Episode 82
Advancing USPTO's Mission: Insights from Deputy CIO Deborah Stephens
Deborah Stephens, the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), “grew up” so to speak in the USPTO. Deborah led the USPTO on its agile journey. As the agency took on its “New Ways of Working, '' by moving people and resources closer to the work, she helped empower employees to build and deploy software. Deborah shares how she guided the agency through this 4-year change journey, gaining buy-in from the organization, which was proved by an engagement rate increase from 75% to 85%. Deborah also talks about what it means to be a HISP, running USPTO as a business that is entirely self-sustaining, and, in honor of Women’s History Month, the women who have inspired her along the way.
Key Topics
- 05:54 Some embraced digital change, others struggled with it
- 08:53 Most employees were ready for telework
- 10:59 USPTO shifts to agile approach for IT
- 16:41 Gathering feedback led to 10% engagement increase
- 23:50 Customers submit 600,000+ patent and trademark applications yearly
- 26:51 Agency conducts outreach through webinars and trademarks
- 31:06 Customer experience and UX processes are fundamental
- 33:45 USPTO offers different fee structures for entities
- 35:30 USPTO runs efficiently with prioritization and budgeting
- 39:43 Acknowledging strong women, personally and professionally
- 43:21 Seek guidance and practice for success
Growth in Patent and Trademark Requests
Surge in Applications at USPTO
Deborah Stephens highlights a significant increase in the number of patent and trademark applications received by the USPTO over the years. This growth, from approximately 350,000 to 400,000 applications in 2012, with numbers continuing to rise, underscores the vibrant culture of innovation and creativity in the United States. The upward trend of applications is a positive sign of the country's ongoing commitment to innovation. However, it also presents logistical challenges for the USPTO. Including the need to process a higher volume of applications efficiently while ensuring the quality of examination does not diminish.
Transition to New Ways of Working in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: "And so in around late 2018, 19, we began our, what we referred to as our agile journey. We named it our New Ways of Working, which essentially is an entire USPTO effort. Including our business unit with 12 other business units, moving people and the resources closer to the work. Giving them that empowerment, to build, deliver, deploy software, product services for our business stakeholders, and that's both internally and externally." — Deborah Stephens
USPTO is Adapting to Increased Demand
In response to the growing demand for intellectual property protection, the USPTO has been proactive in seeking ways to maintain and improve service delivery. Deborah discusses the agency's approach to managing the influx of applications, focusing on scalability and efficiency. Despite the challenges posed by the increase in applications, the USPTO's designation as a High Impact Service Provider (HISP) has had minimal impact on its existing customer experience strategy. The agency's foundational commitment to delivering exceptional service to inventors and entrepreneurs remains steadfast. With an emphasis on continuous improvement and the adoption of new strategies to better meet the needs of the U.S. innovation community.
USPTO's Fee-Funded Model and Fiscal Strategy
USPTO’s Fee-Funded Operations
Deborah highlights the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) operational model, which is uniquely self-sufficient. Relying entirely on fees collected from patent and trademark applications. This model ensures that the USPTO does not use taxpayer dollars, setting it apart from many other government agencies. By directly linking the agency's funding to the services it provides, the USPTO aligns its goals closely with the needs and successes of its primary users: inventors and businesses seeking intellectual property protection. This connection incentivizes the agency to continuously improve its processes and customer service. Additionally, Deborah mentions a tiered fee system that offers different rates for entities of various sizes. From individual inventors to large corporations. This structure is designed to lower barriers for smaller entities and encourage a wider range of innovation.
USPTO’s Budgetary Discipline and Management
Facing economic pressures such as inflation, the USPTO's approach to budget management becomes even more pivotal. Deborah discusses the importance of prioritization and strategic decision-making in maintaining the agency's financial health. Despite rising costs, the USPTO strives to keep its budget stable and even reduce it when possible, demonstrating a high level of fiscal responsibility. This is achieved through careful analysis of projects and initiatives, focusing resources on areas that promise the highest impact. The USPTO's disciplined budgetary approach not only ensures its operations are sustainable but also serves as a potential model for other federal agencies. By showcasing how to effectively manage finances in a challenging economic environment, the USPTO underlines the value of strategic planning and prioritization in government fiscal strategy.
Telework Readiness and Agile Transformation at USPTO
USPTO’s Transition to Telework Prior to COVID-19
Deborah highlights the USPTO's preparedness for telework well before the COVID-19 pandemic. With a significant portion of the workforce already equipped and familiar with remote working protocols, the USPTO had laid a robust foundation for telework readiness. This foresight into establishing a telework culture not only ensured the continuity of operations during unprecedented times. It also underscored the agency's commitment to leveraging modern work practices. The transition to a fully remote working environment, necessitated by the pandemic, was thus more seamless for the USPTO than for many other organizations. Demonstrating a proactive approach to business continuity planning.
