Jason Kitcat
@jasonkitcat.bsky.social
Director of Digital, Data & Technology at UK’s Dept for Business & Trade 🏛 / ❤️ public service / All views my own! 📢 / https://jasonkitcat.com
We have long championed the importance of monitoring & evaluation in digital teams, so we're delighted to have succeeded in getting 'digital evaluator' added as a role in the UK Govt Digital & Data framework digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/12/a...
A new evaluator role to support modern digital government
Discover the new Digital Evaluator role! Learn how it ensures accountability, value for money, and continuous improvement in UK government digital projects.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
February 12, 2026 at 12:27 PM
We have long championed the importance of monitoring & evaluation in digital teams, so we're delighted to have succeeded in getting 'digital evaluator' added as a role in the UK Govt Digital & Data framework digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/12/a...
Every quarter we encourage our DDaT teams to pause & take part in a Firebreak week. It's a way to encourage us to work on challenges in new ways, with a different mix of colleagues. I think it's a core ingredient to sustaining and encouraging innovation digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/09/h...
How breaking the routine fuels fresh ideas and delivers value
Every 3 months, DBT Digital, Data and Technology colleagues are free to pause routine work to test fresh ideas. They gain insight, build skills and deliver improvements for colleagues, the public and ...
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
February 9, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Every quarter we encourage our DDaT teams to pause & take part in a Firebreak week. It's a way to encourage us to work on challenges in new ways, with a different mix of colleagues. I think it's a core ingredient to sustaining and encouraging innovation digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/09/h...
Reposted by Jason Kitcat
I'm going to share a very good story about the internet. I won't tell it well because I apparently have the flu, but I think we all need a good story about the internet.
It starts in 2021, when I took a sabbatical and got a little workspace to write a design book.
It starts in 2021, when I took a sabbatical and got a little workspace to write a design book.
February 5, 2026 at 4:11 AM
I'm going to share a very good story about the internet. I won't tell it well because I apparently have the flu, but I think we all need a good story about the internet.
It starts in 2021, when I took a sabbatical and got a little workspace to write a design book.
It starts in 2021, when I took a sabbatical and got a little workspace to write a design book.
We've recently launched DBT Assist, our generative AI tool for helping colleagues with their work. It's a tool powered by working in the open: Using the Redbox code from i.AI we learnt and iterated, sharing our learnings for others to hopefully build on too digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/04/f...
From Redbox to Assist: Building AI tools that balance innovation and trust
When I.AI closed their Redbox product in December 2025, DBT had already diverged substantially from that original platform. Two years of user research and iteration created something distinct, shaped ...
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
February 4, 2026 at 12:11 PM
We've recently launched DBT Assist, our generative AI tool for helping colleagues with their work. It's a tool powered by working in the open: Using the Redbox code from i.AI we learnt and iterated, sharing our learnings for others to hopefully build on too digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2026/02/04/f...
I’m so incredibly proud of our team at Dept Business & Trade who won well deserved recognition as Women in Tech’s Best Public Sector Employer 2025. In this post we share practical insight into how we beat the sector for recruiting & retaining brilliant women digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2026/01/27/e...
Empowering Women in Tech: DBT’s focus on inclusion and innovation
“Diversity in Digital and Data leads to better outcomes for all of DBT and the businesses we support in the UK and beyond.”
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
January 28, 2026 at 8:37 AM
I’m so incredibly proud of our team at Dept Business & Trade who won well deserved recognition as Women in Tech’s Best Public Sector Employer 2025. In this post we share practical insight into how we beat the sector for recruiting & retaining brilliant women digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2026/01/27/e...
With about 8,000 colleagues working in more than 100 countries around the world for Department for Business and Trade, finding the right person to talk to can be a blocker to collaboration. Read more about how we've been iterating our People Finder digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/12/08/a...
A User Centred approach to helping colleagues collaborate by improving DBT’s People Finder
How DBT's Employee Experience team combined user research, design and delivery expertise to improve the department's intranet.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
December 8, 2025 at 3:21 PM
With about 8,000 colleagues working in more than 100 countries around the world for Department for Business and Trade, finding the right person to talk to can be a blocker to collaboration. Read more about how we've been iterating our People Finder digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/12/08/a...
In the lead up to Small Business Saturday, we're sharing more about our work at DBT launching an Export Support AI chatbot on business.gov.uk and learning from our users, read more from Kai Hellström on our blog digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/27/l...
Launching the Export Support Chatbot: Empowering small businesses to go global
How DBT's Export Support Chatbot will supply small businesses with the knowledge they need to export.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
November 27, 2025 at 11:38 AM
In the lead up to Small Business Saturday, we're sharing more about our work at DBT launching an Export Support AI chatbot on business.gov.uk and learning from our users, read more from Kai Hellström on our blog digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/27/l...
