MIT Technology Review, April 2023
If you think of Michelle Wu as the architect of Boston’s new city government, then Tiffany Chu ’10 might be the general contractor. As the chief of staff to Mayor Wu, Chu is in charge of figuring out how visions of urban transformation actually take shape.
Take the Thursday afternoon in early February that found Chu at a mahogany conference table in City Hall, where she spends most of her days. She was meeting with heads of the department of innovation and technology to discuss a significant obstacle: it was taking as long as six months to get department openings posted to the city’s website, and even longer to actually hire people such as qualified software developers. The delay in hiring was slowing down plans to improve Boston’s 311 app (which lets residents and visitors report non-emergency issues, like potholes and graffiti) and other digital tools that would make it easier for Bostonians to access services, which was one of the mayor’s goals.