Introducing Change in Remote Work Environments: "There were every 2 weeks of what we refer to as, lunch and learns. And in the beginning, I was the prime speaker, saying, here's our New Ways of Working. Here's the structure. Here's how we're gonna move our processes, our procedures, and people would join in. And it was all remote. I'd have a big TV like producer kind of studio, and I'd be in front of the blue screen and talking to them about this change at least every 2 weeks, if not, sometimes more." — Deborah Stephens
Agile Transformation and Cultural Shift at USPTO
The shift from traditional waterfall methods to agile methodologies marked a significant transformation within the USPTO. Deborah emphasizes that this transition was not merely about changing project management techniques. It involved a deeper cultural shift within the organization. Achieving buy-in from both individuals and teams was crucial to fostering an environment that embraced agility, empowered employees and encouraged rapid deployment of products. Key to this cultural transformation were regular remote meetings and employee engagement surveys. This played a significant role in understanding and enhancing employee satisfaction. The notable increase in engagement levels from 75% to 85% during this period of change illustrates the effectiveness of the USPTO's approach in not only implementing agile methodologies but also in cultivating a culture that is receptive and adaptive to change.
Tech Landscape and Patent Filing Insights at USPTO
USPTO’s "Fail Fast, Fail Forward" Approach
Deborah shares the USPTO's dynamic approach to technological innovation, encapsulated in the mantra "fail fast, fail forward." This methodology allows the USPTO to quickly test new ideas and technologies, while learning from any setbacks, and refining their strategies efficiently. By fostering an environment where experimentation is encouraged and failure is seen as a stepping stone to success, the agency ensures that it remains at the forefront of technological advancements. This approach is crucial in a rapidly changing tech landscape, as it enables the USPTO to adapt and innovate continuously. Deborah highlights how this philosophy has led to a more agile and responsive IT infrastructure within the agency. One capable of meeting the demands of modern patent and trademark processing.
The Value of Mentorship: "I think you need to establish your go-to network of mentors, and don't be afraid to become a mentor." — Deborah Stephens
Emphasizing Customer Feedback in Patent and Trademark Submissions
Carolyn brings attention to the importance of customer feedback in the process of patent and trademark submissions at the USPTO. Deborah explains how the agency values the insights gained from customer experiences and actively seeks out feedback to improve services. Through a variety of channels such as webinars, outreach programs and direct communication through customer service teams, the USPTO gathers valuable input from those who navigate the patent and trademark submission processes. This dedication to understanding and addressing the needs and challenges of its customers has led to significant enhancements in the USPTO's support structures. Deborah further discusses educational efforts aimed at demystifying the complexities of the patent filing process. Thereby making it more accessible and navigable for inventors and businesses alike.
Digital Transformation at USPTO
USPTO’s Move from Paper-Based to Digital Systems
Deborah played a significant role in transitioning the agency from a paper-based application system to a fully digitized process. This monumental task involved not just the scanning of existing paper documents, but also includes integrating OCR technology to make historical patents searchable and accessible in digital form. Despite the sheer scale and potential logistical challenges of digitizing vast amounts of data, the initiative marked a pivotal moment in the agency's history. This transformation was not without its hurdles. Initial resistance to change was a significant barrier that needed careful navigation. However, through strategic planning and a commitment to modernization, the USPTO successfully overcame these challenges. Leading to a more efficient, accessible and streamlined patent application process.
Efficient Budget Management at the USPTO: "Being able to maintain our budget or even maybe decrease the overall budget by 1%, but yet inflation going up 8, 9%, we've been able to do that. And it's about prioritization, and that's part of our New Ways of Working." — Deborah Stephens
About Our Guest
Deborah Stephens is the Deputy Chief Information Officer (DCIO) for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). She has served at the USPTO for more than 30 years in multiple leadership roles, during which she has worked to improve the automated tools and informational resources that facilitate electronic processing of patent applications. In her current role, Deborah is the principal advisor to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and responsible for managing day-to-day operations of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) with significant oversight on information technology (IT) stabilization and modernization efforts. She guides teams towards continual improvements in IT delivery for maximum value to all stakeholders.
Episode Links
Transcript
Thanks for joining us on Tech Transforms. I'm Carolyn Ford, here with my trusty sidekick, Mark Senell. Hey, Mark.
Mark Senell [:Hey, Carolyn.
Carolyn Ford [:So today, we get to talk to the Deputy Chief Information Officer at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Debbie Stephens. Welcome, Debbie.
