About Hack for Public Good

Our citizen-centric approach

Hack for Public Good (HFPG) moves away from traditional top-down product development, where leaders dictate product strategy and direction. Instead, our tech teams are empowered to go into the community to discover public good problems in Singapore, then find and build solutions.

How it works

Every year, for the month of January, our officers pause non-core projects to work on a public good problem that interests them.

The goal? Generate new product ideas, conduct user research, and create working prototypes to present at the end of the month — all while developing new skills.

Learning on the ground

HFPG starts with community learning journeys, where officers from all areas of public service share nuances and challenges of their work. Exposure to different experiences, constraints, and opportunities allows us to align solutions with actual experiences, and deliver real impact. 

Ideating and prototyping

To bring ideas to life, teams collaborate and build fast, working closely with stakeholders to keep projects grounded in real needs. Regular check-ins and feedback loops also help refine concepts and guide the development process.

Testing and iterating

To identify opportunities for further improvement, teams test their prototypes with stakeholders and potential users, gathering feedback and insights. This drives refinements, across user experience and design, functionality, and scaleability, so products better meet community needs. 

Presenting prototypes

HFPG culminates in our finale day at the end of the month. Teams present their final working prototypes to other OGP officers and invited government leaders. 

After hackathon, prototypes that have shown potential to create value for the public get converted to fully-fledged OGP products.