle the current hardest problems in web development — connection to the server and the database. Latest react works with server components, simplifying back end — front end connection and continuing to improve performance.

My other takeaway from talking to attendees is that not much has shifted in the industry when it comes to inclusion and awareness of technology’s negative effects on society. I heard multiple people say accessibility is boring. Most seemed generally excited for AI/LLM advancements without being aware of serious biases present in training data and how it taints these models.

Jessica: I had two key takeaways from this conference — one related to software engineering and another that encouraged me to reflect on how I can improve as both a developer and a leader.

Regarding software development, I attended talks from speakers who shared their experiences building evergreen projects and scaling them successfully. Even though my team is not currently working on a new product, their lessons gave me a fresh perspective on writing scalable, maintainable code for our current team and for future developers who may join. Additionally, I learned about updates and innovations in React v19. That particular talk enhanced my understanding of how to iterate on React projects while also providing ideas for improving the solutions I build for our customers.

On the topic of leadership and career development, a few talks inspired me to think about ways to grow as an individual contributor and develop leadership skills within my current team. Even in my day-to-day work, I can leverage my existing and evolving skills to become a trusted and dependable leader who helps deliver great products to our customers.

Howard: I felt a lot of confirmation at this year’s conference that I have succeeded a fair amount on my career goals, on the skills I’ve been working on the past few years, and I’ve been able to share what I’ve learned with others. And with all that, there’s still so much I can learn from the community, too.

Eric: The biggest highlight for me was getting the chance to bounce ideas off other people. I gave a lightning talk there, which was a very last-minute decision, and it generated lots of good conversation and reactions from other attendees.

For others that are contemplating attending a conference, what would be your advice to them to maximize their experience?

Ksenia: Conferences are good for introducing you to new technologies and APIs but not teaching them. Often, the best case scenario is you walk away with 15 new things to look up and learn.

It’s hard to learn much from a short talk, so any pre-work you do will help you absorb more information. The speakers and their ability to communicate really matters, so I recommend researching the speakers and seeing some of their past talks to decide which talks to attend. If you take notes, write up a short summary at the end of the conference day, because your notes will not make sense to you days after the conference.

Jessica: For developers considering conferences in 2025, my advice is to research what previous conferences looked like to understand what the next conference could look like. I also recommend setting clear learning goals and evaluating whether a conference aligns with them. This approach helped me make the most of my time at RenderATL, and as a result, I’ve grown into a more skilled and confident developer.

Howard: To maximize what you get out of a conference, don’t hesitate to ask others about it. I like talking to people at local meetups and the like about their conference experiences. What’s important about local meetups is that they are informal and low-commitment chances to find out more about your interests.

Many conferences have resources for people who are new or uncertain about upcoming events, like a special email contact or a Slack channel. Take advantage of these spaces to ask questions! Conference communities get stale without new people and new conversations, so good organizers will be happy that you’ve shown up and asked questions.

Eric: Talk to people! Listening to talks is ok but approaching a speaker with some synthesis of how their talk interacted with what you’re currently working on is both very satisfying and materially beneficial to your ability to remember and internalize the talk.

How did the conference enhance your career / learning this year?

Ksenia: Conferences are really great at getting you excited about your work. It’s a place to meet people who are either working on very similar problems or completely different problems than you. Both can bring new light into your current problem space.

Having gone to Nation JS and React Summit, I feel newly excited to learn the latest APIs and React updates. It also helped me understand where the Javascript ecosystem is going and why we’re not just “reinventing PHP” as an industry.

Howard: I found attending Ruby for Good helped me focus on what I want to do next in my work. I was able to take some of the technical details I learned and share it pretty immediately at my job with Pluribus, which felt great. Some of what I learned was about longer-term, strategic planning, and I discovered I’m very eager to sharpen my skills in that regard.

Eric: It was a nice confidence boost and made me feel more deeply embedded in a community of technologists.

Ben Morris has been appointed as the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at Pluribus Digital. Previously, he served as Chief Delivery Officer overseeing the development and delivery of the solutions and services we offer. In the CSO role, he will advise the CEO on the company’s overall vision and brand and lead all strategic growth efforts. He looks forward to exploring new markets and new capabilities while ensuring we remain focused and committed to growth for public sector missions, committed to our partners, and our capabilities in product development, design, and delivery.

Julie Meloni, as VP of Digital Solutions, continues to ensure Pluribus is executing our capabilities of product development, delivery and design of all contracts with the highest quality.

With over 12 years at the company, Ben brings management consulting, strategy, and small startup experience. He has spent much of his career helping bring modern technical practices into government.

Ben is also a part owner of Pluribus Digital and remains an active member of the company’s Board of Directors ensuring the long-term financial performance of the company.