Deborah Stephens [:Good morning.
Carolyn Ford [:Good morning. So Debbie has spent more than 30 years in multiple leadership roles at USPTO working to improve the patent application process. And I'm just gonna pause here and say, Debbie, thank you for your service.
Deborah Stephens [:Oh. Thanks, I appreciate that.
Carolyn Ford [:It's amazing. So I recently read your article for Women's History Month, and I really enjoyed it, appreciated the insight that it gave me. You shared a lot of personal things, and, I loved that. So one thing that you said in the article that I really liked, you said, I'm a firm believer that anything we do can be improved. And so we're really excited to discuss how you've improved things at USPTO. You've improved automated tools and informational resources that facilitate patent application processing as well as the agency's IT stabilization and modernization efforts. So let's just dive into the first question. As I said, you've served in various leadership positions at USPTO, an amazing career.
Carolyn Ford [:And as you reflect on your time there, I would love a good story. Is there a modernization or automation effort that you're most proud of, for the agency?
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. Appreciate that. Yeah. I feel like I've grown up in the USPTO. So make sure everyone knows I started when I was, like, 12.
Carolyn Ford [:Clearly. Clearly.
Deborah Stephens [:Clearly. Right? So, yeah, I think there's two that I would love to share. 1One that, may surprise your listeners and that's, moving from paper applications. Literally, paper documents to digital.
Carolyn Ford [:In your career.
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. So, moving from, as you said, an app I started my career on the business side in patents, in the patent application processing from ingest, through issuance and grants on Tuesdays and PGPubs or pre-grant publications on Thursdays. And, in that so early, you know, in in in the, in the journey, moving from literally moving paper around the patent office to, being able to, digitize, and make everything, scanned and, OCR-ed and digital for our whole patent application processing. And so that's certainly a huge one, in terms of modernization, but it did happen when I was on the patent side.
Carolyn Ford [:Can I pause right there? When you said OCR, that makes me think. You went retro, like, you scanned all of the old patents too and made them electronic?
Deborah Stephens [:Not all. Not all because that would have been, A- monumental and, very costly. So costly in terms of literally the financials and the, just the sheer time. So we did have to make a conscious decision, business decision, on what where to start. And so there there but we call that as affectionately known the back file. And, and it does remind me that sometimes there were cases that, that weren't in in that date range, but yet due to some of the sensitivity or the just pressing need, we went ahead and and and, took that one particular patent application file and digitized it. So we could have it for its history from that point forward in a digital, I'll say, landscape for the future. Yeah.
Deborah Stephens [:So that's number 1. I don't know if you have any questions about that one.
Carolyn Ford [:Well, so it sounds like just again for my clarification, the number one has the 2 parts. So there was some scanning certain date that you guys chose to make the ones that were already filed electronic, and then you also moved to an electronic everything online process. Yep. So what year did you go online?
Deborah Stephens [:Wow. That was probably in, like, I wanna say, like, 2000 ish.
Carolyn Ford [:In that so early 2000s?
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. Yeah.
Mark Senell [:Yeah.
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. It was It was quite quite quite the journey, if you can imagine it. A multiyear process and and multi, mega resources to that, moving forward. So, yeah, it's huge effort for the patent office.
Carolyn Ford [:Was there resistance, like, internally to do that?
Deborah Stephens [:Absolutely. There you know, of course, there were, team members across the agency ones like myself either, at various states of their career. And so some took to that change very readily. Others, you know, because people were used to having computers at their homes and doing, digital commerce, if you will, even if if it was in its, beginning stages for some federal other federal agencies as well. But then there were some that were, like, wow, I'm not really used to this technology and and then having I'm so used to having paper and, having the ability to literally put a pencil mark or a highlight on a document, a pen and ink change to it. So we had to think about that and how they might, you know, do their work differently, right, in a digital sense. So, yeah, definitely, very, very disruptive and very much enterprise, wide change for patents, in in their in their journey.
Deborah Stephens [:So, yeah, that's that's my that's my first one, and then I've got a second one.
Carolyn Ford [:Mark, do you have any questions about the first one?
Mark Senell [:Well, I mean, I wanna, kinda take an offshoot on that because, because in talking to a lot of folks like yourself, Debbie, COVID, COVID like changed the whole paradigm for for that. And and I and and listen to what you're saying. You're saying, oh, yeah. We had some resistance when we went online. And then, of course, the you know, something like the pandemic hits and it's like, all bets are off. How did that how did that change the dynamic? It probably threw it into overdrive.
