Become an Accelerator

Are you ready to accelerate your work making Montgomery County better - effective, efficient, equitable?

The Innovation Accelerator is an introduction to structured problem solving and the Innovation Accelerator community.

Supported by a cohort of peers from across County government, you’ll work to make three things better for yourself, your team, and those you serve. Innovation Accelerators have already digitized forms so they no longer have to enter data by hand, saved themselves from dozens of interruptions a week, redesigned processes to reduce errors, and made it easier for those we serve to get the value they want.

If you want to make things better and are looking for tools and support to do so, this is the space for accelerating your success. The best people to make a process or system better are the people in the process or system. Be a founding community member of County peers driving innovation in Montgomery County.

Apply today

Sheronda presents her project

Upcoming cohort dates

The upcoming Accelerator cohort dates are February 27, February 28, and March 3, 2025.

Who's eligible

Any Montgomery County employee is eligible to apply, as long as you

  • are committed to making things better
  • choose to participate yourself of your own free will
  • have the support of your manager who understands the time commitment of being an Innovation Accelerator

We are committed to meeting you where you are and helping you to take the next step.

About the Course

The Accelerator is a project-based learning course. You'll be learning skills by putting those skills into action on actual projects for which you are responsible. If you are working on improving a process, designing a new service, or making something better, this course will support and accelerate your progress.

You will deliver innovations with no new budget, no new people, and no new technology (although we strongly encourage use of technology already in our portfolio), thereby allowing you to create change within your control.

Past Accelerator projects include:

  • Making it easier for residents to get fuel storage tank permits
  • Improving the certification process for local small businesses to sell to the County
  • Redesigning door hangers to get residents better information about tree services
  • Avoiding unnecessary printing, processing of wasted paperwork, and unused reporting
  • Simplifying leave request processes so employees can take the rest they need
  • Creating a better onboarding experience for new teammates

It's going to be a lot of fun and accelerate your ability to makes things better. You can also expect it to be a human, messy, work-in-progress. You'll build community with a fellow group of self-starting innovators from across County government and help build the future of innovation in Montgomery County.

The course will take place in-person and use an online canvas and whiteboard tool, Miro.