New short story: Number 4½
jasonkitcat.com/2025/11/07/n...
jasonkitcat.com/2025/11/07/n...
New short story: Number 4½
I haven’t shared any fiction writing for a long while now. But the creative streams are flowing again for me. I’ve just finished off an idea which began when I saw a little door numbere…
jasonkitcat.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:31 AM
New short story: Number 4½
jasonkitcat.com/2025/11/07/n...
jasonkitcat.com/2025/11/07/n...
Our brilliant Head of Content Design Andrea Leary writes how increasing use of AI bots to find businesses answers is driving some of Dept Business & Trade's thinking for content design, relevance and accuracy. Read the post digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/11/h...
How AI-ready content can boost policy effectiveness
As use of generative AI grows, so does the opportunity to meet businesses’ quests for information. Only if DBT’s online content is designed to meet users’ needs.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
November 11, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Our brilliant Head of Content Design Andrea Leary writes how increasing use of AI bots to find businesses answers is driving some of Dept Business & Trade's thinking for content design, relevance and accuracy. Read the post digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/11/h...
Our Data & AI teams are on a roll with great work and brilliant blog posts. Read about how we built our first public AI feature for Dept Business & Trade on business.gov.uk here digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/10/21/l...
Launching DBT's first public-facing AI feature
How DBT created it's first public-facing online tool to help businesses find funding opportunities.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
October 21, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Our Data & AI teams are on a roll with great work and brilliant blog posts. Read about how we built our first public AI feature for Dept Business & Trade on business.gov.uk here digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/10/21/l...
Matching companies across data sets is something we need to do very often in DBT, as do many other parts of government. Recently we released the Matchbox component as an open source shared piece of work. Read more digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/10/08/b...
Building a reusable data matching product
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT)’s Data Scientists have built Matchbox, an open-source platform that allows them to deduplicate and link datasets in a way that is measurable, iterative and ...
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
October 9, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Matching companies across data sets is something we need to do very often in DBT, as do many other parts of government. Recently we released the Matchbox component as an open source shared piece of work. Read more digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/10/08/b...
Am rather enjoying the Liquid Glass look in iOS/WatchOS 26. Intrigued to see how it works on MacOS when I do that update...
September 24, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Am rather enjoying the Liquid Glass look in iOS/WatchOS 26. Intrigued to see how it works on MacOS when I do that update...
Service assessments are a really important way to ensure the quality and effectiveness of government's digital services. Our team in Department for Business and Trade share some of our learnings as we've evolved our approach in recent years digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/09/10/f...
From daunting to demystified: The evolution of Service Assessments in DBT
What started as a formal requirement has evolved into a more collaborative, human, and forward-thinking process. It is about helping teams build better services, not just pass a test.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
September 10, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Service assessments are a really important way to ensure the quality and effectiveness of government's digital services. Our team in Department for Business and Trade share some of our learnings as we've evolved our approach in recent years digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/09/10/f...
Our AI cubed team, part of the Data & AI services portfolio led by Sian Thomas MBE, are doing brilliant work. Read about their trip to visit DBT France and their participation in a hackathon to challenge misinformation digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/07/23/s...
Strengthening European digital sovereignty with AI-powered tools
How a DBT data team created an AI fact-checking tool during the Paris Hackathon.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
July 25, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Our AI cubed team, part of the Data & AI services portfolio led by Sian Thomas MBE, are doing brilliant work. Read about their trip to visit DBT France and their participation in a hackathon to challenge misinformation digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/07/23/s...
Read how we're self-hosting Large Language Models for secure in-house AI uses at Dept for Business & Trade digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/07/09/u...
Using self-hosted Large Language Models (LLMs) securely in Government
Find out how and why DDaT has taken the important step of self-hosting LLMs within a secure, internal environment.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
July 9, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Read how we're self-hosting Large Language Models for secure in-house AI uses at Dept for Business & Trade digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/07/09/u...
“Appreciating human effort” - powerful insights in our AI age from @wearejustlooking.org wearejustlooking.org/letter41/ - connects with Vaughn Tan’s “meaningmaking” vaughntan.org/meaningmakin...
Being Hungry for the Human
Noticing and appreciating efforts – is known by social scientists as the "effort heuristic." The quality or worth of an object is determined from the perceived amount of effort that went into producin...
wearejustlooking.org
June 25, 2025 at 8:22 AM
“Appreciating human effort” - powerful insights in our AI age from @wearejustlooking.org wearejustlooking.org/letter41/ - connects with Vaughn Tan’s “meaningmaking” vaughntan.org/meaningmakin...
Read about our fab Product Adoption team in Dept Business & Trade and why it matters digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/06/24/p...
