We are GovCats.
We start change.
We’re catalysts for the public sector.
We are a group of nine design, digital, data and technology leaders famous for catalysing huge change in Government and the public sector.
We’ve worked on some very complex projects in recent years: transforming children’s social care, narrowing the digital divide, opening up city data, and eliminating downtown crime.
Senior leaders like you call us when they want to tackle a big, complicated problem. We’re well known for setting up major programmes to perform brilliantly, but we can also take products from prototype to scale, or jump in to recover projects that are horribly off track.
We can work for a day or a year, individually or together. As projects scale, we can help bring specialists, teams or whole agencies.
If you’d prefer to work with a small group of trusted leaders with a ridiculous track record and a wonderful network, we’d like to talk to you.
We’re cats. We’re picky.
We are only interested in work which meets three criteria. These enable us to be confident we are using your (and taxpayers’) time and money wisely. If you have met them, you should feel proud you are about to change the world for the better.
User-centred. You must have evidence of the need for your vision, or be willing to gather it (even if it proves your vision wrong).
Empowered. Your senior leadership – your Board or CEO – must be supportive.
Incremental and open. You and your organisation must be willing to work iteratively – step by step – towards the goal. Cats try, fail, learn and try again. Cats don’t like big bangs.
If you’re confident you can achieve these criteria, or want our help in achieving them before you kick off, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
We aren’t good at following.
We are a small and motivated group of founders, directors, changemakers and disruptors. We live and work in the UK, mainland Europe, and Australia.
Each of us has built and sold startups, led charities and businesses, and sat on trustee boards. All of us have had a hand in changing the world for the better. We are vocal, liberal and feminist. We are passionate about leading humbly, vulnerably and well.
We love humans.
Digital, data and design are three brilliant movements for change. GovCats is unique in bringing together leaders in each. Together, they raise our expectations for public services – and the culture underpinning those services. They compel organisations to put their users’ needs first, be honest and transparent about their working practices, and favour usability and accessibility over shiny technology.
By bringing digital, data and design together, we’ve achieved digital transformation at local, national and global scale. We’ve built products to support 10,000 children in care, empower over 100,000 businesses to expand internationally, enabled 7,000,000 people to access basic health advice for free online, and helped 22,000,000 people avoid passing on Covid-19.
Between us, we’ve worked on over 1,000 design, digital and data projects, and not one started with making a technology choice.
“Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry.”
— Curly