Revolutionizing USAID Through Digital Innovation
USAID needed to create a first-of-its-kind government platform to serve as a central hub for global organizations seeking to partner with them. In early 2022, Miew was tasked with adopting and improving the WorkwithUSAID.gov platform from a previous vendor. The challenge was not to build a new platform, but to continuously maintain and improve an existing one over the course of three years. We knew that as a U.S. Government platform, it was subject to external political factors, but our mission was to deliver scalable solutions that would enhance its functionality and earn the buy-in of the U.S. Government. This required Miew to build trust and demonstrate its capabilities through a series of incremental, high-impact solutions for a U.S. Government Agency. The platform needed to be maintained and enhanced with new features like unsolicited submissions and multilingual functionality, and eventually undergo a complete redesign to improve the user experience and underscore its status as a trusted foreign aid resource.
Approach
Our approach was rooted in the Miew values of critical thinking, iteration, and trust. We didn't just maintain the platform; we consistently delivered scalable solutions that increased its functionality and buy-in from the U.S. Government. Each new request—from enabling unsolicited submissions to a full redesign—was treated as a new GenIX journey, allowing us to showcase our design thinking and iterative processes. This demonstrated how our relationship grew over time, as increased trust resulted in more requests for additional solutions to improve the existing website.
Journey
1Analysis
Our relationship with USAID began with a series of analysis projects. Each new request, such as a redesign and creating a private sector subsite, started with an in-depth analysis of the problem. Our journey into multilingual features, for example, began with a deep understanding of a global audience with varying internet access and cultures. This level of analysis enabled us to align on the core vision and plan for a large-scale website that would evolve with the U.S. Government’s needs, as well as the needs of its global audience.
2Proof of Concept
We then delivered multiple POCs, exploring different approaches to a compliant, multilingual platform to ensure we found the right solution before full development. The project team, which grew to 16 members at its peak, worked in sprints managed in JIRA, with regular business retreats for brainstorming and live testing for solutions like the redesign, funding feed, and humanitarian aid exchange.
3Minimum Viable Product
The team built the platform in compartmentalized modules, creating a complex, integrated ecosystem. At its heart was a powerful technical architecture leveraging Strapi’s headless CMS and Next.js for the frontend. To meet a critical translation deadline, a hybrid solution was devised for multilingual content, manually migrating translated content from a pre-production Crowdin environment to the production system. This enabled the team to leverage the power of AI while maintaining the strict security protocols of the U.S. Government.
4Launch
After two years of development, a new iteration of the platform was launched as WorkwithUSAID.gov, initially with translations in French, Spanish, and Arabic. The launch was a monumental moment, as it introduced a digital tool that revolutionized how foreign aid is managed by providing unprecedented transparency and efficiency.
5Learn
Miew consistently maintained and improved the website over the course of three years, right up until it was unexpectedly shut down along with USAID by the new presidential administration in early 2025. However, this project is a testament to our critical capabilities and our commitment to being a reliable partner throughout a product's entire lifecycle, even in the face of unforeseen circumstances. Over the project's journey, the team adopted a balanced approach to technical debt, scheduling refactors to improve performance alongside the development of new features. We actively pursued new R&D to find more flexible and compliant translation solutions for the U.S. Government sector, ensuring the platform remained at the forefront of innovation.
Results
The WorkwithUSAID.gov platform was a major success, receiving an honorable mention by Fast Company for 'World Changing Idea'. The project resulted in a digital platform that revolutionized how foreign aid is managed, distributed, and tracked. It featured a gamified capacity assessment and a partner directory with over 9,000 organizations. The project's success was not just about technology but also about the trust and relationships built within the team, which allowed for true innovation to flourish.
Client Testimonial
"Miew is the rare partner that brings elite technical execution and future-proof vision. They solve, they architect, and they elevate your product beyond what you imagined possible. In building a first-of-its-kind government platform, Miew worked at the intersection of complexity and innovation, never missing a beat. If you're serious about building bold, need UX and blockchain champions, and category-defining technology, Miew is the team you want in the room. Award-winning WorkwithUSAID.gov was a collaboration where shared belief, shared vision, and relentless momentum made the impossible possible.}"
- Donna Vincent Roa, Project Director, WorkwithUSAID.gov
Website: Link to USAID Substack article