Product Adoption - What it is, why it matters and how to improve it
How quality usage of our products and services can support the productive and agile state agenda.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
June 24, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Read about our fab Product Adoption team in Dept Business & Trade and why it matters digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/06/24/p...
Lovely thread, read all the answers!
All this stuff about Britain is broken, all is terrible, there is no recourse, society is falling apart, if there was a war nobody would go, etc is beginning to irritate me.
There are doubtlessly considerable problems. But I worry that the catastrophizing could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There are doubtlessly considerable problems. But I worry that the catastrophizing could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
June 17, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Lovely thread, read all the answers!
Latest update on our AI work at DBT collaborating with partners across UK government. digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/06/04/h...
Harnessing the power of AI in the public sector
Building connections and sharing insights across the public sector at DBT's second AI conference.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
June 5, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Latest update on our AI work at DBT collaborating with partners across UK government. digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/06/04/h...
We're marking 4 years of matrix working in Dept Bus & Trade Digital, Data & Technology so in this post I wanted to reflect on how we created our matrix working, and how we've had to keep learning and adjusting.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/27/w...
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/27/w...
Working on matrix working: looking back after 4 years
Learn how matrix working has helped DBT's Digital, Data and Technology directorate form supportive communities of profession and become more flexible to change.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
May 28, 2025 at 11:12 AM
We're marking 4 years of matrix working in Dept Bus & Trade Digital, Data & Technology so in this post I wanted to reflect on how we created our matrix working, and how we've had to keep learning and adjusting.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/27/w...
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/27/w...
In DBT we put particular effort into understanding how neurodiverse colleagues experienced our AI experiments. We found they reported greater benefit from using tools such as CoPilot, when compared to the wider test cohort. Read more about our experiences digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/19/f...
Flying with Co-Pilot – How AI is helping neurodiverse staff thrive in DBT
Find out how Co-Pilot is fostering inclusivity in DBT and helping neurodiverse colleagues to harness their strengths.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
May 19, 2025 at 1:36 PM
In DBT we put particular effort into understanding how neurodiverse colleagues experienced our AI experiments. We found they reported greater benefit from using tools such as CoPilot, when compared to the wider test cohort. Read more about our experiences digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/19/f...
When I learnt that GDS' hosting platform gov.uk PaaS was closing, I wasn't best pleased. We were the single biggest user of the platform & migration seemed daunting. However, I'm proud to say we focussed on the positives: digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/12/d...
Delivering seamless migrations and a future-ready platform
Transition between Gov.UK PaaS and a next-generation internal platform – how we built a resilient, developer-focused foundation for modern digital services at DBT.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
May 12, 2025 at 2:15 PM
When I learnt that GDS' hosting platform gov.uk PaaS was closing, I wasn't best pleased. We were the single biggest user of the platform & migration seemed daunting. However, I'm proud to say we focussed on the positives: digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/05/12/d...
All government digital services need to follow the Service Standard. Sometimes a few tries are needed to get everything right, read more how our Dept Business & Trade Expand your Business in the UK team learnt & grew from their service assessment experiences digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/04/29/s...
Second chance, not setback: learning from a service reassessment
How a Department for Business and Trade (DBT) digital service team found a service assessment to be a positive learning experience.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
April 29, 2025 at 1:03 PM
All government digital services need to follow the Service Standard. Sometimes a few tries are needed to get everything right, read more how our Dept Business & Trade Expand your Business in the UK team learnt & grew from their service assessment experiences digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/04/29/s...
More reflections on our experience engaging and communicating while migrating thousands of colleagues for the Machinery of Government changes we went through at Dept for Business & Trade digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/04/22/d...
DBT's Machinery of Government: an insight into the teams behind the Single IT Platform migration project (part 2)
Continue to meet the teams behind DBT’s Single IT Platform migration as part of the Machinery of Government project.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
April 22, 2025 at 10:12 AM
More reflections on our experience engaging and communicating while migrating thousands of colleagues for the Machinery of Government changes we went through at Dept for Business & Trade digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/04/22/d...
We are very lucky in Dept for Bus & Trade to have a dedicated monitoring & evaluation looking at our digital, data, technology & AI work. Find out more about how the team are evaluating our AI experiments digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/04/14/u...
Understanding the evaluations role in measuring the impact of AI interventions across Government
How the Monitoring & Evaluation team designed tools to assess the impact of DBT's AI interventions.
digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk
April 15, 2025 at 8:37 AM
We are very lucky in Dept for Bus & Trade to have a dedicated monitoring & evaluation looking at our digital, data, technology & AI work. Find out more about how the team are evaluating our AI experiments digitaltrade.blog.gov.uk/2025/04/14/u...