s19e02: For Informational Purposes; Product management is hard, a reminder; Shadow IT

0.0 Context Setting

Wednesday, 9 October 2024 in Portland, Oregon, where it is still unseasonably warm. I have a puppy now. She’s a good girl.

0.1 Events: Hallway Track, and Pulling the Cord

Hallway Track 010: Let’s Fix Government Procurement (in the U.S.) is on Wednesday 16 October, at 10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern.

Our guests will be:

• Kathrin Frauscher, co-founder and Deputy Executive Director of the Open Contracting Partnership.
• Ryan Ko, freelance consultant, co-author of this report, principal of RKO Consulting LLC, former Chief of Staff at Code for America, works with a portfolio of governments and non-profits to build a more human centered government.
• TBC.

Here’s the blurb:

Nobody is happy, and everyone is making do. That’s how a whole bunch of people feel about how procurement works with governments in the U.S.

Procurement is big money (over $4.4 trillion spent every year!). It’s also democracy in action, because procurement is how governments buy the goods and services as part of our social contract.

It’s also a big mess that could be much, much better. It works – just,