When I said I wasn’t done, I meant it. Not only am I not done with the 18F community (I’ve got a lot of colleagues still figuring out their next steps), but I am definitely not done serving the public or upholding my oath to defend the constitution.
Fortunately, I have benefited from the reflected glory of the people who went before me and the incredible talent in the Product chapter I was privileged to lead for a year and a month and a day. I have found a team of folks committed to the same values and the same work. They can use my help strengthening their product management muscle and they have been able to put me to work immediately doing what I love: helping people (in this case veterans) get the benefits they deserve in a dignified, respectful, clear, understandable process.
The team we’re working with at the VA is stellar. I’ve known some of them for more than a decade, and even this past year I was studying the work of the VA’s OCTO (Office of the Chief Technical Officer) team as a model of a well managed product portfolio delivering measurable improvements in a famously labyrinthine and cluttered environment.
The company I’m joining is Kind Systems, based in Irvine, California. Their track record is impressive and their culture is intentionally healthy, creative, and brave. I need to start saying “our”. Our culture. I was drawn to this work for reasons and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and getting to work with people drawn to the same goals and meaning and purpose now through my last several ventures.
The county public health departments in California I worked with on mental health innovation eight years ago, the folks who volunteered for the Pathcheck contact tracing effort during the height of the pandemic, the amazing talent at California’s Office of Data and Innovation, the famous pantheon of legends at 18F, and my new brilliant colleagues at Kind all embody that deeply humane and caring approach to service, to problem-solving, to making, to capacity-building that inspires me every day.
If you’ve known me for a while, you know I’m into the Dead. One of their best songs asks the question “Are you kind?” If you’ve known me for even longer you might be aware that kindness is the thing I prize most in other people (well, that and a wicked sense of humor), and is also the virtue I aspire to, sometime in vain, in myself. The company’s name was a good signpost, and it hasn’t let me down.
I want to thank my new team for giving me this opportunity to get back to the work. Reporting for duty!