In early 2022 the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts announced that after six years of service, City Manager Louis A. DePasquale was set to retire in July.

A high-ranking position, the City Manager is responsible for providing leadership to and administration of all City departments and services including Intergovernmental, Human Resource and Development, General Government Public Safety, Community Maintenance, and Development and Education.

Cambridge is a rapidly growing city characterized by academic prowess and a highly diverse populace, and all eyes were on the selection process for a new City Manager—a job assigned to the 9 members of the Cambridge City Council.

To begin the process, the City Council hired an out-of-state consulting firm to run the search. But with such a high stakes decision and a desire that the choice reflect the diverse needs of the City’s residents, council members and other government officials realized they had to dig deeper.

Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui agreed: The consulting firm alone “does not have experience with Cambridge specifically, nor do they have experience with doing the extensive community outreach engagement that the search requires.”

The new plan was to bring in additional community engagement groups to hear public priorities—one of which was Cortico.

Cortico worked with council members to develop a series of small, issue-based dialogues using Cortico’s technology. These 90-minute recorded conversations brought in critical actors in local affairs:

These conversations were designed to elicit deep, issue-based, feedback from residents and stakeholders on what the next City Manager should bring to the job and to reveal current challenges and opportunities for progress.

Through this partnership with Cortico, the City was able to demonstrate their desire and ability to listen to constituents in real time, adding a level of transparency that was previously unattainable. Vice Mayor Alanna Mallon herself used the LVN platform to make 100+ highlights, regularly sharing these conversation excerpts on her Twitter feed:

Feedback from the conversations was used to form a leadership profile which outlined the role and helped recruit qualified candidates that fit the needs of the Cambridge community.

In May, the screening committee publicly shared the names and profiles of the four candidates being forwarded to the City Council for final consideration. Guided by the leadership profile created using Cortico, the City Council made their final decision on June 6 with a vote to make an offer of employment to Yi-An Huang. Huang was officially sworn in the following September.

As we engage the community and ask for feedback, [Cortico] has been a powerful tool to absorb and understand what residents across Cambridge are looking for in the next City Manager.

Sumbul Siddiqui, Mayor, City of Cambridge, MA

The Cortico platform continues to provide community feedback and insights to support the Cambridge City Council and Yi-An Huang in his new role.

Hear more voices and learn more about the project here.