The Meta Project: Designing for DT:DC

* This is an in-person event

DT:DC has spent years building a community of curious, skilled, civic-minded people. This workshop asks a new question: what could we accomplish together if we pointed that energy inward and built stronger connections between members outside of DT:DC events.

Using BJ Fogg's Behavior Design framework, developed at Stanford, we'll explore what a DT:DC professional network could look like, surface the best ideas from the room, and map out what it would realistically take to make it happen.

Nothing is decided in advance. The aspiration is open: what could DT:DC's professional network be and what positive impact could it have on DC and our DT:DC members? Come with curiosity and leave with a plan.

This workshop is a bit meta: we'll use design methods to design for ourselves. Every person in the room is both participant and co-creator of the outcome.
What you'll take away
A hands-on understanding of the Fogg Behavior Model, one of the most practical frameworks for turning good intentions into real action. And something rarer: you'll have actually used it, on a real problem, with real stakes, in real time. As a community, we will walk out with a shortlist of project ideas we generated and prioritized together, plus a concrete behavior plan for moving the top one forward.

Agenda
6:30 Networking
6:45 Welcome + framing
What could DT:DC do and how tonight works
7:10 Magic Wand brainstorm
If DT:DC could do anything to create a professional network, what would it be? No filters yet
7:25 Crispify the ideas
Turn big dreams into specific, real-world behaviors and actions
7:40 Focus Mapping
Three rapid rounds: plot, cluster and prioritize what rises to the top
8:10 Easify to make this actually happen
Apply the Fogg Model to the leading idea: motivation, ability, prompt
8:20 Debrief + next steps
What did we decide? Who's in? What happens after tonight?

WORKSHOP Facilitator
Ed O'Brien, Software Developer, U.S. Department of Labor

Ed trained directly with BJ Fogg in 2021 and has since applied Behavior Design with over a dozen teams inside the Department of Labor to improve processes, products, and internal systems. He co-led DOL's Continuous Process Improvement program from 2022–2023. Ed holds an M.S. in GIS from UMD and a B.A. in English from Wesleyan.