Li Hongyi shares why he founded Open Govt Products & what values he looks for when hiring

Open Government Products (OGP) was founded in 2019 and set up as a space to experiment with new technology practices that the Singapore Government can eventually adopt.

OGP director Li Hongyi addressed some frequently asked questions about the organisation in a video posted on its social media platforms on Dec. 12.

Role as director

The 38-year-old, who is the son of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said his role as director largely involves doing whatever it takes to help the team succeed in its mission.

"On a very practical basis, you need to kind of identify what are your key objectives in the organisation and align with your stakeholders about what kind of value they want out of us," he said.

Hiring is also another very important step.

He added that he focuses heavily on hiring the "right people" by considering what kind of organisational structure is needed and the types of individuals required to fill those roles.

He said he spends a significant amount of time on recruitment, as well as ensuring that the team’s final products meet a high standard.

Inspiration for OGP

Li said he was inspired to start OGP after recognising that while the government needs to be proficient in technology, it also has many critical responsibilities, which make it difficult to experiment with new technologies.

Rather than having the entire government adopt new technologies at once — a move he described as very risky — a smaller team was created to test new ideas and develop better ways of building and deploying technology.

This approach allows the government to explore what is possible without having to change everything at the same time, he said.

"Our job is to from the ground up, go explore all these different opportunities and different ways that technology can improve things, and then build prototypes to demonstrate that," he shared.

How can one join OGP

For those interested in joining OGP, Li said the organisation looks for people with strong initiative, good communication skills and the right values.

On initiative, he said the fundamental premise is a desire to make Singapore better, and to do that, the person must want to make things better.

Communication is "very important", he added, as team members need to be able to talk openly with one another.

As for values, Li posed the question: "Is what you want to do what we do as an organisation for OGP?"

OGP’s mission is to build technology for the public good, and as such, he said team members must demonstrate integrity and honesty, and be clear and responsible in the work they do.

Top photo from OGP/TikTok