Safe Place to Fail
The Innovation Program will follow a small set of basic principles that will help us create a “safe place to fail.”
The Innovation Program is new to the County and questions about how it will operate will continually present themselves. These may be questions with no clear answer, but reflecting on the basic principles may help guide us to answers.
- Be the “Department of Yes” – Test as many ideas as our resources will allow.
- Use the best, invent the rest – Take the best ideas and lessons from others whenever possible and go from there. Invent only when you have to.
- Work quickly and move on – The Program is not meant to own other programs.
- Understand the current state – Spend time with departments and in the community.
- Keep churning – Avoid insular thinking by staying fluid; continuously bring outside resources in and shift inside resources out.
- If we’re not failing occasionally we’re not trying hard enough – In order to create a safe place to experiment and try, we have to be comfortable with the occasional misstep.
Innovation Criteria
The Montgomery County Innovation Program, led by the CInO, coordinates, promotes, identifies, educates, manages, and executes a variety of projects and ideas designed to institutionalize and support the County’s Innovation Program objectives. Broadly stated, for any new or ongoing project/idea to be included in this program, it must meet the following base criteria:
The concept is entrepreneurial, iterative, and testable. This means that desired outcomes can be identified and measured in a lean, focused way.
The project is experimental, and thus has some degree of inherent risk. The project involves a new process, technology, or skill that is not yet fully understood in the context of County operations.
The concept is scalable to provide a meaningful return on investment. If deemed viable the concept can be implemented more broadly.
Innovation Focus Areas
Due to County need, opportunity and interest, three focus areas have emerged in the Innovation Program.
These core focus areas are not meant to limit the ideas innovators submit to the program, but they do effectively describe the projects we are currently working on. Exploring current projects may spark an entirely new idea that will improve the quality of life for County residents.
Connected devices and the data they gather are improving our quality of life and changing the way the County governs. The Innovation Program is developing and deploying first-of-a-kind technology in a variety of areas.
In a county that has reserved about a third of its land for agricultural production, we value food not only as a necessity, but as an economic opportunity. Therefore, the Innovation Program has embarked on a series of projects designed to enliven and empower a burgeoning local food scene.
The way we learn is changing. Not only is technology changing the way we communicate in the classroom, but it’s creating demand for continuing education in the workplace. Through hands on creative approaches, we’re exploring these opportunities with students in Montgomery County Public Schools and County government.
