Civic Bridge 2023: Boosting San Francisco’s Economic Revitalization with Enhanced City Services, Digital Equity, and Real-Time Data Integration

This was originally published on December 22, 2023.

With a focus on strengthening the City’s financial resilience and supporting sustained post-pandemic revitalization, the 2023 Civic Bridge projects delivered targeted improvements in City services, expanded digital support for small businesses, and created integrated data systems to support the City’s economic recovery efforts. Key initiatives included San Francisco International Airport’s partnership with Adobe to boost non-aeronautical revenue through enhanced traveler experiences, SF Planning and Accenture’s collaboration on a data blueprint for the Shared Spaces program, Slalom’s work with the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development to increase digital skills and e-commerce presence for small businesses, and the Office of Economic & Workforce Development’s partnership with ZS Associates to streamline and expand economic recovery dashboards for tracking essential recovery metrics.

Together, these partnerships highlight how Civic Bridge’s 2023 cohort combined private-sector technical expertise with City employee’s subject matter expertise to deliver real-time, data-driven solutions for economic resilience. Read on for a closer look at each project contributed to San Francisco’s revitalization efforts.

San Francisco International Airport & Adobe: Redesigning the Traveler Experience to Boost Revenue and Enhance Guest Satisfaction

SFO is the largest airport in the San Francisco Bay Area and one of the busiest airports in the world. SFO is also one of the largest enterprise departments for the City. Discretionary spending in SFO’s terminals can represent millions of dollars towards the City’s general fund. To support its post-Covid recovery efforts, SFO partnered with Adobe to increase SFO’s non-aeronautical discretionary spending revenue by enhancing the traveler experience in its terminals (post-security check points and pre-boarding).

Process

The project team’s work was guided by a set of key questions:

• How can we increase non-aeronautical revenue?
• What do passengers want that we currently do not offer?
• What amenities can we provide to reduce passenger stress?
• How can we impact passenger behavior to improve enjoyment of our amenities?

To answer these questions, the Adobe volunteers utilized a qualitative research study with the goal of emergent design. Emergent design refers to the ability to adapt to new ideas, concepts, or findings that arise while conducting qualitative research. In contrast to more structured quantitative approaches, an emergent design welcomes unanticipated information, often adding to the richness of the data.

The Adobe volunteer’s qualitative approach featured three distinct phases:

Phase One: Collect Data

• Adobe volunteers conducted over 40 traveler interviews across 4 terminals over 3 days. The objective of Phase One was to build a foundational understanding of traveler needs and behaviors, which would later be analyzed and synthesized into key themes and personas in subsequent phases. This data laid the groundwork for defining traveler personas and identifying specific areas where SFO could enhance amenities, navigation, and overall ambiance to improve the traveler experience and increase discretionary spending.

Phase Two: Understand the Data

• Adobe volunteers sorted through traveler feedback and observations to find surface-level patterns. They then arranged and re-arranged the patterns to form insights from unexpected connections and tensions. The traveler patterns identified in this phase informed the development of a set of SFO traveler personas — fictional, archetypal traveler profiles based on observed patterns, behaviors, needs, and preferences identified during qualitative research with airport travelers. These personas represent distinct groups of travelers with unique goals, pain points, and desires that influence how they interact with the airport environment.

Phase Three: Share Insights

• Adobe volunteers then shared the different traveler personas with SFO leadership, highlighting points of friction and opportunity. SFO then identified insights they’d like to integrate into services and products at SFO.

Deliverables

The Adobe team synthesized their findings into a final report. Key Findings from the report:

1. Universal Traveler Preferences:

• Modern, Aesthetic Spaces: Travelers desire airy, well-lit terminals with open spaces, lounge-like seating, and more communal areas that transform the airport into a pleasant destination.
• Local San Francisco Feel: Travelers want the airport to reflect San Francisco’s unique character, including local food, city pride, and décor that highlights “The Golden City.”
• Natural Elements: Increased plant life and fresh air are preferred, as travelers want a relaxing, nature-inspired atmosphere.