As COO, Halai Shukran will be a vital part of guiding our team through a landscape of complex government contracts while upholding a principle-driven culture focused on serving the talent who builds digital products for public service missions. She’ll have oversight of multiple business functions including IT management and quality, all people and talent-related functions, marketing, and contracting.

Halai joined the organization in 2020 with 10+ years of HR experience as our first in-house hire focused on people, talent management strategy and building people processes from the ground up. In that time, Halai has developed our recruitment and staffing strategy, streamlined and automated operations processes, built out effective performance management, compensation and retention strategies for Pluribus Digital employees. The elevation of someone from a talent background to the COO role demonstrates both Halai’s growth as a leader and our focus on the Pluribus “Principles In Action” to Support People.

She’s proven her leadership within the company in areas beyond internal talent management. In 2024, she independently launched the GovCon Talent & Operations Collective with a vision for how digital services companies should prioritize a focus on talent as the driving force of the industry. She also currently serves as the Marketing & Partnerships Committee Chair of the Digital WOSB Alliance.

Pluribus CEO, Jessica Morris shares, “Halai has been a pivotal part of Pluribus’ success in recent years. She brings a strong, compassionate voice at the leadership table that balances a people centric and business savvy approach that I depend on. I look forward to seeing her success in this new role.”

We chatted recently with a developer on our team (that just hit one year with the company) regarding her career perspectives and her learning during her time at Pluribus Digital thus far! Ailin Cao, Software Engineer, made a successful transition to a career in software development recently and is new to civic tech efforts.

What aspects of your career have been supported at Pluribus Digital?

Ailin: I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with a variety of modern technologies and many supportive senior engineers on my current project.

What aspects of professional development are important to you?

Ailin: I couldn’t have learned as much without team members who are happy to give feedback and collaborate to build the best possible product.

What types of conversations with leadership are beneficial/conducive to your growth?

Ailin: Being newer to software development, opportunities to have conversations where leaders share their perspectives, priorities and technical upskilling opportunities have been helpful.

What does support mean to you?

Ailin: Support means serving the team.

Ideally, where do you want to be in the next 2–3 years in your career?

Ailin: I’d like to have a broader and deeper understanding of current government processes to understand priorities and opportunities in government technology, to complement my technical experience.

Name some aspects of company culture that are important to you when selecting a new employer. Why?

Ailin: It’s important that a company is mission-driven, because work takes up a large part of our lives, so it’s good to know that the work you do has a positive impact.

Any growth stories from Pluribus Digital that you want to share (cool projects that allowed you to grow technically or your soft skills)?

Ailin: It has been meaningful to work on processes at USCIS to help expedite refugee and immigration cases.

In the last three years, Pluribus Digital has formalized remote-first company practices and expanded recruitment to attract talent from across the nation. This means that more of our workforce that has been onboarded since the start of the pandemic are outside of the DC Metropolitan area. And you know what? This has boded well for the organization. Naturally, the company decided to continue the remote-first culture and establish that as the new normal for us.

How did we come to this conclusion?

• We don’t measure productivity via “butts in seats” and a “time-watching” culture. Our performance procedures are rooted in achieving goals and tracking accountability.
• People have adapted their work schedules to fit their lives, finding ways to ensure responsibilities at work and home are both met. Some folks start a bit later to ensure they can take their kids to school, while others may start earlier to have more time outside while it is still daylight. This is reliant on a culture of trust and autonomy. The focus is less on work-life balance, more about work-life integration. This has been the key factor in driving our principle of “nurturing a calm culture.”

There have been many learning opportunities in transitioning to a fully remote-first workplace. The following are some things that we have done well and areas where we can still improve.

What have we done well?

• Maintaining a pulse point on employee engagement and ensuring we are consistently finding channels for upward feedback to help evolve our practices and provide ongoing support to the team.
• Finding ways to ensure employees can be productive while remote. Pluribus launched a home office reimbursement policy where employees are provided with a $200 reimbursement annually to ensure their equipment/home office needs are met.
• Offering a hybrid mix of in-person and virtual events. Some people still crave in-person interaction, but not all Pluribus staff live near other employees. Creativity, deep thinking and teambuilding are beneficial outcomes of in-person collaboration, but there is more than one way of achieving those things.
• Investing in leadership and formalizing management roles so that teams and people are supported effectively in their day-to-day, as well as focusing on career development paths and encouraging growth by using the career model that the company launched in 2022.

What are we still learning and where can we improve?

