As government technology increasingly mediates people’s access to essential services — and impacts their rights — technology purchasing has never been more high stakes. Yet government technology decision-making processes rarely feature robust public input. Gear Shift: Driving Change in Public Sector Technology through Community Input argues that such input is essential, and that the most strategically important time to elicit it is before a procurement process begins.

This primer explores why public agencies do not typically look to affected people for input on technology design, and explains why technology purchasing will be a focal point for needed change. We call for a deeper gear shift, in which community input is prioritized before the government has even begun a pilot project, and outline specific opportunities and tactics to this end.

Ultimately, this challenge is not technical but democratic, and requires a reconfiguration of how power is distributed in decisions about the technologies that shape public life.