About the Digital Playbook

We created the Digital Playbook by listening to New Yorkers, and we'll use it to serve them better.

The Goal of the Digital Playbook

The City of New York is dedicated to better serving and engaging its residents, businesses, and visitors. Our goal is to improve constantly the delivery of City services, embrace government transparency, generate genuine civic engagement, and make New York the most user-friendly and innovative city in the world.

This Digital Playbook outlines our intentions for how residents experience City services. It describes how our digital strategy will increase equity and help all New Yorkers participate in the political, civic, and cultural life of the city.

The Digital Playbook is meant to evolve as we learn more and as needs change, so future iterations of the playbook will live on this site.

How We Developed the Playbook

We used human-centered research and design methods to develop the Playbook. We met with New York City residents—from diverse backgrounds and from all five boroughs—in their homes and workplaces. We learned about their needs and aspirations for City services. We also spoke with dozens of civic and technology leaders, elected officials, and City government officials and service providers. And we looked beyond New York City to learn from other governments and the private sector.

We combined the ideas and insights we collected from these residents, leaders, and experts to create the Playbook and elevate the most important opportunities for our City’s digital future.

How We'll Track the Playbook's Impact

We are serious about improving how the City develops and delivers digital services and we hold ourselves accountable. We’ll track our progress and report publicly on how well we’re doing. We’ll share our performance metrics in the coming days, and update them regularly.

Acknowledgments

This Playbook is only possible because of the generosity of the many New Yorkers and others who were generous with their time, personal stories, and insights. We gratefully acknowledge the inspiring people we met throughout this process. All research participants took part as volunteers; in order to get their most candid advice, we asked that our participants speak with us anonymously.