Programs
ES supports municipalities, schools, agencies, and civic institutions in designing, running, measuring, and sharing policy experiments. Good first pilots are boring in the best sense: practical, measurable, low-risk, and locally useful.
Program 1
Run 90-day experiments with public institutions. Every sprint produces a public report with the question, design, result, limitations, equity check, and replication notes.
Example questions
Pilot selection
Prioritize pilots with
Avoid early pilots involving
Recommended first wedge
Libraries are likely the strongest first pilot category. Civic trust is high, interventions are usually low-risk, outcomes are measurable, participation is voluntary, local staff are mission-aligned, and findings can travel across municipalities.
Program 2
An open repository of civic experiments. Every record includes hypothesis, design, outcomes, effect size, limitations, and replication status. Null, negative, inconclusive, and harmful results are included — that is one of the main public goods.
View the registry schema →Program 3
Train local leaders in the skills required to run rigorous civic experiments. Build local experimentation capacity that persists after the fellowship ends.
Curriculum
Program 4
Shared infrastructure for civic experimentation: experiment templates, dashboards, analysis tools, and implementation guides. ES can run on spreadsheets and lightweight tools for early pilots. Advanced workflows may integrate with DoOperator and Decision Process infrastructure while communities retain full data ownership.
First Pilot Templates
Good first pilots are boring in the best sense. These templates are practical, measurable, low-risk, and locally useful.
Template 1
Which outreach message increases attendance at free library programs?
Design
Template 2
Does a clearer checklist reduce incomplete permit applications?
Design
Template 3
Which low-cost signage or programming prompt increases use of an underused public space?
Design
Public Report Format
The public should be able to understand the conclusion without trusting a black box. Every completed experiment produces a short public report in this format.
Question
What uncertainty did the institution want to reduce?
Context
Where was the experiment run, and why did it matter locally?
Design
Who or what was assigned, what varied, and over what period?
Outcomes
What was measured, including guardrails and complaints.
Result
Effect size, uncertainty, and practical interpretation.
Limitations
What the result cannot prove.
Equity check
Whether effects or burdens differed across groups.
Decision
Continue, expand, revise, stop, or replicate.
Replication notes
What another community would need to try it.
Data availability
What aggregate data, code, or templates can be shared.
Deployment Roadmap
Phase 0
Discovery
Months 0–3
✓ One signed pilot
Phase 1
Pilot
Months 3–6
✓ One measurable improvement
Phase 2
Early Network
Months 6–18
✓ Evidence of replication
Phase 3
Institutionalization
Years 2–3
✓ Independent municipalities adopting methods
We are in Phase 0. One signed pilot, one public result. If you lead a library, parks department, school district, or civic agency — let’s talk.