Tips for building a small, scrappy digital team

Making it work

Agencies with small, scrappy teams can implement big changes. How? Cross-functional, tightly-knit, and nimble teams can be a driving force.

This connection plays into an agency’s hiring strategy. Agency hiring managers may look for people who:

• Bring a diverse and unique set of skills to the team.
• Demonstrate a keen desire to learn and work within the agency’s unique culture.
• Are self-driven and resourceful in a variety of environments, including remotely.
• Embrace accessibility, inclusion, and creativity.
• Are willing to take chances, work with limited resources, make mistakes, receive feedback, and apply lessons learned. After all, few great things are achieved through timidity.

Leveraging this approach shows that you are willing to make compromises, have clear prioritization, and work with available resources. Additionally, adopting this hiring strategy shows that your goals benefit your agency’s end users and that you are thinking strategically and creatively — which is helpful when seeking support a​​nd approvals from agency leadership.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

The availability of intergovernmental resources (like Digital.gov!) are key resources for small, scrappy teams.

If you have a challenge in your agency, it is likely that others have faced and overcome similar circumstances. Take advantage of conferences, governmentwide communities of practice, mailing lists, and the broader federal community to gain expertise and channel creative solutions. You can benefit from what others have learned. While your team may be small, the overarching federal community is not, and there are many other practitioners ready to share their experiences and guide you.

Use a variety of approaches to hire your team

How do you make the hiring process more accessible to find great candidates?

Creative hiring strategies

You can uses different hiring strategies, such as posting opportunities on blogs, professional development networking websites, the Office of Personnel Management’s Open Opportunities program, and the State Department’s Virtual Student Federal Service internships.

It is important to make the hiring process clear:

• Walk people through what is going to happen and what to expect.
• Build goodwill across and within your agency.
• Use internal rotations within an agency to facilitate cross-training.
• Be transparent.

Contractor support

Also consider contractors when staffing your digital dream team. When bringing contractors onto your team:

• Carefully consider where your team needs contractor expertise.
• Make sure your team has the proper resources to manage contractors successfully.
• Stay aware of fiscal year funds, appropriations, and budgetary requirements that may impact your contractor plans, and have mitigation strategies in place. These mitigation strategies may involve decreasing contractor support, or preparing your team for a future contractor roll-off.

What can I do next?

Join a Digital.gov Community of Practice to follow the advice of our members and use the resources available through these governmentwide communities of federal, state, local, tribal, and territory digital service practitioners.