“If you don’t collect data on somebody, they become invisible.” This quote from a federal civil servant speaks to the need for improving federal Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) data collection. In order to prioritize the needs of all the people we serve in government, we must first understand who they are. During this talk, we’ll discuss our findings and best practices from conversations with more than 40 civil servants and representatives of 10 nongovernmental and community-led organizations about the need for better SOGI data collection. We’ll explain SOGI data collection concepts that can be valuable to anyone — from designers to policy experts to engineers — interested in creating more equitable systems that better serve more people.