Beeck Center Executive Director Lynn Overmann Testifies Before House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
Last month, Beeck Center Executive Director Lynn Overmann testified before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization, sharing insights on how federal agencies can transition from outdated, siloed modernization approaches that acquire technology as a static solution to dynamic, adaptive systems that prioritize the needs of people.
Documents for the hearing can be found in the Committee Repository here.
Below is testimony made to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization by Lynn Overmann:
Thank you Chair Rosendale, Ranking Member Cherfilus-McCormick (Sher-FEE-luss Mc-COR-mick), and distinguished members of this committee, for the opportunity to testify today.
It’s my honor to share insights from my perspective as the executive director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, as well as from my past experience in senior policy and delivery roles in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and in the Domestic Policy Council.
For more than a decade, the Beeck Center has led projects that have positively impacted more than 262 million people across the United States, working alongside governments to build a future with more opportunity and economic mobility for all. Rooted in the values of our institutional home at Georgetown University, we are a network catalyst, a research hub, an advocate for policymaking in the modern age, and a training ground for tomorrow’s innovators.
Technology modernization is central to our work. The systems that veterans rely on to connect to benefits, parents use to access childcare, and seniors need to utilize healthcare must be robust, adaptive, and designed with their needs in mind.
Yet federal technology projects often fall short—plagued by rigid approaches that prioritize process over outcomes. These failures diminish public trust, waste taxpayer money, frustrate agency frontline workers, and prevent people from accessing services when they need them most.
When agencies attempt to modernize, they often purchase “static” software, treating it like any other commodity, like computers or cars – one time purchases that simply work upon purchase. But software must continuously evolve to keep up with changing policies, security demands, and customer needs. Technology modernization is a continual process of addressing unmet needs, not a one-time effort with a defined start and end.
Too often, federal modernization projects are built in silos, scoped broadly, and outsourced to vendors who require high-cost, multi-year contracts. Those contracts are then overseen by agency project managers who are often not technologists themselves, making it even more challenging to test vendors’ deliverables and identify technical fixes when projects go off track.
The good news is that some agencies can and have shifted from the static “project management model” to a “product model” that empowers internal agency digital service teams with full ownership of product development and avoids “one-size-fits-all” solutions in favor of modular development that meets the needs of real people.
The product model—championed by my friend and colleague Jennifer Pahlka—starts with a small, nimble team conducting discovery sprints with the people who use the services to deeply understand their needs and the service delivery challenges the software aims to solve. By identifying high-risk elements early—such as whether a data integration will function effectively—the product team can test and address critical components of the product before investing significant resources in a full-scale solution.
A recent example of the product model in action is the development of the Direct File tool for the Internal Revenue Service. The 2024 pilot ultimately served more than 140,000 people, with 90 percent of users rating the tool “excellent” or “above average.”
To achieve this, the IRS:
- Empowered their internal team with the right expertise,
- Started with limited scope and eligibility,
- Developed the tool with deep user research, and
- Tested with a small number of users – fixed what didn’t work, then tested and tested again.
This process saved users time, money, and resulted in extremely high rates of satisfaction. What’s more, the operation costs to the IRS to develop, test, and launch Direct File—including customer service, cloud computing, and user authentication—were just $2.4 million, partly because the US Digital Service team was deployed at no cost to the IRS.
Simply put, agency product development teams are uniquely positioned to identify and address operational barriers. This streamlines processes, reduces administrative burdens, and paves the way for more successful product deployments.
To ensure that federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, can fully realize the benefits of the product model for technology modernization, I propose four recommendations, outlined in my written testimony, that Congress can work on with agency and White House leaders. Perhaps the most important recommendation is to ensure that agencies streamline hiring processes to efficiently recruit and onboard digital service talent who can implement the product model, backed by flexible, multi-year investments that support a people-centered, iterative approach to delivering effective digital services.
By adopting these recommendations, Congress can ensure that agencies like the VA are equipped with the tools, resources, and flexibility needed to deliver modern services that are focused on the end user – parents, veterans, seniors and more – that meet the evolving needs of the American people, ending the cycle of costly technology failures.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify before this committee. I look forward to answering your questions.