- Sprint start date: Week of October 6th
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Frequency: Weekly (English cohort on Tuesdays, Spanish cohort on Wednesdays
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Duration: The sprint will run for 12 weeks
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Audience: This sprint is a strong fit for cross-departmental city teams from procurement, open data program managers, and community engagement staff. All staff are welcome, regardless of seniority level.
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Language: The sessions will be run in English.
Opening up opportunity in city contracting: leveraging data to improve procurement strategy and vendor participation
Public procurement can—and should—deliver more value for cities and more opportunity for businesses. Yet today, procurement is often a black box. Governments lack usable data to make better spending decisions, and vendors—particularly those from marginalized communities—struggle to find, win, and deliver city contracts.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
This 12-week sprint, hosted by the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) in collaboration with Results for America, helps city teams break through these barriers. You’ll learn how open contracting strategies—rooted in better data and stronger vendor engagement—can drive real, measurable improvements in your procurement systems and support your big picture policy goals.
Cities that have completed this sprint have gone on to achieve WWC Silver Certification by meeting Results-Driven Contracting criteria RDC7 (Open and Shared Procurement Data) and RDC8 (Supporting Vendor Participation and Competition). More importantly, they’ve built the internal tools and buy-in to keep making progress long after the sprint ends.
What You’ll Do in the Sprint
You’ll work through your city’s procurement challenges, with hands-on support from OCP’s expert team and a community of peer cities. The sprint includes:
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Masterclasses & Hands-On Sessions: Learn the building blocks of open contracting, from data publishing and analysis to vendor-centered design and engagement.
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1-on-1 Support: Get tailored technical assistance every other week to move your project forward.
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Tools & Templates: Use proven templates for procurement data mapping, vendor journey research, and performance KPIs.
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Strategic Planning: Identify and address actionable pain points in your current procurement data and vendor engagement processes.
By the end of the sprint, you’ll have developed or prototyped concrete outputs such as:
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A procurement data map aligned with RDC7
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A vendor journey map or user research findings to inform RDC8
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A targeted improvement plan for a specific data or vendor-related challenge in your procurement system
Who Should Join
This sprint is open to all WWC cities, regardless of current procurement or data maturity. It is ideal for cross-departmental teams of three, which may include:
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Procurement and finance officials
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Open data or IT program managers
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Supplier diversity leads
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Buyer agency representatives
You’ll get the most out of this sprint if you:
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Have a clear challenge related to procurement data or vendor engagement
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Want to deepen your understanding of open contracting and Results-Driven Contracting practices
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Have access to or use some form of electronic procurement or data systems (recommended, but not required)
Time Commitment
To participate fully, city teams are expected to:
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Attend four 1-hour Masterclass/Hands-On Sessions
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Participate in a final “Showtime” session to present your work
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Join bi-weekly Support Sessions for individualized guidance
Important Notes
Space is limited, and registration does not guarantee participation.
Let’s open up procurement—so it works better for your city and the businesses you serve.