Six months ago, 18F launched with a simple mission: transform how the U.S. Government builds and buys digital services. Today, on our first anniversary, we want to share what we've learned, what we've built, and where we're headed.
We started as a small group — a handful of Presidential Innovation Fellows and a shared conviction that government could do better. Today, 18F has grown to more than 60 people across Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago, Dayton, and New York. We are designers, developers, product managers, acquisition specialists, and user researchers who came from the private sector, academia, and elsewhere in government because we believe public service matters.
What we've built
In our first year, we worked on projects ranging from NotAlone.gov — a resource for campus sexual assault survivors — to MyUSA, a single sign-on platform for government services. We've launched open source tools that other agencies can adopt and adapt. We've consulted with dozens of agencies on procurement, technology strategy, and how to build more user-centered services.
Every project teaches us something. We've learned that the hardest part of government digital transformation isn't the technology — it's the culture, the incentives, and the processes that have built up over decades. The technology is often the easy part.
How we work
18F operates on a cost-recovery model: we charge agencies for our work, which keeps us accountable and helps us stay focused on delivering real value. We work in the open — our code is on GitHub, our project status is public, and we try to document what we're learning as we go.
We use modern software development practices: agile, user research, iterative design, continuous deployment. These aren't new ideas, but they're still rare enough in government that when we demonstrate them, people often tell us it feels revolutionary. It shouldn't. It's just how good software gets built.
What's next
We're growing, but we're staying intentional. We want more people who are genuinely committed to public service — not just a resume line, but a calling. We want to work on harder problems: the legacy systems that affect millions of people every day, the procurement rules that make modern development nearly impossible, the cultural shifts that take years to take hold.
We know we won't solve everything. But we're going to keep showing what's possible when you give talented people a clear mission and the space to do their best work.
We're just getting started.
Originally published on the 18F blog. As a work of the U.S. federal government, this content is in the public domain.