Deborah Stephens [:Yes. So I think 2 different kind of, definitely wanna clarify, you know, kind of 2 different time periods. I feel like the digital landscape and the electronic processing had really, grown up and mature. And and then, you know, probably, like, 20 years later, then we've got the COVID piece. And it you're right. It changed our our, you know, interactions with each other, yet the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was already a large, we'll say consumer of the concept of telework, virtual work. We already had a portion of our of our patent examining, core already working full 100% remote work.
Deborah Stephens [:So that part was somewhat of a different transition from
Mark Senell [:guys were right you guys were ahead of a lot of other.
Carolyn Ford [:You guys were with primarily remote before COVID.
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. We had, we had quite a bit of workforce that, you know, that we're all we were almost all telework ready. What does that mean? Meaning, we had a laptop that we could, you know, easily transport from from the campus. We'll call it the campus, you know, your brick and mortar to your home and plug in and and, telework. And so, primarily, because of also weather events, any kind of administrative, living mostly our campus being in the in the, you know, the D.C., Maryland, Virginia area, you know, inclement weather, different things like that happen. And so being telework ready, then you could take advantage. And so if we had a a, delay in in, let's say, arrivals, then people could work at home, start their day, then perhaps go to, campus, or perhaps remain that full, we'll call it, weather related, day and and work the full time, at their, I'll say, remote site. But, yeah, we had, quite quite a few people already 100% full time remote.
Deborah Stephens [:Others, 2, 3 days remote, during the week. And,
Mark Senell [:Definitely ahead of the game.
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. It was pretty, yeah. I mean, we we probably had any given time, like, 50% of our people teleworking at different parts of the day, day, or a week before COVID.
Carolyn Ford [:Alright. So tell us your next success story.
Deborah Stephens [:Okay. So the next one is because that one is huge.
Carolyn Ford [:Sorry. I just I want to acknowledge that what you just shared, going from paper based to electronic, that monumental. Huge. So top let's see you top that.
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. In a way, again, agency wide. So we were very much, in the, you know, the kind of the waterfall method of IT delivery of our products and services. And so in in around 2018 late 2018, 19, we began our, what we referred to as our agile journey. So and we we, will say named it our New Ways of Working, which essentially a an entire, USPTO effort, including, our business unit with 12 other business units, moving people and the resources closer to the work, giving them that empowerment, to, you know, build, deliver, deploy software, product services for our business stakeholders, and that's both internally and externally. So in a way, it we went from, probably over 200 some, individual projects every year to, like, 30 products, four product lines. So we've got a business product line called patents. We got a business product line called trademarks.
Deborah Stephens [:We've got an enterprise business, kind of the corporate side of all the products, and then we, of course, have our IT or infrastructure product line. And so, moving that agency or our agency from from that kind of, again, waterfall to iterative, very very much going even from months to deployment to weeks or days. That's how fast we're we're, I'll say, coding and programming and delivering to the end user. So, again, internal and external because we've got quite a few external customers out there.
Carolyn Ford [:Yeah. And I've been through those transformations. Like, as a product manager, I've been, you know, moved into the waterfall method. So painful. Out of the waterfall method to agile. Like, anytime you change those processes, the way you're working, it is really painful. So another monumental change for your agency. Were those both of them were the champions for the change from the top, or did you find there were champions within the agency?
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. That's a great question, and you you're exactly right. You know, organizations rarely are successful in changing. People change. You know? Yeah. It takes individuals and especially, in this, in this journey, you know, you had to believe that this New Way of Working was going to be more efficient. You've got to trust that that's gonna happen.
Deborah Stephens [:Right? In the other example, it's a lot easier to go, well, of course, it's gonna be, you know, you're going from paper to digital to see how the world's grow growing and changing. It's gonna be faster. It's gonna be more efficient. It it's almost like a more of a tangible change describing that journey, from from paper to digital versus somewhat this was more intangible in that. It's like trust us when we are, I'll say, together like this on the journey, you'll have to believe at the end, you're gonna be more efficient, and it's somewhat of an intangible belief.
Mark Senell [:Is it a culture that you built there, Debbie? Is that like is that, you know, it's what it feels like. It's like it was the culture within the org.
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. Definitely. I will I will tell you that it's, it is changing and having those small wins along the way, changing the culture. Do you believe what I believe in this it joined me on this journey. So you're you're kinda changing first their hearts and then minds. And I say that, and I know that's probably somewhat cliché, but it is, like, do they believe what I believe and that Trust me. Try doing this, and then you'll see the success, and then we'll build on that success. and I'll tell you, the journey.
