Tomorrow is the start of my second week at my new job, working for the Government. Working for the Man. Maybe we are the Man. It’s probably different from what you might expect: I still don’t wear a suit to go to work, for example. So far, I’m really enjoying it.

More specifically, I’m working for Government Digital Service on the single government domain project. Government procurement is typically associated with big consultancies, bigger budgets, and long delivery timelines. By contrast, this is being developed in-house by a small team using agile practices—and we’re going to do it better!

Some of you might find it, well, surprising that I’d choose to go and work for the government, but the idea of making government online services actually good feels pretty revolutionary and even a bit seditious. Given that some amount of government is necessary (which is, I think, accepted by most people with the exception of anarchists), it’s also necessary for people to interact with the various arms of the state, but the online facilitation of this hasn’t always been as good as it could be (to be generous). I’ve got a chance to be part of the solution, and to work on a project with national impact that really should make things better for everyone in the UK.

If you want to know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, you should probably read:

It really does feel like working in a start-up: there’s a lot to do in a short time, and a sense of energy and urgency about the work. I’m finding it quite invigorating.