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MARCH 23-25, 2027 | BOSTON, MA |
Behind Smarter Cities
Building Better Public Services by Replacing Assumptions with Evidence
March 23 from 1:00–4:00 pm ET
Workshop Overview
Cities are investing heavily in technology, AI, digital services, and modernization initiatives. Yet many public-sector challenges are not inherently technology problems; they are decision-making problems shaped by incomplete information, fragmented perspectives, and unchecked assumptions about the people agencies serve.
Before cities decide what to build, implement, automate, purchase, or prioritize, they need to understand the real need, who is affected, what assumptions are being made, and what evidence should guide the decision.
Are We Solving the Right Problem? The Strategic Thinking Behind Smarter Cities is a highly interactive workshop that introduces a practical process to help public agencies move from assumptions to evidence, align stakeholders, identify meaningful needs, and make better-informed decisions about technology, communication, services, and public resources.
Participants will experience a simplified version of the same discovery, research, alignment, and prioritization process Pastilla uses to help organizations tackle complex challenges.
Core Idea
Technology creates possibilities. Smart design helps cities decide which possibilities are worth pursuing.
The most successful public agencies do not simply implement new tools. They create shared understanding, challenge assumptions, gather evidence, align competing priorities, and translate what they learn into better decisions for residents and staff.
The workshop is not intended to teach “design thinking” as abstract theory. It is designed to give municipal leaders a practical, evidence-based way to answer a more important question:
Are we solving the right problem, for the right people, with the right information?
What Participants Will Learn
- How to identify and challenge assumptions before selecting solutions
- How to define needs and problems before deciding which projects deserve resources
- How to align multiple stakeholders around shared goals
- How to identify gaps between agency perception and community experience
- How to determine what research or data is needed to validate a need
- How to interpret evidence and turn it into practical recommendations
- How to make more informed decisions around technology, communication, service
delivery, and resident experience
Participant Takeaways
Participants will leave with:
- A practical civic problem-solving and need-validation framework
- Tools for stakeholder alignment and assumption mapping
- Methods for identifying what evidence is missing before making a decision
- A framework for prioritizing opportunities based on validated needs
- A repeatable process they can bring back to their own organization
- A practical toolkit or set of worksheets they can use internally after the workshop
Why This Workshop Matters
Public agencies often begin with statements such as:
- We need a new website
- We need AI
- We need a new system
- We need a new platform
- We need a communication campaign
- We need to modernize this service
Questions? Contact Alicia Boyd, alicia.boyd@techconnect.org
