1.4 Sustainable and Scalable
Creating sustainable and scalable solutions in civic tech means designing projects with longevity and growth in mind. This principle emphasizes building solutions that can be maintained over time, expanded to serve more people, and potentially replicated in other contexts.
Why it matters for project success:
Projects don’t end at launch; the most successful civic tech projects are ones that continue to deliver impact over time, get handed off to new teams and inspire others to do similar work. Taking time at the start of a project to think about the end of a project helps teams prepare for those milestones.
What it means in practice:
- Long-term Thinking: We encourage teams to start with ‘minimum viable’ projects, while also thinking about scaling up. What resources – technical or otherwise – will you need? What relationships would be beneficial? Is there a potential business model for your project? Would an organization or government department be able to take the project on in the future?
- Documentation: Create clear, comprehensive documentation about as much of your project as possible – this isn’t just about documenting code, but also research findings, learnings about project planning and more. You never know who might find that information useful in the future!
- Knowledge Transfer: Documenting your project is crucial, but how will you share that knowledge? Look for opportunities to connect with stakeholders and pass on your learnings, your hopes and your documents – you can start by presenting about your project at a hacknight!
Resources to help:
- INSERT: An intro to documenting code
- Business Model Canvas
- INSERT: youtube clips from project presentations at hacknights,
- The Knight Foundation’s report on scaling civic tech