Moving the Needle with Better Metrics and Smaller Experiments

Most cities operate on assumptions that were handed down years ago and consider frontline workers as executors of top-down decisions. In this episode, San Francisco's former Chief of Strategy and Performance Jessica MacLeod shows what happens when you treat them as problem-solvers with lived expertise and new ideas. Add visible systems mapping, permission to experiment, and data that has narrative, and suddenly government can move at the speed of actual change.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why frontline stories unlock patterns dashboards miss—and make data actually meaningful
• How mapping hidden assumptions lets you test what actually works versus what you've always done
• How brighter lights reduced drug complaints 54% in one park, then scaled across the city
• Why small experiments at every level create change makers faster than top-down mandates
• Why empowering staff to solve problems (not interrogating them on numbers) unlocks actual performance change

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Music credit: Summer-Man by Ketsa

About Data-Smart City Solutions

Data-Smart City Solutions, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, is working to catalyze the adoption of data projects on the local government level by serving as a central resource for cities interested in this emerging field. We highlight best practices, top innovators, and promising case studies while also connecting leading industry, academic, and government officials. Our research focus is the intersection of government and data, ranging from open data and predictive analytics to civic engagement technology. We seek to promote the combination of integrated, cross-agency data with community data to better discover and preemptively address civic problems. To learn more visit us online and follow us on LinkedIn.