Bringing a human-centered approach to government procurement technology
Human-centered procurement government technology can help unlock radically better results. In our new brief, we show how and propose three principles to chart the way forward.
So much of government is accomplished through procurement. And if procurement is broken, then everything else is, too.
In this brief, we explain why procurement and procurement technology matters, share our vision for human-centered procurement technology, and describe what needs to happen next.
Public procurement works in the background buying the goods and services needed by governments to meet our social contract. A massive amount of money flows through this infrastructure: in the United States, state and local governments spent $3.7 trillion on procuring goods and services in 2021, and in 2023 the federal government spent $759 billion.
Exactly because procurement technology is in the background, it’s overdue for urgent improvement. We set out to imagine what a better world could look like, combining our decades of experience with new research and interviews with people across the public and private sectors.
This research led us to three principles we must follow for us to buy better and a future where human-centered procurement technology puts public outcomes first. Procurement technology must:
- 1. Focus on public outcomes
- 2. Meet peoples’ needs
- 3. Deliver data we can rely on
We’re also exploring collaborating with people across sectors on next steps, so if you’d like to stay in touch, you can add your name here.
Authors: Dan Hon, Ryan Ko, and Kathrin Frauscher