Innovations
City of Sioux Falls Innovation Team
Working Together to Make Things Better
Here at the City of Sioux Falls, we believe that innovation is anything that makes things better. That means we’re all innovators. From process improvements to mobility, the Innovation Team collaborates across departments and with the community to facilitate new approaches to civic problem solving.
The Innovation Team was formed in 2019 to support the One Sioux Falls framework. We believe that many small changes will add up to a big impact. We believe that collaborating with our coworkers, neighbors, and community will result in better outcomes. Most importantly, we believe that better ideas create a better quality of life for our residents.
Innovation at Work
Innovation goes far beyond the Innovation Division. Innovators across the City are making Sioux Falls a better place to live, work, and play every day. Check out the latest stories of innovators at work.
Innovation Toolkit
Sometimes innovation is a new technology that will provide exceptional service to our residents (try reporting a pothole from your cellphone!). However, sometimes innovation is approaching an old challenge in a new way. Here are some of the tools in our innovation toolkit.
Human-Centered Design
Human-centered design is exactly like it sounds: thinking about people first. Government is about helping people. Human-centered design is a process we use to help people by co-creating with the people closest to the challenge. Getting out of the office and into the real world to talk to and experience where people are is the simplest way to do this.
In some cases, the Innovation Team embeds within a department to lead a human-centered design project. Other times, the Innovation Team provides training to empower others to use human-centered design principles in their own work.
Performance & Data
What gets measured gets managed. The City of Sioux Falls has many datasets available to the public. The Innovation Team works to build a culture of data-driven decision making both at the City and in our community.
The Innovation Team also supports Performance Management programs. Performance Management is a method to measure progress and identify strategies to accomplish departmental goals. The Innovation Team assists with identifying key performance indicators, building dashboards, and launch performance management programs.
Press
Here are some pieces that have been written about the City of Sioux Falls Innovation Team and our way of working.
Bloomberg Cities: Inside the Sioux Falls innovation ‘War Room’
Center for Public Impact: Americans in Transit: Listening to Diverse Perspectives
Bloomberg Cities: How 13 Cities are Pushing Themselves to Innovate Like Never Before
