Public Interest Technology & Management Lab

Technology is now part of nearly every public program.

Public interest technology is sometimes described as people-centered problem solving: using technology and technological expertise to advance the public good.

In practice, most public programs now reach people through technology. When a resident applies for benefits, searches for job training, or renews a professional license, an encounter that once took place at a counter or across a desk now takes place through a screen. The same is true when government communicates: agencies now inform, explain, and engage the public through websites, dashboards, and social media. These digitally mediated encounters differ from face-to-face encounters in substantive ways. A caseworker can answer a question, notice confusion, and exercise judgment. A screen cannot adjust to the person in front of it. What it asks, what it accepts, and what it decides were all set when the system was designed and built.

Managing and evaluating a program like this takes two kinds of evidence. The first is evidence about outcomes: whether the program is working for the people it serves. The second is evidence about the encounter itself: how much time and effort a service asks of people, where they get stuck or give up, and whether it works as well for one resident as for another. The Public Interest Technology and Management Lab can help with both. Much of our research focuses on the second, studying how people experience these tools and what would make them more effective, inclusive, and easier to use.

Vendors, consultants, and digital service teams help government design, build, and deploy technology. Far fewer help with what follows: how a system should be managed once it is live, how well it works for the people who use it, and whether it is producing public value. This lab exists to fill that gap.

Why do so many residents begin an online application but never finish it? Human-centered design is now common practice in government digital services, and many agencies can already see the numbers: how many people start, where they stop, and how many finish. What the numbers do not show is why, or why completion differs across groups of residents, or what would help more people get through. Learning that takes a different kind of research, one that observes people as they use a service, asks them about their experience, and tests changes. The same is true of how government communicates online: an agency can count views and followers, but not whether residents understood the message, trusted it, or found what they came for.

Our goal is to help the government innovate and operate with confidence, so that every public dollar delivers greater public value.

Our questions stay the same across policy domains, so the lab can follow them wherever our partners need answers. Current areas of work include:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) in public services
• Digital services and their users
• Digital communication and public engagement
• Government data systems
• Access to public benefits
• The public sector technology workforce
• Transparency and accountability

Our team is always happy to hear from government partners, funders, and fellow researchers. Research projects can range from short analyses to multi-year research partnerships tailored to your precise needs.

Independent evidence on how the technology agencies buy and build is working, for the agency and for the public. We do this work with partner agencies, drawing on data they already collect, from web analytics to case records, under data-sharing agreements.

• Help agencies use digital platforms more effectively for communication, public engagement, and transparency
• Assess the usability of digital services and benefits systems
• Measure completion and drop-off at each step of an online service
• Measure the time and effort a service requires from the public
• Develop appropriate metrics for tracking digital service performance
• Evaluate AI tools in public services before and after deployment

Independent, quantitative evaluation of public programs, covering impact, implementation, equity, and cost.

• Conduct impact evaluations, including randomized trials
• Conduct studies utilizing agencies’ own collected data
• Provide analysis of who applies, who is served, and who is missed
• Provide performance measures and reporting to partner agencies

The data systems, linkages, and practices that make rigorous analysis possible, designed with partner agencies so they remain useful beyond the project cycle.

• Link records across agencies under data-sharing agreements
• Build and document datasets that are then ready to be analyzed
• Develop public dashboards and open data
• Develop training for agency analysts

State Executive Leadership: We support the Governor’s Office and state operations leadership with evidence for statewide priorities and modernization initiatives.

Technology & Innovation Offices: We partner with state IT and innovation departments to evaluate digital services, data systems, and responsible AI adoption.

State Departments & Authorities: We provide program evaluations and data capacity for agencies and authorities across human services, labor, economic development, and beyond.

Counties, Cities, and Philanthropy: We are happy to work with local governments and funders who want public investments measured to a research standard.