United States
Eric Johnson
1,320,000 (2016)
Laila Alequresh
Improve service delivery
Save costs and improve efficiency within the public sector
Dedicated funding
Focus on measurement
Dedicated innovation team
Culture of innovation in city
Human resource support
Engagement with partners
Support from outside city administration
Leadership from Mayor
With support from the county-level government, local universities, and area hospitals, Dallas’s Office of Innovation is leveraging data to fight Covid-19. The city is using responses to its Symptom Tracker Survey to anticipate where healthcare resources should be focused, and a Food Access Survey to identify areas where people are struggling to find food. This combination of key partnerships and quick data collection underscores how innovation can assist cities in responding to emergencies.
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Dallas, TX does not have an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to 20% of cities surveyed, Dallas, TX approaches innovation capacity from a holistic/macro level.
Dallas, TX does not prioritise policy sectors for its innovation work.
Dallas’s innovation department is led by a Chief Innovation Officer who provides executive leadership for the city’s Innovation strategy and implementation. Dallas’ dedicated innovation team consists of 4 staff.
Taking risks or testing new ideas
Data-driven analytics/public data management
Engaging residents in new ways
Developing new solutions based on digital technologies
Organizational change within the municipality
Human-centered design
Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships
Another of Dallas, TX's most common innovation activity is Process Improvement / Lean Six Sigma
Like 81% of cities surveyed, Dallas, TX has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Dallas, TX is using resources earmarked for innovation to coordinate projects and improve civic outcomes.
Similar to 61% of participating cities in the 2020 survey, Dallas' funding for innovation capacity is also directed towards training staff and building capacity*.
*"Training staff and building capacity" is not an option in the 2018 survey, while "Launching or sustaining a project" is not an option in the 2020 survey.
Dallas has developed partnerships to promote innovation capacity with other public agencies, universities, private firms, not-for-profit organizations, and city residents/resident associations.
To improve data use, the city has also developed data partnerships with the private sector, academia and think tanks to collect and analyze data, as well as with other cities.