Very large research products
Digests exceeding 1,000 pages were difficult to update and difficult for readers to navigate.
— CASE STUDY
Cutting traffic-law research cycles from four months to six weeks
Making NHTSA state traffic-law research faster to produce and easier to use
theta. redesigned how NHTSA researched, updated, and presented state traffic-safety laws, reducing a four-month digest cycle to six weeks. The new process also expanded coverage of emerging topics and introduced interactive maps that made legislative changes easier to compare and use.
— CASE STUDY
Cutting traffic-law research cycles from four months to six weeks
theta. redesigned how NHTSA researched, updated, and presented state traffic-safety laws, reducing a four-month digest cycle to six weeks. The new process also expanded coverage of emerging topics and introduced interactive maps that made legislative changes easier to compare and use.
customer
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
Contract Role
Prime contractor
Mission
State traffic-safety law research
Delivery Focus
Research operations, data visualization, and publication modernization
Capabilities
Discover & Define | Data & Intelligence | Enable & Transfer
Mission Context
NHTSA publishes recurring research on traffic-safety laws across states and territories. The existing process produced digests that could exceed 1,000 pages and required roughly four months to update, limiting how quickly the agency could reflect legislative change. theta. redesigned the research and production workflow, expanded coverage of emerging topics, and introduced visual tools that made the results easier to interpret.
Why it mattered
Policy leaders and safety practitioners need current, comparable information to understand how laws are changing across jurisdictions.
Policy leaders and safety practitioners need current, comparable information to understand how laws are changing across jurisdictions. A slow, document-heavy process made timely comparison difficult and reduced the practical value of the research.
The Challenge
Keep large policy products current and usable
A four-month production cycle
The update process could not keep pace with changing legislation and emerging policy questions.
Limited visual comparison
Readers needed a faster way to see differences and changes across states and territories.
How theta. Delivered
A six-week, insight-driven research and publication workflow
Redesigned the research workflow
theta. organized the annual update into a six-week sprint with clearer sequencing, review points, and production discipline.
Expanded policy coverage
theta. added research on medical-marijuana laws and other emerging legislative topics relevant to traffic safety.
Made change visible
theta. created interactive maps that showed how laws differed across jurisdictions and where they had changed.
Improved the publication experience
theta. paired rigorous research with clearer presentation so the work could be used, not merely archived.
Outcomes
Research moved faster and became easier to use
theta. made NHTSA’s legislative research faster to produce, easier to compare, and more responsive to policy change.
Four months to six weeks
A redesigned production process reduced the digest update cycle while preserving the rigor required for federal research.
More current policy coverage
Expanded research captured emerging legal topics that were increasingly relevant to traffic safety.
Faster insight for readers
Interactive maps made state-by-state differences and legislative changes easier to identify.
Customer voice
“The theta. team always responds quickly and professionally to our requests. All of their deliverables are of the utmost professional manner.”
Susan Kirinich, Office of Government Affairs, Policy, and Strategic Planning, NHTSA
Built for What Comes Next
A repeatable way to keep policy intelligence current
The sprint-based workflow and visual reporting approach give NHTSA a repeatable foundation for keeping traffic-law research current as legislation continues to evolve.
Technical environment
Technology and delivery practices
Legislative research, data collection, structured reporting, workflow design, and interactive data visualization
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