Deborah Stephens [:There were every 2 weeks what we refer to as, Lunch and Learns. And in the beginning, I was the prime speaker, you know, saying, "hey. Here's the here's our new ways of working. Here's the structure. Here's, you know, how we're gonna move our our processes, our procedures," and and people would join in. And it was it was all remote, and I'd have a big, you know, TV like producer kind of studio, and I'd be in front of kind of the blue screen and talking to them about this change, every every at least every 2 weeks, if not, sometimes more. And then as we grew and continue to to, on the journey, invited, as I referred to them as guest speakers to come in and say, hey. You know, here's here's my portion.
Deborah Stephens [:Here's give it give us a give us a success story and things like that. So, the last piece of this change, we did what was referred to as, surveys kinda, right now, we're calling them, like, ready, willing, and able surveys, asking them where are you? You know, how are you feeling about this change? What other information do we need to understand along the way? Tell us what we, I'll say, don't know that's happening in your your sphere of influence that, you know, if it's happening well, great. If it's not, we do wanna know because let's work on that together. And, I think at the at the, kind of the end of this journey here in the last and it's been like a as you can imagine, a good 4 year journey. We had, we do surveys, that are are from our, human resource department and their engagement surveys. And, our organization in particular went from 75% engagement to 85% during this time. That's a big jump.
Carolyn Ford [:That's a big jump. Yeah.
Deborah Stephens [:Huge. Huge. Yeah. Other other the other offices were asking us, is that right? Is that number right? Because no one had seen such a large jump during such a large transformation.
Mark Senell [:Imply buy in through the organization? Does that imply buy in, Debbie?
Deborah Stephens [:On every single part of the, we'll say, procedure process. Right? However, are we hearing your voice? Are we listening and asking you us to join us, you know, for the part that you do believe in. Right? And then sometimes, you know, that is the that then becomes the policy. You may not always agree with it. The important part was that you had a voice in saying, hey. Why or why not? and that's an important piece as well.
Mark Senell [:This whole trip the whole story around that culture and transformation and changing orgs is fascinating to me. I mean, you're not a small organization, and I and I agree with you. And I remember I, listened to a talk that Lou Gerstner once gave, and he was the former CEO of IBM, and he talked about that transformation back in the when that was early nineties when they almost went out of business and how he and how he transformed the company to save the company. And I think about that in a lot of ways. In IT, there's been so much change. It's interesting to hear your story, and it's fascinating. I'm curious to know, like, over the past 5 years, how have you seen the landscape change? Because it seems like it's even getting faster. Yeah.
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. For sure. I think, with our with our our transformation, with our New Ways of Working, it's really important for us to we we have the a saying, "fail fast, fail forward," and we mean that. and that enables us to test, try, pilot, maybe prove the concept of a of a I'll say an, a new-ish technology and then say, maybe that will or will not work for us. Maybe we need to do some more. And we've done that. More research, bring in some vendors for some more conversations, like, what's the art of the possible. I think that's been our, other intangible, almost benefit is that people are saying, hey.
Deborah Stephens [:I can I can take the idea, the business need, the business requirement, and explore, discover in my product team, in my, fully empowered, team and say, hey? I'm gonna try this out. I'm gonna do an innovation sprint and see if this meets the business requirement. And if so, how? And if so, how well?
Mark Senell [:This is a great recruiting pitch, Debbie. That your recruits are gonna start going up in IT.
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. Well, the teams and, again, I know. I'm not I'm not, I'll say kidding myself that we don't have our our moments, you know.
Mark Senell [:Yeah.
Deborah Stephens [:Within teams and across those teams that have conflicting competing ideas. Right? You know, architecture. You know? I wanna do it this way. Okay. I wanna do it this way. Alright. Well, great. Now give give us some pros and cons of both.
Deborah Stephens [:What's the longevity? And I think that's another thing that goes back to kinda Mark's question about technology changing at such a pace. Okay. Well, then in industry, what what technologies have some longevity to them? Because as you can imagine, in in the federal space, we can't pivot quite as easily, laughing, as as industry, and there's reasons for that. One large one is FedRAMP. So, there's there's a variable there that we have to deal with. Another variable there is procurements. Right? Acquisitions, contract acquisition. That's another one that seems to be, slightly longer than in in industry.
Deborah Stephens [:So with that, there there is a really strong need for us to do that discovery and exploration, and really bounce those competing, I'll say ideas and and sometimes very vocal conversations with each other's teams and going, you know, no. It's kinda like, I I, you know, I prefer, you know, red versus blue. Well, those people who love blue color, you know, they're just listing all of the pros for blue color, and then there's the red color.
