A few weeks ago, we told you about the U.S Digital Service, a newly-formed unit designed to inject entrepreneurial energy into various parts of the federal government. At the time, U.S. Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel told GeekWire that the U.S. Digital Service was the “hottest new startup in the country.”
“We were founded in 1776. There’s monuments erected to our founders,” he said. “We’re a pretty cool startup.”
And like most cool startups, you can’t get caught wearing a stodgy suit and tie.
So leave it to Mikey Dickerson, the longtime Google engineer who was originally brought in as part of the team charged with fixing HealthCare.gov, to inject new energy (and style) into the department.
In an interview posted on the White House YouTube channel, Dickerson explains the importance of the startup duds he wears to the office, noting people have asked him countless times if he wears a suit now.
“That’s just the quickest short-hand way of asking: Is this the same old business-as-usual or are they actually going to listen? That’s just a short-cut at getting at that question is how a lot of engineers think about it,” said Dickerson.
He adds: “People are putting up with me walking around the EOB (Executive Office Building) and the West Wing, just wearing whatever, I mean not quite whatever,” he says. “I am not wearing a T-shirt. I made some slight concessions. I am wearing actual shirts with buttons and collars, but that’s about where are at right now.”
Dickerson also lays out some of his goals for the new digital strike force, noting that “interacting with the government shouldn’t be a thing that you automatically dread.”
His goal? Wipe out bad user interface issues that plague many government services. “If we are a smash success, then a few years from now, you won’t even know that we exist,” he says.
