Building a Data-Informed City Hall

A Free, Self-Paced Online Learning Module
How to use data to drive performance and spur innovation in city hall?

What does it take to create a “culture of curiosity”?
This self-paced module puts you in the shoes of a mayor leading a long-term effort to transform how their city uses data. You’ll explore how public leaders can develop the conditions—strategic, cultural, and operational—that enable lasting data capacity across city government.

Created by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, this online module is a self-contained learning experience designed to prompt participants to think, respond, and apply concepts directly to their own work and studies. It offers a dynamic, flexible format that invites users to engage deeply with the material—on their own time and in their own context.

Whether you’re leading a department, advising on strategy, managing a citywide performance initiative, or studying public management or municipal governance, this free module helps you develop the skills to think systemically, lead adaptively, and grow an organization’s ability to learn and improve through data.

Why Take This Module?

• Get inspired by a teaching case: Follow Mayor Joe Curtatone’s 18-year transformation of Somerville, Massachusetts from a city with limited data infrastructure to a national model of curiosity-driven and data-informed governance.
• Engage with research-based insights: Explore the concepts, skills, and leadership strategies—based on Bloomberg Harvard academic research and pedagogy—that help build data capacity at every level of city government.
• Make it your own: Apply lessons to your own context, identify high-leverage opportunities in your organization, and leave with an actionable plan.

What You’ll Learn

• What kinds of data cities need to collect, maintain, and use to strengthen decision-making.
• How tools and skills contribute to building a more data-informed organization.
• Why culture, business practices, and staff mindset matter—and how to influence them.
• The leadership roles that help grow data capacity and make improvements last.

How It Works

• Flexible format: Complete the module in approximately 3 hours, at your own pace.
• Built for active learning: Read a short case study, answer questions, receive feedback on your decisions, and reflect on your own city’s capacity.
• Multiple ways to engage: Mix of multiple choice, open-ended prompts, and scenario-based questions—some with right answers, some designed to spark your thinking.
• Concrete takeaways: Leave with a personalized action plan and a downloadable summary sheet for future reference.

Who Should Take It?

This module is for city leaders, public servants, policy advisors, analysts; students of public management and municipal governance; and anyone working on or interested in making government more responsive, transparent, and effective through data. This online resource is designed to meet you where you are.

This module is available free of charge as part of our commitment to helping more city leaders around the world build their capacity to lead with data.

Register and begin learning