Carolyn Ford [:Developers love their tools, and they don't like, they love their own tools. So I'm wondering, like, what about your end user external customer? How have you seen it change? Like, I know that we've had mandates come down that the user experience within the federal government has to be better, stronger, faster. You guys have to be the bionic man. I mean, how has that affected you guys?
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. Externally, customers I mean, you know, obviously, on on, yearly, submissions, patent submissions are over probably 600 and some 1000 patent applications submit submitted in 1 year. And trademarks is probably blowing that number out of the water as well and, registrations. And, so listening to, our external customer, we do rely on on the business, and that's where our product teams come, come into play. They they are that liaison between, the customer either in trademarks or in the patent customer. So so, they interface and take that kind of, feedback, collect the data. So you mentioned, customer experience and knowing, that we we do take their their feedback seriously. We we try to engage in surveys that indicate their satisfaction, with the with the process first.
Deborah Stephens [:I think that's really important, then the people and then also the technology or tools. So on those kind of 3 different, vectors, they they do, solicit that feedback. Sometimes we we get it, unsolicited, which is great. We have little forums and emails and things like that customers externally can can share. Of course, we we have plenty of times where, external customers call our different contact centers. That's our call centers.
Carolyn Ford [:When they're mad when they're really mad, they call?
Deborah Stephens [:Well, no. Not not not necessary. Sometimes they need our help. Right? So sometimes our our patent process and our trademark process, you know, maybe not as intuitive. There's a lot of legal, examining that needs to happen. And so they might not understand an office action. Maybe they don't have an attorney representing them. So they're calling for some guidance, some steps.
Deborah Stephens [:Like, how do I respond to this office action?
Carolyn Ford [:And yeah. I was just gonna say, I have never I'll tell you a secret, Mark. I actually am on a patent.
Mark Senell [:It not a secret if you say it on a podcast.
Carolyn Ford [:It's not a secret anymore. I can't remember exactly why I'm part of this. Something to do with digital identities. So long time ago. Anyway, I didn't have to file it, but I'm just, like, imagining it's gotta be, like, really difficult to file a patent. Sorry. Is that can I say that, Debbie? Is it really difficult to file a patent? It seems like a mountain of paperwork.
Deborah Stephens [:Again, I think that's why the agency tries to do a quite a bit of outreach. We have webinars. I, I love, trademarks. They have a Trademark Basic Boot Camp, and they have these series of of, webinars that are are free and open to the public that, that that, anyone can can, you know, you know, join and sign in and register, and then and then join that. And they they do a nice job at that, at walking through. On the patent side, they've got the, patent stakeholder engagement team. They've got, they've got quite a bit of help out there. I would say to you that that, it isn't it isn't easy for sure.
Deborah Stephens [:Probably don't want to our tools.
Carolyn Ford [:Yeah. It shouldn't be too easy. Right? And it sounds like you guys are very customer service oriented. Everything that you're telling me you're doing, like, you really want them to be successful, obviously. So Yeah.
Deborah Stephens [:And I'll say for the patent in our in our patent center, that's the tool for the filing for the patent application that you mentioned. And, you know, again, taking their insights, trying to understand, hey. From a filing experience, what does it look like? Not saying that there's isn't a ton of documents to file on that, and you have to you have to know what you're submitting. Right? That's the crux of it. But, hopefully, the tools part is the easiest part of the actual submission. But, certainly, certainly not a not not for the, faint of heart, and it's obviously financially.
Mark Senell [:Hey, Debbie. You mentioned you mentioned a number, and it's stuck in my head, like, 600,000 or something like that. Yeah. So when when when how have you seen in your tenure over the years since you've gone online that load of the number patent trademark request that have started to come through the system?
Carolyn Ford [:I mean, has it gone up?
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, obviously, from my patent side, just looking at at, maybe data back in 2012-ish in that range, that probably in the order of maybe 350,000 patent applications, 400,000. And so now every almost every year, there's there's a growth. I mean Wow.
Mark Senell [:But what you're saying is innovation is alive and well in the United States.
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. I would say absolutely.
Carolyn Ford [:So I wanna I wanna shift gears a little bit. I wanna talk about, your, designation as a high impact service provider or HIST. So I saw that HIST teams conduct comprehensive assessments of their high impact services, measure their customer experience maturity, which we've been talking about, identify actions to improve service deliveries. So as a HISP agency, what challenges have you seen arise in terms of user experience? Like, we've talked about this a little bit, but IT and digital modernization has I guess, what I really want to know is, does the HISP designation make things harder for you guys on a customer experience level, IT, digital modernization? Like, are there requirements that come with being a HIST?
