Time-Bound Sprints

Tiger Teams are six-month sprints to fix city-wide service challenges. Cross-agency teams are chartered to spearhead each sprint. They combine frontline reality and data, they test solutions in real conditions, and end with a plan to scale what works. 

Code Enforcement officer hammering a vacant property sign onto a plywood board

Why did OPI pursue these teams?

Baltimore City has experienced gaps in basic service delivery for parking enforcement, traffic calming, street sweeping, street lighting, waste, code enforcement, and forestry. In 2026, OPI formed Tiger Teams to address each of these areas. These gaps are systemic. They sit at the intersection of process, staffing, technology, equipment, and contracts, and no one part of the system can fix them alone. The Tiger Teams were formed as a challenge to find innovative solutions to tricky problems, with plans to scale to sustainable action. 

How a Tiger Team works

We opt to use a Tiger Team when the problem has all of these conditions:

  1. A real service problem residents or staff can feel
  2. A named sponsor with authority to approve pilots and remove blockers
  3. A workflow that needs diagnosis, fieldwork, redesign, prototyping, or testing
  4. A time-boxed scope that can produce evidence within three to six months
  5. An agency owner who will sustain the gain after OPI steps back

The Office of Performance and Innovation uses four steps to guide the Tiger Team process. 

AIM

Establish an Ambitious, Impactful Mission. The team aligns by defining the problem and agreeing on what success looks like before anything else.

Activate

Pilot solutions in the real world, remove roadblocks as they come up, and adjust quickly based on what we learn.

Design

Map how the service actually works, listen to residents and staff, and sketch out fixes worth testing.

Sustain

Hand off a clear plan, with ownership, training, and simple reporting, so the progress can continue independently.

Standard outputs

  1. Process maps for each service: current state, target state, and the difference
  2. Staffing assessment: FTEs, vacant positions, peer-city comparison, market research
  3. Contract and professional services evaluation
  4. Equipment assessment
  5. Data and technology assessment: systems of record, gaps, and the data products needed to operate

Spring 2026 Tiger Teams

From January-June 2026, the Office of Performance and Innovation split into seven teams, each assigned to a city agency, to address a unique agency problem. Partner agencies included DOT, BCRP, DHCD and DPW. 

Traffic Calming

Department of Transportation (DOT)

Zero Waste

Department of Public Works (DPW)

Forestry

Baltimore City Recreation and Parks (BCRP)

Parking Enforcement

Department of Transportation (DOT)

Street Sweeping

Department of Public Works (DPW)

Code Enforcement

Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD)

Streetlights

Department of Transportation (DOT)