2. Enhanced Navigation and Accessibility:

• Improved Wayfinding: Clearer and more engaging directional signage is requested to help travelers navigate the complex airport layout.
• Accessibility Services: Travelers highlighted a need for dedicated accessibility pathways, staff support, and accommodations for elderly and physically challenged individuals.

3. Additional Amenities:

• Moving Walkways: These amenities enhance the “airport feel” and provide a fun, efficient way to traverse the terminals.
• Refresh Spaces: Private areas for freshening up, like brushing teeth or changing clothes, would improve the overall experience.

4. Traveler Personas with Unique Needs:

• Pass-Through Patrons: Value efficiency, streamlined processes, and essential amenities for a quick transition.
• Vacationers: Seek pampering and pre-boarding relaxation, with access to shopping, lounges, and entertainment.
• Work From Airport (WFA): Professionals who need quiet zones, reliable Wi-Fi, and charging stations to work during layovers.
• Family Flyers: Require family-friendly spaces, playgrounds, and accessible services for traveling with children.
• Fitness Flyers: Prefer amenities that support active waiting, like gyms, walking paths, and stretching zones.
• Distract & Entertain: Seek engaging entertainment options like art, live music, and game areas to pass the time.

Impact

SFO plans to leverage these insights into their 5-year strategic plan, pilot unique guest experiences based on the recommendations, and establish an Innovation Forum to promote a culture of experimentation for implementing insights.

SF Planning Department & Accenture: Designing a Sustainable Data Integration Framework for the Shared Spaces Program

In response to the COVID pandemic, the City’s Shared Spaces program helped transform San Francisco’s streets and sidewalks into commercial and retail hubs to ensure local business communities were more resilient and neighborhood centers were more vibrant. Shared Spaces led to lively sidewalks and parking lanes being used for outdoor seating, dining, merchandising, and other community activities.

Under the program’s permanent legislation (Administrative Code 94A.4), the Shared Spaces Program is required to COORDINATE and REPORT data elements owned and managed by multiple agencies to various City Government and public stakeholders. As part of its sustainability strategy, Shared Spaces had to develop a system that could holistically integrate all this data. To address this challenge and improve data management and analysis, the Planning Department partnered with Accenture to develop a cross-departmental data blueprint for the program.

Process

Conceptually, the Shared Spaces program can be broken down into eight modules of information. The data within these modules needs to be cleaned and joined within the database and imbued with any geospatial attributes, unlocking the ability to pull information dynamically from one or multiple modules. The modules include:

1. Applications (intake, processing, and historic caseload volumes)
2. Permits (current and legacy)
3. Inspections (proactive and complaint-driven)
4. Violations and Enforcement Data
5. Special Programs / Equity Grants
6. Staff Time Reporting
7. Communications data (including Equity Initiatives/Grants)
8. Fees / Financial / Tax information

In an effort to design a system to integrate the eight modules, the Accenture volunteer team completed the following steps:

1. Hosted 14 data workshops with various City department stakeholders
2. Created 25 Data Dictionaries relayed to 8 modules
3. Created Data Tree mapping all 25 datasets
4. Built 35 entities out of the 25 datasets from 8 modules
5. Connected 25 entities to one central Shared Spaces record to form a Shared Spaces Logical Data Model

Deliverable

The Accenture team delivered a Logical Data Model in Erwin (a data modeling platform) that could be immediately implemented into Snowflake (a cloud-based data warehouse platform). The Logical Data Model for the Interagency Reporting Platform was designed to pull-in, clean, and standardize existing data from the eight program modules. The Logical Data Model’s objective is to make data from the all modules compatible with each other so that the Shared Spaces team can answer any question that cuts across the modules accurately, with little to no manual integration, and deliver comprehensive reporting data that can be dynamically visualized on maps, charts, tables, and other visualizations as defined by the specific reports or end-user needs.

Additionally, given the range of audiences and breadth of reports of Shared Spaces, the Interagency Reporting Platform was designed to easily output to geospatial applications (ArcGIS Online), Dashboarding tools (PowerBI, ArcGIS Dashboards and Experience Builder), as well as basic data formats (CSV / Excel) in order to deliver information to local businesses, City government, and the general public.

