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As recently as a decade ago, it would have been rare — if not entirely unheard of — to find a state or local government in the U.S. that had a robust office dedicated solely to innovation work. While such innovation offices are a bit more common now, they’re still far from wholly standard, and as a result there is quite a bit of variance between those that do exist.
In fact, nearly all of the government innovation offices in the country have a singular identity, with unique qualities that range from how each one was founded, to the way the offices choose their projects, to where they are housed within city hall or within the state government infrastructure. Part of this is inherent to the work; there is no standardized blueprint for discovering new ways to solve old challenges.