• How can we support leaders and ensure they can focus on delivery and results? We are working on continuing to refine our performance management procedures and setting clear expectations of leadership so that all areas of company growth are successful: account management, contract delivery, employee growth and development.
• Finding the right balance of complete autonomy in setting schedules while still setting expectations of when to be online and available. We are establishing core collaboration hours as a company and ensuring those norms are set at the contract/program level as well.
• Establishing the right communication strategy. When you cannot interact with people in-person, communication becomes key to creating an inclusive environment, ensuring all voices are heard and employees have all the information they need. Pluribus is scaling our communications to offer the right mix of touchpoints (1:1s, company meetings, company emails and newsletters, etc.). This also includes ensuring the right mediums are used in these comms (email, Slack, employee portal, etc.).
• Offering a holistic wellness program to support all aspects of employee health (financial, physical, emotional, social, occupational, etc.). We are transitioning from a series of one-time initiatives into a consistent wellness program. Burnout statistics in the last few years further showcase why this needs to be prioritized moving forward.

Pluribus is focused on doing remote-first right — it’s an ongoing evolution that has to keep employees’ needs and company growth at its center. As a talent leader, it has made my job much more important, keeping me hyper-focused on keeping our people engaged, satisfied, and committed to the company.

Today, we’ll uncover some myths about HCD as it applies to the digital world. Alongside each example we’ll explore some realities — proving how each myth reveals a case for HCD. By the end of this article, you will have some perspective and techniques to help you adopt a human-centered mindset.

Myth #1:

You can fix a digital product by administering training to users.

Reality:

The idea that you can overcome barriers to use a product by delivering training may be partially true. Take for example, enterprise products and applications that are intended to satisfy the needs of complex organizations or agencies. These types of products are meant to support users with specialized domain knowledge. It’s completely fair that some level of training is essential to onboard team members as they support the business via enterprise tools.

However, I’d like you to consider the cost associated with creating and maintaining a training program that extends beyond onboarding. When you add team growth and turnover into the mix, you have a recipe requiring you to continuously deliver your training program. This strain on your training team is likely reflected in the quality of training they can provide. Frankly, it all sounds like a hamster wheel that I would not want to get stuck on.

Training is not the silver bullet to solve our tech woes. So, how can HCD help?

Start by considering where your training initiative might be giving users instruction on workarounds to efficiently use a system:

• Are you guiding users to complete tasks outside of the product or application itself?
• Are you spending time explaining the quirks of unconventional interaction patterns?
• Are you avoiding features in your application altogether due to their complexity?
• Are you supplying tips to use the system in ways it is not intended? (Hey, we’ve all been there when we take makeshift notes to ourselves in email.)

The items listed above are just a few indicators of poor support and they are ripe for HCD methods to tease out. A core tenet of HCD is understanding how work gets done in a user’s context rather than in a lab or training environment. When you can identify indicators of poor support in the day-to-day environment you are opening the door for design to do what it does best: explore solutions to overcome challenges in collaboration with the people experiencing them. By creating solutions with real user perspective guiding the process, you may ultimately realize a reduced need for training.

Myth #2:

Human-centered design is displaced by analytics.

Reality:

Let’s start by defining analytics. Simply put, analytics is the process of discovering and interpreting patterns in data about user interactions with an interface.

Analytics data is best at answering questions such as:

• How many times was a page or feature visited?
• What UI elements have users interacted with?
• What paths are users taking between activities or tasks?
• How do different groups of users behave and how do they compare to one another?

Analytics are undeniably powerful at revealing quantitative patterns about what is taking place in the digital world. What the practice lacks is a qualitative understanding of a user’s context in their day-to-day environment revealing why certain patterns may be prevalent in the data.

If analytics can tell us what is occurring, then HCD can help reveal why. Let’s examine what pairing analytics with HCD methods can do for you in practice.

Imagine that your digital product allows job seekers to submit applications for jobs. Your analytics reveal that a sizable portion of applicants are dropping out of the process before submission. You might dig deeper into the analytics to reveal that applicants are dropping out of the process during a step where they are asked to provide details about their previous work experience.

You ask, “why is this happening?”

To find out why, you employ contextual research — a foundational HCD research method — to observe and ask questions of potential job seekers as they traverse the application process. During this study, you hear job seekers describe the process of providing details about their work history to be cumbersome as many were confused about how to provide multiple instances of previous experience. When the job seekers were unable to complete the task of providing their previous experience, they became frustrated and looked to apply for jobs elsewhere.

Analytics revealed what was happening. Or, that job seekers are dropping out of the process before submission.

HCD research methods revealed why. Or, that job seekers find the process of providing multiple instances of work history to be too tedious.

Analytics become exponentially more powerful when you can relate back to something that is taking place in the real world. When you use multiple methods (analytics + contextual research) to collect data about the same phenomenon, you can quickly get to the bottom of where your website or product has challenges worth addressing.

