Jamie Holcombe
Remote work increased USPTO’s attack surface exponentially, so improving cybersecurity became Holcombe’s No. 1 priority over the past year. Beyond that his agency has been changing how it works, consolidating more than 150 projects into 30 product lines. Business owners control the products, and USPTO architects and procurement specialists work alongside them. To that end, Holcombe launched “People to Teams,” which details employees to product teams they want to be part of on a quarterly basis. “This can apply anywhere in the federal government,” Holcombe said. “It’s taking the matrix organization in the commercial world and bringing it to the federal government, where it can actually be successful.”
