I didn't mean to offend you at all. USDS is great. I just see this dismissive attitude of existing staff by management. But in reality it's management that messed things up, not staff.
Thanks. I appreciate that. I think you actually have a keen eye for the issues.
Since my time in government, I've become more sympathetic to agency employees, contractors, management - pretty much everyone. The entire environment is really challenging to do the right thing.
As an executive, the typical tools you have at your disposal, budget and HR, are circumscribed by congressional appropriations and federal hiring guidelines. Your ability to promote and demote and reorganize are limited by laws and unions and you definitely can't grant stock options. The metrics that you typically use to measure success are much fuzzier because there isn't a PNL but it's really easy for the press to find a single case where your org does a poor job.
I still maintain hope that good things can be done - I have seen it - and good management makes a huge difference.
Disclosure: I'm an engineer at USDS and these are my own opinions.
