Leverage Contractor for User Research with General Public

This is an 8(a) Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology (OPHDST), is seeking information on a potential requirement for Leverage Contractor for User Research with General Public.

The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified 8(a) sources; and (2) their size classification relative to the NAICS code 541910 Opinion Research Services, for the potential acquisition.

See Draft Sample Work Statement.

1 Background

As part of CDC's focus on Human Centered Design, OPHDST's Inform and Disseminate Division needs to collect information from the public on an ongoing basis to inform the improvement and development of dashboards and other tools for data dissemination. CDC will offer these dashboards and other tools as a service to the public, the end user as a part of SAPHIRE. Standing for Sharing Actionable Public Health Information in a Responsive Environment, SAPHIRE is a system for quickly creating and distributing CDC data visualizations, insights, and related content to public users to empower them to make informed public health decisions. SAPHIRE connects to the Public Health Data Strategy Milestone 3.1 by enabling external users, such as STLTs and the public, to have expanded access to data and visualizations for four CDC data assets, including emergency department, mortality and case data, to support public health decision-making. Some of the top priority questions that we need to explore are around the audiences for SAPHIRE and their needs. By conducting user research, the team building SAPHIRE capabilities will be able to answer these questions and deliver what is needed to achieve the milestone. SAPHIRE user research will impact how we enhance our ability to showcase data sources stewarded by OPHDST (e.g., Emergency Departments, Case Surveillance, Laboratory, and Healthcare), NCHS (e.g., mortality), and programs via existing data platforms (data.cdc.gov and CDC Wonder) and Data Channels on cdc.gov (Emergency Department data, Respiratory Virus Response, and potentially Firearms and heat-related illnesses). This information will be transmitted to the public via cdc.gov websites and pages as well as other platforms such as news publishers, social media, and STLT publications. To ensure that this information is useful, actionable, and accessible to the public, the Design team within the Inform & Disseminate Division will need to conduct foundational user research and work with a Contractor to ensure speedy, effective participant recruitment. Working with a Contractor will ensure the audiences that inform our projects and deliverables (persona development, user needs, product roadmaps, division strategy and direction) are diverse and represent key demographics that we need to understand to uncover needs, values, and behavior. This will ensure the content we create and disseminate is relevant. As recruiting participants is both time-consuming and challenging, leveraging a Contractor to conduct this work will ensure that research is completed both on-time and with the specified audience instead of relying on proxies and hypothesis around what we think users might need. It also ensures that the Design team focuses on creating research plans, designing prototypes as needed, moderating sessions, analysis and synthesis of research data, and actioning results.

Working with a Contractor will provide measurable impacts in the following areas:

• Increase recruitment and participation of representative and diverse members of the public
• Reduce FTE time spent on operational task around recruitment and participant management
• Decreasing recruitment time will speed along Design projects and enable quicker collection of insights that inform our product strategies and business outcomes
• Speedier research equates to being able to conduct more research with more audiences

Increasing the frequency and type of research will positively impact the user experience as we will have the insights we need to inform the products and services we are building.

Additionally, robust user research will bring our work closer to aligning to recent legislation and executive orders including

• 21st Century Integrated Digital Experiences Act: Requirements for New Websites and Digital Services...is designed around user needs with data-driven analysis influencing management and development decisions, using qualitative and quantitative data to determine user goals, needs, and behaviors, and continually test the website, web-based form, web-based application, or digital service to ensure that user needs are addressed.
• Executive Order 14058 of December 13, 2021: Strengthening the democratic process requires providing direct lines of feedback and mechanisms for engaging the American people in the design and improvement of Federal Government programs, processes, and services.
• Executive Order 13985 of January 20, 2021: agencies shall consult with members of communities that have been historically underrepresented in the Federal Government and underserved by, or subject to discrimination in, Federal policies and programs.

2 Purpose/Objective

A Contractor will open access to the public and increase the speed to recruit diverse participants needed to conduct foundational research in support of SAPHIRE. SAPHIRE is a system for quickly creating and distributing CDC data visualizations, insights, and related content to public users to empower them to make informed public health decisions. The insights we gain from our foundational research will enable the CDC and APL-JHU Design teams to build and influence deliverables such as personas, user journeys, UX wireframes and concepts, requirements and feature documentations. This documentation will be shared with division leadership, CDC and APL-JHU technical/engineering teams, CDC Communications teams, and CDC Scientists to build SAPHIRE Data Channels that encompass visualizations, interpretations, and context and guidance for the public audience.

Anticipated period of performance. August 1, 2024 January 31, 2025

Capability statement /information sought.

Respondents who believe that they possess the expertise and experience to meet the government's needs as described above are invited to submit technical and management capabilities addressing those requirements. These may include but are not limited to: (a) staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training; (b) current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (c) prior completed projects of similar nature; (d) corporate experience and management capability; and (e) examples of prior completed Government contracts, references, and other related information for similar work.

Respondent must indicate in your capability statement:

• Organization name,
• Address,
• UEI number,
• Business size Classification (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code of 541910 - Opinion Research Services size standard which is $22.5 million.
• Points of contact,
• Email,
• Telephone number,

Page Limitation: No more than five (5) pages, 8 1 2 x 11.

Submit information above to Leyla Campbell, Contract Specialist, xuo3@cdc.gov. Reference: HHS-CDC-OPHDST(LC)-SS-24-001.

Responses are due no later than: June 28, 2024 1:00 PM ET local.

Any information received by the government will not be returned.

Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be posted on Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.
Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).