While Coforma employees often get to work on exciting, high-profile projects that create an immediate, publicly visible social impact, such as Direct File and Together.gov, much of our time is spent doing less glamorous work that quietly supports public sector systems and services. These tasks—often tedious, sometimes repetitive—can make the pace of change feel slow and frustratingly incremental. But we see these projects as equally essential work that ultimately affects comparable, if not greater change.
When Coforma Product Designer Kim Friedman joined the team in 2021, her first project involved supporting a presidential task force. “It was about as high profile as Coforma gets,” she recalls. As Kim’s role and Coforma’s portfolio evolved, she shifted focus to support a healthcare project that, while meaningful, didn’t make headlines. “The task force set the bar high for my expectations about the kinds of projects I’d be working on,” she says. “It was completely different from my current healthcare project, where our goal is to digitize forms.”
On the surface, the shift from working on a presidential task force to improving data collection systems might seem like a step back, but Kim views it differently. “I find value in the outcome of the analysis of the data we’re collecting,” she shares. “It’s not about the product we’re developing or even the details of the interface. It’s about ingesting and delivering essential, high-quality data to people who make decisions on funding and policy. Those decisions are the difference between people getting the healthcare they need—or not.”
Drawing on illustrative examples, research, and employee perspectives, this article explores the power of incremental progress and the journey through occasional tedium to find meaning in our roles and connection to our work in civic tech.
Making a Difference in Society and the Lives of Others
There’s a famous corporate parable about President John F. Kennedy visiting NASA in 1962. During his tour, Kennedy asked a janitor sweeping the floors what he was doing. The man famously replied, “Well, Mr. President, I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
Did this really happen? Probably not, but the idea that even the smallest tasks can have profound, far-reaching consequences is important. Consider the countless hours of uncelebrated work that went into one of humanity’s greatest achievements. How many employees at NASA, like that janitor, found meaning by connecting their contributions—however modest—to the larger goal of putting a person on the moon?
This resonates with Coforma Group Project Manager David Koger, who says, “Many people in tech mistakenly believe that impact is tied to the individual pieces of work they create. In reality, especially on government projects, it’s about many small efforts coming together to make a singular, meaningful change. I’ve learned how many people it takes to make one thing happen for someone in need. Being a part of that process is where the real value lies.”
Whether it falls under our Public Interest, Healthcare, or Veterans Services focus areas, our work at Coforma isn’t centered around creating the next flashy product or being recognized for a singular achievement. Instead, meaning and success evolve from being a part of something larger, from helping people to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently. “We’re enablers,” David shares. “We listen, we understand, we support experts in their fields and enable them to do their work.”
The cascading effect of our seemingly small contributions has a larger downstream footprint. “If I can give one deputy director two hours of their time back, they can use that time to improve programs that impact people who need them,” David shares. “That positive change ripples out to the people in the communities they serve.” In this way, even small digital innovations can directly impact the broader social fabric.
According to David, “Good technology isn’t something you should have to think about. It should just work. If no one notices the work you’re doing, then you’re doing it right.” This quiet success—where processes become smoother, and people can focus on what truly matters—is what we aim for. Like the janitor who kept NASA’s hallways spotlessly clean, the outcome of our efforts is not accolades, but the sense of pride and purpose that comes from supporting our partners as they improve the systems that serve the American public.
Connecting Our Work to the Bigger Picture
Upon arriving in a new city, a traveler observes three bricklayers busily attending to their work. When he asks them what they're doing, the first bricklayer shrugs and replies, “I’m laying bricks.” The second responds, “I’m erecting a wall.” But the third bricklayer looks up with pride and says, “I’m building a cathedral.”
At Coforma, this “cathedral mindset” helps employees connect their work to bigger outcomes. Brax Excell, Senior Director of Engineering, often uses the term "scrubbing rocks" to capture the same idea. Like laying bricks for a cathedral, rock scrubbing represents the small but essential contributions that move projects forward—incremental steps forming a trail, then a path, then a highway toward meaningful progress.
“The work of moving government forward is largely rock scrubbing at any level of government, whether you’re an agency official or a contractor,” Brax shares. “If we do our job well, we give the right people the tools they need to make larger-scale change.”
