Multnomah County, Oregon recognized the importance of shifting its public websites to better reflect the needs of residents. Based in Portland, the county government serves over 800,000 people with hundreds of essential services. The County's IT team had strong technical expertise, but it lacked experience in human-centered design and user experience—critical elements for making the government’s digital services more accessible and effective for community members. Although the County had funding to hire, they needed support defining the right roles within their job classification system and figuring out how to attract qualified candidates.
Helping local government hire UX talent to transform digital service delivery
The web and digital experience team, within the county's IT department, needed help developing clear job descriptions and effective hiring processes for three new roles: a user experience (UX) researcher, a UX designer, and a front end developer. These positions were essential to their website overhaul, but the existing job classifications did not reflect the specific skills they were looking for. This made it challenging to recruit strong candidates in a competitive field, while navigating the constraints of government hiring.
Why USDR?
‘ilima Kennedy, Multnomah County's web and digital experience program manager, was already working with USDR on a separate user research project when she learned about USDR's talent engagement services. USDR offered the talent acquisition and technical subject matter expertise the County needed to define new roles and develop job descriptions that would both attract qualified candidates and align with the County’s existing job classification system. This included:
- Deep-dive needs assessment - Identifying core responsibilities and skills for each role using interactive card sorting exercises with county IT team members
- Job description development - Crafting compelling position descriptions and job announcements that would attract candidates while fitting within existing County job profiles
- Interview strategy - Developing structured interview questions focused on both technical expertise and collaboration skills
- Evaluation rubrics - Building frameworks to assess candidates fairly and consistently throughout the hiring process
- Candidate outreach - Connecting with aligned talent networks and leveraging USDR’s civic tech community for direct outreach
The volunteers worked closely with ‘ilima and the County's HR department to ensure all materials aligned with union requirements while still being engaging for potential applicants.
The impact
With USDR's support, Multnomah County successfully posted all three positions and attracted a robust pool of qualified candidates. The UX Researcher position received 73 applications, while the UX Designer role generated 100 applications. The County was able to build its first-ever in-house UX team, making an offer for all three positions within months of the job postings.
The frameworks developed during this engagement proved so successful that the County secured funding for an additional UX Researcher position, using the same hiring approach. Beyond the immediate hiring needs, this project laid the groundwork for how the county approaches digital service roles, helping them prepare to transition from a technology-focused to a human-centered approach in their IT department.
The new team members are now driving the County's website redesign with a focus on making services more accessible and easier to use for all County residents, particularly those who rely most heavily on government services.
The team
Sarah Patterson, lead volunteer, talent attraction programs & partnerships, Save the Children US (formerly)
Erick Pfleiderer, product design director, SiriusXM
Gautam Guliani, fractional CTO (xCTO AbleTo Inc)
Keith Wilson, USDR account manager
"The connection to professionals already in the community was invaluable. Having direct people to give me feedback on how this looks or sounds, and then to guide me on how to do this in the private sector to attract the people we're trying to attract—that made all the difference. USDR helped me feel confident that I was on the right track, and now I'm excited to be growing my team with the right people to build human-centered government services." - ‘ilima Kennedy, IT web & digital experience program manager, Multnomah County
Support and Resources
Request help from USDR to attract and retain skilled technologists and build high-performing teams.
Check out the USDR Talent Toolkit to access guides, templates, and proven strategies to help your government hire and retain top tech talent, especially those new to public service.
Thumbnail photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