Myth #3:

You don’t need design roles when everyone is a designer.

Reality:

Don’t get me wrong, simply because someone has design experience doesn’t mean they have a monopoly on good ideas. In fact, those with the title of “Designer” cannot reasonably expect to be successful at producing promising ideas without seeking collaboration with clients, stakeholders, peers, and users alike. Those contributions we, as designers, look for from our collaborators are essential to the design process. Yet, the notion that everyone is a designer continues to dilute the impact that design can have in an organization.

Hear me out with this illustrative comparison:

You wouldn’t say chefs aren’t necessary in a restaurant because the entire staff has access to the kitchen and ingredients. Technique, execution, even creativity set apart what a dedicated chef will prepare in the kitchen. Like the approach of a designer, a chef actively seeks feedback to perfect the final result — feedback from suppliers on the best ingredients, feedback from peers on new techniques, or feedback from guests on the dishes served.

Knowledge of best practices and how to apply processes set apart designers in dedicated roles, too. Whether in the kitchen or on a development team, the symphony of collaborators and feedback ultimately results in a stronger dish or digital solution.

Where the idea that everyone is a designer becomes problematic is when it is used by other business areas as leverage to rescind design recommendations that are often the result of an evidence-based process. When design is everyone’s responsibility, it is no one’s responsibility. So, I’d like to leave you with this:

Design decisions are not made on a whim. Designs improve by following a process. Designers have the means to facilitate the process.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments! How are you embracing a human-centered mindset in your role? What myths about human-centered design would you like me to explore next?

Our company has control over a number of factors that attract talent: finding purposeful project work, building a positive culture, and providing competitive pay and benefits. Government has a huge influence in some key factors that hinder our ability to bring in the right people.

The following changes in government policy or acquisition strategy would help us attract talent, and thus improve the capacity for providing excellent services to the government.

1. Set Reasonable Rates that Keep Pace with Inflation

In theory, we set the rates we charge to the government. In reality, the government effectively sets the market price that they are willing to pay, and some vendor will always be willing to bid unrealistically low. Our prices to the government limit what salary and benefits we can provide.

At this moment, high inflation is a national news story. Tech salaries are going up at an even higher rate. If market salaries are rising by 6–10% and typical contract escalations are at 1.5–2.5%, the situation is untenable, and talent will be lost to the commercial world that is not bound by these constraints.

What government can do:

• Buyers should kick out unrealistically low bids, and critically consider prices. A 10% price difference may be the difference between a high-performing team and a brain drain.
• Buyers and Contracting Officers (COs) can mod existing contracts to change escalation rates to account for higher inflation today.

2. Make Space for Junior Talent

Junior talent can make meaningful contributions to projects. However, some contract labor category descriptions set arbitrary years of experience floors that rule out whole categories of the talent pool.

By making more space for junior talent, we can build a better pipeline of talent in the government ecosystem, bring down overall average rates to the government, and build more diversity into teams.

What government can do:

• Those writing RFPs should remove arbitrary requirements from labor category definitions.
• COs can mod contracts to modify or add in junior-level labor categories.

3. Fix the Clearance Process

Pretty much any government employee or contractor needs a clearance in order to do work. Most commonly, this is at the “public trust” level. The information collected and analyzed is very similar across agencies, yet the process is lacking.

There is no reason why most initial clearances shouldn’t be done within about 2 weeks. In some agencies, this is a typical case. In other agencies, it takes 6–12 weeks. Fixing the process will allow people to start working sooner. It also prevents us from losing talent that can balk at a long hiring process.

Reciprocity helps make people more portable across agencies, applying their talent for short stints. With a recent background check and public trust clearance, I should be able to go from one agency customer to another with little delay — certainly within a week or two if not less. Unfortunately, this is not the case with reciprocity eligibility seeming arbitrary with each cleared candidate.

In addition, the process considers marijuana use (regardless of medical necessity). Even though recreational marijuana is legal in many states, it is still technically a federal crime. Most people don’t understand this distinction. We have a silly situation where people are not knowingly breaking laws, but now can’t work for the government in any capacity. This knocks out about 10%+ of the talent pool in our experience.

What government can do:

• End marijuana prohibition, or at least take executive action to stop considering marijuana usage in public trust background investigations.
• Speed the process of initial clearance by taking parallel background processes in individual agencies, and consolidating that duplicative effort into a governmentwide shared service (similar to US Access for badge issuance).
• Mandate true reciprocity across agencies for public trust clearance.

All of these measures and updates in policy would allow for a more diverse, strong talent pool to impact public service missions.