Improving resources through user feedback

Intersector Project Blog PostOur mission at The Intersector Project is to empower practitioners to pursue cross-sector solutions to complex problems. We do this by developing resources that assist practitioners in designing and implementing intersector partnerships. Our main resource, The Intersector Toolkit, includes 17 tools organized across four stages, diagnosis, design, implementation, and evaluation, which provide actionable guidance that helps practitioners from all sectors think through and operationalize the relevant steps to reach their goals.

Widely sharing resources in order to support others who are de-mystifying processes of civic engagement and partnership formation is crucial. We value other’s efforts to deep-dive into sector-specific considerations and to continually refine resources ensuring they are usable and relevant to the day to day work of their target audience.

The U.S. Public Participation Playbook, developed by the Federal Public Participation Working Group convened by the U.S. General Services Administration, is one of these resources and, similar to The Intersector Project, the Federal Public Participation Working Group considers its playbook a living document and aims to periodically update it based on user feedback. The playbook lists best practices and metrics for designing and evaluating government services in a play-by-play format. It is a resource built through a collaboration of 70 leaders including federal government officials, civic partners, small business owners, and the general public whose aim is to amplify citizens’ voices in government decision-making processes. The current version emerged from three open comment periods during which individuals inside and outside of government provided feedback on the playbook through an open platform hosted by the OpenGov Foundation. Allowing the public to openly annotate and comment on resources, services, and programs is the most effective way of creating policies that are truly aligned to citizen priorities.

The playbook is aimed at public sector leaders who want to ensure that more inclusive and transparent decision-making processes inform policies and service delivery. We support efforts to develop thoughtful guides that inform how leaders think about problems that affect the public and that help illuminate consensus-oriented decision-making.

As part of our commitment to ensuring that our resources remain useful for practitioners across sectors, we are pursuing a systematic gathering of expert and practitioner perspectives to inform an upcoming revision of our Toolkit. Our improvement efforts will consist of structured interviews with practitioners from all sectors, as well as researchers and funders who are actively engaged in evaluating and supporting cross-sector collaborations.

If you would like to participate in our Toolkit improvement efforts, please contact Hortencia Rodríguez at hortencia.rodriguez@intersector.com to set up an individual interview.

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