City of Dublin, Ohio

The City of Dublin, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, has been actively focused on performance management and strategic planning. Brandon Brown, the Director of Performance Analytics for the city (and ClearPoint Community Advisory Board member), shares insights into Dublin's performance management process, and how the city adopted ClearPoint Strategy software to streamline measurement and reporting efforts.

Watch the full customer interview here!

Dublin is a community of approximately 50,000 residents and covers an area of 25 square miles. The city is known for its focus on economic development, hosting large events like the Dublin Irish Festival and the PGA Memorial Tournament. Brown, with over 20 years of experience with the city, has been involved in various roles related to technology, strategic planning, performance management, and innovation. His current role helps the city leverage data more effectively to measure performance and streamline their initiatives.

The city is committed to innovation and efficiency, with a dedicated team utilizing methodologies, such as lean six sigma and design thinking. When the city's focus evolved to strategic planning and data analytics, the need for a comprehensive solution to measure performance and improve initiatives became apparent. Dublin’s emphasis on technology and strategy became the catalyst for ClearPoint's implementation.

Learn how ClearPoint helps other organizations across Ohio in our State Spotlight series

Challenges before ClearPoint

Prior to ClearPoint software, Dublin faced several challenges in their performance management process. Reporting was inconsistent, with different departments using individual PowerPoint presentations for data analysis. This led to inefficient data collection processes, lack of clarity in reporting, and varying interpretations of data. The City Manager began asking the question: "How are we winning?", bringing into question which measures to track and monitor. Brown emphasized the need to focus on valuable measures and asked, "How does it change your Tuesday?" to assess the relevance of each measure.

Adopting ClearPoint Software

Dublin's journey with ClearPoint Strategy began when Brandon joined a strategy cohort in 2020. The city's GIS and data team had been separated from the broader technology team to focus more on strategic planning and performance management using data analytics. The City Manager's directive to leverage data for performance measures aligned with Brown's goal to find a solution to showcase different performance measures effectively.

"ClearPoint's flexibility is key."

The Dublin team developed a strategic framework using ClearPoint, with themes of sustainability, connectedness, and resilience at its core. The software offered flexibility and integration with existing systems, proving to be a valuable tool for creating a public-facing dashboard. Gaining buy-in from leadership and the council was also crucial. Training departments on the new technology and teaching them how to write concise, effective measures were among the initial hurdles. Despite these challenges, the software demonstrated an ability to improve the accuracy and consistency of performance measures, and ClearPoint was framed as a tool that added value and promoted culture-building within the city administration.

The ClearPoint Community played an integral role in Dublin's success. The benefits of networking and collaborating with other professionals were evident in the field of GIS technology, where sharing ideas and solutions was encouraged. Some challenges arose from private sector vendors prioritizing privacy and security over sharing and openness. However, the team saw these challenges as opportunities for growth and continued to advocate for openness and sharing.

Brown shares an inside look at Dublin's ClearPoint account in our webinar (8:33, 13:00, 18:50)

Benefits of ClearPoint Strategy

ClearPoint software allowed for a structured approach to Dublin's performance management process and offered several benefits:

1. Consistency and Alignment: ClearPoint enabled a consistent reporting structure, ensuring everyone had the same frame of reference. It eliminated discrepancies caused by using different data sources and PowerPoint presentations. Dublin's leadership team could trust the data in ClearPoint as a source of truth.
2. Efficiency and Automation: ClearPoint automated data collection, reducing the dependency on manual data gathering from various sources. The software streamlined the reporting process, saving time for both the performance analytics team and departmental staff.
3. Visualization and Exploration: ClearPoint's charts and visualizations allowed Dublin's team to dive deeper into data, drill down to specific measures, and explore connections between different goals, initiatives, and performance measures. The software facilitated meaningful conversations and enabled better, data-driven decision-making.
4. Innovation and Engagement: ClearPoint's capabilities fostered innovation within Dublin. The city's culture of continuous improvement embraced the software, encouraging staff to automate processes and make performance measurement easier. ClearPoint provided a platform for tracking and monitoring initiatives and projects, promoting collaboration among different departments.

Dublin's implementation of ClearPoint involved identifying willing participants and demonstrating the software's capabilities to other departments. The initial focus was on building performance measures and linking them to strategic goals. Dublin provided coaching and support to department leaders and analysts during the rollout process, ensuring a smooth transition and encouraging buy-in from all stakeholders.

The Future with ClearPoint

Dublin's future plans include developing a community dashboard to showcase the city's strategic framework, goals, and performance measures. The public dashboard will provide transparency to the community and allow easy access to relevant information. Dublin also aims to integrate ClearPoint with other systems, such as GIS mapping software, to enhance data visualization and provide a comprehensive view of the city's performance.

The City of Dublin's experience with ClearPoint Strategy software showcases how strategic planning and data analytics can significantly enhance a city's performance management process. The software provided a common frame of reference for conversations, encouraged the promotion of its adoption, and helped focus on strategic goals and initiatives. The commitment of the Dublin team to networking and sharing within the ClearPoint Community, in addition to addressing private sector challenges, contributed significantly to their successful implementation of the software. Now that the city's performance management processes are streamlined, Dublin is excited to further scale the software to continue innovating and growing as a city.

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