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. We so we've designated we've got 2, high impact services, and you can imagine it's applying for a patent. So, Carolyn, there you go. And then Mark can have applying for a trademark. So there those are our 2 HISP high impact services that that, the USPTO has chosen. We have an action plan. We're required to have an action plan. Yet we already had, you know, thoughts, vision, strategies towards, you know, making our, again, processes better for the public, making our tools better for the public.
Deborah Stephens [:I think the for us, the HISP just maybe elevates the, elevates the importance, but but not by much because we we very much already had, you know, our customer experience, our our user centered, kinda design, our UX experience already built in. I think it simply helps, again, just elevate it ever so slightly. But, we we're we look at our CX and our our UX as as, you know, fundamental as part of as part of the delivery. You know, you need to and we gather we we gather that feedback that I mentioned earlier to gain those insights for the customers or from the customers and then for them to to make those processes, better, more streamlined, more efficient for them.
Carolyn Ford [:So once again, you guys were already ahead of the game.
Deborah Stephens [:Well, maybe not totally ahead, but we were we were we were marching in the right direction.
Carolyn Ford [:It was already part of your mission plan, which is awesome.
Mark Senell [:Does that does this come with does the government, help you, with this? Do they give you more funding? Do they give you know, help to get there? Or they say, Debbie, get it done?
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. The USPTO was a is entirely fee payer funded. So we don't, take any tax payer dollars, for any of any of our product. That's wonderful. So every time we receive that patent application or trademark registration application, that fee or those fees along the way pay for all of the products and services and, you know, compensation for the USPTO. So we don't take any taxpayer dollars.
Carolyn Ford [:So it's how much is it to file a patent?
Deborah Stephens [:Like a business.
Carolyn Ford [:How much is it to file a patent?
Deborah Stephens [:Oh, well, I don't have that handy, but we could certainly we can certainly get that for you.
Carolyn Ford [:I mean, I can Google it. Right?
Mark Senell [:Not now. Yeah.
Carolyn Ford [:So yeah. Yeah. Well, we will get that information. I mean, I can obviously, like, go find it. Yeah.
Deborah Stephens [:I will tell we I will tell you, Carolyn, and it and all kidding aside, I don't have the recent fees memorized, but there's there's entities. So you could be a micro-entity, you could be a small entity for you could be a large entity. So there are ways that the panel office has, structured its fees so it allows for, maybe the, like, the micro-entity or the small entity to who may be in that smaller business model or education or nonprofit or that type of, we'll say patent applicant, to enter in at a lesser financial rate than maybe a large entity, which is, you know, a company of a greater size. So I'll tell you just that part.
Carolyn Ford [:So your wizards behind the curtain actually sent us a link. We'll include it in the show notes for our listeners. But it's actually not that it's not that expensive. Like, looking at this schedule, the most expensive one on, you know, that scale that you just mentioned is, like, $1300. Yeah.
Mark Senell [:Are you are you all set completely I should know the answer to this, and I apologize. Are you completely self sustaining as an agency, or is it just the IT, the, budget that's self sustaining?
Deborah Stephens [:The whole the entire budget.
Mark Senell [:The entire budget is fantastic. Wow.
Carolyn Ford [:That's impressive.
Mark Senell [:Yeah. You got you got your stocks going way up.
Carolyn Ford [:So is that one of the ways that you combat bureaucracy by being, you know, fully I mean, self sufficient with the funding?
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. I mean, it's it's definitely we pride ourselves to run our our USPTO as a business. Right? So, when we're looking at, you know, whether it's whether it's, you know, people, process, technology, and I'll I'll start with the with the technology piece, being able to maintain, our budget or even maybe decrease the overall budget by 1%, but yet inflation going up 8, 9%, we've been able to do that. And it's about prioritization, and that's part of our New Ways of Working. Right? Not everything is as important as, you know, the perhaps the number one mission. So how do you how does a team determine, you know, that priority? We've we've got, certainly, our our, our business unit deputies who take a look at the IT budget as part of that process and are helping shape and define, for the business units, those, the 12 plus plus CIOs. So 12 to 13 of business units to set that stage for everybody and go, okay. These are the things we need to be working on.
Deborah Stephens [:And, and, you know, there are trade offs. Right? You can't do, everything. There's not an unlimited budget. And, again, that's where those, you know, fierce conversations happen when when you start talking about, capacity and resources.
Carolyn Ford [:So I feel like your team needs to talk to the federal team about budgeting.
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. Famous thing. Life's about choices. Choose wisely, my friend.
Mark Senell [:You know, that this is that's a great segue to to a question I wanted to ask. You all are 1 of 27 agencies that actively report customer feedback. Can you can you kinda walk through why you do that, and what's the purpose of that of reporting that data?
