Where to find data & tech talent
In House
Take a look at your existing staff and see if there are any obvious uses of data already in place. Who’s producing your maps, budgets, charts, and tables? Those people are already tapping into data sources to create a new product.
You may find that there are people with an interest or aptitude for what you need among people responsible for mapping (GIS), 311 operations, budgets, communications, or project management. If your government has invested in innovations fellowships or anything comparable, those individuals may also be a rich resource for talent.
GIS: GIS staffers are already accustomed to working with data and the technology that drives map production. These skills can be redirected or built upon to support open data, data visualization, and other data science work.
311 (or other customer service office that collects data): People who deal with residents in your jurisdiction are likely to have a vested interest in understanding, from a data perspective, the work that they do. Sometimes even a cursory look at 311 data can lead to insights that increase efficiencies in a call center and in responses to those calls.
Budgets: The people who write the budgets in your government are used to dealing with numbers, spreadsheets, and analyses of what it all means. They may be open to learning new tools and data skills that can increase their efficiencies in writing budgets, ultimately making that process smoother and less painful.
Communications: Communications teams in your government may be responsible for the city’s web presence, social media, and other external-facing communications. Here’s a great place to tap any journalism and storytelling skills as they relate to data. Is anyone on this team producing infographics or public reports?
Fellowships & Innovations Offices: These jobs exist specifically to try new techniques and to do government work in a non-governmental fashion. These people may already have the data skills you’re looking for and/or the willingness to learn them.
Interns: If you’re looking for something to give your intern to do, data work may be the place to start. Assuming your interns are young (in high school or college), they’re probably already comfortable with technology and may appreciate being given a technical data challenge -- especially if the end result has a measurable impact.
On gauging interest internally:
If you want to get a sense for who would be interested in doing data work, there are a few ways to gauge interest.
An online survey: You can use free tools like SurveyMonkey and Typeform, emailed to everyone you think might be interested. Ask about level of interest, time they’re willing to commit, and previous experience with data. Make sure to collect their email addresses. This is probably the simplest and most expeditious way to gauge interest, but beware that you have have trouble getting responses to any online survey. A little incentive for completing a survey doesn’t hurt.
Lunch and learn: Nothing fancy here -- all you have to do is find a space. Invite your organization to hear a quick talk about data and how you’re hoping to use it during lunch. Try an Ignite format -- 5 minutes, 20 slides -- and leave the rest of the time open for conversation. As with the survey, collect email addresses! Free food is always good incentive, but if you can’t swing that, remind participants to bring their own.
Start small and call for volunteers. If you have a small, non-mission-critical data project, see who responds to a call for volunteers to work on it. You might also consider encouraging people in your organization to go to a local civic hack night. Find one here.
Externally
Break the mold! Don’t go looking for new government staff at public policy schools. If you want to hire tech and data specialists to do work beyond standard analysis, check out these other places where people learn how to use data and build tools:
Information science / information architecture programs: It’s literally in the name -- these programs teach people to handle information and data, and you may find that graduates are interested in applying those skills for the greater good.
Journalism schools and digital newsrooms: J-schools are increasingly teaching data journalism and data visualization as part of the core curricula. These skills transfer into government. You may also find good people in digital newsrooms, many of which are actively doing data science in the name of storytelling.
Civic technology volunteer groups: These groups, like Code for America’s Brigades and other civic hack nights, are full of people who are already doing some of the work you’re interested in, and would likely be very excited to find a way to do it formally.