Bloom’s approach to business development

At Bloom Works, we spend a lot of time thinking about which projects to take on — and which ones may not be the right fit.

As a small business and certified Public Benefit LLC focused on improving government services, we have to be intentional about how we invest our team’s energy and expertise. We wanted to share our process for making those decisions because we:

• Default to open and strive for transparency
• Want to provide government agencies with insight into how human-centered companies like Bloom evaluate new projects
• Offer a model to other mission-driven organizations working to create a more equitable world

Our guiding principles

When considering new projects, we start with 3 core principles that help us determine whether the work aligns with our mission and capabilities:

Creating meaningful change

Bloom looks for projects where we can tackle significant challenges while creating meaningful change in people’s lives. We’re not focused on the size of the project or budget — we care more about the potential to make government services work better for the people who need them most.

For example, through our partnership with the California Office of Data and Innovation (ODI), we’ve seen how even short engagements can spark major changes within government agencies. What started as a 6-week discovery research project evolved into an opportunity to help teams transform how they work together and serve residents. These focused engagements are sometimes our most valuable work — they can help our partners see their challenges differently and start to build new capabilities internally.

Going where we’re most needed

We focus on new work where our unique mix of skills and experience can make a tangible difference. This sometimes means turning down opportunities that other companies might be better equipped to handle.

For example, earlier this year, we declined to bid on a project to replace a legacy workers’ compensation system. While Bloom’s tech strategy and software engineering practice could technically do this work, we recommended other trusted companies in our network that specialize in this type of support and could provide better value.

Being selective about projects isn’t unique in civic tech — most organizations have a clear sense of what they don’t do. For us, our ideal project “bullseye” requires us to bring something uniquely valuable to the work. One way we are rare is how we embrace ambiguity in projects of all sizes, from short discovery sprints to multi-year engagements.

True partnership over traditional client-vendor relationships

Since Bloom’s founding in 2018, we’ve learned that our best work happens when we work alongside our clients rather than for them. This means we look for partners ready to actively engage in the problem-solving process. We find the most collaborative partnerships involve co-creating solutions rather than simply executing on pre-defined requirements. We want to collaborate, learn together, and co-create solutions that our partners can sustain long after our engagement ends.

How we make decisions

Here’s how we put these principles into practice.

Our leadership team meets twice a week to discuss new opportunities. We think it’s crucial for everyone on Bloom’s leadership team to be there so we capture diverse perspectives. Through weekly updates, we share summaries of opportunities under consideration with all Bloom employees to gather broader input.

We apply our go/no-go rubric. It’s a series of questions grounded in our values and mission. Do the timeline and budget allow for enough user research? Is the client ready to actively participate in the process? Do we have the right team available to deliver? The tool raises the threshold, so we’re only pursuing opportunities where we know we can succeed.

We refer back to our impact scorecards for past projects. Whenever we finish a project, we track our successes (and failures) through impact scorecards. These cards document whether the project created durable change. Could our work benefit and be adopted by other organizations and agencies? Has the client strengthened their internal capacity? Did the work reflect our values? Reflecting on these scorecards helps guide us when choosing new projects.

Our commitment to build a better future

As we begin a new year, we keep reflecting on and improving how we make decisions. We’re always learning something new — about what works and what doesn’t — and refining our approach and criteria.

But we’ll remain dedicated to taking on projects that help us grow our impact (rather than just growing our company). We’d rather turn down a project than take on work that isn’t the right fit. This isn’t always the easiest path. Sometimes, it means looking away from shiny objects or awkward negotiations with other companies. But it helps us stay true to our mission to advance access and equity by building digital services that work seamlessly for the people who rely on them.

Do you share our vision for better government services? Learn more about what it’s like to work with Bloom or reach out at hello@bloomworks.digital.