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. Sure. As I mentioned, our our customer experience, you know, experts, our team, are certainly tracking that data, trying to turn that data into insights for, you know, measurable action, whether that's, improving the collection itself, improving our our team, improving the tools. Right? So, basically, they're part of that process and I said, you know, prioritizing the work, the capacity that gets, accomplished, sprint over sprint. So our sprints are maybe 2 to 3 weeks. So collecting that data, saying, "Hey. Our external customers would like to see this, you know, feature change for they're having difficulty, filing or following this process. Is there a way we can, you know, change it to make it easier?" Then the team takes that back, prioritizes that work, and then, works to, incorporate it in the next sprint for delivery or, you know, the next couple of sprints.
Deborah Stephens [:Because again, quite a quite a bit of work and as you can imagine in in our product team backlog.
Carolyn Ford [:But fantastic, like, accountability tool that process. That's I love that. So I do wanna shift this because we only have a few minutes, and I really, really wanna get to our Tech Talk questions. So these are just fun questions, Debbie. And I wanna ask the first one. I already kinda have an idea of what your answer might be based on some stuff that I've read. But so it's Women's History Month right now while we're recording this episode. Is there a woman in your life or in history that's had a profound impact on you in your personal life or your professional or both?
Deborah Stephens [:Sure. Yeah. And I did talk about it in the blog, so Carolyn certainly knows. On a personal level, my my mother is, one of the strongest, individuals I know and super impactful as you can imagine, in my life. And then professionally, I I, wanna acknowledge, you know, I do work at the innovation office. So for those women who may already have, their name on a on a patent or a trademark, those are certainly, you know, looking to them as as, leaders in their field and, maybe even the the, people the women who don't necessarily have their name on a pattern or trademark, but they're leading in their community, which is which is phenomenal too. And the last part of that is, I I, do volunteer, with the, Girl Scouts Nation's Capital. And so I can tell you that we had an innovation, day camp.
Deborah Stephens [:And during that week, we had one whole day. This was a few years back, devoted to innovations, patents and trademarks, and many of my team members helped and volunteered some of their time at the camp. And and, for those of you who may or may not know, but Julia Gordon Lowe, who is the founder of the Girl Scouts, has, has 3 patents to earn and specifically a design patent, for the signature tree foil. That's the, the Girl Scout signature. So certainly.
Carolyn Ford [:Wow. What's your favorite Girl Scout cookie?
Deborah Stephens [:Oh, without a doubt, Samoas.
Carolyn Ford [:Yeah. That's the right answer. Yep.
Mark Senell [:I like the Lemon cookies.
Carolyn Ford [:Yeah. Those are those are okay. Bad. But the Samoas, man, they're they're so addicting.
Mark Senell [:They are.
Carolyn Ford [:Alright, Mark. You get the last Tech Talk question.
Mark Senell [:Okay. So, Debbie, what advice would you give to other women who are looking to pursue a career in government or or IT?
Deborah Stephens [:Yeah. I think for and this would apply for anyone. I think you need to establish, your go to, network of mentors, and don't be afraid to become a mentor. And I say that because some of my, journey is both being a mentor for other, you know, I'll say individuals, you know, around their journey. And then also looking as I did throughout my career, you know, looking at others to to serve as my mentor and help me. So create those those networks and connections and, you know, going back to that personal, moment with with Carolyn of the, you know, strongest impactful individuals. You know, your family, they know you better than probably anybody else. They see you in the highs and lows, and they have the best motivation for you.
Deborah Stephens [:They want you to be successful. Lean on them. You know, I tell people when they come and they'll say to me, hey. Can do you have do you have a few minutes? And, you know, could you help me? I get I'm I'm gonna have an interview on, you know, whatever day. And I can assure that, you know, tell me a little bit about the job. And then I say to them, you know, go take these questions, and I'll give them some questions too that I know, generally come up. I'll say, take these questions, answer them, and then have your mom, have mom or brother or aunt or whoever in your family knows you and have them ask you those same questions and see if they want.
Carolyn Ford [:That's such great advice. And I had a woman a few years ago, I guess it's been a while, she gave me the same advice. She called it my personal board of advisors. And I have this personal board of advisors. A lot, include my family, but and there's a lot of women. There's a lot of men too. I've had a lot of men be really powerful champions for me and mentors.
Carolyn Ford [:And I, that board of advisors is just crucial. So just fantastic advice. Thank you so much.
Deborah Stephens [:Quite welcome.
Carolyn Ford [:And thank you for sharing, the wonderful things that your agency is doing. This was a really fun conversation. Listeners, please share this episode, smash that like button, and we will talk to you next time on Tech Transforms.