Contributing to our partners’ missions gives Cofolx a heightened sense of agency when working on the small things. As Brax puts it, “I can’t single-handedly deliver universal healthcare. But I can scrub some rocks. We’re not here to make world-altering individual contributions. But the systems we build will be the foundation for those larger changes. And that’s a bigger direct impact than I get to make in any other facet of my life.”
Finding Value in Incremental Progress
Michelangelo did not enjoy working on the Sistine Chapel. In fact, he was a bit dramatic about it. Here’s a snippet of a poem he wrote lamenting the experience:
My haunches are grinding into my guts,
my poor ass strains to work as a counterweight,
every gesture I make is blind and aimless . . .
Because I'm stuck like this, my thoughts
are crazy, perfidious tripe . . .
My painting is dead.
You may detect a hint of burnout in Michelangelo’s words. He considered himself a sculptor, and the slow, backbreaking work of painting the Sistine Chapel took 15 grueling years. During this time, he doubted his craft and struggled with feelings of frustration and exhaustion. Yet today, the work is revered as one of the most celebrated works of art in Western civilization.
While our projects may not involve painting ceilings, we do understand the challenge of sticking with long-term, slow-moving projects. Like the millions of people who have experienced awe and wonder looking up at the Creation of Adam, we also know these small, steady efforts are what ultimately lead to meaningful outcomes that have a lasting impact.
The day-to-day work can sometimes feel painstaking, and the best we can hope for is to incrementally improve systems over the course of several years. But we find value in knowing that we are indeed moving the needle.
“If you look at the broader history of this country and the services government provides, you can see the real scale of progress,” Brax shares. “Take the Americans with Disabilities Act, for example. It was established in 1990, which is relatively recent. If you look at how far accessibility has come in the last 35 years, we’re making huge strides. Because a lot of people have been scrubbing a lot of rocks, laying the groundwork to build a more accessible society 35 years from now.”
There’s also an upside to the long haul. “A benefit of remaining on a project for years is the ability to reflect on a larger body of work and cultivate deep relationships,” Kim reflects. “Analyzing what we did in the past, gathering data from it, using what we learned, and contributing to the future strategy are what keep us going. It also brings warmth and trust to our client relationships, which can be harder to achieve on shorter contracts.”
Supporting Public Sector Partners with Purpose-Driven Coworkers
While not all meaning in life can or should come from our jobs, having a sense of purpose and connection to our work is rewarding. The Japanese concept of Ikigai refers to the fulfillment that arises when what you love, what you’re skilled at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for come together. Coforma employees and many others have found this harmony in civic tech.
For David, stepping into the government space has been an energizing change of pace from the private sector. “It’s so refreshing not to have to focus exclusively on a bottom line,” he shares. “The work we do here is funded to make an impact, not to increase profits. We get to approach challenges thoughtfully with stakeholders who care more about improving lives than selling products.”
After experiencing burnout in the corporate sector, Kim immediately noticed a difference working in civic tech, particularly at Coforma. “As soon as I started working here, I noticed how our colleagues treated each other,” she shares. “Everything we do is human-centered, and our work experience is thoughtfully crafted from the very first interview to how we show up for each other in daily interactions. When our project work feels stagnant, we can find new opportunities to experiment within our disciplines. Our managers and project leads work with us to enable this and coach us on growth areas. There’s always something we can do to stay motivated.”
Brax, meanwhile, is energized by the camaraderie of his team. “Every person on my team cares about each other, and they care about contributing to the public good,” he says. “That makes it easier for me to show up, even on the tough days. I find a lot of purpose in working alongside 20 other like-minded individuals to make things just a little better each day. It’s empowering to be part of an organization where everyone shares that sense of purpose.”
Coforma employees are the artists and architects of code, processes, and technology. We’re the bricklayers and rock scrubbers erecting and improving systems far greater than ourselves that we hope will have a lasting social impact. Playing a small part in driving progress with other purpose-driven peers is what makes even the tedious moments truly worthwhile.
To learn more about the healthcare project Kim referenced, check out the case study on our work modernizing data collection applications for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
