Where Can You Find the Greatest Technology Team in Government?
I might easily argue with anyone who questioned whether I'm lucky enough to work with some of the most talented people in the technology industry, but I unquestionably work with the most talented technologists in government. This is a speech I gave at one of our All-Hands Meetings:
Today marks the third anniversary of my time at CFPB. I want to point out that while we recognize individual achievement [awards given at each of our All-Hands meetings], let’s not forget that we accomplish our goals as a team. While I’m not a formally trained technologist, it doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that developing a website that is accessible, engaging, and informative to the average user requires time and energy, and effort from every single division on this team. If our developers didn’t have Macs and the End User Team to support them, we would not have the HMDA website. If our Cyber Security team wasn’t involved in decision-making, or if our Privacy Team did not engage RMR on the necessary protections, China would know more about mortgages in this country than the head of our Mortgage Team does. Without Network and Systems Engineering, we wouldn’t have the appropriate infrastructure to host the environments in which consumerfinance.gov lives. Without the PMO, we would have released the website, certainly, but probably in another six to nine months when it would not have nearly packed the whopping punch that it did. If there weren’t a multimedia team, we wouldn’t have a video that is elegant, simple, and easy to follow. I learned more about mortgages in that video than I did in a semester-long class I took as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. If we didn’t have a data team, we simply could not show the stunning trends in mortgage data because no one would be able to distill it properly. And if we didn’t have developers and designers the website would be inoperable, inconsequential and just another confusing site that saturates an arena that is extraordinarily intimidating for people. When I sat in a nearly empty room in 1801 L Street three years ago today and was told, “Just start hiring really talented people,” I could not have imagined that we would be so fortunate to acquire such a spectrum of extraordinary talent that would ultimately produce some of the most complex and elegant work government has ever seen. Elizabeth Warren said when we launched “Know Before You Owe” that we changed the history of participatory democracy in America. I believe we’ve done better than that. We have not just changed participatory democracy in America but we’ve become a beacon in that effort. Whenever we have a victory within the Technology Team, I hope all of you realize that it’s a shared victory and one to which all of you have contributed. You should be incredibly proud of the work you have accomplished on this team and I am deeply honored to be a member of it.
Want to see more? In addition to our fantastic website, check out what we created to summarize the work we have done over the course of the last three years.