What happens when a Silicon Valley technologist works for the government

What if the government ran more like Silicon Valley? Engineer Matt Cutts shares why he decided to leave Google (where he worked for nearly 17 years) for a career in the US government -- and makes the case that if you really want to make an impact, go where your help is needed most.

Hi everybody.

My name is Matt Cutts,

and I worked at Google
for almost 17 years.

As a distinguished engineer there,

I was pretty close to the top
of the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

Then I decided to follow
some inspiring folks

and do a short tour
at the US Digital Service.

That's the group of geeks
that helped rescue HealthCare.gov

when that website went down hard in 2013.

Yeah.

So I signed up for
a three-to-six-month tour,

and almost three years later,

I'm still in Washington DC,

working for the federal government,

because the government
really needs technologists right now.

At my old job,

every room had videoconferencing

integrated with calendars,

power cables were built
right into the furniture.

When I moved to a government agency,

I had to call a person
to set up a phone conference.

And when we moved to a new office,

we didn't have furniture for a while,

so we set up the phone on a trash can.

One of the things that surprised me,
whenever I moved to DC,

is how much the government
still has to deal with paper.

This is a facility in Winston-Salem,

North Carolina,

where people were worried

that the building
might be structurally unsound

from the weight of all that paper.

Yeah.

Paper has some downsides.

Here's a pop quiz:

If your last name starts with H or higher,

H or higher, would you raise your hand?

Wow.

I have some bad news:

Your veteran records
might have been destroyed

in a fire in 1973.

(Laughter)

Yeah.

Paper processes are also slower
and more prone to errors.

If you're a veteran

and you're applying
for your health benefits

using a paper form,

you might have to wait months
for that form to be processed.

We replaced that with a web form,

and now most veterans find out

if they can get access
to their health benefits

in 10 minutes.

(Applause)

Here's another launch that I'm proud of.

We worked with the Small
Business Administration

to move one of their systems
from paper to digital.

So this is a picture from before,

and this is afterwards.

Same cubicles, same people,

just a better system for everyone.

At one point, we wanted to celebrate
modernizing a different system,

and so we went to a local grocery store

and we said, "Can you make a cake

and decorate it with the form
that we've digitized?"

And the grocery store
got really weirded out by that request.

They wanted a letter
on official government letterhead.

Well, we work for the government,
so we wrote a letter that said,

"You can use this public-domain form

on a cake for celebratory purposes."

(Laughter)

Which led to bad jokes
about filling forms out in triplicake.

Yes, dad jokes in government.

Now I've talked a lot about paper,

but we also bring up
computer systems that go down.

We bring in modern technology practices,

like user-centered design and the cloud,

and we also help improve procurement.

It turns out government buys software

the same way that it buys chairs
and brownies and tanks:

from government regulations
that are over 1,000 pages long.

So yes, there's some stuff
that's messed up in government right now.

But if you think Silicon Valley
is the savior in this story,

(Laughs)

you've got another thing coming.

Some of the best and brightest
minds in technology

are working on meal-delivery start-ups

and scooters

and how to deliver weed to people better.

Is that really the most important thing
to work on right now?

Silicon Valley likes to talk
about making the world a better place.

But you feel your impact
in a much more visceral way

in government.

This is somebody whose dad passed away.

He hunted me down on Twitter

to say that a system that we had improved

worked well for him during a tough time.

Those tough times are
when government needs to work well

and why we need innovation in government.

Now I have a confession to make.

When I came to DC,

I sometimes used words like bureaucrat.

These days,

I'm much more likely
to use words like civil servant.

Like Francine, who can make you cry.

Or at least, she made me cry,

because she's so inspiring.

I am also deeply, fiercely proud
of my colleagues.

They will work
through illogical situations

and put in late nights
to get to the right result.

The government can't pay
huge salary bonuses,

so we ended up making our own awards.

Our mascot is a crab named Molly.

And so that award is actually
a crab-shaped purse,

screwed into sheet metal.

These days, I believe less
in silver bullets

that are going to fix everything.

I believe more

in the people who show up to help.

If you're looking for something
deeply meaningful --

and full disclosure,
sometimes incredibly frustrating --

here's what you need to know.

There is something difficult

and messy and vital and magical happening

when civil servants partner
with technologists

at the city and state and national level.

You don't have to do it forever.

But you can make a difference
in public service

right now.

Thank you.

(Applause)