Coaching Program

Tech Innovation in Procurement

Bringing innovation to the government supply chain is about promising and delivering on greater productivity and improved workflows.

Application Deadline

May 23, 2016

starts the week of

June 13, 2016

Course Ends on

August 15, 2016

Course Description

Today we have a misalignment between our citizens’ expectations that government will solve problems effectively and fast and how public procurement is practiced. Government should not be spending as much to make a website as it invests in scientific research to map the human brain. Contracts should not get awarded to the same enterprise over and over again but attract more and more diverse competitors.

But bringing innovation to the government supply chain is also about meeting the needs of citizens more effectively by accepting that in government we should excel of defining the problems and allow the market to inspire us about the different approaches to solving them. This can also be about data-informed decision support, new evaluation frameworks and more representative selection panels.

Ideal participants are those who have already identified a project and/or have a project underway and have clear insight into the problem they are trying to address. This course is designed for those focusing on all stages and types of contracting reform, bureaucracy and problem-solving at all levels of government, including projects that: make procurement better at solving problems; lower the entry barrier to participation; attract more diverse, minority and women-owned businesses; enable more open review and decision-making processes; encourage the procurement of innovative solutions; decrease corruption and improve accountability. If you are engaged in an effort to bring greater sanity to the procurement process come join us!

The GovLab Academy coaching programs have helped 450 government, social and civic entrepreneurs take 250 projects from idea to implementation. We aim to help you “cross the chasm” from idea to implementation and help you scale.

Course Format

1 faculty-led session every 2 weeks for 2 hours (one hour is with a City Mart Mentor and one hour is an all-group session); and a personalized schedule of peer-to-peer and one-on-one team coaching sessions.

Faculty Members

Sascha Haselmayer

In 2011 Sascha founded Citymart, working to transform the way cities solve problems, connecting them through open challenges to new ideas from citizens and entrepreneurs. Today, more than 60 global cities from Barcelona to New York and London to Rio de Janeiro have used the Citymart approach. From 1992-98 Sascha...

Uthman Olagoke

Uthman is an experienced project manager at Citymart, working with cities to find solutions that will elevate the quality of life for citizens and bring innovation to the inner-workings of government. Uthman is currently managing partnerships with the cities of Detroit, Miami, New Orleans, Bristol, Da Nang and Melbourne to...

Claus Mullie

Claus Mullie joined Citymart in 2015, Claus contributed extensively to Citymart’s Procurement Institute, a large online resource designed to train city officials on innovative procurement. This included researching and compiling case study material. Claus has also managed the research and outreach processes for the Sheffield Smart Lab challenge, focusing on...

Philippa Parry

Philippa works as an Analyst at Citymart and is currently working on introducing problem-based procurement to the governments of Long Beach and New York City, supporting challenge-based procurement strategy and delivery at all stages. Philippa also led the strategy and research on past Citymart challenges with the Government Laboratory in...

Nina Robbins

Nina Robbins is a Project Manager at Citymart responsible for a portfolio of partnerships with leading global cities such as New York City and Eindhoven. At Citymart, she has successfully led challenge-based procurement and problem-solving projects for the cities of Long Beach, Philadelphia and New York City. Nina further managed...