How Smart Cities Can Embrace Digital Transformation to Save (and Make) Dollars in the Process

My neighborhood is beautiful. I’m blessed to have a stunning natural setting to come home to in the relaxed suburban community in Connecticut.

Recently, as I drove home I noticed magenta pieces of paper stapled to dozens of trees on my street. The notifications, impossible to miss, were informing my neighbors and me that the beautiful trees in front of our homes were to be removed. Immediately, I had a ton of questions: When is this happening? Why are so many trees being cut down? How will they be removed? Who is going to be handling this massive project? What if I object — what can the Tree Warden do to address my concerns?

As quickly as the questions arose, I started thinking about solutions, because what I do for a living is help companies utilize the power of design to unlock new ways of driving growth for their businesses.

This isn’t something reserved for private sector organizations; I often help nonprofits and public entities with digital transformation. The opportunities to optimize efficiency while engaging communities and individuals where they spend most of their time — on their smartphones, tablets, and computers — is profound.

And if there’s any entity around which I’d like to help rally citizens’ support and interest, it’s my city and local government.