Impact

This project laid the groundwork for improved data integration and analysis for the Shared Spaces program. The Civic Bridge Interagency Reporting Platform Project could provide a sustainable and comprehensive data integration and management system that would help Shared Spaces meet its legislated requirements outlined in the San Francisco Administrative Code, Chapter 94A. The model can also scale to other City departments facing similar data integration challenges.

SF Mayor’s Office of Housing & Community Development & Slalom: Advancing Digital Equity Through Skills & Entrepreneurship Training for San Francisco Residents

The COVID-19 pandemic intensified challenges for San Francisco’s small businesses and highlighted ongoing difficulties in bridging the digital divide for some small businesses owners and emerging entrepreneurs. Recognizing these issues, the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD), through its SF Digital Equity Initiative, partnered with Slalom Consulting to refine and operationalize its Digital Skills and Entrepreneurship Playbook (DSEP). Originally created through a 2020 Civic Bridge project with Salesforce to support community-based organizations (CBOs) and other digital training providers, the DSEP needed updates to ensure its relevance and effectiveness in meeting the City’s evolving digital equity needs to support small business operators in 2023.

Process

Slalom led a three-phase approach to create a robust operationalization strategy for the updated playbook.

Phase 1: Explore

1. Gap Analysis: Reviewed and identified gaps in content related to new digital trends and emerging needs since the playbook’s initial development in 2020.
2. Stakeholder Interviews: Conducted 16 in-depth interviews with CBO leaders and internal San Francisco city staff to identify user needs and gather insights for playbook enhancements.
3. Artifact Review: Analyzed 55 prior artifacts from past collaborations, including those with Salesforce and UC Berkeley, to draw insights from previous engagement data.

Phase 2: Establish

1. Vision Development: Hosted a “Digital Skills & Entrepreneurship Playbook” Vision Workshop. Activities included:

• Moonshot Goals Brainstorm: Identified ambitious goals to drive the playbook’s impact.
• Cover Story Exercise: Imagined a successful future state of DSEP to align on a unified vision.
• Vision Statement Creation: Defined a forward-looking DSEP Vision Statement that aligns with MOHCD’s broader Digital Equity vision.

2. Strategic Themes & Metrics: Organized a “Goals and Performance Metrics” workshop to:

• Define strategic objectives to guide DSEP over the next 2–3 years.
• Establish success metrics to evaluate playbook outcomes and support continuous improvement.

3. Experimentation: Introduced rapid experimentation techniques through a “Continuous Product Discovery” session, empowering the CCSF team to:

• Use product discovery tools to refine DSEP offerings.
• Formulate hypotheses to validate solutions and address emerging digital literacy challenges.

Phase 3: Enable

A comprehensive operationalization plan was developed for DSEP’s updated rollout, encompassing marketing strategies, a communications roadmap, onboarding processes, deployment guidance, and ongoing support.

Deliverables

Through a series of workshops and stakeholder interactions, Slalom provided MOHCD with key deliverables to support digital equity initiatives:

• Current State Assessment: Detailed review of the existing playbook’s relevance and effectiveness.
• Content & Accessibility Recommendations: Suggestions to meet Accessibility Grade 5 reading level targets, ensuring inclusivity.
• Future State Vision: A refined vision for DSEP, aligned with MOHCD’s mission.
• Strategic Themes & Success Metrics: Goals and measurable indicators to track DSEP’s impact.
• Continuous Discovery Process: Tools for ongoing product experimentation.
• Platform Assessments: Evaluations of LMS (Learning Management System) and SMS (Student Management System) for optimal playbook delivery.
• Welcome Kit and Marketing Plan: Resources for CBOs to easily adopt and promote DSEP.

Impact

The collaboration between MOHCD and Slalom resulted in actionable updates to the playbook, including enhanced accessibility, strategic outreach plans, and a streamlined operationalization approach. Key outcomes included:

• Expanded e-Commerce Skill Access: Improved playbook reach to support underserved communities in developing essential e-commerce skills.
• CBO Engagement & Support: Increased awareness among CBO partners, fostering stronger collaborations and mentoring opportunities with DSEP alumni and private sector partners.
• Iterative Improvement: Commitment to continuous testing, learning, and refining playbook content, format, and delivery to meet the evolving needs of under-resourced communities.

Office of Economic & Workforce Development & ZS Associates: Enhancing San Francisco’s Ability to Track and Understand its Economic Recovery with Automated Dashboards

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted San Francisco’s economy, creating an urgent need for accurate and accessible recovery tracking tools. In response, the Office of Economic & Workforce Development (OEWD) developed economic recovery dashboards to monitor key indicators of the Mayor’s Roadmap to San Francisco’s Future, including:

• Economic Activity
• Economic Equity
• Economic Recovery

However, several challenges complicated this endeavor:

1. Data Source Fragmentation: The existing dashboard metrics required frequent manual updates from various sources such as emails, PDFs, and online reports. This called for customized automation strategies to streamline each metric.
2. New Data Requirements: Expanding the dashboard metrics required additional data sources, which would provide a richer, more nuanced view of San Francisco’s recovery.
3. Peer-City Comparisons: To offer meaningful benchmarks, OEWD needed to identify and analyze data from cities with similar characteristics, a task that required both extensive data collection and strategic analysis.

To address these challenges and enhance the City’s economic recovery dashboards, OEWD partnered with ZS Associates.

Process

This collaborative project aimed to develop a robust, automated system for data updates, add new data visualizations, and enhance content to reflect a broader view of San Francisco’s economic recovery.

Key aspects of this collaboration included:

• Data Update Workflow Optimization: ZS Associate volunteers worked to streamline and automate dashboard maintenance and updates to reduce bottlenecks.
• Development of New Dashboards: Volunteers analyzed additional data sources to expand the scope and depth of the Economic Recovery dashboards.
• Dashboard Content Improvement: Volunteers enhanced existing dashboards with new metrics, including peer city comparisons, to provide richer insights.

Deliverables

1. Data Update Automation Tool

To support efficient dashboard updates, ZS and OEWD developed a comprehensive Data Update Automation Tool with the following features:

• Concurrent Update: Updates seven dashboards in a single run.
• Data Transformation: Extracts and processes data from various formats (Excel, PDF, JPEG).
• Data Analytics: Organizes data, calculates metrics, and generates new indicators.
• Data Archiving: Organizes and backs up files in a standardized format.
• Safety Inspection: Ensures data quality by verifying accuracy, completeness, consistency, and reliability.

This tool enables a visually accessible and up-to-date set of dashboards that accurately depict San Francisco’s economic recovery status.

2. New Dashboards and Enhanced Visualizations

• Downtown Muni Exits: Tracks faregate exits at downtown Muni Metro stations (SFMTA data).
• Total Muni Ridership: Monitors ridership on select downtown-serving Muni routes (SFMTA data).
• Establishments by Size: Provides data on business establishments by size across San Francisco (Employment Development Department data).

3. Enhancements to Existing Dashboards:

• Office Space Vacancy Rate by Quarter: Includes peer-city data for comparative analysis.
• Monthly Hotel Occupancy (Seasonally Adjusted): Incorporates peer-city data for a broader economic context.

Impact

This project substantially improved the efficiency and quality of economic recovery data reporting, leading to better decision-making and public transparency.

• 87.5% Reduction in Update Time: The Data Update Automation Tool drastically reduced the time required to update dashboards.
• Enhanced Data Quality: Automated processes minimized human errors from manual data handling and improved data quality via built-in safety inspections.
• Standardized Processes: Documented processes streamlined the dashboard update workflow, ensuring transparency and facilitating knowledge transfer.
• Future Applications: The code, insights, and automated processes developed in this project can be applied to other analytics projects across the City.

The Economic Recovery Dashboards now offer a clearer, data-driven narrative of San Francisco’s progress, bolstered by curated data from the EDD and SFMTA. Peer-city comparisons add context, while collaborative engagement with stakeholders continues to unlock new insights, particularly in transportation analytics.